With 4K UHD releases becoming more prevalent in the marketplace, early adopters have been greeted with a welcome burst of titles to choose from. In addition to my regular column, I’ll be running a monthly wrap of recent UHD reviews to spotlight those new titles for those, like me, who’ve jumped into the 4K fray. Some, of course, are more impressive than others, with enhancements that run the gamut from subtle to sensational.
Clint Eastwood’s masterwork UNFORGIVEN (***½, 132 mins., 1992, R) marked the star’s farewell to the western – a beautifully layered film about the sins of the past, the folly of youth, and a meditation on heroism. David Webb Peoples, who co-authored the script for “Blade Runner,” orchestrated the perfect vehicle for Eastwood’s adieu to the genre that served him so well for decades, and Eastwood the director brought onboard a peerless supporting cast to aid his efforts, including Gene Hackman as the town sheriff, Morgan Freeman as Eastwood’s partner during their outlaw days, and Richard Harris as an arrogant sniper – all trying to collect a bounty on the men who slashed the face of a prostitute in Hackman’s gun-free town. Jack N. Green’s widescreen lensing adds the perfect “autumnal” component to “Unforgiven”’s rich storyline, which ranks with some of Eastwood’s finest work.
4K Rundown: A Best Picture winner that also earned additional Oscars for Hackman, Eastwood’s direction and Joel Cox’s editing, “Unforgiven” was previously released on Blu-Ray in the format’s early days. That antiquated (though not terrible) VC-1 encoded transfer has now been upstaged by a superior 4K UHD combo pack (also sporting a remastered Blu-Ray) that offers immediate enhancements in color, clarity and overall image definition. Green’s cinematography seems to have more of a three-dimensional effect in the HDR-backed HVEC transfer, with details in the background having much more prominence and sharpness, though the muted color scheme of the film does not, in general, necessarily make this demo material for 4K enhancement. Colors do seem better balanced, and many of the movie’s dark sequences are better replicated by the 4K presentation, but it’s not a night/day upgrade — often just a subtle one. On the audio end, the 5.1 DTS MA sound affords a larger canvas for the movie’s sound design. A Digital HD copy is also included along with the remastered Blu-Ray (AVC encode and 5.1 DTS MA sound), while extras carried over from prior releases include Richard Schickel’s commentary, four documentaries, the trailer, and a classic “Maverick” episode starring Eastwood.
FIFTY SHADES DARKER 4K UHD Combo Pack (118/132 mins., 2017, R/Unrated; Universal): E.L. James’ bestselling book series returns with a new director in James Foley, whose odd career counts the guilty-pleasure 1984 favorite “Reckless,” the well-reviewed “At Close Range,” the modern noir “After Dark My Sweet,” David Mamet’s film adaptation of his “Glengarry Glen Ross” and the early Mark Wahlberg thriller “Fear.” There are, however, some clunkers along the way, including the dismal John Grisham drama “The Chamber” and now “Fifty Shades Darker,” the sequel to “Fifty Shades of Grey” which offers Jamie Dornan’s Christian Grey and Dakota Johnson’s Anastasia trying to rebuild trust in their unconventional relationship. Meanwhile, Ana finds herself both fending off the advances of her editor boss (Eric Johnson) while trying to reconcile her current status with Christian’s prior “relations,” including Kim Basinger as the woman who introduced Grey to his, umm, sexually aggressive lifestyle. Will love eventually conquer all? Will there be more steamy sex scenes? You bet your asteroid, kid.
4K UHD Rundown: I’m not sure “Fifty Shades Darker” is the best application of 4K you can see at home, though strictly on its own merits, the HVEC encoded (2.40) transfer is very nicely handled. Much of John Schwartzman’s elegant widescreen compositions are dominated by muted colors, especially in interior sequences housing the film’s steamier moments. Flesh tones look natural and the image is finely detailed, but there are few opportunities for HDR to be fully employed. When there’s an outdoor sequence such as Christian’s near-fatal helicopter crash, or a scene utilizing a wider color pallet (a masquerade ball), one tends to notice the finer details in the 4K transfer over the Blu-Ray edition, and transfer is certainly excellent on balance. For “Immersive Audio,” the DTS X soundtrack contains a finely mixed blend of dialogue and Danny Elfman’s unobtrusive score, with effects held at a minimum, no surprise given the material on-hand.
Blu-Ray Specs & Additional Supplements: Deleted scenes, a sneak peek at “Fifty Shades Freed,” and a number of featurettes (Writing Darker; A Darker Direction; Dark Reunion; The Masquerade; Intimate With Darker; New Threats) adorn the package’s special features. Meanwhile, a Digital HD copy, a 1080p (2.40) AVC transfer that’s fine in its own regard and DTS X audio also grace the Blu-Ray end of Universal’s 4K UHD combo pack. The film is also on-hand in both its theatrical cut and an unrated version adding roughly 15 minutes of material on both discs.
LA LA LAND 4K UHD/Blu-Ray (**, 128 mins., 2016, PG-13; Lionsgate): For me the bedrock of any musical is its score – and this multiple Oscar winner, a memorable non-winner for Best Picture during the Warren Beatty/Faye Dunaway fiasco, is in severe need of what we used to call “tunes.” In fact, there wasn’t one melody I could remember after Damien Chazelle’s overpraised “La La Land” concluded, despite all of its copious musical numbers – which is somewhat fitting, since this is a musical that’s all artifice, from its in-your-face colors, stylized “world” and one-note characters.
Judging from the reaction people had to the film, which did break through the art-house circuit to become a box-office hit, you either love it or hate it, and I didn’t buy any of it — not the performances, the music, or its stilted story. And hearing Ryan Gosling’s struggling jazz pianist warble through his vocals was painful – right along with the bloated two-plus hour running time. Emma Stone, essaying an aspiring actress and Gosling’s star-crossed love, is scarcely better, but at least she sounded in-tune – for the most part. For those who hate musicals — you would be better off watching a real one, with a legitimate score, like Jacques Demy and Michel Legrand’s “Umbrellas of Cherborg” (which this film plainly resembles in several facets)…or preferably anything else where people can sing and dance.
4K UHD Rundown: “La La Land” is still a visually striking work, regardless of how one feels about it, and Lionsgate’s 4K UHD combo pack does convey Chazelle and cinematographer Linus Sandgren’s vivid colors, making L.A. sing as it scarcely has before. Primary colors dominate so many sequences and the shift between light and dark, and between its respective tones, is remarkably conveyed in the UHD presentation. The Dolby Atmos audio is expectedly strong, though all the high-def technical components can do little to make Chazelle and Justin Hurwitz’s score appealing. Extensive extras are comprised of a series of featurettes and commentary with Chazelle and Hurwitz, plus a Digital HD copy.
THE EXPENDABLES 4K UHD Combo Pack (***, 103 mins., 2010, R; Lionsgate): Critics were divided by Sylvester Stallone’s original ‘80s action-throwback, but audiences ate it up: with a worldwide gross of $274 million, “The Expendables” was one of its year’s few consistent performers at the late-summer box-office.
It’s certainly a more lighthearted romp than Sly’s effective but ultra-violent “Rambo” revisit, with Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews, Randy Couture and Mickey Rourke comprising a team of mercenaries hired by shady Bruce Willis to dispose of a ruthless South American dictator. Stallone and Dave Callaham’s script is just an excuse for the boys to blow lots of things up, generate a few laughs and leave as many dead bodies in their wake as possible, but the fun is how disarming “The Expendables” is – from the much-discussed cameo scene for Arnold Schwarzenegger and Willis (complete with a hilarious punch line), to Statham and Stallone’s air-assault on the island (the film’s most memorable set-piece), this is just hugely entertaining for genre addicts, even if Sly the director’s shaky-cam threatens to completely ruin a car-chase sequence.
The performances are all appropriately laid-back – Sly generating good chemistry with both Statham and the film’s female lead, lovely Mexican actress Giselle Itié, whose role might have ended up partially on the cutting room floor (like “Rambo,” perhaps a casualty of editing for the young male demographic Lionsgate covets), while a Lundgren-Li brawl ends up being particularly amusing. It’s nothing extraordinary, and may not resemble the epic Stallone-Schwarzenegger team-up fans were clamoring for, but “The Expendables” is definitely entertaining, throwback fun for action fans, and superior to its two sequels.
4K UHD Rundown: Lionsgate’s UHD release offers a strong enhancement on the Blu-Ray, sporting a 2.35 encode that offers crisp detail – especially compared with the film’s sequels (the original was shot on film and looks it). As with the best HDR presentations, there’s a clarity and detail to the image that pops, and with so much of the film taking place in dark corridors and shadows, the enhanced UHD compression makes for a pleasingly superior presentation over conventional Blu-Ray. On the downside, only the theatrical cut of the film is preserved here, which may irk some fans. Extras from the Blu-Ray include Stallone’s commentary, featurettes, a deleted scene, Dolby Atmos audio that employs the entire sound field at every stage, and a Blu-Ray and Ultraviolet copy that round out the release.
THE EXPENDABLES 2 4K UHD Combo Pack (***, 102 mins., 2012, R; Lionsgate): Sly, Statham, Lundgren, Arnie and Bruce are back for more in another plot-deprived, yet entertaining enough, action sequel. This time out, the Expendables head to Europe to recover an item from a downed plane, only to run into crazy psycho Jean Claude Van Damme.
With Simon West taking over for Stallone behind the camera (Sly still wrote the film with Richard Wenk), “The Expendables 2″ fares better in terms of the shaky-cam visual element. The lightening of the overall tone also serves the film well, with plenty of chemistry between the stars, though dramatically there’s scant investment made in the plot, which serves only to give the aging genre heroes a platform to interact with one another. Ultimately, “The Expendables 2″ is fun and engaging, even if the film technically seems to have been pieced together with occasionally cheap looking digital backdrops and star cameos (from the likes of Chuck Norris and even original star Jet Li, who contributes less than 10 minutes of screen time) that seem to have been hastily shot and edited.
4K UHD Rundown: A movie that’s suffered from an erratic appearance from the time it originally appeared in theaters, Lionsgate’s UHD of “Expendables 2” surpasses the prior Blu-Ray edition to a degree, but it can only do so much with elements that are uneven to say the least. Detail and overall appearance look a little sharper than the Blu-Ray but the film is never going to be reference quality due to its shoddy visuals, a result of the movie seemingly being stitched together in the editing room. A new Dolby Atmos soundtrack is available that’s robust and consistently active, and extras reprieved from the prior editions include a commentary from West, several featurettes, deleted scenes, a gag reel, and both a Blu-Ray and Ultraviolet copy.
HIDDEN FIGURES 4K UHD/Blu-Ray (**½, 127 mins., 2016, PG; Fox): Box-office smash tells the true story of three African-American mathematics wizards – Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae) – who broke not just the color barrier but played a major, mostly unheralded role in the halcyon days of NASA, including the groundbreaking orbit of astronaut John Glenn.
Well-meaning and energetically performed, director Theodore Melfi’s film veers from moving and earnest to contrived and calculated. At times, “Hidden Figures” comes dangerously close to feeling like more of a cinematic concoction than an accurate depiction of time and place, with several grandstanding sequences – like a NASA supervisor (Kevin Costner) ripping down a segregated bathroom, the ladies one-upping a stuffy superior (Jim Parsons), and Katherine delivering a sermon about the inherent injustice involved with their roles – seemingly designed more for audience applause than anything else. Ultimately, the film is an unquestioned crowd-pleaser, but mostly comes off as phony in spite of its strong trio of lead performances.
4K UHD Rundown: Fox’s 4K UHD presentation is, however, a stunner, even though there doesn’t appear to be a ton of difference between it and the standard 1080p Blu-Ray (both with 2.39 aspect ratios) I viewed. Skin tones are natural looking, though the movie’s muted color scheme isn’t the kind of thing that makes great use of HDR. The UHD presentation is superior, but the larger your set and closer you are to it will dictate appreciable differences one might see between the presentations. The 7.1 DTS MA soundtrack is fine, featuring a predictable Hans Zimmer & Friends score with Pharrell contributions and a few expected pop songs from the era. Extras include Making Of featurettes, deleted scenes, commentary from Melfi and Henson, a DVD (with the Blu-Ray combo pack) and a Digital HD copy.