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Kaleidescape | Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Richard Curtis’ vaguely controversial romcom-ish classic looks just fine in HD on Kaleidescape

by Dennis Burger
updated June 20, 2023

Love Actually is probably the most misunderstood of all Richard Curtis’s directorial efforts. That’s not to say it’s his best (that would be About Time by a country mile), nor is it his worst, but it seems that most people are so concerned with fitting Love Actually into their own preconceived boxes that almost no one engages with what it actually is. On the one hand, you have viewers who embrace it as the perfect romantic comedy, when in fact it’s mostly a subversion of that genre’s most saccharine trappings. On the other hand, you have the pecksniffian morality police who never resist the opportunity to tell you how much this movie fails to perfectly live up to their woke sensibilities and how you’re a bad person if you actually enjoy it because most of its characters make bad choices.

Both camps miss the point. Love Actually is hardly a rom-com. (Even the trailer gets this wrong.) It’s a comedy about love, and that’s something altogether different. It’s been accused of being a movie that has no idea what love is about, but it’s far more accurate to call it the story of people trying to figure out what love is and sometimes failing to do so.

The all-star ensemble cast is huge, and its characters run the gamut from Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to Portuguese housekeeper, but they’re all imperfectly awkward human beings doing their best to find or hold onto or comprehend love in its many forms, from childhood infatuation to forbidden obsession to meaningful intellectual connection, from platonic love to the complicated-but-undeniable bond between siblings and the developing ties between stepson and stepfather. Only a handful of the relationships in the movie have anything to do with romance. But they’re all, in their own way, about love.

It’s obvious that Curtis isn’t trying to convey any lessons here, nor is he making moral judgments (which is why I think it so offends some viewers). Love Actually is simply intended to be relatable and empathetic, both in its warmest moments and in its most fumbling, insecure, and idiotic. And it succeeds wonderfully, which makes it one of my favorite Christmas movies, whether or not it’s objectively one of the best.

And yes, it is a Christmas movie, despite arguments to the contrary. Any number of angry keyboard warriors have tried and failed to point out that the story here could have just as easily been told at or around Valentine’s Day. I think they’re confusing it with any number of half-hearted knockoffs that have followed in the 17 years since Love Actually debuted.

Of course, it’s a Christmas movie! And not merely because of the setting or the fantastic live rendition of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” at the end. It simply isn’t a traditional Christmas movie—of which Curtis is well aware, as evidenced by cheeky references to lobsters at the Nativity and so forth. Instead, it’s a story that does its best to grapple with a more modern notion of Christmas, one where the traditional extended family structure isn’t necessarily the only norm anymore.

Above all else, Love Actually is simply a sweet and sentimental, awkwardly charming good time, and one of those rare movies that’s actually best enjoyed in good company. It’s neither a masterpiece nor an affront to moral standards, but I can’t imagine letting a Christmas season pass without watching it with friends, family, or loved ones. That plants it firmly in “must own” territory.

If you don’t own it already, I would argue that Kaleidescape’s presentation is the way to go. Kaleidescape has the UK cut of the film. The only differences between the UK and US edits are in the music, but I prefer the former by a good bit. To the best of my knowledge, Universal only released the UK cut on Blu-ray in 2009, and has replaced it with the US version in subsequent rereleases, of which there have been a few.

The movie is presented in HD only, but that’s totally fine. Keen-eyed viewers will notice an overall softness to the image, but before you think this would be rectified by a 4K redux, look a little closer. Viewing the HD release at cinematic proportions, you can notice a fine grain structure that indicates plenty sufficient detail in the transfer, meaning the softness is inherent to the cinematography. There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of additional crispness or nuance to be extracted from the negative.

Colors are bright and vibrant enough for this sort of flick, so I lean toward thinking HDR wouldn’t do it a whole heck of a lot of good, either. If you’re holding out for a 4K remaster of Love Actually, I just can’t imagine one is on the horizon. And that’s OK, since this likely isn’t a movie you dig into for the audiovisual experience. Granted, the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix does a great job of keeping dialogue clear and intelligible, and the fidelity of the soundtrack music is spot-freaking-on. In the end, that’s exactly what you would hope for.

Extras are sparse here. There’s the forgettable audio commentary track, and that’s really it. The deleted scenes from the Blu-ray are missing, but you can find those on YouTube. What really matters is that the movie itself is presented in delightfully distraction-free quality, with a full-bandwidth soundtrack and no compression issues to be seen.

If you’ve never seen Love Actually and you need a little silly and adorkable escapism this holiday season, this is well worth the price of a download. Will it change your life? No. But if you don’t find yourself guffawing through tears by the time the end credits roll, you’ve got the heart of a Grinch.

Dennis Burger is an avid Star Wars scholar, Tolkien fanatic, and Corvette enthusiast who somehow also manages to find time for technological passions including high-end audio, home automation, and video gaming. He lives in the armpit of Alabama with his wife Bethany and their four-legged child Bruno, a 75-pound American Staffordshire Terrier who thinks he’s a Pomeranian.

PICTURE | Presented in HD only, colors are bright and vibrant enough for this sort of flick and likely wouldn’t be significantly improved in a 4K HDR release

SOUND | The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix does a great job of keeping dialogue clear and intelligible, and the fidelity of the soundtrack music is spot-on

Review: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn

review | Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn

also on Cineluxe

Netflix | Pinocchio (2022)

The best entry in the Star Trek film series benefits subtly from a 4K HDR upgrade

by John Sciacca
updated June 15, 2023

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is widely considered the best film in the original series of Trek films. It has a great villain, action, an easy-to-understand plot, and a massive shock of an ending that also set up the next film.

Compared to Star Wars—a film that had a similar budget and that debuted three years earlier—the effects in Khan are noticeably sub-par. (And, admittedly, haven’t benefitted from decades of the ILM team’s reworking.) Laser blasts and photon torpedoes look like they’ve just been drawn in, some of the ship flying sequences and explosions are clearly models, and one scene is very obviously on a stage with matte paintings. We also don’t get nearly the stage dressing and attention to detail—just take a look at a lot of the switches and knobs aboard instrument clusters on the Enterprise and it appears they don’t do anything. Of course, some of these are just byproducts of the era—and the difference of what we’ve come to expect from high-quality CGI—that are more noticeable now with 4K’s enhanced resolution and detail.

Filmed in 35mm, the original negative “was in terrible shape” and received a 1080p remastering back in 2009 for the Blu-ray release. There’s no word that I could find about the sourcing of this 4K HDR version, but my guess is that it is taken from a 2K digital intermediate.

The big thing you’ll notice is how clean the images look. Right from the get-go, the opening title sequence and blackness of space just look clean and sharp. The shots in space all look especially good, with deep blacks and bright white star points. There is a fair bit of grain in the opening scenes aboard the Enterprise but that seems to be less noticeable as the film goes on, or maybe I just got used to it.

Another thing that really stood out is a pretty noticeable change in focus and sharpness in some scenes, sometimes even when cutting back and forth to two characters talking. At first, I thought it was maybe vanity defocusing to not show Shatner’s age but it wasn’t—he’s sharp and clear in some shots, and soft and diffuse in others. This is all the more noticeable because of the generally sharp edges and images throughout most of the film, with some images looking as clean and sharp as a modern production. When focus is sharp, closeups have tons of detail, revealing every line and wrinkle in Kirk’s face, pores in Khan’s chin, or the heavy facial makeup on Spock. You can also really appreciate the rich, thick burgundy felt texture of the uniform jackets worn by the Enterprise crew.

There are some bright highlights in the form of strobing lightning flashes, stars, explosions, and video screens, but where HDR really benefits is in shadow detail and just overall realistic, natural-looking images. Color gamut didn’t look especially expanded, but we get some nicely saturated reds and greens.

The 4K HDR download features a 5.1-channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, which differs from the 7.1-channel Dolby TrueHD audio found on the Blu-ray disc (and Kaleidescape Blu-ray download). This mix is heavily focused on the front three channels, and definitely seems pretty undynamic by modern standards.

Audio effects like wind sounds, sirens, alarms, and explosions get a bit of width, as does James Horner’s score. My processor’s Dolby upmixer did its best to expand the soundstage, with some steam and engine sounds placed up overhead; and the Enterprise jumping to warp speed had it streak high up across the ceiling. Fortunately, dialogue is pretty clear throughout.

Time has been mostly kind to Wrath of Khan, and it certainly has never looked as good it does here. For Trek fans, this is a no-brainer—it’s great to revisit the original crew of the Enterprise on one of their finest adventures. But for those new to the series—and younger viewers—might be better served jumping into the new films, which are certainly heavier on the action, effects, and sonic bombast.

Probably the most experienced writer on custom installation in the industry, John Sciacca is co-owner of Custom Theater & Audio in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, & is known for his writing for such publications as Residential Systems and Sound & Vision. Follow him on Twitter at @SciaccaTweets and at johnsciacca.com.

PICTURE | The 4K HDR upgrade results in improved shadow detail and clean, sharp, natural-looking images throughout

SOUND | The 5.1-channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack is heavily focused on the front three channels and pretty undynamic by modern standards

Review: Hellboy (2004)

review | Hellboy (2004)

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Kaleidescape | Jumanji: The Next Level

Kaleidescape | Jumanji: The Next Level

It might not be as faithful to the comics as the 2019 remake, but del Toro’s take is by far the better movie

by Dennis Burger
updated June 10, 2023

Try as we might to be objective, the truth is that those of us who make at least part of our living reviewing films bring some significant biases to the table. So, I should likely go ahead and show my cards in this case: I’m a massive fan of Mike Mignola’s comic-book series Hellboy and all of its spinoffs, from B.P.R.D. to Abe Sapien to Lobster Johnson to Frankenstein Underground.

I tell you that not because it really has any bearing on the quality of Guillermo del Toro’s 2004 big-screen adaption of the comic, but more as a heads-up that things might get a little geekier than usual in this review. The thing is, when Hellboy hit theaters, most people had probably never heard of the comic book, and so had little concern for how faithful it was to the source.

Times have changed, though, and fandom has become more toxic across the board in almost every respect, so it’s become trendy to bash the movie for taking some significant liberties. There’s still no denying that in bringing the characters and mythology of the Mignolaverse to the screen, del Toro decided to adapt and interpret rather than be a slave to the printed page.

And to that I say, “Thank goodness.” You only need to look at the most recent cinematic adaptation of Hellboy—Neil Marshall’s unimaginative regurgitation of the comic stories “Darkness Calls,” “The Wild Hunt,” and “The Storm and the Fury”—for proof that translating material between two mediums isn’t as simple as copying and pasting. The 2019 Hellboy reboot is truer to the storylines, dialogue, and even the overall structure of the comic than the 2004 film. But the new film, in its attempt to be a gritty R-rated gorefest, overlooks the comic book’s profoundly ironic humanity.

That emotional human core is exactly what del Toro latched onto it formulating his own version. And most of the deviations from the comics storyline it leans heavily on, “Seed of Destruction,” ultimately boil down to bringing themes about family to the forefront and building the rest of the story around them. This motivation results in some substantial character changes—Selma Blair’s Liz Sherman, for example, bears only the most superficial resemblance to her comic-book counterpart.

A subtler deviation comes in the form of a slight genre shift. Whereas del Toro’s Hellboy maintains the gothic horror and action elements of its inspiration, the comic’s folklore underpinnings do get dropped in favor of pure fantasy. But all of these modifications work in service of Hellboy as a movie no matter what you want to say about their effect on it as an adaptation.

For its 15th anniversary, Sony Pictures has graced Hellboy movie with a ground-up 4K restoration, which serves as the source of Kaleidescape’s recent UHD/HDR release. This release proves once again that films shot on 35mm film stand to benefit more from UHD/HDR than do newer, all-digital efforts.

The imagery here is sumptuous—reference-quality in virtually every respect, with the exception of a handful of computer-generated effects that don’t quite stand up to the quality of their practical counterparts. But even the worst of Hellboy 2004’s CG effects look better than the best of Hellboy 2019’s, so don’t take this as too harsh a criticism. Overall, this new remastered transfer is simply stunning.

Unsurprisingly, the high dynamic range transfer really flexes its muscles in portraying the film’s shadows, of which there are plenty, although it does take the opportunity to dazzle at times. The biggest improvement over the decade-old 1080p transfer, though, is in the more refined handling of the mostly muted color palette. Though there’s no denying that there’s oodles more detail onscreen here than we’ve ever seen on any previous home video release of Hellboy. Textures, too, get a big boost, all the way down to the fine organic grain structure of the original film elements.

I’m not quite as sweet on the new Dolby Atmos remix of the movie’s soundtrack. But if you like tons of overhead sound effects, you’ll be in heaven, because the remix never misses an opportunity to employ the height channels to their fullest effect. It often does this in the interest of atmosphere, which is where this remix really worked for me. When the action cranks up, though, so do the height channels, and I found it to be a little too distracting, although that’s a common complaint on my part when it comes to object-based surround sound.

The good new is, over-done though it may be, the Atmos remix is utterly seamless, and sounds exactly the way I imagine the movie would have sounded if modern audio technology had existed in 2004. The new mix maintains all the dynamic oomph that has made this movie a go-to home theater demo since the DVD days, and it does so while also maintaining excellent dialogue intelligibility and unimpeachable fidelity for the movie’s memorable score.

If, on the other hand, you fall into my camp when it comes to Atmos, you may be disappointed to find that the new Dolby TrueHD 7.1 surround remix available on the recent UHD Blu-ray release is missing from the Kaleidescape download. The only other soundtrack options here are low-bitrate Dolby Digital (not Plus, just Dolby Digital) 5.1, and DTS-HD Master Audio stereo.

The UHD/HDR download is also missing not one, but two new audio commentaries recorded for the theatrical cut of the movie, which is also missing here. The Kaleidescape version includes the Director’s Cut only, which—to be fair—is a substantially superior cut of the movie, even if its differences mostly amount to five or six seconds of footage here and 30 or 40 seconds of footage there. Also missing is a 15th-anniversary retrospective called To Hell and Back, along with a brief new introduction by director Guillermo del Toro.

But buying the UHD version on Kaleidescape also gives you access to the Blu-ray quality download, which brings with it a cornucopia of wonderful bonus features, most notably the six-part documentary The Seeds of Creation, which at 143 minutes runs longer than the movie itself. So you’re really not missing out on too much unless you’re an audio commentary junky like I am.

If you’re not a bonus feature completist, there’s really nothing about this release to criticize. Hellboy is a fun, beautifully shot, often sweet, and utterly charming movie that’s better served by this new 4K remaster than any previous home video effort. The improvements in picture quality—especially in terms of color, shadow detail, and black levels—cannot be overstated.

PICTURE | The imagery is sumptuous—reference-quality in virtually every respect, with the exception of a handful of computer-generated effects

SOUND | The Atmos remix is utterly seamless, and sounds exactly the movie would have sounded if modern audio technology had existed in 2004

Review: Dora and the Lost City of Gold

review | Dora and the Lost City of Gold

also on Cineluxe

Kaleidescape | The Avengers

This imaginative live-action translation of the Nickelodeon series offers an adventure-filled family night at the movies

by John Sciacca
update June 7, 2023

Based on the animated Nickelodeon series Dora the Explorer, Dora and the Lost City of Gold modernizes many of the beloved characters and puts them on a jungle adventure. My oldest daughter, Lauryn, used to watch the animated series, so I was familiar with the main characters: Dora (Isabela Merced), her cousin Diego (Jeff Wahlberg, nephew of those other Wahlbergs), Swiper the stealing fox (voiced by Benicio Del Toro), and Boots the monkey (voiced by Danny Trejo). I also knew about Dora’s talking Map and Backpack, whose voices are reprised by original voice actors Marc Weiner and Sasha Toro respectively.

Fortunately, you aren’t required to know anything about the animated series to enjoy City of Gold, but those who are will appreciate some of the clever overt and subtle nods and references to the series sprinkled throughout, such as how Dora occasionally turns to the camera and says things like, “This is a golden poison frog. Can you say, ‘severe neuro-toxicity?’” which is one of cartoon-Dora’s signature educational moves.

There’s a fair bit of action for a kid’s movie, certainly enough to keep adults entertained, but most of it is fairly tame. And while there is some peril, there are no fatalities or gunplay. Much of the adventure is Goonies-style, with rolling logs, underground water slides, and different puzzle-traps to solve. It also reminded me a bit of Lara Croft-lite, with adventuring Dora taking point and using her wits and skills to lead the group.

Both Boots and Swiper are animated in a far more cartoony style than the hyper-realistic animals featured in The Lion King (2019) but this is by design. However, a couple of other animals (namely a boa constrictor and pair of scorpions) also show their CGI-origins. The film does contain one fully animated scene, which is a great homage to the original series.

Dora on 4K HDR looks way better than any kid’s movie has any right to. My first note on the film was, “Image is super clean and sharp.” Filmed in ArriRaw in 3.4 and 4.5K, Dora is taken from a true 4K digital intermediate, and the image quality definitely shows. Closeups reveal individual strands of hair, the texture of clothing fabric, and the detail of the jungle terrain.

Colors are also vibrant, with lots of bright yellows, greens, blues, and reds. This is especially true in the closing credits song-and-dance number, where the school student body comes together in multi-colored outfits. The bright, daytime jungle scenes also look terrific. And there are a few shots of bright fires and blazing sunsets that also benefit from the wider color gamut, as well as the brilliant, lustrous gold of statues and idols.

HDR is used throughout to deliver deep blacks, especially during the night scenes or when the gang is inside some location solving a puzzle. In one scene, they need to use sunlight and mirrors to bounce bright light around a room using reflective bowls, producing both dark blacks and piercing brightness.

Sonically, Dora also benefits from a fairly dynamic Dolby Atmos soundtrack. The jungle is filled with atmospheric sounds like birds, insects, and dripping water that immerse you in the location. During one scene, arrows whip past and overhead or thunk into walls. The sound team takes other opportunities to get creative with the sound placement, like a ringing school bell, Boots racing around the jungle treetops, water flooding the room, or voices. Bass is also appropriately deep and engaging when called for, especially during the finale at Parapata.

Dora and the Lost City of Gold makes for a fun family night at the movies—entertaining and humorous for adults (my wife especially liked the “dig a pooh hole” song), without being too intense or mature for kids. It’s a film younger viewers may want to visit more than once, drawn to Dora’s infectious charm. It also has the bonus of looking and sounding terrific in your home system, making it a real win in my book.

PICTURE | Dora on 4K HDR looks way better than a kid’s movie has any right to, with images that are super clean and sharp

SOUND | Dora also benefits from a fairly dynamic Dolby Atmos soundtrack, with the jungle filled with atmospheric sounds like birds, insects, and dripping water that immerse you in the location

Review: Superman: The Movie

review | Superman: The Movie

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The 4K HDR release smooths down the rough edges while keeping the charm of the original, 1978 film intact

by Dennis Burger
updated June 3, 2023

Let’s talk about courage for a moment—not the courage it took for Ilya and Alexander Salkind to make a sentimental and sincere big-budget superhero film when there was no precedent for that sort of thing. Nor the courage it took for director Richard Donner and casting director Lynn Stalmaster to take a risk on unknown Christopher Reeve for the lead role, when so many other famous names were contending for the red cape and spit curl. You’ve no doubt heard those stories before.

Let’s talk instead about the courage it took for Warner Bros. to release a 4K HDR version of Superman: The Movie in 2018 that preserves all of the celluloid flaws (and charms) of the original cinematic release in an era where so many studios are glossing up, de-noising, sharpening, and generally attempting to modernize the standouts in their classic-film catalogs.

This is one of those films I buy on any new home video format the day it’s released, which isn’t to say every home video release has been a major improvement over the ones before it. This is an intentionally soft and heavily filtered film, after all. It lacks rock-solid blacks and there’s a prominent graininess to the image, especially in special-effects shots.

If Kaleidescape’s 4K HDR release weren’t true to all of that, it would be a bit of a betrayal. So why release it in 4K HDR at all? What stands out most in this release as compared with previous efforts (including the Blu-ray quality 1080p version of the film, also included with the Kaleidescape download) is the richness and saturation of its colors, especially in the early sequences in Smallville.

Before that, the scenes on Krypton also get a nice boost from the enhanced brightness afforded by HDR. I finally think I get what Donner was going for with those silly reflective suits Jor-El (Marlon Brando) and Lara (Susannah York) wear as they ponder the fate of their infant child before rocketing him off to earth. They have a pop and sizzle here they’ve never had on home video before.

Other than that, it’s as if a layer of haze has been wiped off of the film. Granted, what was buried under the haze was a late-’70s work of photochemical film. It’s fuzzy, it’s muted,and its effects shots look kinda laughable. But that’s long been part of the charm of this film, so kudos to Warner for having the cajones to release it as such, and kudos to Kaleidescape for delivering it with all of its textures and nuances intact.

This isn’t the movie you’re going to whip out if you simply want to show off all of your projector’s or TV’s pixel-pumping, high-contrast capabilities. Still, it’s hard to deny that this is the best that Superman: The Movie has ever looked or will likely ever look. I daresay the original 70mm print didn’t shine this brilliantly the first time it was spindled through the projector on opening night in 1978.

One thing worth noting is that the Kaleidescape version doesn’t include the new Atmos remix included with the UHD Blu-ray disc. I’m not sure how you feel about that, but I don’t miss it. The new DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that is included is a big step up from previous efforts, especially with its rich, bombastic delivery of John Williams’ iconic score. The fidelity here is flawless yet it isn’t an outright betrayal of the film’s original aesthetic.

Am I alone in this, though? Would you rather see a classic like Superman: The Movie presented as a product of its time, in the best possible light of today’s home video technology? Or would you prefer that the studio iron out the grain, sharpen up the edges, slap on a fresh coat of paint, and try to make the film look (and sound!) more like the current crop of superhero flicks that owe so much to this cherished classic?

PICTURE | The 4K HDR release preserves all of the celluloid flaws (and charms) of the original cinematic release while bringing richness, saturation, and a new vividness to the colors

SOUND | The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is a big step up from previous efforts, especially with its rich, bombastic delivery of John Williams’ iconic score

Review: Jumanji: The Next Level

review | Jumanji: The Next Level

also on Cineluxe

Kaleidescape | Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Kaleidescape | Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

This sequel mixes things up inventively from the original, resulting in a solid videogame-like adventure

by John Sciacca
update June 2, 2023

It’s really no surprise that 2017’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle received the sequel greenlight. As star Jack Black, returning to portray game character Professor Shelly Oberon, quips in one of the special features, “After the first film made $900 million, I wasn’t really surprised when they called us back to do another.”

For those unfamiliar with Jumanji, these latest films are a reboot of the 1995 original, which starred Robin Williams. Jumanji is a game (of the board variety in the original, and modernized as a video game here) where players are magically and literally sucked into the game, forced to play as one of several avatars with different skill sets, and have to work together to solve problems and survive in order to complete a quest before they can exit the game back to the real world. Each character has three lives, allowing them to die (repeatedly) in a variety of usually humorous ways.

Along with Black, the rest of the Jungle quintet returns in The Next Level to reprise their roles , including Dwayne Johnson as Dr. Smolder Bravestone, Kevin Hart as Mouse Finbar, Nick Jonas as Seaplane McDonough, and Karen Gillan as Ruby Roundhouse. Jake Kasdan returns as director. Joining the crew is new character, thief extraordinaire Ming Fleetfoot, played by Awkwafina. We also get a new villain in the form of Jurgen the Brutal, played by Game of Thrones’ The Hound, Rory McCann.

Instead of rehashing the first film with a different adventure, the writers really mix things up when the game glitches, causing the avatars to be inhabited by different players. This gives the adventurers completely different personalities and allows the actors to really have fun with their roles. On top of the new adventure—to end a massive drought impacting Jumanji by recovering a magical necklace known as the Falcon Jewel, stolen by Jurgen—this new “casting” makes the film feel fresh, and provides lots of opportunities for hilarity.

At just over two hours, Level has enough time to develop a quest that feels of videogame epic length, with enough time to travel to a variety of new environments, such as a Lawrence of Arabia-esque desert, a Moroccan-type village, and a snow-topped castle. But it never felt too long or like it was wearing out its gags, keeping me interested throughout.

Sony Pictures consistently delivers terrific home video releases, and Level continues this high standard. Shot on ArriRaw at 3.4K, images consistently look terrific, with closeups that bristle with detail and razor-sharp focus. Black wears a tweed vest that has a fine plaid print with each check clearly visible. You can also see the cracks and texture in the backgrounds and costumes, and count individual strands of hair on actors’ heads.

Blacks are deep, clean, and noise-free, and there are many nighttime and indoor scenes that benefit from the use of HDR. The night scenes in the Moroccan village of the Oasis look especially good, with brilliant neon lights along the streets, as well as warm interiors lit by candles and lamps, giving the film a natural, organic look. Interiors of the castle Fortress feature dark rooms lit by shafts of bright light or sun rays streaming through windows, and the snowy mountainside looks appropriately bright without crushing any detail.

Sonically, the Dolby Atmos track is dynamic and active, looking for nearly every opportunity to immerse you in sound. Beyond the big action scenes, there are lots of little environmental sounds like wind blowing, birds chirping, and insects buzzing. One of the recurring sonic elements is the sound of deceased players re-entering the game, with a chime that sounds overhead and has them dropping back into the game from the ceiling. Bass is also solid and weighty, whether from explosions or punches or the jungle drums that resonate from all around to indicate danger. As is typical of Dolby Atmos soundtracks, dialogue is centered and easily intelligible throughout.

Beyond a bit of swearing and some non-bloody videogame violence, Jumanji: Next Level makes a great family night at the movies, offering a plot that will keep everyone engaged and entertained, while looking and sounding great in a luxury home environment.

PICTURE | Images consistently look terrific, with closeups that bristle with detail and razor-sharp focus

SOUND | The Dolby Atmos mix is dynamic and active, looking for nearly every opportunity to immerse you in sound

Review: Jaws

review | Jaws

also on Cineluxe

Kaleidescape |
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

The film that launched Spielberg’s career gets a respectful 4K HDR/Atmos restoration

by John Sciacca
updated May 30, 2023

I was five when Jaws came out in the summer of 1975, and for my dad thought it would be a good idea to take our family to see it at a drive-in theater. So, I remember Jaws for absolutely ruining night swimming for me for my entire life, and for giving me a fairly unhealthy fear of the water that persists.

So, yeah. Jaws has been a part of my life for just about as long as I remember. And you know what? The film still holds up. The acting, the dialogue, the chemistry, the editing . . . it’s all still great. The best parts of the film are aboard the Orca with Quint (Robert Shaw), Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss), and Sheriff Brody (Roy Scheider). The dynamic between the three of them is fantastic, and Quint’s monologue about surviving the USS Indianapolis is still powerful and compelling .

Of course, John Williams’ Academy Award-winning score retains all its tension and drama, but even the shark scenes and effects remain believable and frightening. Sure, there are scarier, more brutal, and bloodier shark films out there today, but Jaws sets the standard for scary things in the water, and the bar remains high. About the only thing that really dates the film are the suits worn by Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) and the variety of clearly out-of-fashion swimwear seen on the beaches of Amity.

For its 45th Anniversary release, Universal Studios has given Jaws a full 4K HDR restoration, and this transfer is taken from a new 4K digital intermediate. The transfer retains the look of the 35mm film’s photochemical origins, with grain visible in the pale blue and low-lit evening or sunsetting skies, but it’s as if layers of age have been wiped away to produce images that are just clean and new-looking. This isn’t a movie with lots of sharp, detailed edges—though it appears to look sharper and more detailed later in the film aboard the Orca—or one that has micro-details leaping off the screen, but rather a transfer that retains the best of both its film and digital look to present something that looks both new and correct for its period.

Closeups occasionally reveal plenty of detail, with one shot of the Mayor’s anchor-festooned suit revealing fine, sharp blue single-line pinstriping detail that was horizontal on the lapel and diagonal on the breast and arms; and foreground objects have nice defined edges.But this transfer is more about the overall pristine look than moments of single-strands-of-hair pixel resolution. Some shots look a bit soft and defocused, but this appears to be more an issue with the original focal point during filming than a lack of resolution in the transfer.

They took a pretty delicate touch with the HDR grading, with occasional bright highlights such as the opening flames of the beach fires, or bright lights aboard ships, but the added dynamic range lends itself to more natural and realistic-looking images as light levels get low, and we retain deep blacks but still plenty of shadow details. There are several underwater scenes with a variety of lighting, or with bright lights probing through smoke and mist on top of the water that could cause banding issues, but images remain clean and distortion-free.

When I heard Jaws had been given a Dolby TrueHD Atmos audio makeover I was . . . curious. What could an immersive sound mix do with a 45-year-old mono master short of possibly being used to gimmicky effect that spoiled a classic? Well, much like the video, the new audio track takes the best of the Jaws soundtrack and uses modern technology to expand and improve it. This is most noticeable in John Williams’ fantastic score, which is now lifted above the front channels and mixed into an enveloping canopy overhead, filling the room and surrounding you in the iconic music.

Beyond that, they’ve used audio cues to subtly enhance other moments throughout the film. There are bird chirps, ocean waves crashing or lapping against things, wind sounds, or creaks and groans of the boat rolling in the water that all place you in scenes. On the beach, we get a nice mix of radios playing, and a helicopter flyover as it patrols the waters for sharks.

Dialogue is mostly clear and understandably—especially with Williams’ score given room up in the height speakers—except for a few moments where many people are talking or shouting at once in some of the crowded exterior scenes. Also, don’t expect much from your subwoofer, though it does get a little room to show off during the finale.

The best word I can use to describe this 45th Anniversary release is “restraint.” They used technology where available to improve the experience while careful not to do anything that would be detrimental to the Jaws so many of us remember.

While the Kaleidescape download doesn’t include any of the fairly extensive extras that accompany the 4K Blu-ray disc—which includes two near feature-length documentaries, The Making of Jaws and The Shark is Still Working: The Impact & Legacy of Jaws—these are the same extras included with the 2012 Blu-ray release, so if you have that, you aren’t missing out on anything new.

Jaws is one of my favorite films and this newly restored version illustrates why it remains a classic that belongs in every collection.

PICTURE | The transfer retains the look of the 35mm film’s photochemical origins but it’s as if layers of age have been wiped away to produce images that are just clean and new-looking

SOUND | The Atmos mix takes the best of the Jaws soundtrack and uses modern technology to expand and improve it

Review: Spirited Away

review | Spirited Away

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with Dolby Atmos

The 1080p presentation is able to capture the look of this anime classic without compromise

by Dennis Burger
Updated May 28.2023

Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpiece, Spirited Away makes me long for a time machine. Not necessarily so I could dial back the last 18 years and view the film again for the first time (although that would be a treat) but so I could capture my impressions after having just seen the film with fresh eyes.

I say this only because I come to Spirited Away with so much baggage that I find it difficult to discuss the film in and of itself. After nearly two decades of reading doctoral theses about linguistic symbolism, of devouring literary and film analyses, of falling down rabbit holes of spiritual, religious, and philosophical themes and the their interconnections it isn’t easy to simply sit back and consume the film as a work of art.

So I did the next-best thing. I sat beside my wife this weekend as she experienced this weird and captivating journey for the first time. Glancing out of the corner of my eye to see her giggle and applaud, weep and gasp, I was reminded of that first viewing. And I was also reminded that you don’t need to know a damned thing about Spirited Away to appreciate it as one of the best animated films ever made.

So forget all of the symbolism and the film’s deep ties to Shintoism and Japanese cultural norms (some admirable, some deplorable). What makes Spirited Away work as a two-hour adventure ?

The animation certainly helps. Not only is this Miyazaki’s most visually stunning work, it also represents perhaps the most artful (and subtle) marriage of hand-drawn 2D and computer-rendered 3D animation ever committed to the screen. The worlds of the ten-year-old hero Chihiro (both the material and spirit worlds) seem more real and tangible than most cinematic settings captured in live action.

But it isn’t merely the animation that creates this perception,. What makes Miyazaki a master filmmaker is that he understands how to lead the viewer through a story and its world in such a way that it doesn’t feel like a passive viewing experience.

Perhaps the best example is the denouement, in which Chihiro must travel to confront the twin sister of the sorceress who stole her name and employed her in a bathhouse for gods and spirits. In most films—especially fantasy films—her journey would have been written as an epic quest, fraught with danger and excitement. But in Miyazaki’s hands, though, it is a quiet and contemplative train ride. This shouldn’t work, but it does, on two levels: It gives both little Chihiro and the viewer alike a chance to reflect and to catch our breaths together.

It’s a technique Miyazaki employs in most of his films, and one he describes using the Japanese word ma, which roughly translates into “pause” or “gap”. But no film—by Miyazaki or any other filmmaker—makes such effective use of this technique as does this scene. And it works so well here because this ma isn’t simply a quiet break from the action. It also gives the viewer the opportunity to revel in Spirited Away on the level of pure audiovisual experience. It may be the first time most viewers fully appreciate how seamlessly the 2D and 3D animation are blended. It might also be the first time you have room to truly meditate on Joe Hisaishi’s melancholic score.

Spirited Away has been likened to stories like The Wizard of Oz and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland with good reason. It is, on one level, an amazing coming-of-age tale. But, despite its deep roots in Japanese mythology and folklore, there’s something uniquely universal about Spirited Away.

The film rewards further exploration, sure, but that would be pointless if it wasn’t worth watching over and over again purely on its own terms, with its obvious themes about greed and kindness and the nature of the self. Force me to construct a list of films that demand to be owned rather than merely rented and Spirited Away would be on it.

Thankfully, Kaleidescape’s download is a wonderful way to own the film. We’re presented with both the original Japanese soundtrack and the surprisingly good English-language dub (overseen by Pixar’s John Lasseter) in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. The film defaults to Japanese with English subtitles, but if you’re watching with younger viewers (or simply refuse to read captions), the English dub maintains the delightful score, as well as the effective and atmospheric sound mix. Both versions use the surround channels and subwoofer to extend the worlds of the film out into the room, and to give both weight and depth to the onscreen action.

Kaleidescape does present the film without the bonus features found on both Disney’s 2015 Blu-ray release and the 2017 follow-up by GKIDS, but those bonus goodies did little to enrich the film. What’s more important is that the Kaleidescape presentation is superior to the already excellent 2017 Blu-ray. You could complain that Spirited Away isn’t available in 4K but this better-than-Blu-ray-quality 1080p presentation lacks for nothing in terms of capturing all the details of the original animation. There’s a second or two here or there that might benefit from a wider color gamut but without the ability to A/B this transfer against a hypothetical 4K re-scan of the film elements, I can’t say that for sure.

What I can say is that this belongs in your collection whether you’re a fan of Japanese animation or not. Just don’t be surprised if you find yourself so enraptured by Miyazaki’s magical worlds that you end up exploring the rest of his catalog almost immediately. If you’re looking for a little guidance, I would suggest next diving into My Neighbor Totoro and Howl’s Moving Castle, both of which are also available on Kaleidescape, along with rest of Studio Ghibli’s long-form catalog.

PICTURE | This better-than-Blu-ray-quality 1080p presentation lacks for nothing in terms of capturing all the details of the original animation

SOUND | The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix uses the surround channels and subwoofer to extend the worlds of the film out into the room, and to give both weight and depth to the onscreen action

Review: The Bridge on the River Kwai

review | The Bridge on the River Kwai

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