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Review: Nomadland

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Nomadland

review | Nomadland

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This 2021 Best Picture is light on action but big on character and insight, creating an emotionally satisfying movie-watching experience

by John Sciacca
updated July 25, 2023

Nomadland is a quiet, introspective film that focuses almost entirely on the life of a single person, Fern (Frances McDormand), with just brief glimpses into the lives of others around her she happens to cross paths with. 

As best I can tell, there is only one other “actor” in the film, David Strathairn, who plays David; a man Fern encounters at one of her Nomad RV destinations, and then crosses paths with again down the road. The rest of the characters in the film are all just regular people, many of them actual nomads playing themselves. Spend a moment letting the end credits roll and you’ll see that every character (save Fern) uses their actual name.

I think this is part of what lends the film its authenticity, and helps McDormand tap into delivering such a real performance. She is playing off the real thoughts and feelings of others, and finding an authentic character. I’m not often taken with the subtleties of the actor’s craft but there were moments here where I was struck by how powerful and rich McDormand’s performance was. There are a couple of pivotal moments, where the anguish on her face help you tap into the anguish of the moment, letting you really empathize with her plight. 

When I’m working on film reviews, I keep a notebook where I jot down notes. Typically, they’re things about audio or video quality I want to remember to mention, but with Nomadland I found myself writing down how the movie was making me feel and think—that’s a pretty powerful difference, and I think what makes this film so interesting.

Some of my observations include: “You can have almost nothing but still have pride and take care of the things you do have,” “Choosing how to live and die on your own terms,” “Developing friendships where you can find them and learning to rely on the kindness of strangers,” and “Just because you are down, doesn’t mean you are out.”

I also had a real change of heart towards Fern as I witnessed her journey. Early on, I wrote that she was “living a depressing, solitary existence staying in her van; living, sleeping, eating and spending days working thankless job at Amazon.” But by the end, I changed that view, writing “Fern is a strong, capable, brave, and durable survivor of a woman.”

Director Chloé Zhao—who also wrote the screenplay based on Jessica Bruder’s Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century—chooses to keep the camera in close on the characters, making you focus on them and to really see the emotion in their faces.

Having made the cross-country drive four times myself, you truly see just how wide and vast this nation is, and what seems so small in our digitally, always-connected world is really huge when you have to travel every mile of it, and we experience some of this in Fern’s journey. The cinematography does a beautiful job of capturing the wide, sweeping vistas of open plains and ranges, with deep shadows and contrast as we look out into colorful sunrise and sunsets.

At first, I just thought that Fern had wanderlust, and maybe that is a part of it, but at the end of the film—a time period of a little more than a year—she goes back to one of the small towns to return to her seasonal position at an Amazon fulfillment center. I feel it’s more just a need to stay on the move and not be trapped in one place and to be able to come and go on your terms.

Shot at 3.2K resolution, this digital intermediate is taken from a 2K source, but I never felt at a loss for clarity or resolution. Images are beautifully clean and sharp throughout with tight focus. Closeups reveal tons of detail, whether the lines and creases in characters’ faces, or individual whiskers and strands of hair, or texture in rocks.

Image contrast, depth, and realism are also enhanced by HDR. Several scenes are filmed around campfires, and these have a rich, glowing golden-red light along with deep rich shadows. This also helps lend more realism to the frequent vistas as Fern looks off to the horizon.

I wasn’t expecting a lot in the way of surround sound but was surprised how immersive the 5.1-channel DTS-HD Master mix was. There are near-constant amounts of small background atmospheric sounds that put you into each moment. Whether it’s the creak and groan of springs and metal inside the cramped environs of Fern’s van, or the sound of traffic, people milling about, or dogs barking off in the distance, or the rush of wind outside, the mix does a really nice job of drawing you in. While it’s mostly pretty subtle, this background audio gets pretty dynamic as Fern steps onto the floor of the Amazon distribution center, giving you a feel for the noise and bustle of the job. The audio also does a nice job of conveying Ludovico Einaudi’s mournful-sounding piano soundtrack.

I wasn’t expecting to enjoy or be as affected by Nomadland as much as I was. In fact, I can see this a film that you return to when you’re searching for something in your life, or maybe just wanting a glimpse into the freedom of other possibilities. In a year of questionable box-office releases, Nomadland is definitely a high point and worthy of your attention.

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 | Images are beautifully clean and sharp with tight focus, and with closeups revealing tons of detail

SOUND | The 5.1-channel DTS-HD Master mix is surprisingly immersive with near-constant small atmospheric sounds that put you into each moment

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Review: The Martian

The Martian

review | The Martian

This Ridley Scott-helmed peril-on-Mars tale delves more into science fact than science fiction

by John Sciacca
updated July 22, 2023

When you hear the name Ridley Scott in the same sentence as “science fiction,” you likely think about films like Alien, Blade Runner, and Prometheus, but The Martian is definitely not your typical Ridley Scott glimpse into the future. In fact, I’d call it far more science fact than science fiction as much of the science, technology, and solutions shown are not only plausible but were praised as believable by NASA as well as the world’s most famous astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Besides the engrossing story, The Martian is powered by an incredible array of big-name talent. Besides lead/stranded astronaut Mark Watney played by Matt Damon, you get the rest of his crew aboard the Hermes, including Jessica Chastain, Michael Peña, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, and Aksel Hennie, along with NASA and JPL ground support, which includes Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Sean Bean, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Mackenzie Davis, and Donald “Childish Gambino” Glover. 

Also unusual for a Scott film is the amount of humor throughout. Damon spends almost all of the film alone, and much of his performance is communicating information to viewers through recorded messages laced with smart humor, including lines like “In the face of overwhelming odds, I’m only faced with one option. I’m going to have to science the sh— out of this.” 

I’m a Damon fan, and it’s his charisma and likability that help propel and make the story so interesting. You can’t help but root for Watney as he continually works through problems, persevering and surviving regardless of the odds. Similar to how Tom Hanks carried Castaway, Damon holds this movie on his shoulders, and does a damn fine job of it.

While shot in a combination of 4K and 6K resolutions, the home video transfer is taken from a 2K digital intermediate, which honestly surprised me a bit because the picture quality is so fantastic, sharp, and full of detail throughout that I was all but sure it was a 4K DI. This is a case where the numbers don’t tell the story, and I found the video quality from the Kaleidescape 4K HDR download to be reference quality.

Images have incredible focus, depth, and dimensionality, almost having a 3D quality. Beyond that, they are so incredibly clean, with razor-sharp edges, they have an almost glossy quality at times. I was impressed by the gorgeous images, allowing you to revel in every pixel of detail and texture, such as the minute details in the design and construction of the astronauts’ suits, where you can see the stitching, webbing, and layers of detail.

The color palette shifts between the distinct look on Mars—dusty reds and oranges; the Hermes—modern and sleek whites and blacks of space; and Earth. The resolution and HDR really help the many computer screens aboard the Hermes and at NASA to pop, with detail so sharp you can read the tiny text on monitors in mission control. You also get bright gleaming ships and the pop of spacesuits against the black of space, or the bright pops of searchlights, along with nice deep shadows and detail. Further, HDR’s wider color creates deeply saturated, punchy, and lifelike images.

Even more exciting is the Dolby TrueHD Atmos soundtrack, which is incredibly immersive and active, and worth the purchase price on its own. Whether it’s big, dynamic moments like the sounds of dust and debris pelting you during a Martian wind storm, the groans and creaks inside Watney’s hab as it rocks in the storm, the in-rush of air during pressurization, or a multitude of little mechanical noises in ships, the sound mix constantly places you in the action. Even in scenes at NASA or JPL, you can hear the sound of jets or helicopters flying off in the distance. I’d previously watched The Martian on its original Blu-ray release, which did not include the Atmos audio mix, and have to say that as good as that was, the Atmos audio steps things up a notch. There isn’t a lot of deep bass, but there are a few such as the opening storm and the rocket launch where you get some nice tactile bass you can feel in your seat.

Dialogue is the most important sound element in the film, and it is well presented and intelligible throughout.

I can’t recommend The Martian enough. If you haven’t seen it, it’s an absolute no-brainer. And if you have but never at home in 4K HDR with Atmos, it’s definitely worth revisiting. 

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 images in this reference-quality 4K HDR transfer have such incredible focus, depth, and dimensionality that they’re almost 3D

SOUND | The Dolby TrueHD Atmos soundtrack is incredibly immersive & active and worth the purchase price on its own

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Review: Pacific Rim

Pacific Rim

review | Pacific Rim

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Guillermo del Toro’s bots-vs.-monsters action flick results in one of the great 4K HDR transfers

by Dennis Burger
updated July 22, 2023

If you’re the type of person who enjoys mecha-versus-giant-monster action flicks, chances are pretty good you saw Pacific Rim when it hit cinemas in 2013. Unfortunately, chances are equally good you saw its awful followup, 2018’s Pacific Rim: Uprising.

I know bad sequels are the rule rather than the exception, but Uprising wasn’t just a bad sequel. It was so bad it actually made the original worse by virtue of existing. Its convoluted plot and nonsensical character relationships, if accepted as true within this cinematic universe, somehow manage to retroactively undermine the straightforward plot of Guillermo del Toro’s ridiculously fun original movie. And as such, I’ve had trouble returning to Pacific Rim for the better part of two years now, unable to wipe the stain of Uprising from my robot-and-monster-loving brain.

If you’re in the same camp, it’s time to give the first Pacific Rim another look-see. And if you’ve never seen it, give it a fair shot, assuming the premise doesn’t offend your sensibilities. Because, yes, Pacific Rim involves gigantic walking tanks that look vaguely humanoid, piloted by hotshot jockeys whose sole purpose is to clobber gargantuan other-dimensional creatures that stomp up from the ocean depths to lay waste to human civilization. But that’s not really what the movie is about.

As with all of del Toro’s movies, it’s about humanity. But specifically, it’s about the endurance of the human spirit in the face of impossible odds. The director draws a lot of inspiration from obvious sources like Gojira, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Tetsujin 28-go, and Ultraman. But it’s also impossible not to see the influence H.P. Lovecraft had on his vision for this mash-up universe. And it’s in inverting and subverting the themes of Lovecraft that Pacific Rim really finds its heart.

If you’ve not familiar with Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythology, it was the foundation of what’s known as cosmic horror, a genre about coming to terms with notions of the ultimate insignificance of humanity in the face of problems too large for us to comprehend. Pacific Rim effectively takes these horrors and says, “Hell, no. One way or another, we’re not going to let this be our end.”

As such, you can see it as an allegory for all sorts of things, from the threats created by natural disasters to the impending doom of climate change. No matter what existential threat you plug into the equation, though, del Toro is saying that cooperation—indeed, vulnerable acceptance of our reliance on one another—is the solution to problems too large for any of us to deal with. Of course, Pacific Rim isn’t even remotely opaque. It wears its meaning on its armor-plated sleeves like any good rock-‘em-sock-‘em end-of-the-world battle royale movie should. But ultimately, the fact that it’s about something—that it means something—is what sets it apart from so many other recent big-monster movies.

Del Toro understands that if you don’t care what happens to the humans at the center of the story, you won’t really care when kaiju start ripping through cityscapes and knocking down buildings. As such, it leans on a rather unusual structure—a structure that would be blatantly ripped off by Avengers: Endgame a few years later: Cram what the audience expects to be the entire movie into the first 15 or 20 minutes, then flash-forward five years and spend a protracted second act focusing on the character relationships before rocketing toward an epic battle late in Act 3. The result is such a wonderfully paced movie that its 132-minute runtime feels like a brisk 90 minutes at most. 

Pacific Rim’s excellent UHD HDR10 transfer is further evidence for why we need to quit worrying about resolution. Sourced from a 2K digital intermediate (despite the fact that the movie was shot at 5K), this remains one of the most stunningly detailed and visually awe-inspiring transfers of the 4K era. It’s true that the high dynamic range and wide color gamut aren’t used to mimic the look of film, the way so many other successful 4K HDR transfers do. Instead, the 10-bit color and cranked contrasts are used to give this neon-colored cartoon of a live-action movie the sort of depth and weight it lacked in high-definition.

I’m not knocking the 1080p release of Pacific Rim. It was one of the finest transfers of its day. But unburdened by the limitations of 8-bit video, this HDR positively brims with a richness and intensity of color that was never possible at home until recently. The streets of Hong Kong come to life with a vibrancy that makes this unbelievable world just a little more believable. I would rank it in the Top 5 HDR home video transfers to date, and Kaleidescape’s release captures it all perfectly, from the rain-soaked inkiness of the predominately nighttime setting to the crackling potency of the radiation spewing from the mouths of the otherworldly beasts.

Kaleidescape also offers the film with your choice of Dolby Atmos or Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks, and although I would normally opt for the latter, this is one of the few Atmos mixes I truly love. It manages to be immersive and enveloping without distracting from the onscreen action, and the robust bass adds much-needed weight to the onscreen action.

Interestingly, the Kaleidescape download of the 4K HDR version includes something the UHD Blu-ray release doesn’t: All of the extras included with the original HD release. The 4K disc only features 13 short documentaries, known as “Focus Points,” which spotlight different aspects of the making of the film. The Kaleidescape download also includes deleted scenes and a hilarious blooper reel.

The best of the extras, though, is the audio commentary by director Del Toro, which you’ll have to download the 1080p version of the film to listen to. It’s worth the effort, since he dives deep into the color coding he used throughout the film to give viewers insight into the characters in a way that exposition simply couldn’t. The commentary also reveals the primary reason why this movie works when so many similar efforts are simply awful—: because it was a labor of love. Del Toro genuinely adores big robots and gigantic monsters, and sees no reason why a movie about them can’t be made with the same care and attention to detail that you’d expect from a serious film.

Make no mistake: Pacific Rim is not a serious film. It’s a feel-good action flick with a ridiculous premise that only works if you buy into it. But it’s an incredibly well-made feel-good action flick. So, unless you’re simply allergic to its premise, give it a shot. If nothing else, I think you’ll find that it’s one of the best home theater demo movies ever made.

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 | This excellent UHD HDR10 release remains one of the most stunningly detailed and visually awe-inspiring transfers of the 4K era

SOUND | The Dolby Atmos mix manages to be immersive and enveloping without distracting from what’s happening on screen, and the robust bass adds much-needed weight to the onscreen action

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Review: Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection

Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection

review | Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection

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This collection of 60 classic cartoon shorts should satisfy both hardcore Bugs fans and causal Looney Tunes lovers

by Dennis Burger
updated July 18, 2023

There’s one entertainment-industry job that simply wouldn’t be worth the headache and heartache no matter how much it paid: Being in charge of deciding which Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons to release for home video. Whoever ultimately makes that decision has to serve two completely different masters. On the one hand, you have obsessive fans like myself who simply want as many shorts as possible archived in some sort of logical order, be it grouped by character, director, or simply chronologically. On the other hand, you have normal people, who are perfectly content to own the greatest hits like “Robin Hood Daffy” and “One Froggy Evening” and maybe some of the better Road Runner and Tweety/Granny shorts.

If you’re wondering which group the Bugs Bunny: 80th Anniversary Collection is supposed to appeal to, my guess would be that the folks at Warner Bros. did their best to split the difference. That’s a dangerous line to walk, but this new celebratory collection mostly manages to straddle it.

This isn’t a catch-all Looney Tunes archive collection, à la the previous Golden Collection DVDs and Platinum Collection Blu-ray discs. Instead, it’s a birthday party for everyone’s favorite wascally wabbit, collecting a reasonably representative sample of the best Bugs Bunny shorts from the past eight decades. (Actually, it kicks off with “Elmer’s Candid Camera,” the final short starring Happy Rabbit before he would evolve into the Bugs we know and love in the second short in this collection, “A Wild Hare.”)

Of the 60 remastered classic shorts included in this collection, many fall firmly into familiar territory. Big hitters like “What’s Opera, Doc?” and “Baseball Bugs” are here, although a few no-brainers are inexplicably missing, like “Little Red Riding Rabbit” and “Rabbit Hood.”

On the other hand, nearly half the shorts in this collection have never appeared on DVD or Blu-ray in any form, much less remastered. The completionist in me nearly jumps with joy to see under-appreciated gems like “Hare Lift” and “Rabbitson Crusoe” finally included in a high-quality Looney Tunes collection, especially given that Warner Bros. seems to have given up on releasing more Platinum Collections.

Sure, I can gripe about the fact that only the first short in Chuck Jones’ wet-yourself-hilarious hunting trilogy (“Rabbit Fire,” “Rabbit Seasoning,” and “Duck! Rabbit, Duck!”) made the cut. But I have to concede some appreciation for the fact that “Lumber Jack-Rabbit,” which was cropped to 16:9 for its DVD release, has been restored to the proper 1:33:1 aspect ratio. And it’s not alone. All of the cartoons included are presented as shot, many of them with their original titles restored for the first time in decades. 

So I have to give kudos to WB for throwing us collectors a bone or 30, while also appealing to the casual Looney Tunes fan. That said, if this release represents something of a template for future Looney Tunes home video releases, chances are good Bugs won’t get another shot in the spotlight for quite some time. And there are still oodles of Bugs Bunny shorts that have yet to appear on DVD or Blu-ray at all. 

The era of truly archival, non-themed Looney Tunes home video releases has probably come to an end largely due HBO Max, which is home to the bulk of the major Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts that have yet to see a proper home video release. And almost all of them are restored, with audio and video every bit as good as what you’ll find on Blu-ray or Kaleidescape.

Which is to say that if you grew up watching The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour every Saturday morning on ABC, you’ll be shocked by how well these old cartoons have held up in terms of vibrancy and detail. Most of them sport some moderate level of film grain, as expected, but it’s rare that any of the shorts look noisy as a result. (Only “Baseball Bugs” comes to mind as an exception.) I’m just grateful that in restoring these classics, WB didn’t go too far, as they’ve done in the past, applying too much noise reduction or digitally removing imperfections in the original negatives, like the occasional hair in the gate. Simply put, these shorts look like what they are—properly restored and archived film.

On the audio front, we’re of course limited to monophonic soundtracks for the shorts themselves. But still, there’s enough punch and sweetness in these old Carl Stalling scores and Treg Brown sound effects that you don’t need more than one channel to enjoy and appreciate their brilliance.

All of which, of course, raises an interesting question: If HBO Max has a more complete library of Looney Tunes shorts, all presented in quality that’s every bit the match of higher-bandwidth home video releases, why would you buy the Bugs Bunny: 80th Anniversary Collection?

Bonus goodies. To call this release a collection of 60 classic animated shorts only tells half the story. An equally big draw are the audio commentaries (29 in all), alternative music- or vocal-only audio tracks (4 in total), documentaries/featurettes (11 by my count), and a collection of 10 new Bugs Bunny cartoons that were originally created specifically for HBO Max.

Granted, most of the documentaries are carryovers from previous DVD releases, but Bugs Bunny’s 80th What’s Up Doc-umentary! is all new and is definitely worth your time. And as far as I can tell, this collection is the only place you can watch it. Much of the footage cobbled together for the film is archival, and you’ve almost certainly seen snippets of the old interviews included herein elsewhere. But this is definitely a case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts, because this one-hour feature does a better job than any Bugs Bunny retrospective I’ve ever seen of giving a thorough overview and understanding of the character’s genesis, evolution, and cultural impact.

This one feature alone is almost worth the $35 (assuming you’re purchasing on Kaleidescape, that is—the Blu-ray collection will run you between $65 and $75). The fact that you also get 60 of the nearly 170 classic Bugs Bunny shorts is, needless to say, also a huge selling point. Throw in the audio commentaries and other supplemental snacks, and you’d be positively hare-brained to pass this one up.

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 | You’ll be shocked by how well these old cartoons have held up in terms of vibrancy and detail. Most of them sport some moderate level of film grain but it’s rare that any of the shorts look noisy as a result

SOUND | The soundtracks are mono, of course, but there’s enough punch and sweetness in the Carl Stalling scores and Treg Brown sound effects that you don’t need more than one channel to enjoy and appreciate their brilliance

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Review: The Goonies

The Goonies

review | The Goonies

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The hugely influential Richard Donner classic gets an acceptable, but not exceptional, 4K HDR upgrade

by Dennis Burger
updated July 18, 2023

I wish I could say something meaningful about The Goonies without referencing the numerous works it has inspired over the past 35 years. But this 1985 Richard Donner classic is more a cultural touchstone than it is a work of cinema in its own right. Stranger Things, for example could easily be seen as an episodic riff on The Goonies with a gaggle of other pop-culture references piled on for good measure. You can feel the echoes of The Goonies in everything from Ready Player One to Deadpool 2 to Star Wars Episode IX, which made a ham-fisted and nonsensical homage to this beloved ’80s romp. 

The point is that The Goonies wouldn’t still hold such sway over filmmakers and viewers alike if it didn’t have something going for it. But I’m just too close to it to evaluate the film objectively. I notice its flaws—the clumsiness of the climax, the laughable special effects in places, the ridiculousness of its very premise—and I see them as charming virtues.

My wife, on the other hand, had never seen the film before I downloaded the UHD HDR remaster on Kaleidescape, and she ate The Goonies up flaws and all, giggling at all the funny bits, clapping at the little victories, jumping at all the cheap scares, and cooing every time Sean Astin did something adorable. And I think its sway over her had a lot to do with the aspects of the film that just don’t age as the years go by: The excellent cast, the believable performances, and ultimately the heart of its very simple narrative. The Goonies is, when you get right down to it, a straightforward adventure tale—equal parts treasure hunt, dungeon crawl, and crime thriller. And that straightforward story gives it enough momentum to overcome things like the silliness of a few of its gags, or the groan-worthiness of things like obviously rubber bats being flung on strings at the actors’ faces.

Of course, you likely either  already know what you think about The Goonies or you’re beyond caring. The question that you really want answered is: Should you upgrade to UHD HDR if you already own the film The simple answer: Yes, this one is worth the upgrade.

The not-so simple answer: I wouldn’t put this on my Top 10 list of 4K remasters. Hell, I wouldn’t even put it on my Top 10 list of 4K remasters of ’80s flicks. The cinematography is a little too flat and soft to consistently take full advantage of the increased resolution or expanded color gamut. That said, there are shots here and there that are simply breathtaking in this new transfer, and the high dynamic range does enhance things like flashing lightning and the glare of lanterns. What’s more, the middle passage—which takes place entirely underground—does benefit from a little more range and the lower end of the value scale. I only caught one or two scenes with uneven black levels. Aside from those, the gloomy-looking second act looks better than it ever has before.

The new DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack is also an appreciable step up, with enhanced atmospheric effects (especially during the thunderstorm near the beginning) and a bit more bottom end to enhance the action. As has been the case since the film’s debut, though, dialogue clarity is the weak spot in the mix, and there’s likely nothing that can be done about that, since much of the dialogue was improvised and the actors talk all over each other near-constantly.  So don’t go into this expecting a film that sounds like it was recorded yesterday, but do expect a minor upgrade in sound quality over the 10-year-old Blu-ray release.

That Blu-ray, by the way, is the source of all the bonus features included with this new 4K release, which is to say there’s not much here, and you can probably skip most of it. The seven-minutes’ worth of deleted scenes are cute and shed some light on the reference to an excised octopus attack mentioned in the final moments of the film. But practically everything here was best left on the cutting-room floor.

The only bonus goody that’s absolutely must-see is “Hidden Treasures: Video Commentaries from the Cast.” As the name implies, this is an audio commentary with the Goonies (along with Donner), recorded (if memory serves) for the DVD release of the film in 2001. What sets this apart from most commentary tracks is that the participants were filmed sitting together at a table watching the film projected in front of them, and we get to see much of their interaction by way of picture-in-picture pop-ups.

Did The Goonies deserve a new retrospective documentary for its 35th anniversary? Absolutely. Since the movie still has far more influence on modern popular culture than most of its contemporaries, a fresh look at its lasting relevance would have been nice. Maybe we can hold out hope for some new bonus features on its 40th or 50th anniversary. But if you’re just here for the movie itself, I seriously doubt any future releases will look (or sound) as good as The Goonies does here.

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 | While there are shots that are breathtaking in this new transfer, and HDR does enhance things like flashing lightning and the glare of lanterns, this would never make a Top 10 list of 4K releases

SOUND | The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack is an appreciable step up from early mixes, with enhanced atmospheric effects and a bit more bottom end to enhance the action

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Review: Hunt for the Wilderpeople

Hunt for the Wilderpeople

review | Hunt for the Wilderpeople

This entertaining early effort from quirky director Taika Waititi offers a glimpse of his blockbusters to come

by Dennis Burger
updated July 18, 2023

If you want to know how Taika Waititi—a quirky independent Kiwi filmmaker previously best known for making that mockumentary about vampires and a few episodes of that TV show about a musical-comedy duo—somehow came out of nowhere and landed a gig directing Thor movies, you’ll find some answers in 2016’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople. If you’re still trying to figure out how Waititi actually managed to make a good Thor movie, when directors as celebrated as Kenneth Branagh tried the same and failed spectacularly, again, I would point you in the direction of Hunt for the Wilderpeople.

Waititi has developed a reputation for absurdity, and this hilarious film about a troubled foster child and his reluctant guardian traipsing through the New Zealand bush on the run from the law is nothing if not absurd. But who cares, really? There are any number of filmmakers out there who specialize in the absurd, and you don’t see Hollywood throwing money at them to helm blockbusters.

What makes Waititi so sought after is that he also has a knack for something Hollywood couldn’t fake if you let an infinite number of studio monkeys tug at an infinite number of heartstrings for an infinite amount of time: Sincerity. And of all his films I’ve seen to date, Hunt for the Wilderpeople is his most sincere.

A moment early on illustrates this perfectly. Little Ricky Baker, an adolescent hooligan who has bounced around the foster-care system, is first introduced to his foster mother, Bella. Her excitement is palpable and she nearly trips all over herself with excitement, which of course causes her to say and do the stupidest things possible.

In almost any other filmmaker’s hands, Bella’s nervous awkwardness would have been played for laughs at her expense. She would have been a joke to be mocked, an out-of-touch wannabe-hip parental unit portrayed in the most clichéd way possible.

And the scene is played for laughs—but not at Bella’s expense. The humor comes from the situation itself, the relatability of it all. And that makes the character’s transformation from doting foster parent into bad-ass backwoods farmer chick all the more believable. It’s a shame we don’t get to spend more time with her, because she’s really the heart of the film. But her untimely death is the fire that fuels the entire rest of the plot, which is one of the most compelling comedies-of-errors I’ve seen in ages.

I’m not really spoiling the plot here because there’s not a ton to spoil, but with Bella out of the picture, Ricky is slated to be taken back into the foster system, and as a result he runs away. Bella’s husband, Hec—who professes to have no emotional investment in the boy—follows him, and before long they’re branded as fugitives and become the targets of a highly publicized manhunt.

And that’s the story. But I’m a sucker for a simple tale, especially one this well-told. It isn’t just Waititi’s lack of cynicism that makes it work, though. It’s also his gift for pacing and most especially timing. He also knows how to let kids be kids. Ricky, played by Julian Dennison (who would go on to have a memorable turn in Deadpool 2 as Firefist), doesn’t just act like a kid and talk like a kid—he thinks like a kid. It’s one of those rare performances that shines an unflinching light on just how awful and inauthentic most portrayals of adolescents in films are.

What’s more, Dennison and Sam Neill (Hec) don’t really act like they’re in a comedy. Some of the secondary characters do, hamming it up and overperforming—not egregiously degree, but certainly in keeping with the genre. The two leads, though, play it straight. They’re both weirdos, and there’s definitely a comedy-duo dynamic between then, with Dennison playing the goof and Neill the straight man. They’re hilarious but, again, they’re not playing it up for laughs.

Wilderpeople is thematically rich for a comedy. It’s hard to watch and not be reminded of Goethe’s famous quote: “If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain how he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.” Wilderpeople takes that one step in the other direction and plays with notions of what happens when we assume people to be criminals. And while it’s not too terribly deep, it’s certainly more food for thought than you’ll get from most slapstick romps.

Another thing that makes Wilderpeople such a joy is that it’s not nearly as predictable as most comedies. About an hour into the 100-minute runtime, anyone who’s ever seen any movie ever will have written the ending in their heads. But Waititi doesn’t go for the obvious resolution, which makes the conclusion just a bit more satisfying and a lot more humorous, though no less sweet than the ending you’ll think is coming.

One word of warning: If you’re at all sensitive to animals being harmed, or if you have kids who are, there are a couple of scenes that are more difficult to watch than Old Yeller. I wish I’d known that ahead of time.

At any rate, given the relatively recent vintage of Hunt for the Wilderpeople, it’s a little surprising it’s not available in 4K HDR. Watching it in HD via Kaleidescape, it’s evident a handful of scenes would benefit from the enhanced resolution of UHD, especially some of the landscape shots. As for HDR, though? I’m not sure it would make a huge difference. Waititi and cinematographer Lachlan Milne obviously aimed for a somewhat muted look. Blacks are never fully black and at no point do any of the brighter areas of the image come close to clipping. That gives the film a pastel look, even when colors get a bit more vibrant. Given this, I can’t help but wonder if 10-bit color and dynamic range would significantly change the look of the imagery at all.

The real question is whether the limitations of HD are in any way distracting. And the answer is a resounding and enthusiastic “No!” The film is so visually striking that you rarely have time to worry about things like pixel count and color gamut. Every shot, no matter how seemingly mundane, is framed in such a way as to be utterly engaging.  There’s nothing obtrusive about the camerawork, though, all of which is in service of the story.

I’ll admit, though, that the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 does get a little too clever for its own good. The mix leans a bit too heavy on the surround channels on occasion, especially in scenes where music is the predominant audio element. Ignoring those rare flubs, it’s a fantastic mix overall, full of aggressive front-soundstage panning that perfectly serves the onscreen action. Dialogue intelligibility is also topnotch, which is much appreciated given the thick Kiwi accents of most of the actors.

It’s a bit of a bummer that the Kaleidescape download lacks the supplemental material included with the Blu-ray release. (Kaleidescape isn’t alone, mind you. Vudu, Amazon, and other digital retailers also present Wilderpeople completely devoid of goodies since Apple seems to have the exclusive rights to the film’s extras in the digital domain.) I’m itching to listen to the commentary featuring Waitit, Neill, and Dennison, and I wouldn’t mind checking out the blooper reel, either. 

Really, though, Hunt for the Wilderpeople stands on its own, and is very much worth the purchase price even without supplements.

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 | That this is an HD instead of 4K HDR presentation is never distracting. The film is so visually striking that you rarely have time to worry about things like pixel count and color gamut.

SOUND | While overall fantastic, the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 does get a little too clever for its own good, leaning a bit too heavy on the surround channels on occasion, especially when music is in the foreground

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Review: V for Vendetta

V for Vendetta

review | V for Vendetta

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This call for anarchy amid societal decay is eerily more relevant now than it was at the time of its release in 2005

by Dennis Burger
updated July 2, 2023

It’s been a few years since I sat down with James McTeigue’s 2005 adaptation of Alan Moore’s seminal anti-fascist comic book from the early-to-mid ‘80s—so long, in fact, that I worried as I prepared to digest the new 4K HDR release of V for Vendetta via Kaleidescape that it would feel outdated. McTeigue’s film was, after all, made in response to the second Bush administration, and by that point the comic book, although a nearly unparalleled work of sequential art, was starting to feel like a bit of an artifact, rooted as it was in the Thatcher era.

That concern couldn’t have been more off-base, and I’m not quite sure how I feel about that. I know that as an unabashed Moore devotee, I’m supposed to dismiss the film, and its script by the Wachowskis, as a toothless dilution of the anarchistic themes of the original. But the years have been kinder to the movie than the comic, to the point where the adaptation is shockingly more poignant, relevant, ominous, prophetic, and indeed instructive than its inspiration. And I say that as someone who still holds the comic in the highest regard.

My ambivalence comes mostly from the fact that when V for Vendetta was released, it seemed a little cartoonish, over-the-top, and heavy-handed in its allegory. Fast-forward to 2020—roughly the year in which the film is set—and it almost feels as if it didn’t go far enough in envisioning the dystopian near-future. It’s as if it’s plotted a course for itself that’s exactly the opposite of Marx’s observation about the repetition of historical entities: What first appeared as farce now reads like tragedy. I’ve always liked the film but I’ve never quite taken it as seriously as I now think it deserves to be taken. 

I could pick nits about the unnecessary changes the Wachowskis made in adapting the book to film, but one thing that can’t be denied is that McTeigue absolutely made the right call when he chose to embrace the cinematic form in his adaptation. Just as the comic was built on a foundation of classic literature and illustration, then pushed toward the cinematic, McTeigue builds his film on a foundation of classic cinema, then pushes it toward the comics.

It isn’t just the reliance on classic Hollywood clips and stylistic references to earlier films that firmly root this adaptation in the cinematic tradition, though. McTeigue also made the brilliant choice of casting John Hurt—whom audiences associated with his turn as Winston Smith in Michael Radford’s adaptation of 1984—as the Big Brother-like autocrat in this imagined future. This not only highlights the differences between the dystopian futures forecast by Orwell and Moore, but also serves as a subtle but effective warning about the oppressed becoming the oppressors.

Overall, V for Vendetta is an aesthetically dark film, which doesn’t leave much room for a high dynamic range grading that pushes contrasts to the extreme. But Kaleidescape’s 4K/HDR download does add a lot of richness and detail to the shadows and allows the occasional specular highlight more room to breathe without blowing out. As such, this ends up being one of the rare remasters where the increased resolution is just as impactful as the enhanced dynamic range.

Details and textures look simply spectacular in this new transfer, and although it’s unlikely V for Vendetta will make any videophile’s Top 10 list for best HDR releases of the year, cinephiles will go nuts over just how much more filmic this presentation is. The differences are subtle, but they add up to a much more faithful representation of the camera negative, from which this new transfer was sourced. This may not be the title you pull out to push your projector to its limits, but it’s the most faithful home video transfer I could imagine for V for Vendetta.

The new Dolby TrueHD Atmos remix is definitely demo-worthy. V for Vendetta has always suffered somewhat in the intelligibility department by virtue of the fact that its main protagonist wears a rigid and resonant Guy Fawkes mask over the remains of his face, and anything less than flawless fidelity makes some of his vocalizations less than distinct.

V’s alliterative and magniloquent lines have never been delivered as clearly as they are in this remix, and the film’s soundtrack—which runs the gamut from Tchaikovsky to Stan Getz & João Gilberto—has never sounded this powerful and beautifully resolved. The overhead speakers are a bit overused at times, but that probably means that most people will find the height effects perfectly appropriate. At any rate, given the choice between a slightly distracting at times Atmos mix and the muddled fidelity of the old, compressed 5.1 track, I’ll take the former any day.

I do wish the Kaleidescape download included the new bonus features added to the UHD Blu-ray release. All we get are carry-overs from the original DVD release. But no matter. V for Vendetta stands on its own, without the need for supplementation.

At least, I think it does. Watching the film now, though, I can’t help but think that audiences still haven’t completely gotten it. Yes, its iconography has been appropriated by hacker groups and the hashtag resistance. But its moral—that if you have principles and the courage of your convictions, you can win the support of the people—still struggles to break through the noise. If we don’t learn that lesson, our future will be even darker than the one portrayed herein.

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 | Details and textures look simply spectacular in this 4K HDR transfer, and cinephiles will go nuts over just how much more filmic this presentation is

SOUND | The Dolby TrueHD Atmos remix is definitely demo-worthy, with V’s alliterative & magniloquent lines delivered clearly and the music tracks powerfully & beautifully resolved

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Review: The Addams Family

The Addams Family (1991)

review | The Addams Family

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As uneven as it is, Barry Sonnenfeld’s directorial debut remains the best take on the Addams Family to date

by Dennis Burger
updated June 1, 2023

You probably don’t need me to tell you that Barry Sonnenfeld’s 1991 riff on The Addams Family is far from a perfect film. But allow me a few minutes to convince you it’s still worth your time, especially now that it’s been restored in 4K.

I know it’s uneven and choppy, and that you can feel the absence of essential connective tissue and the presence of scenes tacked on at the last minute. There’s also the tonal inconsistency, given that the film never quite knows how far it wants to distance itself from the ’60s TV adaptation of the same comic. Sometimes it strays so close that comparisons between the two versions are inevitable (especially in its use of music from the David Levy/Donald Saltzman production), while at other times it asks for the freedom to introduce more of the macabre elements Chas Addams saw as essential to his original comics. In the latter respect, the film often goes too far.

There’s also the fact that Anjelica Huston—who certainly looks the part of Morticia—plays her part with inconsistent levels of sincerity but never quite enough. And seriously, what’s up with all the MC Hammer songs? Those have aged even worse than I could have imagined.

But it’s been 30 years since The Addams Family debuted on big screens (to put things in perspective here, only 27 years had passed between the debut of the sitcom on ABC and the premiere of the film), and I’m pleasantly surprised to find that many other aspects of this adaptation have aged much better than I remembered.

The production design, for one thing, is phenomenal. The cinematography is often fantastic (even if it’s a bit inconsistent, since the film burned through two DPs before director Sonnenfeld stepped behind the camera himself to finish the shooting). Young Christina Ricci was so fantastic as Wednesday that her portrayal has become iconic. And Raul Julia will always be the platonic ideal of everything Gomez Addams should be, despite my overwhelming preference for the ’60s sitcom otherwise, defanged as it may have been.

The Addams Family is also a lot more fun than I remember, and although one could accuse me of damning the film with faint praise, it’s infinitely better than the 2019 animated film and its 2021 sequel. What’s more, it sets up what I consider to be a vastly superior sequel: 1993’s Addams Family Values.

At any rate, the film has recently been restored and remastered in 4K under the supervision of Sonnenfeld, and if you—like I—appreciate The Addams Family despite the flaws resulting from its troubled production, you’re in for a treat. For the first time on home video, it genuinely looks like photochemical film, and all that implies. There’s an organic chaos to the imagery that’s been missing until now, and although detail and sharpness are variable from shot to shot, the image is rife with interesting and inviting textures I’ve never before seen at home. True, the enhanced resolution does no favors to the compositing work involved with most shots involving Thing, but practically every other aspect of the picture benefits from the restoration. Even the opening credits—which can often look quite dodgy on films of this vintage and budget level—positively pop off the screen. To call Kaleidescape’s presentation of this transfer an upgrade over the old Blu-ray release would be an understatement.

The audio, meanwhile, comes in the form of a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack that I believe is the same as the Blu-ray release. No matter—it’s a surprisingly robust surround mix that delivers exactly the right level of immersion, with great panning and soundstaging, and just the right amount of oomph.

Unfortunately, though, Paramount has seen fit to release this 4K restoration in such a scattershot way that you have some decisions to make about how and where to purchase it. The UHD Blu-ray comes with two cuts of the film—the original theatrical edit, and a new restoration that extends the “Mamushka” dance between Gomez and Fester, which was trimmed as a result of test screenings. Despite supplying Kaleidescape with artwork pointing toward the extended “Mamushka” scene, the studio only gave the provider the theatrical cut.

They’ve also withheld the bonus features included on the disc (and, incidentally, included with most other digital releases of the film), which comprise a new introduction to the “More Mamushka!” version by Sonnenfeld, a retrospective documentary on the making of the film, and an archival featurette.

A far bigger problem is that Paramount has only given Kaleidescape an SDR transfer of the 4K remaster to work with, whereas the disc will feature an HDR10 grade and most other digital services present the film in Dolby Vision. I can’t speak to how much of a difference HDR makes in this case, as I’ve only seen the UHD/SDR transfer, but it’s still disappointing.

None of this is surprising. Paramount has a history of treating this film (and especially its sequel) quite poorly. Still, at a price of $14.99 for the new restoration, it’s hard to complain too much—especially if you’re an old fan like me. And I do emphasize the “old” part there. The Addams Family isn’t the most kid-friendly adaptation of its source material. And much like its characters, it’s erratic, occasionally incomprehensible, and a touch too mean-spirited . . . but nonetheless lovable, all things considered.

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 | For the first time on home video, The Addams Family genuinely looks like photochemical film, and all that implies.

SOUND | The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack is a surprisingly robust surround mix that delivers exactly the right level of immersion, with great panning and soundstaging, and just the right amount of oomph

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Review: Love Actually

Love Actually

review | Love Actually

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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

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Review: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn

Wrath of Kahn

review | Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn

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, havent benefitted from decades of the ILM team’s reworking.) Laser blasts and photon torpedoes look like theyve 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 dont 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 dont do anything. Of course, some of these are just byproducts of the era—and the difference of what weve come to expect from high-quality CGI—that are more noticeable now with 4Ks 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. Theres 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 youll 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 Shatners age but it wasnt—hes 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 Kirks face, pores in Khans 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 didnt 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 Horners score. My processors 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—its 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

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