Blu-ray reviews: Solo, dinosaurs, anti-heroes
This prequel may not have hit the stratospheric box office heights of its predecessors but fans will be over the moon about its Blu-ray and 4K-UHD packaging. While the movie’s bleak palette doesn’t make for a demo-worthy showcase of either format, at least Han Solo’s early adventures don’t have to share disc space with extras, so the transfer’s bit rate is maximised. A 105-minute bonus disc includes a substantial roundtable discussion with the director and cast, an interview with veteran Star Wars screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan by his son and fellow scribe Jonathan, a deconstruction of the train heist setpiece, and 15 minutes of deleted scenes.
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The fifth in the franchise is the most fun and ferocious yet, reuniting Jurassic World’s Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard as the saviours of theme park dinosaurs facing extinction from an exploding volcano. Fallen Kingdom also looks sensational on disc, with none of the heavy grain of the previous Jurassic 4K-UHD releases. The digitally pristine transfer can be viewed in HDR10 or Dolby Vision, and although amazingly clean and sharp, doesn’t betray the mechanics of the virtuosic visual effects. Most of the extras are behind-thescenes shorts and run to about 75 minutes.
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The twist with this highheeled heist hoot is all the Ocean crew are women. Otherwise, it’s slick, sleight-ofhand business as usual, with Danny Ocean’s estranged ex-con of a sister (Sandra Bullock) leading a team of audacious diamond thieves to rob a movie star (Anne Hathaway) of the ancient jewels that adorn her neck at the Metropolitan Museum of New York’s swanky Met Gala. What ensues is unabashedly preposterous but supremely executed and captivating. The 4K-UHD and Blu-ray transfers are exquisite while the 40 minutes of extras comprise deleted scenes and three making-of shorts.
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It sounds like another amusing middle-brow take on cloistered post-war British village life: a soulful widow (Emily Mortimer) opens a bookshop teeming with the works of radical authors in a close-minded community lorded over by a calculating lady of the manor with an agenda (Patricia Carkson). But there’s nothing trite or twee about what unfolds, and once you adjust your expectations, and to the movie’s measured pace and idiosyncratic tone, you’ll be haunted by its sadness, delicacy and bite. The unusually artful making-of half-hour also surprises.
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4K-UHD titles are starting to be released as single discs without a supplementary Blu-ray. With this brutally subversive, profanely funny superhero sequel, you can buy just the theatrical cut (with a filmmakers’ commentary) on single-disc 4K-UHD or a four-disc ‘‘Super Duper $@%!#& Cut’’ with a version of the movie that’s 15 minutes longer and nearly two hours of Blu-ray extras. It’s good to see consumers being offered a choice, especially when the no-frills edition is at least $20 cheaper, but they need to be alert to the differences – especially when the extended cut reportedly is a native 4K transfer compared to the theatrical version’s 2K upscale.
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Ridley Scott’s entertaining but flawed take on the Sherwood Forest outlaw has been dusted off on 4K-UHD ahead of the latest version, which opens next month in cinemas. Scott’s visually impressive revisionism cloaks the 900-year-old legend within the guise of historical credibility but isn’t dark or gritty enough to satisfy adults while being too sombre and complex for kids. The 4K transfers of both the theatrical and director’s cuts improve on the original Blu-ray release but sharpness and detail are frustratingly inconsistent. The bundled Blu-ray disc also includes picturein-picture tracks about the production and costume design.
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This Hasbro-goes-toHollywood combo looks shinier than ever on 4K-UHD, although only the latter, which includes a filmmakers’ commentary, has had its soundtrack upgraded from 5.1 audio to 7.1. Despite the audio-video spit and polish, both remain more mechanical than their toy store inspiration. ❏❏❏
The 4K-UHD re-issue of the subterranean superheroes’ fifth movie has plenty to thrill and amuse the kids over the holidays while adults who grew up with the original TV series will be relieved it’s not the cowabunga bungle it could have been – even if the dynamic visuals, sly humour and breakneck pacing can’t rescue the slapdash screenplay. The hour of bundled Blu-ray extras includes an ‘‘evolutionary mash-up’’ of the rise of the turtle and the ninja.