New to Blu: April 25 – May 1

Darkest Hour, which fittingly dawns Anzac Day on Blu-ray, will shine even brighter next month when the 4K-UHD is released.

“The 1080p Blu-ray offers a screen-commanding image that’s precise and true, even if the movie is often a contrast of shady and low-light locales,” Blu-ray.com said.

“This is a terrific Blu-ray presentation of a visually challenging film.”

“Audio is included in a good English Dolby Atmos mix (Dolby TrueHD compatible) that’s expansive up front and features nice use of the surround channels for ambience and directional effects,” The Digital Bits said.

The height channels are employed for sonic atmosphere too, but there are occasions when they offer a bit of good effects play, particularly during the film’s theatrically-staged transitions (via motorcar, aircraft, and elevator).

Another true-life dramatisation, The Post, is being circulated only on Blu-ray here, despite a 4K-UHD edition for sale in the US and Europe.

What makes this more disappointing is, unlike so many 4K-UHD that are simply upscales, the newspaper drama was rendered from a 4K digital intermediate that “bests the 1080p version on every level”, AVS Forum said. As for the Blu-ray:

This is a pleasing high definition presentation … This film is adorned by a light veil of grain and sepia toned aesthetic that combines with its use of autumn colours, mainly browns, beiges, and reds, to set the thematic tone intended by the filmmakers. It rarely makes for eye catching imagery but the results are pleasing. The video is whistle clean and shows no obvious signs of compression errors or video related anomalies.

Maze Runner: The Death Cure wins a dual HD release for the last instalment in the sci-fi trilogy.

“This is a great looking presentation in high definition from the usually reliable folks at Fox, one where some of the CGI can look a bit soft (especially in some of the wider establishing shots, which can almost look like paintings at times),” Blu-ray.com said, “but where practical props and actual humans offer typically excellent detail levels.”

Also out on both 4K-UHD and Blu-ray is Downsizing.

“Downsizing makes big use of 4K with this 2160p 2.39:1 transfer with Dolby Vision,” High-Def Digest said.

The 4K-UHD transfer was striking, well-detailed, and at times stunningly beautiful. Sourced and upscaled from a 3.4K DI, I felt this transfer afforded a much stronger presence for the fine details of the image.

But Blu-ray buyers won’t be disappointed, with DVD Talk dubbing it “a pitch perfect 1080p transfer (framed at 2.35:1) that, with the right setup, rivals a theatrical experience”.

“The Florida Project comes to [Region B] Blu-ray complete with a superb 1080p/AVC-encoded high definition video presentation framed in the movie’s original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.40:1 widescreen,” AV Forums reports.

Black levels are strong, only dipping occasionally in terms of shadow detail when the light sources are restricted, and it’s otherwise a largely excellent, thoroughly filmic presentation which, given it was delivered with a full 4K Digital Intermediate, may have looked surprisingly special on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray.

Also new on Blu-ray are Australia drama Swinging Safari and re-issues of The One, Sea of Love, The Forgotten and Devil in a Blue Dress.