New to Blu: February 27 – March 5

Widows

➢ “Widows is presented on 4K UHD courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with a 2160p transfer in 2.39:1. Shot on film and finished at a 4K DI (according to the IMDb), this is a consistently impressive looking upgrade in both detail levels and especially palette saturation courtesy of HDR … The palette isn’t necessarily changed all that much in this version, but it’s noticeably more saturated and vivid … Like the Blu-ray rendering, the darkened highlights in low-lit environs, can be hit or miss but it most respects, have appreciable dimension and resolvable detail.” — Blu-ray.com.

➢ “Widows is a contemporary film that has a specific visual aesthetic which comes through quite naturally in this Ultra HD rendering. It’s a stylish visual film, that adheres to sepia tones and colour grading, which ultimately leaves some sequences appearing less visually engaging than others … Viewing Widows in Ultra HD didn’t make for an especially compelling viewing experience, however, I found it to be a complimentary improvement over the 1080p Blu-ray presentation..” — AVS Forum.

➢ “Fox gives Widows an AVC encode to go with its 2.39:1 widescreen presentation, with the results looking exceptional … The Chicago nights are dark and inky, and black levels in the film present an excellent contrast, with explosions that bring in bright yellows and oranges. An excellent presentation, no doubt … The DTS HD-Master Audio 7.1 track also lives up to the reputation, with gunfire providing a lot of dynamic range and low-end fidelity.” — DVD Talk.

The Cloverfield Paradox

➢ “Shot on 35mm and finished with a 4K Digital Intermediate, this 1080p presentation is good, detail clarity is solid, but colours, black levels, and contrast lack in comparison to the Dolby Vision HDR stream on Netflix … Where Paramount absolutely kills it with this release is the included Dolby Atmos audio mix! Finally, without the stupid tech and device constraints Netflix initially subjected users to — at the time, Atmos was only available on Xbox and LG devices — you can fully hear and appreciate what this film has to offer in the audio department.” — High-Def Digest.

➢ “The picture is texturally rich and extremely highly detailed, a picture-perfect, filmic presentation that boasts big-screen cinematic results … The movie is not abundantly colourful, but what’s here is very well saturated within the film’s fairly spartan color parameters. Skin tones are exquisite and black levels are perfect. No source flaws or compression artifacts are to be found. Blu-ray does not get better than this.” — Blu-ray.com.

Fear the Walking Dead: The Complete Fourth Season

➢ Includes four audio commentaries with cast and crew, providing an in-depth, personal account of how four of the episodes were made:

• Episode 401, with executive producer Scott Gimple, and showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg
• Episode 405, with director Michael Satrazemis, and stars Jenna Elfman and Garret Dillahunt
• Episode 410, with director Michael Satrazemis and star Alycia Debnam-Carey
• Episode 416, with Chambliss and Goldberg.