New to Blu: October 16 – 22

Yesterday

➢ “Yesterday‘s 2160p/HDR UHD presentation offers a good, tangible upgrade over the Blu-ray, which is itself of a very high quality. The bar is raised here, expectedly considering the 8K source photography and 4K digital intermediate. The image is appreciably more sharp. Textures are firmed up beyond even what the Blu-ray has too offer, finding more clarity, inherent sharpness, and raw definition.” — Blu-ray.com.

➢ “The HDR10+ makes a difference, too. Not so much in any significant expansion of the overall dynamic range, as you might expect, but rather in a more satisfying balance between bright and dark shots, with the latter tending to enjoy consistently more accurate light levels within the context of the scene being played.” — Forbes.

➢ “Universal’s Blu-ray release looks terrific (the movie has also been released on UHD Blu-ray), featuring an AVC-encoded 1080p transfer that retains the film’s 2.39:1 aspect ratio. Fine detail is exceptional, from Himesh Patel and Ed Sheeran’s beard stubble and Lily James’ facial features to various fabric textures. Colours are natural and vibrant without ever blooming. Black levels are very good.” — Home Theater Forum.

Booksmart

➢ “Times like this I wish every flick could get a little 4K UHD love. It’s the only way Booksmart could look any better than it does! The 1080p 2.39:1 transfer arrives with stunning details, robust colours, strong contrast, and nice deep inky black levels.” — High-Def Digest.

➢ “This video presentation delivered satisfactory overall quality that included appreciable refinement and subtle degrees of delineation that resulted in a gratifying high definition viewing experience. Colours and fleshtones appear natural with ample saturation and vivid textures.” — AVSForum.

➢ “The Blu-ray presentation from Fox is pretty darned good; the daytime scenes look good and the nighttime ones contain impressive and deep black levels that don’t waver and present superb contrast … The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless surround of Booksmart is also up to the par of the video and surpasses at times.” — DVD Talk.

Crawl

➢ “This is a pleasing high definition presentation that exhibits video quality that appears faithful to the film’s theatrical elements and consistent with a new release coming Blu-ray disc … The video is whistle clean and shows no obvious signs of compression errors or video related anomalies.” — AVSForum.

➢ “Paramount’s 2.40:1 AVD HD image encompasses the darker side of film in more ways than one. But it’s fine. I found no evidence of grain, blocking or anything that could deter from a nearly flawless image. Did I mention that it’s dark? It is. Turn the lights off, maybe put the sprinklers on outside to get yourself in the mood. It looks good.” — Blu-ray Authority.

➢ “The 1080p quality is really great considering how dark the film is overall … The sound was also up to par with what to expect. The dialogue had to fight against major winds and echoing sounds from the basement but overall the sounds were clear.” — High-Def Digest.

✽ Also new are season two of Knightfall and a raft of re-issues on Blu-ray, including for the first time To Hell and Back and the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers (but without any of the extras on the previous US editions).

Also being dusted off are: Videodrome, Always, Hud, They Might Be Giants, The Tenant, Last Action Hero/Hudson Hawk, Fatal Attraction, Slap Shot, Mo’ Better Blues, The Monster Squad, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, The Ring, The Ring Two, April Fool’s Day and My Bloody Valentine.