I popped each movie in to check out the visual quality and make sure it works before return periods expire.  Below are my initial impressions from the early scenes.
 
 
The Fall
 
Fine to moderate grain.  A few specs in the film here and there.  Fantastically colourful with a very rich palette.  This is great subject matter for Dolby Vision.  Great contrast.  Spectacular detail in some shots, particularly closeups.  A truly stunning display for a film I had not heard of a month ago.
 
 
Send Help
 
Razor sharp, clean digital presentation.  Some nice specular sheen off of water and sweat.  Nice looking fire.  Realistic colour palette.  Every shade of green you’ve ever wanted to see.  This is a very pretty presentation.  Hard to find fault with it at all.
 
 
Sisu Road to Revenge
 
MaxCLL 633
 
MaxFALL 230
 
Digitally shot, but added artificial grain, which is not uncommon, but it does feel like a heavier grain than most movies that go this route.  It’s still light most of the time, but had me googling to see if it was shot on film.  Highly detailed.  Colours are of the more muted side of natural. Bonfire 11 minutes in is pretty restrained, brightness-wise.  It’s not looking to be a splashy, pretty movie, but a bit grittier and dour.
 
 
GOAT
 
MaxCLL 646
 
MaxFALL 416
 
Very sharp and detailed.  Great HDR.  Powerful colours.  Wonderful contrast.  The 12 fps character animation against 24 fps camera remains an effective stylistic choice.  The look of the environment and characters has an almost painted look to it that makes it feel stylistically distince from other animated movies.  They have an unusual texture to them.  The 4K really feels like it brings all of this to life perfectly.
 
 
 
# 1,806-1,809  

 
I popped each movie in to check out the visual quality and make sure it works before return periods expire.  Below are my initial impressions from the early scenes.    

Anaconda (1997)

 
MaxCLL 1,495
 
Max FALL 280
 
Fine to moderate grain.  Heavier grain comes in the night shots, of course.  Natural looking picture, with bright HDR highlights at time.  Things like artificial lights can go pretty bright, but fire is really the star here and looks fantastic.  Generally good detail and nice and sharp, though some shots are softer with either being slightly out of focus, or a glamour shot with JLo seeming to have a bit of a soft glam filter.  The CG is obviously CG, but holds up better than I expected.  A lot of the snake shots are actually a practical effect/prop, so you can spot the difference when it is a CG snake, but its not egregiously bad or anything.    

Anaconda (2025)

 
MaxCLL 283
 
Max FALL 202
 
A more subdued HDR grade as far as peak highlights go, but it is a generally bright and colourful movie.  It is a very clean presentation, with a slight layer of grain imposed over the digitally shot image that softens things just a little.  It remains sharp and detailed.  Contrast is put to good use.  Great skin tones and natural colour.  Warm Palette.  This is a very attractive looking disc.    

Super Mario Bros

 
The initial impression when the movie starts is not great.  Soft shots, no HDR.  Give it a minute though and you get some very nice details, which varies from shot to shot.  One shot, particularly close-ups can have a crazy amount of fine detail.  Others are slightly out of focus and have less detail.  Grain is very, very fine in some shots, light in others, and occasionally moderate.  The image is bright and colourful and has good contrast, depth and dimensionality considering it is SDR only.  Skin tones are healthy, colours are natural looking.  I’d love to see what HDR could bring to this film, but its good for what it is.    

Perfect Blue

 
MaxCLL
 
Max FALL
 
This is another SDR-only 4K, but the upgrade over the standard blu-ray is easily apparent.  This came from a new 4K scan and looks great.  Unlike the old blu-ray, the image here is more stable, has better contrast and colours and is from from DNR.  Fine grain is in tact. There are some specs and flecks in the scan, but it’s not terribly distracting.  Apparently, there are a couple of quick flashes around the 57-minute mark that go to a black screen instead of the image that is supposed to be there, so if that bothers you, then I guess avoid this release, but, personally, I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t read about it and the rest of the movie is a clear upgrade.
 
 
 
# 1,802-1,805  

 
I popped each movie in to check out the visual quality and make sure it works before return periods expire.  Below are my initial impressions from the early scenes.    

Notting Hill

 
MaxCLL 1,000
 
Max FALL 72
 
The picture here is quite a natural look colour grading.  HDR isn’t giving things any big dramatic changes in how it feels.  Where the big upgrade comes is in the detail.  I popped the old blu-ray that comes with the 4K into another player and toggled back and forth between them to compare.  The old blu-ray is rife with DNR and edge enhancement.  Grain on the old blu-ray is subdued, but I noticed the telltale signs of smudging that come with it.  And a dark edge along a brighter backdrop exhibits the haloing or ringing that comes from edge enhancement.  It gives the old blu an artificial feeling.  The 4K removes all those problems.  Grain is in tact, though fine, and details are sharp and natural with none of the edge enhancement stuff.  It feels so much better to watch.    

One Battle After Another

 
MaxCLL 192
 
Max FALL 69
 
Light to moderate grain. Good shadow detail. Healthy skin tones. Nice fine detail. Neither super bright nor super colourful, just natural looking.  This really isn’t going to be a demo disc, but it gets the job done.    

Hamilton

 
My first thought is that this doesn’t feel 4K. It feels more like a 2K upscale. It also feels like there is some DNR applied. Skin feels smooth and waxy.  These were problems I’d seen with the Disney+ streaming version and I was hopeful that it would be rectified here after I’d read the blu-ray.comreview, but… it remains, sadly.  Now this is more something I notice on the wide shots.  When there is a close-up it feels like they were using better cameras or something, because there is more texture detail, though this was also true of the D+ stream.
 
I am watching on a Panasonic UB820 and sitting with my head ~6 feet from a 77” LG G5 OLED.  To compare, I pulled up the D+ version on an Apple TV and then toggled back and forth between the UB820 and Apple TV on my receiver to compare several scenes.  At times it feels a little cleaner on the 4K Blu-ray, but, honestly, it was hard to tell.  Like if you called me into the room to watch a clip and didn’t tell me which version I was watching, I think it would be a 50/50 shot at the guess.  It’s that close.  Both versions are presented in Dolby Vision as well.
 
This is somewhat disappointing to me, because I can usually easily see the upgrade from D+ to disc for other titles in my collection, but this one shows the same flaws on disc that were on the stream, so I’m guessing the lack of detail in the wide shots is baked into the original master and not a streaming artifact.
 
Having said that, when toggling back and forth, where I did notice some gains was in the audio.  Both are in Dolby Atmos, though the 4K disc is built on a TrueHD base, so it is lossless and that resulted in me hearing all the instruments with being a little bit more articulated.  It felt a little bit punchier, too.  Whether this small, but perceptible, gain is worth the money if you have access to the D+ 4K stream and good internet, is going to vary from person to person, I imagine. 
 
It is nice to have a physical version, of course, though the packaging in the cardboard sleeve is a bother.  It looks fantastic.  I like the magnetic closure and all.  But having to firmly pull the disc out of the sleeve feels like it’s going to cause problems in the long-run.  In order to get it out, I have to grab a microfibre cloth, so I can firmly grasp it without putting fingerprint smudges on it.  It’s an attractive design, but a terrible way to store the discs.    

Freaky Tales

 
MaxCLL 897
 
Max FALL 175
 
Ok, I don’t think I’ve ever talked about a menu screen before in one of these, but the menu that comes up has some crazy popping HDR, that made me make an audible sound of enthusiasm when it popped up. That is the visual highlight of this film though.  It set a standard that the rest of the movie can’t live up to.  The look the movie goes for as the film first plays past the menu is trying to emulate something older and lower tech. When you start the movie, there are tracking lines like on a VHS tape as well as an interlaced CRT look. There is colour bleeding. As someone who grew up with this tech, it is nostalgic. That look gives way to something that looks 2:35:1 and modern for a moment. Then cut to 4:3 and lots of film grain. Much of this next bit has a dull colour palette, a lot of darkness and raised blacks in those shadows, but with occasional flourishes of something that really pops in HDR neon colour. Next up is 16:9 and fine grain and a richer colour palette and deeper blacks. This looks like a modern transfer of film. Now we’re back to 2:35:1 and the same look of a high quality film transfer like the previous section. Then it finishes off with a 4:3 shot again, but this time it’s the high quality variety.
 
So the movie is a mixed bag, in terms of picture quality, but it is all in services of the artistic vision of the film, not a flaw in the disc.  It perfectly captures the look it’s going for – it’s just that sometimes the intended look is low quality.  The majority of the movie is the high quality image style though, so it’s still worth getting the 4K disc in my opinion.
 
 
 
 
# 1,798-1,801

I popped each movie in to check out the visual quality and make sure it works before return periods expire.  Below are my initial impressions from the early scenes.    

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

 
MaxCLL 1,082
 
Max FALL 664
 
This one I’ve watched in full.  Wow, the colours right from the start. And the way the luma glow… it is an impressive HDR showpiece to kick things off.  It gives moments like this consistently throughout the runtime.
 
Nice, fine detailed textures from the reptilian skin of Bowser Jr to the moustache hairs and poncho fibres of the Mario Bros, everything is rendered to a high fidelity.
 
They’re not afraid to play with shadow and light - really exploring the dynamic range. Smooth gradients with no signs of banding.
 
Between this, Speed Racer, Avatar Fire & Ash, and Hoppers, it feels like the last month has been a full-on bombardment of 4K discs designed to test the limits of my G5’s colour capabilities.
 
The movie is watchable, but not as good as the previous outing.  The video presentation is ridiculously sweet though.    

Dust Bunny

 
MaxCLL 394
 
Max FALL 191
 
Warm colour palette. Colourful at times. Very wide aspect ratio. A dark vignette darkens the edges of the picture. There is also often a blur at the edges consistent with an anamorphic lens blur. It is a clean picture while also feeling gritty when it wants to be. Dramatically lit - generally dark, with high contrast light sources. There is one scene early early on with fireworks that went so bright in a dark scene that I literally could not watch it. It was too bright for my eyes and I’m looking down and fumbling for the remote in the dark room I’m sitting in to turn the TV to a darker mode. Most of the movie does not seem to be that way, but damn, that one scene… 😜
 
This is a highly attractive movie, that takes advantage of HDR.    

Epic

 
SDR/BT.709 only.
 
The quality of the footage varies from shot to shot, since it is a rapid fire compilation of material pulled from across many years. Much of it is very colourful. There is also black and white footage, of course. There are varying levels of grain, though it often feels suspiciously grain-free, suggesting some DNR is at play, but I found the detail levels to be pretty good throughout. Detail does vary from shot to shot as well, of course, but it’s generally pretty good. Despite the lack of HDR, this is still an attractive looking disc and makes the most of the SDR palette.    

Eraser

 
MaxCLL 990
 
Max FALL 145
 
Highly detailed. Nice HDR. Some good sparkles and highlights. Fine grain. Rich colours. Healthy skin tones. Nice black levels and shadow details.  I don’t think anyone will be disappointed with this transfer.
 
 
 
# 1,794-1,797

MaxCLL 1,082

Max FALL 664

Wow, the colours right from the start. And the way the luma glow… it is an impressive HDR showpiece to kick things off.

Nice, fine detailed textures from the reptilian skin of Bowser Jr to the moustache hairs and poncho fibres of the Mario Bros, everything is rendered to a high fidelity.

They’re not afraid to play with shadow and light - really exploring the dynamic range. Smooth gradients with no signs of banding.

Between this, Speed Racer, Avatar Fire & Ash, and Hoppers, it feels like the last month has been a full-on bombardment of 4K discs designed to test the limits of my G5’s colour capabilities.

I can’t speak to the quality of the movie yet, but I’m looking forward to a ridiculously sweet video presentation when I get to sit down to watch it in full.

I popped each movie in to check out the visual quality and make sure it works before return periods expire.  Below are my initial impressions from the early scenes.    

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die

 
MaxCLL 1,003
 
Max FALL 152
 
I watched this on in its entirety.  Very clean digital image.  Fantastic detail levels.  Good contrast, with nice bright highlights and deep, but detailed and deliniated shadows.  Colours are natural.  Great skin tones.  Nothing but good things to say about the picture here.  Wonderful 4K crisp picture.    

A Complete Unknown

 
Light to moderate grain.  Rich colours.  It “feels” like an old film with its visuals: blacks can be crushed, shots can be soft, grain can increase with darker shots.  The detail is there underneath, but it almost feels like they deliberately set the exposure, black levels, grain, etc to feel like it comes out of the 60’s. It simultaneously takes on some attributes of a modern release though, particularly when lights are in the frame.  They get bright in the way that you’d expect from a 2026 HDR presentation.  The visuals fit the vibe of the film.    

The Flintstones

 
MaxCLL 763
 
MaxFALL 215
 
I did A-B comparisons between the old blu-ray and the improvement could not be more obvious throughout.
 
The old blu-ray had a lot of grain scrubbing done, but not done well. It has frozen grain, major artificial sharpening that creates haloing/ringing where dark edges meet light backgrounds, and loss of fine detail. The 4K has the full grain in tact and none of the aforementioned problems. At times the blu-ray barely looks HD. It can look like an upscaled DVD. The 4K looks very high resolution in comparison. Whenever there is a wide shot, the blu-ray looks particularly bad. Background elements feel like they’re composited into the image even when they’re not, while the 4K has things blending together and looking far more natural.
 
The 4K has a much warmer colour palette. Skin tones are far more red. The old blu-ray sometimes even pushes a fair bit towards green in the white balance whereas it seems much more attractive on the 4K.
 
HDR is put to good use, with deeper shadows, nicer black levels, brighter brights in fires and lights. Overall better depth and dimensionality. Things like water looks more wet. Twinkles in the eyes shine brighter.
 
The old blu-ray had some shots where there is gate weave instability that appears to have been corrected in the 4K, too.
 
A massive upgrade.    

Hoppers

Oh the colours. So lovely. Bright. Perfect black levels. Clean crisp and oh so detailed. Individual hair strands. Thousands of blades of grass. Fine thread texture. Loose threads at the edge of a tattered shirt. Dirt and twigs. Fibres in carpet. The detail Pixar put into this movie is impressive and the 4K disc renders it perfectly. The standard blu-ray looks pretty good, too, but it really doesn’t hit the same way. The colours are not as bold. The lack of HDR removes some of the depth of the image. Those same fine details don’t feel as cleanly delineated. Things like the blades of grass exhibit minor aliasing by comparison.
 
 
 
# 1,790-1,793

 
I popped each movie in to check out the visual quality and make sure it works before return periods expire.  Below are my initial impressions from the early scenes.    

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die

 
MaxCLL 1,003
 
Max FALL 152
 
I watched this on in its entirety.  Very clean digital image.  Fantastic detail levels.  Good contrast, with nice bright highlights and deep, but detailed and deliniated shadows.  Colours are natural.  Great skin tones.  Nothing but good things to say about the picture here.  Wonderful 4K crisp picture.    

A Complete Unknown

 
Light to moderate grain.  Rich colours.  It “feels” like an old film with its visuals: blacks can be crushed, shots can be soft, grain can increase with darker shots.  The detail is there underneath, but it almost feels like they deliberately set the exposure, black levels, grain, etc to feel like it comes out of the 60’s. It simultaneously takes on some attributes of a modern release though, particularly when lights are in the frame.  They get bright in the way that you’d expect from a 2026 HDR presentation.  The visuals fit the vibe of the film.    

The Flintstones

 
MaxCLL 763
 
MaxFALL 215
 
I did A-B comparisons between the old blu-ray and the improvement could not be more obvious throughout.
 
The old blu-ray had a lot of grain scrubbing done, but not done well. It has frozen grain, major artificial sharpening that creates haloing/ringing where dark edges meet light backgrounds, and loss of fine detail. The 4K has the full grain in tact and none of the aforementioned problems. At times the blu-ray barely looks HD. It can look like an upscaled DVD. The 4K looks very high resolution in comparison. Whenever there is a wide shot, the blu-ray looks particularly bad. Background elements feel like they’re composited into the image even when they’re not, while the 4K has things blending together and looking far more natural.
 
The 4K has a much warmer colour palette. Skin tones are far more red. The old blu-ray sometimes even pushes a fair bit towards green in the white balance whereas it seems much more attractive on the 4K.
 
HDR is put to good use, with deeper shadows, nicer black levels, brighter brights in fires and lights. Overall better depth and dimensionality. Things like water looks more wet. Twinkles in the eyes shine brighter.
 
The old blu-ray had some shots where there is gate weave instability that appears to have been corrected in the 4K, too.
 
A massive upgrade.    

Hoppers

Oh the colours. So lovely. Bright. Perfect black levels. Clean crisp and oh so detailed. Individual hair strands. Thousands of blades of grass. Fine thread texture. Loose threads at the edge of a tattered shirt. Dirt and twigs. Fibres in carpet. The detail Pixar put into this movie is impressive and the 4K disc renders it perfectly. The standard blu-ray looks pretty good, too, but it really doesn’t hit the same way. The colours are not as bold. The lack of HDR removes some of the depth of the image. Those same fine details don’t feel as cleanly delineated. Things like the blades of grass exhibit minor aliasing by comparison.
 
 
 
# 1,790-1,793

I did A-B comparisons between the old blu-ray and the improvement could not be more obvious throughout.

The old blu-ray had a lot of grain scrubbing done, but not done well. It has frozen grain, major artificial sharpening that creates haloing/ringing where dark edges meet light backgrounds, and loss of fine detail. The 4K has the full grain in tact and none of the aforementioned problems. At times the blu-ray barely looks HD. It can look like an upscaled DVD. The 4K looks very high resolution in comparison. Whenever there is a wide shot, the blu-ray looks particularly bad. Background elements feel like they’re composited into the image even when they’re not, while the 4K has things blending together and looking far more natural.

The 4K has a much warmer colour palette. Skin tones are far more red. The old blu-ray sometimes even pushes a fair bit towards green in the white balance whereas it seems much more attractive on the 4K.

HDR is put to good use, with deeper shadows, nicer black levels, brighter brights in fires and lights. Overall better depth and dimensionality. Things like water looks more wet. Twinkles in the eyes shine brighter.

The old blu-ray had some shots where there is gate weave instability that appears to have been corrected in the 4K, too.

I’ve heard a bunch of comments from people that watched a YouTube video comparing these two versions and thinking the old blu-ray looks better. If you compared them in person, for yourself, I think you would abandon that opinion quite quickly.

MaxCLL 763
MaxFALL 215

I popped each movie in to check out the visual quality and make sure it works before return periods expire.  Below are my initial impressions from the early scenes.    

Parenthood

 
Fine to light grain. Bright. Highly detailed. Nice natural skin tones. Great colour - very natural looking. Great contrast and dynamic range. Image has very nice depth and dimensionality. This was surprisingly better-looking than I’d expected.    

Fight Club

 
I’m not married to how this film looked in previous releases, having only ever watched it once, so, I’m generally happy with how the is looks. Suitably dim with strong highlights. Nice depth. Good detail. Light grain. I’m not writing home about it, but it looks great.    

Avatar: Fire & Ash

 
A celebration of colour. The many hues are finely represented by this disc. Great depth with nice contrast and highlights. Specular sheen adds a lot. With a movie this long, I was worried there could be compression issues being on one disc, but I’m not seeing obvious banding despite a lot of opportunities for it to rear its head. Clean imagery. It gives Speed Racer a run for its money for showing off what your TV can do for HDR and colour. The 16:9 presentation is enveloping, filling the whole TV screen.  The only real downside is that the 4K can reveal the artifice of the world and its inhabitants at times, in a way that I didn’t notice when watching the movie in 3D.  The 3D helps sell the world as real to my brain.    

Master and Commander

 
Fine to light grain. There’s a lot of grey.  So many shades of grey. Colours feel muted. Good detail, though inconsistent; some softer shots pop up regularly. There are some nice specular highlights when interior lighting glints off metal or sweat or eyes. Shadows sometimes exhibit some crush, though it is effective at conveying the deep shadows and poor lighting in the ship.  This is not a visual spectacle or colourful film, but the audio… wow, even in my flipping through initial impressions, I was struck by the way the Atmos mix envelops you.  The sounds of the ship come from all directions, including people walking on the deck above from the height channels.  It’s quite engrossing.
 
 
 
 
 
# 1,786-1,789

I popped each movie in to check out the visual quality and make sure it works before return periods expire.  Below are my initial impressions from the early scenes.    

Barb Wire

 
MaxCLL 4,000

MaxFALL 2,233
 
Fine Grain.  Great detail.  Nice colour.  Healthy skin tones.  Bright highlights – maybe too bright.  When the screen flashes white with gunshots or electricity, it is going to make you blink repeatedly from the bright flashes, if you’re in a dark room.  Most of it is shot at night or in dark rooms, so thankfully nice shadow detail.    

Crash

 
MaxCLL 1,000
 
MaxFALL 400
 
Light grain.  Nice detail.  A lot of the scenes are dark and not exactly popping with colour, but it feels true to the tone and there is plenty of delineation among the shades of colour and shadow within the restrained palette.  Not a demo disc to show off the home theatre, but certainly fantastically well-done transfer for this film that enhances it.    

Poseidon

 
MaxCLL  651
 
MaxFALL 306
 
Light grain. Opening sunset is gorgeous. Deep blacks. Bright highlights. Colourful. Warm push in a lot of early scenes, so skin tones are often a bit orange. Other scenes, particularly later, have a much cooler tone. Blue and orange tones often populate the same shot together for some striking colour theory contrast. Overall, I’m impressed with the look of the movie. CGI shows itself, being lower resolution than the rest, but it’s not egregious. When the CG is not currently in the frame, detail is nice enough that I had to look it up to see if it was upscaled from a 2K DI. It is an upscale, but it’s a great looking one.    

Mallrats

 
Light grain to moderate. Cleaner than I thought it would be. Skin tones run a little hot with some red blotches. Colourful. Picture is often a bit cool, but reds feel dialled up. Other colours are natural looking and not oversaturated. Highlights like lights can be nice, but don’t dazzle.
 
 
 
 
 
# 1,782-1,785

 
I popped each movie in to check out the visual quality and make sure it works before return periods expire.  Below are my initial impressions from the early scenes.    

Fallout Season 2

 
First Episode MaxCLL 757

First Episode MaxFALL 255
 
Last Episode MaxCLL 757

Last Episode MaxFALL 191
 
There is a light grain throughout.  The show is generally bright with good detail that is softened by the grain.  Strang saturation in the colours.  Deep shadows.  All episodes have the same MaxCLL of 757 which leads me to believe that it is a peak highlight in the opening title sequence.    

Convoy

 
MaxCLL 524
 
MaxFALL 88
 
Light to moderate grain throughout.  Some vibrant colours, particularly with reds.  Some nice specular highlights at times.  Inconsistent black levels – sometimes it feels dialed in with great depth and contrast and then some shots, particularly shots of trucks driving down the street, feel like blacks are a bit raised, giving it a slightly washed out appearance.  Some shots have great contrast, but crush the blacks in the shadows.
 
Detail is likewise inconsistent.  Sometimes it is sharp and crisp.  Other shots are slightly out of focus.
 
It’s overall a nice transfer of the film that looks outstanding a lot of the time, but inconsistent from shot to shot.    

Danger Diabolik

 
MaxCLL  916
 
MaxFALL 410
 
Light to moderate grain.  Very colourful.  Many shots are super sharp.  Some are softer.  Overall fantastic.  Lots of specks and flecks in the print that didn’t get cleaned up.  Highlights can go quite bright in some scenes, though I feel like there were others where I wished the specular highlights had been dialed up and weren’t.  Some scenes just feel flatter than others.
 
If you’re a fan of this movie, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed by this transfer overall.  It is frequently stunning.    

American Gigolo

 
Moderate to heavy grain.  Grain-haters beware – it can veer into the distracting with this disc at times.  Some strong highlights.  Headlights shine brightly.  Sparkles and shiny things and reflections and lights are dramatically bright.  Good depth to the colours.
 
 
 
 
 
 
# 1,778-1,781

 
I popped each movie in to check out the visual quality and make sure it works before return periods expire.  Some I watched in their entirety and some I just skipped around.  Below are my impressions.    

Speed Racer

 
MaxCLL 3,415

MaxFALL 283
 
I posted a full review here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/4kbluray/comments/1teox25/holy_cannoli_speed_racer_4k_is_a_beefy_upgrade/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
 
But in summary, the movie received a 4K disc that is worthy of the masterpiece the movie is.  The colours are fantastic, the HDR super effective, the detail great, great shadow detail, great depth and dimensionality.  This is one of my new favourite discs in my collection.  It will show you what your TV can really do.    

The Bride!

 
MaxCLL 437
 
MaxFALL 81
 
This one is rather dim in most scenes.  Lights are not popping out as super bright.  There are specular highlights, but again they don’t scream HDR.  Later in the film, there is a scene in the outdoors in the daylight and this is quite bright, in contrast to the rest of the film.  Shadow detail is thankfully good.  The image is very clean throughout, but I wouldn’t describe it as crisp.  Sometimes there are crispy shots, but much of it feels relatively soft.  There’s also a very shallow at play through most of it, so other than the character that is currently speaking, most of the frame is frequently out of focus.  It captures the look it’s going for well, but the look it’s going for is not going to make this a disc out to show off your system.    

Alice in Wonderland

 
I was a bit surprised at the look of this one.  I kind of expected all the colours to be turned up to 11, but what we get is a lot of artistic restraint.  For instance, I was expecting the scene with the Cheshire Cat to have these bright glowing eyes, but they did not go down that path.  This looks like a classic animated film print.  There is a lot of delineation and variation to the colours at play.  Subtle differences in shades and shading are fully on display.  Not all reds are the same reds.  Don’t get me wrong – the movie is very colourful, with rich palettes on display – just not the kaleidoscopic acid trip of hyper-saturated colours that I could see an alternate reality release being.  And I respect it for that.
 
The movie has a light grain throughout.  It shows zero signs of damage or decay – the restoration was obviously treated with great care and attention.  Detail is as fine as you could ask for.  You can see the texture within the linework of the hand-drawn characters.  I feel like previous watches of other formats tried to make this movie feel more modern-looking, whereas this one recognizes that this is a 75-year-old film and was aiming to make it the perfect realization of a film of that era.      

Snakes on a Plane

 
MaxCLL 515
 
MaxFALL 319
 
There is light grain throughout.  Some specs and speckles were noted right from the getgo, but nothing distracting.  Everything looks natural and filmic in its HDR implementation.  There’s nothing eye-grabbing about the colours or contrast – but it is consistent and… fine.  Detail is maybe a little better than you would expect on an average blu-ray, but if you told me I was watching a standard blu-ray, not the 4K, I could be convinced you weren’t lying.  Some of the CGI stands out a bit, but not offensively so.  I used to have this on blu-ray, but sold it many years ago, so I can’t compare it.  What we get is a really solid transfer of this movie, but nothing I’d write home about.
 
 
 
 
 
 
# 1,774-1,777

Since the first time I saw movies in HDR and realized what it could do on an OLED TV, now 9 years ago, I’ve wanted WB to release Speed Racer on 4K Blu-Ray. Many times I’ve said that on the forums. Why did I want this movie, which was shot on HD cameras, to come to 4K? Because it had the potential to truly take advantage of HDR.

They finally announced it a few months ago. I watched my old Blu-Ray in anticipation. After all, it’s one of my favourite movies and it’s been far too long since I watched it. I was shocked at how good the Old Blu-Ray looks on a modern OLED. I mean, it’s 135 minutes squished into a 25GB Blu-Ray using the outdated VC-1 codec along with special features. It shouldn’t look this good. But the colours were breathtaking. The detail nice. The contrast great.

I started to wonder if a 4K disc was actually necessary. I wondered if it could offer much improvement over the experience I’d just had.

My copy shipped on Tuesday. Then I started getting worried. What if years of anticipation over what this disc could be would end up resulting in a big letdown? What if it wasn’t all I knew it could be? All I wanted it to be. What if they messed it up? Gave it a dim HDR implementation? Could it actually end up being a downgrade?

A couple early reviews came out and gave it great praise. My fear was replaced with hope again. But tempered because I often disagree with others’ reviews. The disc arrived at 5:30pm today while I was still at the office. I texted my son to bring the package inside for me. I knew it would be here when I got home. Anticipation. I watched it tonight. It was glorious. They did not fumble the ball. It fulfilled its potential. There was much rejoicing.

After a full watch through, I rewatched several scenes again while bouncing back and forth between the 4K and the old Blu-Ray on a separate player to compare and contrast. I would watch the same scene back to back on each. Pause both on the same frame and toggle back and forth. Yeah, it is SO worth the upgrade.

MaxCLL 3,415
MaxFALL 283
Dolby Vision
Dolby Atmos
100GB disc

The 4K disc is an improvement on the old Blu-Ray in every way, but with Speed Racer, you have to start with the colours. I thought the old Blu was going to be near impossible to beat here. The 4K beats it by a wide margin. It’s not even close. Yellows and greens stand out as particularly more potent, but reds are impressively bolstered as well. Really, every colour is improved, but those stood out the most, to me. They are brighter, more saturated, but also richer and deeper and more nuanced. If colour was candy, this disc is giving you cavities.

Brightness and contrast are also a big step up here. With MaxCLL of 3,415, this disc is not afraid to make punchy highlights. Specular highlights gleam. Explosions go bright. Lights shine. It is pure spectacle. The image has such depth and dimensionality to it with deep blacks and improved shadow detail. When there are very bright lights on the screen, the 4K disc allows you to see the detail within the lights, where the Blu-Ray is just clipped to white. Headlights are a frequent example of this.

I’m well aware that taking pictures of a TV screen with a phone can’t convey what you see with your eyes. It lacks the dynamic range to properly capture the display and the exposure skews it as well. But I’m posting a couple that I think demonstrate aspects of what I’m seeing in person. For both frames, the 4K is first and the old Blu is second. The shot with the sun in it has deep contrast and detail on the 4K and looks flat and washed out by comparison on the old Blu. Then the shot with the Mach-6 I posted because if you look at the light trails in the lower right hand corner, it’s a good example of where you can see detail within those light trails on the 4K, but the detail is all clipped on the old Blu-Ray.

This enhanced dynamic range led me to see all sorts of details I hadn’t noticed before. Sparks are far more prominent. Stars in the night sky leap out at you. So many background details throughout are suddenly catching my eye, because they’re not all blended into the rest of the background.

Detail enhancements aren’t just limited to the gains from dynamic range though. Look at closeups and you will find far more detail in sideburns or clothing textures. Just take a look at Inspector Detector and the fine material pattern on his hat. Or the strands of hair in his goatee. These are sizeable gains that you do not need to look very hard to see.

The old Blu can exhibit some slight smearing by comparison to the 4K in a variety of scenes. Sure they both come from an HD source, but they are definitely not in the same league where detail is concerned. The added bitrate and superior codec are evident.

As I was flipping back and forth, the other thing that struck me was how much beefier the Atmos track is over the old Dolby Digital. The same scene is more dynamic and punchy with the Atmos. There are several scenes with good object panning around the soundstage.

I have loved Speed Racer since it first debuted, even when it wasn’t popular to do so. The live-action anime look and feel were ahead of their time. The masterful use of transitions that other movies can’t touch. The sincerity of the performances amidst the insanity of the world they occupy. If you do not feel a swell of emotion during the climax of the film, I do not care to know you.

This is a showcase disc for me. It shows off what my TV and sound system can do. I want to invite friends and family over to check it out. There were shots that literally made me emotional at them looking as good as I had imagined they could for almost a decade. If you love the movie like I do, treat yourself and pick this up.

For reference, I watched it on a 77” LG G5 OLED in DV. Playback of the 4K done by the Panasonic UB820. Playback of the old Blu done by a PS3. I have a 5.1.4 Atmos-capable home theatre system.

# 1,766-1,773

 
I popped each movie in to check out the visual quality and make sure it works before return periods expire.  Below are my initial impressions from the early scenes.    

The Amateur

 
Clean, natural, and sharp are the adjectives that immediately spring to mind when I popped this in.  There are a lot of earthy tones to the image here.  Great shadow detail.  There’s nothing that’s making you want to call the neighbours over to check out the imagery on display, but there’s really nothing to complain about in the video quality, either.  It gets the look it’s going for perfectly.    

Sliver

 
Light grain, natural filmic look.  Clean.  It seems like great care went into the release and really tried to capture the tone of the film.  I’m grateful for the shadow detail.    

Babe

 
MaxCLL 1,023
 
MaxFALL 637
 
This is a colourful film.  The image here is saturated, but not overdone – it looks like real-life kind of saturation.  There is light grain.  Occasional specs in the film.  It is sharper and more detailed than I expected.  I’m very happy with this transfer.    

Babe: Pig in the City

 
MaxCLL 1,025
 
MaxFALL 528
 
Basically more of the same comments as from the first Babe film above, except here the grain feels chunkier at times.  I think the first film is the better-looking of the two.
 
 
 
The rest are a catch-up post from titles I picked up over the last few months, but didn’t have time to do an impressions write-up for due to being busy with tax season.  Heck, the above impressions, I made notes on weeks ago and just haven’t had time to post them.  If there’s any specific titles you want some impressions on, though, let me know.
 
 
# 1,740-1,765