A trio of classic films hit 4K Ultra HD for the first time this week, and every one of them manages to knock it out of the park.
We are firmly in the next stage of movie media with 4K Ultra HD and that means a bunch of films are making the jump to the latest and greatest. Movie lovers find themselves facing the choice to upgrade their collections for their favorites, but it’s not always easy…That’s where we come in!
With some of these older films making the transition to the latest media platform, there’s not necessarily a need to do a brand new “review” of the films. After all, many of these are movies you’ve already watched/enjoyed and there’s little reason to rehash what makes them great. Instead, we’ll kick off a new article series specifically for these kinds of titles to help you determine if the jump to the new format is worth picking up, or if you should stick with what you have for the time being.
This year, Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest is celebrating it’s 65th, while Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles turns 50, and James Cameron’s The Terminator is hitting 40. To celebrate these milestone anniversaries, Warner Bros. is bringing all of them to 4K Ultra HD for the first time this week (November 19th to be exact). For movie lovers, it’s a pretty damn great way to mark the occasion.
If you haven’t already watched these movies, I will happily tell you now to just go ahead and throw these in your shopping cart and buy them. You don’t need a review of these to buy them sight unseen, they’re considered classics for a reason. Thankfully, it helps that these new 4K transfers are really damn impressive.
When these 4Ks were initially announced, I admit I was a little hesitant. Namely because each of these already have really good blu-ray releases and, unfortunately, we’ve seen too many examples of great films with solid blu-ray transfers that end up looking worse in 4K. The first Pirates of the Caribbean springs to mind, and even the Terminator 2 4K release has some questionable aspects.
Blessed, that’s not the case with these three releases, which I gorged myself on over the weekend. On top of giving sharp and crisp clarity to the scenes on the screen, these transfers don’t try and push things too far. There’s a little bit of “softness” on some of the sequences (mostly in Terminator when the older VFX comes into play), that helps contextualize the age of these films without sacrificing the overall quality of the image.
I know it sounds weird, but this affect allows these films to play out/look like fans expect them to. There are plenty of times where we watch a remastered film and something about it feels off. Maybe the image is just too sharp, or polished to the point of looking out of place in the time period. The result can be jarring (even if it’s only temporary) when you’re watching.
It’s not something I noticed in my re-watches of these releases. Instead, I felt like I was watching the best version of these great movies. Blazing Saddles in particular stood out to me. While obviously dated, the image quality makes it feel as if it was made recently. Even better, the Atmos audio mix makes the musical numbers sound dramatically better than on previous releases.
North by Northwest (my favorite Hitchcock) probably shows its age the most of these releases. Even in that, however, the clarity of the image actually allowed me to appreciate what the director was able to achieve—visually—at the time it released. It’s crazy how well some of the camera trickery still works all these decades later, and while some of the miniature work feels a little more dated, you can’t help but marvel at the skill in which it’s all brought together.
It would have been all too easy for these 4K releases to put in the bare minimum for their anniversaries and still make solid sales. Thankfully, some care and attention went into these transfers and deliver about the best possible versions of these classics as fans could want. I do wish they would have spent some time giving us some new bonus features to check out, but it feels like a minor gripe overall.
Blazing Saddles, The Terminator, and North by Northwest all hit 4K Ultra HD on November 19th and are must-haves for cinephiles.
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