While I regularly repatriate my old 4K Ultra HD tests before MaG, I ended up with a certain amount adopting a format more than light. In fact, rather than abandoning them in the limbos of the web, I had the idea of creating this section. And then, this Bazar isn't there to replace my longer and more detailed articles. Good reading!
Contents
Red Lips
Source United States | Publisher : Blue Underground | Release date : 27 October 2020
Format 1.67 – DI 4K – Dolby Vision | English Dolby Atmos – English DTS-HD MA 5.1 – English and French (Parisian) Dolby Digital 1.0
Artistic : 7 | Video : 8 | Audio : 8
Romantic fantasy-horrific arty with poisonous atmosphere and diffuse eroticism, this « dream » hypnotic led by the vamp(ire) Delphine Seyrig comes to bewitch us in 4K Ultra HD! Magnifying as never the icy aesthetics of photography, this master (4K 16 bits from the original negative of the 35 mm camera) is a formidable improvement compared to its predecessor HD (recovered silver texture, superior details, more luxuriant hues, rebalanced contrasts and extended light sources), even though imperfections remain (of optical blur, some dirt and two-three planes where the grain seems frozen). More « dynamic » and open (mainly at the front), the new Atmos track produced for the occasion we « caress » the ears of Countess Elizabeth Báthory's ringing stamp.
New Mutants
Source France | Publisher : 20th Century Studios | Release date 31 January 2021
Format 1.85 – DI 4K – HDR10 | English Dolby Atmos – French Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
Artistic : 6.5 | Video : 9.5 | Audio : 9
Even if not at the height of his promise (the original montage unfortunately sleeps in the closet), this horrific-psychological movie tease on the abyss of adolescence is quite original in his approach to stand out from the usual superhero films. More legible (improved contrasts), detailed (refined stitching) and brilliant (enhanced light sources), images captured in 8K and extracted from a 4K master are as sober as refined... especially on the side of the colorimetric palette, very clearly expanded here. Accompanied by the terrifying traumas of these young mutants, the soundtrack Dolby Atmos does not lack any energy or acoustic relief (despite a mix focused mainly on the front) with a real spherical dimension (the « tornado » Inaugural) and a rather fiery LFE channel (the appearances of the bear-demon).
Follow Me
Source Germany | Publisher : Capelight Pictures | Release date : 18 December 2020
Format 2.39 – DI 4K – HDR10+ | English and German DTS-HD MA 5.1
Artistic : 6 | Video : 8.5 | Audio : 8.5
Not without some design flaws (the final puzzle can be solved from the beginning), this escape game between Saw and Hostel is not without mentioning a version 2.0 low-cost of the thriller The Game. But what about the 4K Ultra HD? Without being able to compare it with the Blu-ray (absent from publishing), he seemed to pass the tests successfully. Extremely dynamic (see contrasts), superiorly luminous, intensely coloured (the saturation is easily outsized) and finely detailed (an 8K capture), the deliberately excessive image sticks with its subject... even if it is necessarily influenced by the different recording modes (portable phone, video surveillance system, etc.) of the action. Relatively quiet, mixing helps to « escape » with well located effects/ambiences and reactive bass.
Enraged
Source Germany | Publisher : Leonine Films | Release date : 27 November 2020
Format 2.40 – DI 4K – Dolby Vision | English Dolby Atmos – German DTS-HD MA 5.1
Artistic : 7.5 | Video : 9 | Audio : 9.5
Despite a last straight line rushed, this brutal and unrespiteful road thriller has failed under the hood... Like this UBD edition! More practical than the bodywork, the 4K image (captured in 6K), very clear and detailed (even more so here with more subtle backgrounds), benefits from increased heat (even if the colorimetric range remains deliberately tristonette), reinforced contrasts and consolidated light sources (mussades). Rhythmed by the throttle of the engines (the roaring Ford pick-up leaves heavy low frequencies), this 3D soundtrack with scripted vertical effects (cf. the helicopter) is an orgy of sheet metal cracked with the sound impact itself thundering.
Dar Invincible
Source United States | Publisher : Vinegar Syndrome | Release date : 24 November 2020
Format 1.85 – DI 4K – HDR10 | English DTS-HD MA 5.1 – English DTS-HD MA 2.0
Artistic : 6 | Video : 7.5 | Audio : 8
Surfing on the success of Conan le Barbare, this series B broke from the 80s (and cult at today's time) is a true entertainment d Drawn from the 35 mm interpositive (the original negative having been lost forever), this unexpected 4K restoration (great details, bright colours in star primaries, superb shade gradient, tamed light sources and appreciable cinematic texture) nevertheless suffers from some printing damage (scratch of this one) and a fluctuating grain... due to the exploited source. More immersive (the atmospheres are enlarged) and « by weight » that its stereo counterpart, the multichannel soundtrack is clean (no breath or sizzling), balanced (separate dialogues and striking metal warrior effects) and quick to carefully return Lee Holdridge's fantastic orchestral score
possessor (uncut)
Source United States | Publisher : Well Go USA | Release date : 08 December 2020
Format 1.78 – DI 4K – HDR10 | English DTS-HD MA 5.1
Artistic : 8 | Video : 8.5 | Audio : 9
Drama on the loss of free will and existential confusion, this tormented techno-thriller with boiling psychological implications, conceptual scenario (a prison of flesh!?) and subtle subtext, comes to denounce the traverses of technology by letting bursts of raw violence explode. And unlike its host, the present 4K Ultra HD only wants you good! Worn by a strong visual identity, the digital full image is dark and dull despite some breakthroughs in bold colours (especially when the frame is splashed with a blue, yellow or red tint). However, despite rising details and even more strange lighting, this UHD HDR10 transfer suffers from the same « defects » the Blu-ray... That is, he can't cope with the technical limitations of the material used during shooting (limited number of bits on the carnation and black sometimes blocked). Even if a 3D mix would have brought much to the experience, this solid soundtrack is possessed by a very rich sound scene (large exploitation of the surrounds) where the atmospheric background noises, the heavy score and the insidious rumbling of the basses cease to disorient the audience.
The Charnelles
Source France | Publisher : The Smoker Cat | Release date : 31 July 2020
Format 1.66 – DI 4K – CSD | French DTS-HD MA 2.0
Artistic : 6.5 | Video : 8 | Audio : 7
Drame neurosed on the class report, this glorious work bis with glaucous suspense and disorderly eroticism is not there to suck his thumb! If the copy still shows some outrages of time (sometimes coarse granularity), it is not forbidden to enjoy before the manic care given to this restoration 4K. Because from the epidermal texture to the cleanliness of the master, to the exemplary management of blacks and (fresh) colors, the result is remarkable... Especially as the details and brightness gain in finesse against the already desirable Blu-ray. As obsessive as Eddie Vartan's music, this 2.0 HD soundtrack with well-known purity should just swallow a few somewhat stifled dialogues.
WALL·E
Source United States | Publisher : Disney | Release date : 03 March 2020
Format 2.39 – DI 2K – HDR10 | English Dolby Atmos – French (Quebec) Dolby Digital 5.1 EX
Artistic : 9 | Video : 8 | Audio : 8
How can we not be amazed by this green romance between robots that questions the fate of humanity? Especially as unlike the Earth that humans have stopped polluting, the 4K Ultra HD has not been left behind! If the work remains visually beautiful, the UBD transfer only moderately widens the gap with its HD counterpart. The details are only modestly improved and the clarity of the whole is not really an important leap forward. It must also be said that the Blu-ray remains at the top technically... Even if the HDR and WCG come to solidify the image with more subtle contrasts, more refined colours and more light « Realistic ». Less robust than the previous DTS-HD MA 5.1 ES track, the Dolby Atmos soundtrack is nevertheless better spatialized and finer in its rendering. Less dynamic but more immersive (see the vertical scene), it abounds in details of any kind without playing it « muscle » (lows in retreat). More intense even if less enveloping, the VF(Q) ensures the mission.
English
Source France | Publisher : The image workshop | Release date : 19 January 2021
Format 1.78 – DI 4K – Dolby Vision | English and French DTS-HD MA 5.1
Artistic : 7 | Video : 8.5 | Audio : 8
Stuffed with melancholy and style, this polar aside with dark humour comes back to us in UBD while he had remained (too much) for a long time. Carefully restored in 4K under the supervision of Steven Soderbergh, the natural rendering image offers a homogeneous 35 mm grain (unlike the Blu-ray where bad compression makes it sparkle), details of greater accuracy (a little less on a few planes), more spacious bright colours, better adjusted contrasts (the HD transfer seems a little veiled in comparison) and authentic light sources. With a parsimony of surrounds for music and atmospheres, this mix (more dynamic and searched in VO) essentially frontal ensures the clarity of dialogues.
RED 1 & 2
Source United States | Publisher : Lionsgate Films | Release date : 06 November 2018
Format 2.40 – DI 2K – Dolby Vision | English Dolby Atmos – French (Quebec) Dolby Digital 5.1
Artistic : 6 (7 and 5) | Video : 8.5 (8 and 9) | Audio : 9.5
Together with a remarkable team of veterans, these sympathies (less the second where osteoarthritis watch) comedies with good humour and muscular action scenes are deprived of retreat on UBD support. Taking advantage of ambient brightness and a luxury of colours (a much more attractive saturation even if a little unsaturated on the first part) than HD transfers cannot reach, the image uses much more consistent contrasts and better defined textures (while Blu-rays already had a surgical bite). However, if the silver texture of RED 2 is perfectly homogenous, that of her elder leaves the tingling of this one. Not suffering very much from curvature, 3D mixes displace a max. All the canals are at the party, the effects are generous (including many suspended), the dynamics of the ensemble are striking and the basses are well fished (a LFE channel joyfully mistreated).
The Red Circle
Source France | Publisher : Studiocanal | Release date : 25 November 2020
Format 1.85 – DI 4K – Dolby Vision | French DTS-HD MA 2.0
Artistic : 8 | Video : 8 | Audio : 8
This high-class sexy polar with exceptional distribution celebrates its 50th anniversary with the release of the present 4K Ultra HD. Superbly restored (except for a questionable calibration drawn from a copy of the period and a copy validated in 2000 by Pierre Lhomme) from the original negative and the interpositive, the image, of an unprecedented clarity, shows a great cleanliness (the traces of age-related imperfections are extremely rare), a homogeneous silver grain (in Dolby Vision), an estimable pique, admirably led contrasts and better exposed light sources (lights in clear dark of all beauty). However, if the colorimetric palette reveals new colors (conferring a much different visual identity to the work), the bluish ballet of the photograph known (and appreciated) until then has disappeared to give way to much warmer yellow hues (we like or do not like). Undoubtedly, this change is likely to frustrate many cinemaphiles. The soundtrack 2.0 is well balanced (clear dialogues) and does not lack roundness or energy (see urban atmospheres).
Do the Right Thing
Source France | Publisher : Universal Pictures | Release date : 03 February 2021
Format 1.85 – DI 4K – HDR10 | English DTS:X – French SDR 5.1
Artistic : 8 | Video : 9.5 | Audio : 9
Still as striking almost 30 years later (it sadly echoes the news), this film emblem of the American black culture of the 80s accentuates its racial tensions, not without a stripping humor, in UBD. With a 16-bit 4K scan, this HDR10 UHD transfer is just impressive. The image has been cleaned, the 35 mm grain is reproduced more finely, the definition is much higher than its HD counterpart (cf. the backgrounds of Brooklyn neighborhoods), the colors are otherwise warmer (the suffocating heat of summer finally appears), the contrasts more stylized and the lights, most often natural, much better handled. Rhythmed by the music of the ghetto-blasters, this excellent DTS:X remixing with the atmospheres of the multiple streets (a real urban sound) is as far off as immersive.
Pinocchio (2019)
Source Germany | Publisher : Capelight Pictures | Release date : 13 November 2020
Format 2.39 – DI 4K – HDR10+ | Italian and German DTS-HD MA 5.1
Artistic : 7 | Video : 9 | Audio : 8
Imagined by Carlo Collodi, the Pinocchio puppet revives in this magically realist baroque fairytale where cruelty and tenderness, in the image of the world, animate his wood puppet... That reaches us without splinter on UBD support. Voluntaryly wonderful, the photograph of the work is spoiled by this ultra-clean and luminous UHD HDR10+ transfer. Detailed and three-dimensional as desired, the image benefits in addition to a dynamic (contrasts and colours more « exaggerated ») and a shine whose HD counterpart (this edition being deprived of Blu-ray, it is to Amazon Prime that I had to turn to perform the comparison) can only dream. Preferring to move with restraint, the very pleasant Italian soundtrack (music is for many) focuses primarily on dialogues... Even if a few ambiances come to life from there.
Millennium Actress
Source United Kingdom | Publisher : All the Anime | Release date : 25 January 2021
Format 1.85 – DI 4K – CSD | Japanese and English DTS-HD MA 5.1
Artistic : 8 | Video : 7.5 | Audio : 9
Hymn to love and cinema, this ingenious melodrama travels through time on UBD support. Too clean to be honest (cf. the obvious – but not abusive – use of DNR), this less granular 4K transfer than it should (despite the still organic background) remains carefully cleaned (dust is scarce). A (too) great clarity, the image displays with delicate details, strong colors and balanced contrasts... Even if differences with Blu-ray, lack of HDR, are due only to better compression (old-fashioned product, « swarms » in blacks cannot be considered as a defect). Amp and natural, the VO DTS-HD MA 5.1, rich in varied atmospheres diffused over all the speakers, shows great energy (as soon as the score makes its entry) and precision of every moment.
Trolls 2: World Tour
Source France | Publisher : DreamWorks | Release date : 17 February 2021
Format 2.35 – DI 2K – HDR10+ – Dolby Vision | English Dolby Atmos – French Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
Artistic : 6.5 | Video : 9.5 | Audio : 9.5
Ode to music and harmony, this second adventure always also « sweet » (and full of good feelings) is a rhythmic entertainment of the most joyful where the return to the Trolls world is not without imagination and humour. With its strong visual identity, the image is ultra-stimulating... Especially in 4K Ultra HD! With finer textures (though drawn from a DI 2K), it applies to be much more « pop » Only on the Blu-ray. Because from the wide range of colours to the more marked dynamics of contrasts (see the shine of whites) to the multiplying brightness of light sources (many), this UHD Dolby Vision transfer (and also HDR10+) improves all the attributes of its HD counterpart. Immersive and « saturated » This 3D soundtrack is as short-sighted as it is entertaining... Even if the height effects don't rain so much. On the VF side, it's the same in slightly less physical.
Snow Queen II
Source United States | Publisher : Disney | Release date : 25 February 2020
Format 2.39 – DI 2K – HDR10 | English Dolby Atmos – French (Quebec) Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
Artistic : 7.5 | Video : 9.5 | Audio : 8.5
Following the cultural phenomenon, this Broadway-worthy musical celebrates the girl power at the rhythm of a magical adventure that will enchant young and old. And released, released from Blu-ray limitations, the 4K Ultra HD doesn't leave any ice. With impressive details (stronger than in HD), this UHD HDR10 transfer benefits from an even more enchanting colorimetric palette (ice and autumn hues), more striking contrasts (the white body of Olaf, the underlighted scenes) and much brighter light sources (including Elsa powers). Immersive as possible (see the prodigious use of surrounds), this 3D soundtrack rich in sound objects (mixing regularly increases in height) and not devoid of the weight provided by the LFE channel (very active for a Disney disc) wipes a dynamic narrowly.
Batman: Soul of the Dragon
Source United States | Publisher : Warner Bros. | Release date : 26 January 2021
Format 1.78 – DI 2K – HDR10 | English DTS-HD MA 5.1 (STFR)
Artistic : 6.5 | Video : 8 | Audio : 7
In 70s kung-fu mode, the Black Knight (essentially Bruce Wayne in fact) returns to us in a rather unique DC animated film that multiplies « Cool » The Bruce Lee action scenes. If the details can vary from one plane to another, as on Blu-ray elsewhere, it is not on the side of the definition that this HDR10 UHD transfer stands out from its HD counterpart. In fact, improvements come from better binary flow (much less color banding in 4K) and from the use of HDR. The colorimetric palette, mainly dark, sees its primary explosion, the contrasts that are denser (deeper blacks) strengthen the planes and the light sources (especially magic energy) come out much better. Despite too discreet ambiences at the back and a timid extent, this mix (oriented on the front) rhythmic with a funky score remains pleasant and knows how to play fists and feet (good separation of effects and increase of dynamics) during the confrontations.
The Track (1975)
Source France | Publisher : The Smoker Cat | Release date : 15 January 2021
Format 1.66 – DI 4K – CSD | French DTS-HD MA 2.0
Artistic : 9 | Video : 9 | Audio : 8
A pillar of the hexagonal genre of cinema, this cruel drama with the appearance of survival (the hunting of a « game » innocent) portrays a cynical world (the one of the petty bourgeoisie) where the low instincts of man only demand to arise when appearances are threatened. And impossible to see for years now, this fantasy work arrives in a sublime UBD edition. Produced by The Smoker Cat, this UHD SDR copy from a 4K scan of the original negative is an instant discovery. Re-calibrated with care, delicately stabilized and with remarkable cleanliness, the master is of all beauty (silver texture preserved and steeped of the most sharp) and elegantly restores the autumn photography of this immoral beat. Clarity, accuracy and invariability of the rendering (no noise fluctuation disturbs the viewing) are the advantages of this accurately restored DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono soundtrack (d)
Stalingrad (1993)
Source Germany | Publisher : Euro Video | Release date : 03 December 2020
Format 1.85 – DI 4K – HDR10+ | German DTS-HD MA 5.1 – German DTS-HD MA 2.0
Artistic : 8 | Video : 8.5 | Audio : 9
Unjustly unknown at home, this German super-production « Anti-war » To the claimed classicism puts us in front of the point of view of the Germanic (non-Nazi) soldiers observing death straight in the eyes. And if the spectre of horror will always prevail, it is with UBD support that the fate of these men is grave, « swallowed » by Russia, will have the most scope. Made from a 4K scan of analog source material, this UHD HDR10+ transfer, despite the dirt left behind, makes it possible to radically (re)discover the (cold) photograph of the work. Far from the extreme smoothing (abuse DNR) and the entirely (or almost) green colorimetry of the previous Blu-ray, the images now enjoy a (beautiful) re-established silver texture, a very good definition (details are otherwise more visible), authentic colors widely more refined (cf. carnation), more dynamic contrasts (the HD transfer was terribly dull and greyish) and reanimated light sources (the sun is back!). The same is true for sound, with a new mixing (the restoration has been carried out since a Perfo-6-Track 35 mm) with amazing spatialization. Driven by a melody with disturbing industrial percussion, it delivers clear voices and makes the powder talk (the sound of the shots, the power of the explosions) when the narration requires it.
Love and Monsters
Source United States | Publisher : Paramount Pictures | Release date : 05 January 2021
Format 2.39 – DI 2K – Dolby Vision | English DTS-HD MA 7.1
Artistic : 7 | Video : 9 | Audio : 9.5
Travelling with his heart, this friendly, humorous-horrific dystopical survival continues to advance and fight monsters with a 4K Ultra HD with solid technical performance. Slightly sharper with more resolute details (see background), the image benefits from extended colours (more intense primary), improved contrasts (lighter whites and deeper blacks) and more authentic lighting (low-light interiors) with sometimes striking shine (flying jellyfish). Exceptional despite the absence of a 3D mix (which would have served on multiple occasions), this 7.1 soundtrack at terrifying depth (the basses are huge), frenetic dynamics and ultra-precise surround activity (the presence of mutant creatures) is of formidable efficiency.
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