4K Ultra HD – Edit DE – Capelight Pictures – 101 min – 15 October 2021
Video format
• Intermediate Master: 4K
• Standard HDR: Dolby Vision
• Ratio: 1.78
Soundtrack
• English DTS-HD MA 7.1
• English LPCM 2.0
• German DTS-HD MA 5.1
• German LPCM 2.0
Subtitles
• English
• German
It is brought to the attention of our dear readers as well as the viewing equipment specified and used by each tester of the MaG team, the rendering may differ from one installation to another, whether or not it is calibrated, as well as personal preferences and expectations may influence the rating. Moreover, the images in the article are not representative of the edition tested.
WORK – Let the game begin!
Los Angeles, 2019: The US is under the brunt of a dictatorship that has reduced public freedoms to nothing and, thanks to low-demagogic television programmes, manages to condition popular behaviour. The game-vedette, followed with passion by the whole country, is called « The Running Man ».
This pure product of action cinema of the 80's is a big wasteland centered on the big star of the time, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who wants to be a (very) free adaptation of Stephen King's novel and who depicts a future where the media (especially television) manipulate the small people.
The result is now kitsch to wish for because of special cheap effects, ridiculous costumes and a score with a synth dated whatever, but next to it the film always remains a highly entertaining B series of action. In fact, the bloody action scenes are bourrinous, the replicas swinged by a burnt hero are crazy, the villains with improbable looks are badass, the rhythm is tedious, the staging has a lot of punch and the reflections posed by the script resonate even more today than at the release of the film (cf. reality TV shows).
Running Man So took a big blow of old but remains incredibly fun and representative of a cinema today in the process of extinction. Fortunately the team of the Expendable Hang on!
IMAGE – Television as the ultimate weapon of new power
Captured in 35 mm and resulting from a new 4K scan (jointly performed by Paramount and Lionsgate during its streaming), the images of this UHD Dolby Vision transfer do not take long to crush those of the previous Blu-ray (the one of Lionsgate concerning me). Since they have more to suffer from a rather soft rendering (smoothing there was) with too saturated colors and disgracious grain (encoding is much better here), they can finally come out victorious!. Especially since the dark scenes are now perfectly legible.
The silver texture recovers from its finesse, the definition asserts fully (except in certain planes, basic blurries), the gain of sting is notable (faces, outfits, decorations), the colorimetric palette, infinitely fairer, regains heat (the excess of green has remained behind the scenes) and realism (a less tanned carnation), the contrasts have been perfectly adjusted (black farewell blocked and white overexposed) and the light sources, as ubiquitous as dazzling (red spots), display with renewed intensity (blue neons, projectors, diodes on the combination of Dynamo, flashes, flames and j-pass).
SOUND – This way, battery sex!
Encoded in DTS-HD MA 7.1, the VO does not touch on the dynamics or immersion (the audience on the TV set) to ensure the show. And despite the presence of this one with a very light breath in the background, this multichannel remix (the original track is proposed in LPCM 2.0) remains of great clarity and is diffused with great magnitude.
The dialogues are clear, the spatialisation is worked out (movements of tracking vehicles), the surround activity is good (cf. « roller coaster towers » in the tube), the music composed by Harold Faltermeyer (The Beverly Hills Flic, Top Gun) passes through all channels and the LFE channel is firmly pressed.
CONCLUSION – It's a show!
Never fully developed on physical media, « gladiators » of this satire of SF are now littered with laurels thanks to a 4K Ultra HD to the height of their more or less athletic tiles!
Artistic note
7.5
Video quality
9
Audio quality
8.5
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