Man
From U.N.C.L.E. 4K
(2015 feature film remake/Warner/Arrow 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray +
Blu-ray)/New
Adventures Of Batman: The Complete Collection
(1977 animated/Filmation/DC Comics/Warner Blu-ray)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: B/B- Sound: B/C+ Extras:
B+/C Main Programs: B-
Guy
Ritchie's The
Man From U.N.C.L.E. 4K
(2015 feature film remake) arrives at an odd time for the spy genre
as the film did not have a sequel, the original series (and its
spin-off The
Girl From U.N.C.L.E.)
have not found the new audience they deserve despite some solid DVD
set releases, the Bond series is on hold planning its relaunch after
the amazing successful Daniel Craig era and the latest Tom Cruise
Mission:
Impossible
film only bombed financially because they did not reschedule it like
they should have. We first reviewed the film in its older Blu-ray
release here:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13901/The+Man+From+U.N.C.L.E.+(2015+feature+film+r
A
decent film that still holds up, it does not totally try to be the
older show, but is set in the Cold War era. Setting spy films in the
past has been
a curse at the box office, but it was the only way to tell a tale of
how the two agents get together. As for the leads, Henry Cavill in
Robert Vaughn's Napoleon Solo role and Armie Hammer in David
McCallum's Illya Kuryakin are still not bad here. The former is no
longer Superman or on a hit TV show The
Witcher
he left to the disappointment of fans, but is about to play the lead
in a Highlander
revival. Hammer not only barely did better here commercially than in
his horrid Long
Ranger
feature film revival a few years before, but had a set of scandals
off-screen that ended his career, so there will definitely be no
sequel to this one. That Hammer is portraying the character that put
McCallum on the map, now know by a whole new generation of fans
thanks to the late actors scene-stealing work on the otherwise
not-so-interesting NCIS
series makes this a curio ion a new way.
Still,
it lands up being a decent one-off I hope more people catch because
it is some of the best commercial work either lead actor ever did,
still one of Guy Ritchie's better films. Of course, the current
madness happening thanks to Russia makes this more aged than
originally intended, but its something to see what things were
potentially like and the hoped-for possibilities considered when this
was made not that long ago.
Along
with its still impressive supporting cast, it is at least worth a
look to all serious film, spy and action fans.
Extras
expand handily from the old Blu-ray release and include
the original lossless Dolby Atmos theatrical sound mix for the first
time, plus...
Spy
Vision: Recreating 60s Cool,
A
Higher Class of Hero,
Metisse
Motorcycles: Proper and Very British,
The
Guys from U.N.C.L.E.
and A
Man of Extraordinary Talents.
Five archival featurettes exploring the making of the film
The
New Adventures Of Batman: The Complete Collection
(1977) is back and now on Blu-ray, to the surprise of more than a few
fans, which reunited Adam West and Burt Ward in the roles that made
them famous for the first time in nine years. We originally reviewed
the show in its older DVD set at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5638/The+New+Adventures+Of+Superman+(1966)+++T
Long
before the landmark Dark Knight Returns comic book in 1986 and
Michael Keaton relaunch three years later, the Adam West Batman
was THE Batman of the time. Since 1973, the Dynamic Duo were on the
huge hit Superfriends! series that was in the middle of its long run
and the Adam West series had become a giant money machine in
syndication as all tie-in toys and comic books were flying off the
shelves. Batmania was in full swing and continuing strong in a way
modern fans do not know about and others just do not want to admit.
So
the fact that this series was greenlit, made and landed up with huge
ratings shows how popular Batman, Robin and the related characters
were then, essentially meaning you had three hit shows going on at
once, the reruns seven days a week and animated shows on Saturdays
and in some markets, even Sundays. Add that some of the greatest
memorabilia ever made for the characters was made at this time and
you see why this was a hit and how they all added up to fun for fans
everywhere, especially kids.
Though
we get Bat-Mite (though Aunt Harriett and Alfred The Butler are gone,
guess they passed away or at least Alfred retired?) and also get
Batgirl, the show has some interesting plots, villains, action and
even suspense in between the comic relief. Young kids would throw
out the comedy and get to the action, which many older (and more
serious viewer/fans) missed even when some of the villains were still
at least somewhat comical. The more refined art (for Filmation
Studios) was a plus, even more streamlined than Superfriends!,
so the studio meant business and they delivered.
Watch
the show now, looking better than ever here, thinking about that and
you'll see why it was and still is a success.
The
only extra is the ironically entitled Dark
Knight Revisited
featurette on this series that was included in the DVD set and its
pretty good.
Now
for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 2.35 X 1, Dolby
Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition
image on U.N.C.L.E.
4K 2015
is an improvement over the older Blu-ray and new 1080p 2.35 X 1
digital High Definition Blu-ray sold separately. Some of the film
was shot in 2.8 K, other parts in 4K, so this is an improvement to
enough of an extent that it looks as good as it did theatrically, but
not spectacular either. I doubt it can look much better than it does
in this 4K version here.
The
sound on both discs have been upgraded to lossless Dolby Atmos (Dolby
TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for older systems) and instead of the Dolby TrueHD
7.1 mixdown for the old Blu-ray, we get the full, original theatrical
soundtrack for the first time and it is a little better. I was not
knocked out buy it, but it holds up well enough and is a bit better
than the mixdown.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on Batman
may be a little compressed and have some detail issues and softness
since all 16 shows are on one Blu-ray disc, but color is a huge jump
up from the DVD or any other release of the show (on video or
broadcast and streaming, etc.) so you can see how Filmation got ahead
of Hanna Barbera in refined drawing and better use of color.
Paramount
already issued the 1973 Filmation animated Star
Trek
series on Blu-ray to favorable fan response, so here's hoping some
other animated cartoon series also appealing to older audiences at
the same time like Filmation's 1979 Flash
Gordon,
Filmation's 1976 Tarzan,
DePatie-Freleng's 1975 Return
To The Planet Of The Apes,
the rest of Filmation's late 1960s DC Comics animated TV shows and
even Valley
Of The Dinosaurs
(1974 from Hanna Barbera) get the same treatment at some point soon.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mixes on Batman
do sound better than the lame, lossy Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono on the
older DVD set, but now it is also a little more boxy than it should
sound and slightly limited in ways it also should not. Otherwise, it
is better than most animated TV shows on DVD and others on Blu-ray
with oddly lossy Dolby Sound. The 1968
Filmation
animated series was also issued recently on Blu-ray by Warner and
fared technically a little better for sound and picture, which you
can read more about at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16253/The+Adventures+Of+Batman+(1968/Filmation/DC
Maybe
when the next huge wave of Batmania hits, they could do a set of both
shows at once in 4K?
-
Nicholas Sheffo
