Enemy
At The Gates 4K
(2001/Steelbook/Paramount*)/Hud
4K
(1963/Criterion*)/Marshals:
Season One
(2026**)/Reacher: Season
Three (2025/**both
Paramount Blu-ray sets)/The
Saint 4K
(1997/Steelbook/Paramount/*all 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: B+/B+/B Picture: B-/B-/B-/B/B- Sound:
B/B-/B/B/B Extras: C+/B/D/D/C Main Programs: B-/B/C/B-/C
Now
for upgrades to a classic, semi-classic and sad miss, plus the latest
seasons of two new TV shows...
Jean
Jacques-Annaud's Enemy
At The Gates 4K
(2001) may be his best film if not one of them, certainly one of Jude
Law's best in retrospect and one of Ed Harris' most underrated. We
originally reviewed the Blu-ray edition here that happens to be
included as part of the 4K set:
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8557/Enemy+At+The+Gates+(2001/Paramount+Blu-ray
The
film holds up, people still talk about it and the idea of two snipers
(one german, one Soviet in the latter half of WWII) works well and I
am glad this somewhat underrated film is getting such top treatment.
See it and be surprised, even if you have seen it before, the 4K
presentation will also surprise you. Bob Hoskins, Rachel Weisz,
Joseph Fiennes and Ron Perlman also star.
Digital
Movie and
a repeat of the previous Blu-ray extras (two featurettes, trailer in
HD and deleted scenes worth seeing when the film is finished)
are the extras.
Martin
Ritt's
Hud 4K
(1963) is one of the great masterpieces of cinema and we also
reviewed it even more years ago on DVD at this link:
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/550/Hud+(1963/Paramount+DVD
The
title character (Paul Newman in one of his best roles) was following
in its own way, the John Wayne character in The
Searchers,
not as psychotic, but still very realistic and often reprehensible.
It was an honesty we still had not seen much (and do not see enough
today) in feature films and it is a deep character study of him and
the people around him (especially as played by Patricia Neil, Brandon
de Wilde and Melvyn Douglas.
Ritt
was a great filmmaker, this is one of his best films, he is in
exceptional form here and everyone should consider seeing (or seeing
again) what is one of the great American and Hollywood films. It
just keeps getting better with age, but considering how it is a time
capsule, it also seems very of the moment with major points that are
as relevant as they ever were. I highly recommend it.
Extras
include
nicely illustrated booklet on the film including informative text and
an essay by author and film scholar Gabriel Miller and a 1963
American
Cinematographer
interview with Howe on what went into shooting the film, while the
discs add:
Audio
excerpts from a 1974 American Film Institute seminar with director
Martin Ritt
New
interview with actor Sally Field, conducted by author Isaac Butler,
on Ritt and Hud
New
interview with cinematographer Roger Deakins on director of
photography James Wong Howe
and
a great episode of Inside the Actors Studio, hosted by James
Lipton, featuring actor Paul Newman.
Marshals:
Season One
(2026) is a new spin-off from the huge Paramount hit Yellowstone
and though that show had some moments, I was only so much a fan.
This one is a bit repetitive, with a style that looks too much like
the CSI
and NCIS
spin-offs, et al, but Luke Grimes (Eddington,
American
Sniper,
the original Yellowstone
series) has his moments here and can carry this show, at least
somewhat.
However,
I only bought the whole 'American Marshall' thing so much here in
this case, and so. this is ultimately for fans only.
There
are no extras.
Reacher:
Season Three
(2025) somehow manages to just escape the weekly TV grind by
continuing Jack Reacher's exploits with the effective and well
cast Alan Ritchson continuing to bring the Nick Santora character to
life. We reviewed the previous season on 4K disc at this link
and
got all into how the show is and how well it works:
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16518/Curb+Your+Enthusiasm+(2000+-+2021/HBO+DVD+set
We
get more of the same in the best way, all eight episodes picking up
seamlessly and with the same energy and pace (an extremely rare thing
in TV anywhere these days) recommending you start with the debut
season and working your way up to this for maximum effect. I don't
know how much longer they can keep this going, but I am somewhat
impressed how this is holding up when too many shows go bad
(especially in the thriller, action and mystery genres) but this one
is and Ritchson
can more than carry the show. I just wish this were in 4K like the
last set, but the actual content is solid.
There
are no extras.
Philip
Noyce's The
Saint 4K
(1997) was a huge disappointment to me when it arrived almost three
decades ago. A huge missed opportunity, the character was a
forerunner of James Bond through about 45 books, a hit radio series
(Vincent Price, Tom Conway among the lead voicer actors,) a series of
feature films at RKO (Conway, George Sanders and Hugh Sinclair in the
lead) and two hit TV shows with Ian Ogilvy in the 1970s (cut short by
big money matters) and especially Roger Moore for just about the
entire 1960s. With the actual Bond series finally revived with
Goldeneye
and Tomorrow
Never Dies,
could Simon Templar return?
Val Kilmer signed up
after one Batman film (he did this over the even far more disastrous
Batman
& Robin)
and Noyce just came off of Sliver
and two Jack Ryan/Harrison Ford films, plus had shown his additional
skill in thrillers with Dead
Calm
and even Blind
Fury,
so would this work? No. The
Jonathan Hensleigh/Wesley Strick screenplay lacked action, was stuck
on a bizarre back story about Templar and an actual religious church
that never worked and Elisabeth Shue was a good co-lead choice, but
that was not taken advantage of nearly enough.
One
scene features a song by then-unknown Daft Punk and Templar's new
Volvo (Moore's TV series made their P1800 a huge hit and classic) and
after lasting about a minute, we never hear the song again and hardly
see the car either. That epitomizes how the film just could not get
going, was no fun, was too dramatic and wasted everyones time. Who
was this made for? Not fans, not a young crowd and not even for
readers of the books. The supporting cast is not bad and some of the
locales are nice, but it never adds up and promptly bombed. Looking
at it again, it has aged badly and is a curio at best, especially
since we lost Kilmer too soon.
You
can see for yourself now, but don't expect much. Paramount tried to
do a new Saint film and even announced various leads (including Chris
Pine) before the projects disintegrated. Too bad, because if handled
well, this could be fun and even great. This one is only for the
most curious.
Digital
Movie and
a feature length audio commentary track by Noyce, but you can read
more about the Roger Moore and Ian Ogilvy TV series starting with
this documentary at this link, which leads to links on their actual
shows...
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8681/The+Saint+Steps+In%C3%A2%E2%82%AC%C2%A6+T
George
Sanders Saint
RKO movies on DVD...
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12412/All+Hallow's+Eve+(2013/Image+DVD)/Bounty+Killer
Hugh
Sinclair Saint
RKO movies double feature on DVD...
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/14976/Bones:+The+Flesh+&+Bones+Collection+(aka+Comple
And
the brief-lived 1989 Simon Dutton telefilm series...
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7217/The+Saint+%C3%A2%E2%82%AC%E2%80%9C+Simon
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 Enemy
At The Gates 4K
is impressive and though some shots are better than others, it
resolves almost all the scenes much better than the already decent
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image on the regular Blu-ray
we covered years ago. The lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mixes are the
same on both and it is a good, consistent one with some character and
a few parts might surprise you.
The
2160p HEVC/H.265, black & white 2.35 X 1, Dolby Vision/HDR (10;
Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on Hud
4K
is amazing, really showing off the stunning, legendary cinematography
by legendary Director of Photography James Wong Howe, A.S.C., so be
prepared to be impressed. One of the greatest widescreen films
visually ever made, black and white or color, it is remarkable. You
can see this on the 4K disc and some shots even exceed my rating, so
consider this an overall demo as well for your 4K set.
The
1080p black & white 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image is not
bad and is good for the older format, but is no match for the 4K
presentation.
The
PCM 1.0 Mono is from the original magnetic soundmaster on both disc
versions and can sound good, but I wish it were 2.0 Mono in any
lossless format. Still, it has some detail I have not heard since
the 12-inch analog LaserDisc release, so cheers to that!
The
2160p HEVC/H.265, 2.35 X 1, Dolby Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD
Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on The
Saint 4K
is a little softer than I would have liked and than I remembered from
the 35mm print I saw when it came out, so I do not know what happened
here, but I tis a little off. The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High
Definition image on the regular Blu-ray is even softer, os skip that
one. Both have lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mixes, which are the same
and just fine, but nothing special and they just hold up.
The
1080p 2.00 X 1 digital High Definition image on Marshals is a
little softer than I would have liked, which also cuts into some nice
shots, though could a 4K edition be any better? The lossless Dolby
TrueHD 5.1 mix is better and at least consistent.
The
1080p 2.00 X 1 digital High Definition image on Reacher
looks good, but not as good as the 4k set we covered of the last
season, but you can tell they are getting the same look into each
show, while the
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes continue to be some of
the best on TV, so the professional high standards have not wavered
either.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
