Night School Blu-ray review

Dec 28, 2018- Permalink

Night School is the sort of lightweight comedy that’s perfect to watch at home on a weekend afternoon whether you’re just relaxing on the couch or doing something with it in the background. Kevin Hart stars as Teddy Walker, a high school dropout with expensive tastes and a girlfriend he wants to marry. When he burns down the grill store he was set to inherit, he needs his high school diploma to make sure he can get a better job. Joined by a group of misfit adults in his GED class, Teddy must survive both a drill sergeant of a teacher (Tiffany Haddish) and the school’s principal (Taran Killam), who was his high school bully. Can he pull it off? Well, with the Blu-ray release now available, you can take it home to study with him.

Digitally shot, the 1080p AVC-encoded transfer is clean and detailed. Facial features, hair and clothing have great detail and textures. The colour palette is bright with rich primary colours. Black levels and contrast are also fine. Though there’s some sporadic banding, this is a very good video presentation.

On the audio side of things, the disc comes with an English DTS:X soundtrack, an English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track, a French DTS-HD HR 7.1 track and a Spanish DTS 5.1 track. Subtitles are available in English SDH, French and Spanish. The DTS:X track makes good use of the height effects and the full surround soundscape immerses you in the hijinks. Whether it’s a car crash or a school dance, the low frequencies get a good workout too. The musical score had good body and the dialogue is clear and centred.

On the extra side of things, the package comes with a DVD copy and a digital download code. The Blu-ray has both the theatrical cut and the extended cut, which is about 5 minutes longer. There’s an alternate opening, deleted scenes, a gag reel, a look at the characters, audio commentary and a few other fun goodies.

With very good video and audio presentations and a nice bunch of extras, fans of Hart and Haddish will probably want to add Night School to their collections.