Evans Above

The 1990 film House Party, which starred Kid and Play, was inducted in 2022 into the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry as a “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” film. The 2023 remake, which lists LeBron James as one of its producers, doesn’t have that honour in its future. Warner Brothers has just released the film on Blu-ray and DVD. Many reviewers have received DVD copies, presumably so as not to throw good money after bad. I received a DVD copy and as the WB likes disclaimers, here goes: Though Warner Brothers provided me with a copy of this release to review, the thoughts and opinions below are mine.

The movie stars Tosin Cole and Jacob Latimore as two friends working as house cleaners as they struggle to make it as party promoters. They’re both facing big bills and need money ASAP. When they learn they’re being fired from their cleaning jobs, they decide to throw a massive party at the house they’re working on, hoping that the cover charge will settle their debts. It just so happens that the house belongs to LeBron James and that’s where the fireworks start. Well, damp fireworks. It’s not that House Party is truly awful — you’ll laugh occasionally — it’s just that it’s the type of film you’ll forget before the end credits are over.

As mentioned, I was given a DVD to review, so in this format it doesn’t have amazing detail. The colour palette is fine and though some detail is lost in the shadows and dark scenes, it’s not like there’s a ton of crushing either.

On the audio side, House Party comes with English and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks and subtitles. Dialogue is clear and the bass pounds during the music elements.

The DVD does not come with a digital code, nor are there any extras.

If you simply must watch House Party, I’d recommend catching it on a streaming service.

Warner Brothers is releasing Antoine Fuqua’s 2001 movie Training Day on 4K. The movie, which earned Denzel Washington a Best Actor Oscar, stars Washington as Alonzo Harris, a veteran undercover narcotics officer assigned to train rookie Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke). The two men have different views of justice. Whereas Hoyt is idealistic, Harris’ view of the world is, well, different and that sets up the clash of values that permeates throughout this gritty film. I had a chance to look at the disc. The WB likes disclaimers, so here goes: Though Warner Brothers provided me with a copy of this release to review, the thoughts and opinions below are mine.

The 2160p HEVC / H.265 encoded native 4K digital transfer with HDR10 is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. This remastered 4K looks great, with clarity and detail in the facial features, textiles and environments. A natural layer of grain is present and the black levels and HDR really preserves details in the shadows and darker scenes without any crushing. The colour palette is natural with an edge towards green and teal tones. It’s an excellent video presentation.

On the audio side of things, you have the choice of an English Dolby Atmos that folds back to English Dolby TrueHD 7.1, as well as French Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0, Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0, and German, Italian, Czech and Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks. Subtitles are available for English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Cantonese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Norwegian, Romanian, and Swedish. The soundscape puts you into the downtown LA scene with ambient and action effects moving throughout the surrounds with the Atmos height channels adding to certain scenes. The low-end of the mix adds power to gunshots, engine rumbles and the bass in the soundtrack. The score sounds great and dialogue is clear, centred and well prioritized in the mix.

The 4K set comes with a Blu-ray disc as well and a digital code. As for extras, the set comes with standard definition features from the original DVD release. While the audio commentary from director Antoine Fuqua appears on the 4K, the rest are on the Blu-ray. They include an alternate ending, deleted scenes, a “Crossing the Line featurette, a couple of music video, and the theatrical trailer.

The Training Day 4K combines Denzel Washington’s award-winning performance with excellent audio and video. I’d recommend adding it to your home entertainment library.

Frank Grillo teams up again with writer/director John Swab after the two previously worked together on Ida Red and Body Brokers. This time around their flick is Little Dixie, which is getting a DVD and VOD release from Paramount.

Grillo plays Doc, an ex-Special Forces member who now acts as the liaison between a Mexican cartel and the corrupt Oklahoma governor they’ve been in a truce with, Richard Jeffs (Eric Dane), an old military buddy of Doc’s. Despite protests from his Chief of Staff, Billie (Annabeth Gish), Jeffs launches a tough-on-crime initiative that includes the execution of a cartel leader. When the dead man’s brother, Lalo (Maurice Compte), seeks revenge, he sends a tough enforcer, Cuco (Beau Knapp), to take care of Jeffs. Doc must spring into action, but matters are complicated when his daughter becomes a chess piece in the deadly game. Swab and Grillo leave a path of destruction and death in their wake during this low budget action film. It’s bloody and violent, but if revenge is a genre you like, Little Dixie may be for you.

The DVD video presentation is good, with as much detail as that format allows though some scenes here and there feel a bit soft. Detail is sometimes lost in the darker scenes.

On the audio side of things, the disc comes with an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack and English subtitles. The disc does not come with a digital code and there are no special features.

Little Dixie is a B movie that knows its position in the cinema universe. Aware it doesn’t have any lofty goals, Little Dixie serves up violence, action and revenge to fans of the genre.

Director Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans is a very personal film for the director. Echoing his childhood and love of film, he had been thinking about the idea for decades but was wary to make it then as he didn’t want elements of the story to hurt his parents. When both his parents had passed, he felt it was the time to tell the story. Universal has released the movie on 4K and I had a chance to take a look.

The 2160p HEVC / H.265 encoded native 4K digital transfer with Dolby Vision and HDR10 is presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. It’s a beautiful presentation with excellent clarity and detail in facial features, textiles, sets and environments. The colour palette is natural and pleasing though skin tones sometimes appear a little cold. The HDR helps punch up some of the tones and specular highlights. Black levels are deep and detail is not lost in the darker scenes, which is very important in this film as so many scenes take place in darkened rooms lit only by a projector. There’s no sign of digital noise or compression artifacts.

On the audio side of things, you have the choice of an English Dolby TrueHD 7.1 soundtrack as well as a Spanish Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 track and a French Dolby Digital 5.1 track. Subtitles are available for English SDH, French, and Spanish. The soundscape uses the surrounds to put you into the scenes in a natural way. This isn’t a pounding action film, but the subwoofer adds a nice natural presence to various moments. John Williams’ score is lush and dynamic and dialogue is clear and centred.

Besides the 4K disc, the set comes with a Blu-ray copy and a digital code. Three extras cover the personal journey in writing and producing the film, a look at the casting, and a piece covering various elements of the production.

The Fabelmans is a love letter to Spielberg’s family and his passion for cinema. Wonderful performances coupled with excellent audio and video means The Fabelmans is highly recommended.

Paramount Home Entertainment has released On the Come Up on DVD and I had a chance to take a look. The movie, which is actress Sanaa Lathan’s directorial debut, appeared at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival and has been on the Paramount+ streaming service. It tells the story of Bri (Jamila Gray), a 16-year-old girl who wants to follow in her dad’s footsteps. He was a popular local rapper about to get his big break before he was gunned down. Bri is now managed by her aunt
(Da’Vine Joy Randolph) and though she struggles in her initial rap battles, her later performances catch the eye of Supreme (Method Man), who managed her father. He holds out the promise of fame but Bri must decide whether to follow the advice and persona he has for her or be true to herself.

The movie is based on the novel by Angie Thomas, who also gave us The Hate U Give. Unfortunately, this adaptation is stuck copying the same beats (no pun intended) as other rap films like Hustle & Flow and 8 Mile. Like sports films, music industry stories walk a fine line between telling a familiar story in an original fashion or coming off as a tired retread. On the Come Up falls into the latter category. Though there are some good performances, especially from Da’Vine Joy Randolph, this isn’t a film that will linger in the memory long.

The video presentation looks pretty good with a pleasing, natural colour palette. As it’s a DVD, there isn’t as much detail as there would be in an HD presentation and there is some loss of detail and some minor crushing in darker scenes.

On the audio side, the disc does offer you the choice of an English, French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks. The music comes off well, with a good low end and dialogue is clear and centred.

On the Come Up doesn’t come with a digital code, but there is a lyric music video and a featurette exploring Black female representation.

Though On the Come Up may not find a home in your physical media library, you can always check it out on Paramount+.

Paramount and Nickelodeon Home Entertainment are releasing The Smurfs (2021) Season 1 Volume 3 on DVD and I had the opportunity to take an early look at this third part of the 2021 reboot.

Our three apple high heroes experience new adventures in this latest edition and, as always, find themselves trying to escape the clutches of Gargamel. Here’s a list of the eight included episodes:

• The Smurfs Show
• Smurfboards / Monkey See, Monkey Do
• Flying Ace / Lab Assistant
• Order of Merit / Smurfy Mother’s Day!
• Leaping Lizards / Cover Story
• Papa Times Two / Fake News
• You’re Fired! / Mirror, Mirror on the Armoire
• Smurfing Places / Poet Slam

As mentioned in previous DVD reviews of HD series, though the show was broadcast in HD market forces and its intended audience means that DVD is a better format for the studio. Despite the lower resolution of the video presentation it still looks quite good and the primary colours of the animation really pop.

On the audio side, the 5.1 soundtrack is mostly front-heavy. Dialogue is clear and centred and music is bright and clear.

Your young fans of the Smurfs will enjoy The Smurfs (2021) Season 1 Volume 3 on DVD.

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of Matt Reeve’s monster flick Cloverfield, Paramount has released a 4K SteelBook and I had a chance to take a look. The 2008 found footage flick stars Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller, Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel, and Odette Yustman as a group of friends trying to escape a giant monster attacking New York. So, just a regular night in NYC. It grossed over $170 million and spawned two sequels, 2016’s 10 Cloverfield Lane and 2018’s The Cloverfield Paradox. An important note: The Cloverfield 4K SteelBook contains the same 4K disc as the 2018 4K release. The difference here is the SteelBook packaging which will be of interest to collectors.

The 2160p HEVC / H.265 encoded upscaled 4K digital transfer with Dolby Vision and HDR10 is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. This is a found footage movie, meaning that it is meant to appear as if it was shot by the characters themselves during the events and, in this case, on 1080p cameras. So it’s a dark and gritty and shaky cinematic experience and that’s what the filmmakers intended. Though the upscaling to 4K does add some sharpness to items like textiles, some scenes are intentionally blurrier than others. The video presentation does benefit from the HDR, with deep blacks and brighter specular highlights.

On the audio side of things, you have the choice of an English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD soundtrack as well as French (Canada), French (Parisian), Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), German and Japanese 5.1 Dolby Digital tracks. Subtitles are available for English, English SDH, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish. The soundscape makes good use of the surrounds and subwoofer, placing you in the centre of the action with the group of friends. Dialogue is clear. It would have been nice to see the soundtrack rejigged for Atmos for the 15th anniversary but, as mentioned, these are the 2018 discs in a new outfit.

The Cloverfield 4K SteelBook set contains the 4K disc, a Blu-ray copy and a digital code. Extras, located on the Blu-ray, include audio commentary by Matt Reeves, some production and behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes and alternate ending. The SteelBook packaging includes a transparent plastic slipcover which hides elements of the SteelBook case while showing a damaged Statue of Liberty through a lens. Removing it reveals the predominantly green SteelBook art. On the front, we see the monster attacking the city, with a distant fire giving some splash of orange-red tones with the elements of a video camera around the image. The rear of the case depicts more damaged buildings on fire. The interior of the packaging continues the green-tinted theme with a camera viewfinder depicting an action scene.

In case you were daydreaming while reading I’ll reiterate that the Cloverfield 4K SteelBook contains the same discs as the 2018 release with the new aspect being the SteelBook packaging. If you already have the 4K disc, you’ll have to make the decision if the collector’s packaging is worth the purchase. If you don’t own it, the packaging is a fun addition to a good presentation of a fun and fast-paced film.

Star Trek: Prodigy, which can be found on Paramount+ and Nickelodeon in the US, is an animated series that aims to get a younger crowd into the Trek universe. It’s the first 3D animated show in the franchise and follows a group of young alien outcasts who find an abandoned Starfleet ship, the USS Protostar. During their journeys, the young crew must learn to work together while facing a foe that wants the ship. The series features the voice talents of Brett Gray, Ella Purnell, Jason Mantzoukas, Angus Imrie, Rylee Alazraqui, Dee Bradley Baker, Jimmi Simpson, John Noble, and Kate Mulgrew. Paramount has released the first ten episodes of the shows first season on Blu-ray, which is aptly named Star Trek: Prodigy – Season 1: Episodes 1-10. It’s a bit of an odd release, as in why not wait to release the whole season, but let’s take a look.

The 1080p AVC encoded digital transfer is presented in a 2.40:1 aspect ratio. The CGI animation looks really good here with a colourful palette and deep black levels. I did notice some aliasing and banding, but nothing that would really cause you to fly your ship into a star.

On the audio side of things, you can see that Paramount is reaching for a global audience, as not too many TV shows come with a choice of an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack, German and French Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks and a Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 track. Subtitles are available for English, English SDH, French, and Spanish. Dialogue is clear, centred and well prioritized and the score is dynamic with really good bass. The surrounds are put to good use with atmospheric and action cues moving throughout the soundscape.

The two-disc set does not come with a digital code. There’s a selection of extras spread over the two discs, which cover Star Trek lore as well as character and production design.

The Star Trek: Prodigy – Season 1: Episodes 1-10 Blu-ray contains ten episodes that give you bursts of Star Trek in fast-paced 20+ minute bites. Fans of this new series and Star Trek collectors will be interested in this release, which features solid audio and video presentations.

In the family-friendly flick Secret Headquarters, a young boy, Charlie (Walker Scobell), is trying to reconnect with his father, Jack (Owen Wilson). When work calls his dad away once again, Charlie invites his friends over and they stumble upon something Charlie’s dad has been hiding: his secret lair. Turns out that Charlie’s father is a superhero. When two ruthless men (Michael Peña and Jesse Williams) come after Jack’s alien technology, Charlie and his friends find themselves in the middle of the action. Paramount has just released Secret Headquarters on Blu-ray and I had a chance to review it.

The 1080p AVC encoded digital transfer is presented in a 2.39:1 aspect ratio. It’s a very good Blu-ray presentation with clarity and detail in all the usual suspects: hair, facial features, textiles and environments. The colour palette is broad and bright and the black levels are nice and deep.

On the audio side of things, you have the choice of an English Dolby Atmos soundtrack (which folds back to Dolby TrueHD 7.1), as well as Spanish, Italian and Polish tracks. Subtitles are available for English, English SDH, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified), Polish, and Romanian. The height and surround speakers put you in the middle of everything, while your subwoofer gives some extra oomph to the action scenes. Music is clear and dynamic and dialogue is centred and well prioritized in the mix.

The Secret Headquarters Blu-ray does come with a digital code. There are several short featurettes on the production as well as a gag reel and deleted/extended scenes.

Though not the most memorable film, Secret Headquarters is family-friendly fare that people of all ages can share some time and popcorn viewing.

Paramount has released the psychological horror film Smile on 4K and I had a chance to take a look. Written and directed by first-time feature director Parker Finn, it’s based on Finn’s 2020 short film Laura Hasn’t Slept.

Sosie Bacon plays a therapist who witnesses the suicide of a patient and begins to suffer from hallucinations that she begins to believe are supernatural. The movie also stars Kyle Gallner, Rob Morgan, Kal Penn, Caitlin Stasey and Jessie T. Usher.

The 2160p HEVC / H.265 encoded native 4K digital transfer with HDR10 and Dolby Vision is presented in a 2.00:1 aspect ratio. The image has excellent clarity with a stunning amount of detail in facial features, hair, textiles and environments. The colour palette is somewhat muted and fits in with what the characters are going through. The HDR colour grading makes for bright whites, while the black levels are deep with no loss of detail in the shadows.

On the audio side of things, you have the choice of an English Dolby Atmos soundtrack (which folds back to Dolby TrueHD 7.1) as well as French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks. Subtitles are available for English, English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Dutch, and Turkish. Horror films are perfect for modern soundscapes and the height and surround speakers will immerse you in every knock, bang, crunch and other terrifying noises you can think of. Dialogue is clear and centred.

The 4K disc of Smile also comes with a digital code. Extras include commentary by writer/director Finn, a look at Smile’s adaptation from short to feature, the aforementioned short, a look at the film’s score and deleted scenes.

Fans of horror will be rewarded by the Smile 4K and it’s excellent audio and video presentations.

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