Mike Spring
What’s New in Home Video & Pop Culture – October 1st, 2024
It’s a smaller week in terms of the number of titles, but it’s a bigger week in terms of the quality of the titles coming out; there are some real juggernauts dropping this week. But dont worry, next week sees the onslaught of horror titles that comes every October starting in earnest, so we’ll have a lot more individual titles to dive into then. In the meantime, these might rank as four of the bigger releases of the year.
Despicable Me 4
The Movie: I really enjoy the Despicable Me movies, so I was excited to revisit the franchise with another offering in the mothership series (even though I do enjoy the Minions spin-offs). Despicable Me 4 sees Gru and his family enter the Anti-Villain League witness protection program after one of Gru’s high school rivals escapes from prison (after Gru arrested and humiliated him, natch.) Gru, along with his wife and the three girls, plus his new baby boy Gru Jr. have to try and adapt to a new kind of suburban life without drawing attention to themselves; something that’s almost impossible. Of course, bad guy Maxime Le Mal (voiced by Will Ferrell with a French accent, a first for the actor, I think) is scheming his revenge and enlisting his army of cockroaches to take Gru and his family down. As I said, I enjoy the Despicable Me movies and this one is no different, although it’s not going to go down as my favorite of the franchise. Having the bad guy control an army of cockroaches – even “cute” animated cockroaches – is, well, a little gross. And some of the humor leans a little more to the scatological and lowest common denominator than I would have preferred. Still, it has a lot of action and a lot of laughs, so kids will love it and parents will enjoy it alongside them. While Despicable Me 4 was released on digital platforms (and reviewed by me) about a month or so ago, this week it makes its home video debut in physical formats: 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD.
The 4K Video/Audio: Despicable Me 4 is a bright and colorful film, and the 4K Ultra HD format treats it well. Everything looks vivid and shiny, the way the filmmakers intended, and it’s a nice visual treat to watch the movie, especially the action sequences, which are terrific. The surround soundtrack is also constantly active, giving each speaker its own discrete sounds and activity, creating a nice bustling soundfield throughout. It’s a very strong 4K release overall.
The Bonus Features: There’s a pretty solid collection of extras on this release. It starts with two new Minions mini-movies, then you get 10 deleted scenes, footage of Steve Carell recording the voice of Gru, a making-of feature, short interviews with the cast, and a few more kid-friendly bonuses. All in all, it runs well over an hour in total length.
Digital Copy Included: Yes
The Wrap-Up: Despicable Me 4 should be a crowd-pleaser despite being a little less strong than the previous efforts, but it is also the fourth film in a franchise and the fact that the series is still enjoyable at all is no small feat.
Bad Boys: Ride or Die
The Movie: Back in the 1990s, you would be hard pressed to find a bigger fan of the first Bad Boys film than me. I was obsessed with the movie, and to this day it remains one of my all-time favorite action films. And then Bad Boys II came out, and I was incredibly disappointed by it. As was, it would seem, many audience members, as the franchise went dormant for twenty years. But then a few years ago, with Hollywood starved for new ideas, the franchise was relaunched with Bad Boys For Life, a legacy sequel that should not have worked at all but somehow managed to be quite entertaining and was a huge hit in theaters on the eve of COVID. Well, of course, we couldn’t let a hit movie go by without a sequel, which brings us to now. Bad Boys: Ride or Die is the fourth movie in the franchise, and it falls somewhere between the second and third films for me. It’s not quite as good as Bad Boys For Life, but it’s definitely not as bad as Bad Boys II. This time around, the late Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano) is framed posthumously for laundering money for the drug cartels. Mike and Marcus (Will Smith and Martin Lawrence) have to then go on the offensive to clear his name and reveal the parties responsible for the frame job. I know people’s opinions on Michael Bay vary, but the filmmaking on display here (by directing duo Adil and Bilail, who also helmed the third film) makes Bay’s directing looking slow and sedentary by comparison. The entire movie is edited like a music video, with swooping camera angles and hyper-furious fast-cut editing. It fits the film to some extent, but it is occasionally a bit exhausting. Overall I liked the film, but it does feel like the script and the directors are trying a bit too hard to capture the Bad Boys feel, rather than letting it happen more organically. Still, it’s a fun film that never slows down for a minute.
The 4K Video/Audio: Bad Boys: Ride or Die is one of those movies that was made for 4K Ultra HD. The imagery is extremely sharp, clean and clear, while colors are at a premium and contrasts are strong, with deep, rich black levels. Obviously, the print is clean and devoid of any debris or blemishes. The surround soundtrack immerses your living room in the action, of which there is plenty, as the active surround channels and booming low-end bass ensure your ears are constantly picking up something new. The soundtrack music is also balanced well, ensuring that the dialogue never gets lost in the mix, resulting in a terrific sound presentation overall.
The Bonus Features: You get four making-of featurettes, a collection of outtakes, and a set of deleted scenes, plus a new after-credits scene that apparently wasn’t in theaters.
Digital Copy Included: Yes
The Wrap-Up: Bad Boys: Ride or Die was another hit at the box office, meaning we will most likely get a fifth film in the franchise, and honestly, I’m okay with that. While none of them will ever live up to the greatness of the original, as long as they’re at least mostly enjoyable, I’m here for it.
Friends: The Complete Series (4K Ultra HD)
The Show: For the first time on 4K Ultra HD, the seminal hit comedy Friends is available in a massive box set that collects all ten seasons in ultra high definition. Do I really need to say any more? Friends still holds up as one of the greatest sitcoms of our generation, and no matter how many times I watch it, I never get tired of it. To be honest, it feels a little bit silly to try and “review” Friends. I mean, it not only ran for 10 seasons, but by now it’s surpassed just being a TV show and morphed into a cultural touchstone. By this point, you know whether or not you’re a Friends fan. Nothing I’m going to say here is going to make you go, “Hey, I really should check out this Friends thing I keep hearing about!” So I’m not really going to critique it here, other than to say that it is hands down one of my favorite TV series of all time. The episodes hold up so well – even while the hairstyles and fashions are obviously dated a bit (especially in the first couple of seasons) – and the humor remains as sharp and clever and heartfelt as ever. This new 4K Ultra HD box set includes all 10 seasons – 236 episodes in total – and includes not only all of the original bonus features, but all of the new bonus features that were created for the Blu-ray box set that came out a few years ago. And sure, I know that Friends is always in syndication and is currently streaming on one service or another, but as a proponent of physical media (and someone who doesn’t trust that streaming services will always have what I want available to watch when I want to watch it), I’m extremely glad to have Friends on my bookshelf so I’m not at the mercy of anyone else’s programming when I want to sit down and binge-watch the adventures of Monica, Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Joey and Phoebe.
The 4K Video/Audio: This is where things get a little complicated. The show looks good in 4K Ultra HD, but it also feels a little overdone. Yes, image clarity is extremely sharp. However, it does appear as if some digital/A.I. restorative work was done and the faces do start to look a little plastic, especially in the later seasons. The color boost is noticeable, but it also feels a little too vibrant at times; the show looks very colorful, but it doesn’t really look natural. I can’t say the picture looks bad, but it also doesn’t look as great as I hoped it would on 4K. The surround soundtrack is a fairly standard 5.1 surround affair, with the dialogue and music being the most prominent, and the rear speakers mostly bolstering the audience laughter. Still, fidelity is good and everything sounds like it’s supposed to, so no complaints there.
The Bonus Features: Okay, so I’ll start with what’s missing, and that’s the Friends Reunion Special from 2021, which would have been an incredible bonus. A tribute of some sort to Matthew Perry would have been nice, also. There’s one new 15-minute featurette which isn’t terribly impressive, focusing on props and costumes. But you get about two hours of bonus features including outtakes, featurettes, making-of specials, cast appearances on talk shows, and the like. In addition to that, there are 30 episodes that feature audio commentaries with cast and crew, and that gives you hours and hours of additional content. Finally, there’s a booklet with the names of the episodes and details on which ones include the commentary tracks.
Digital Copy Included: No
The Wrap-Up: Friends has surpassed just being a television show. It’s a worldwide phenomenon. I actually applaud Warner Bros. for not trotting out a new home video collection every single year, and instead waiting until there’s a new format or something really special to give us an upgrade. This is the best collection of Friends on home video yet, and if you’re a fan of the show, you will absolutely want to have this in your collection. Friends is a show that will live on in fans’ hearts for a long time to come, and deservedly so.
Paramount Scares: Volume 2
The Movies: The first Paramount Scares collection was a pretty cool collection of horror movies making their 4K Ultra HD debut, but I did have a few issues with it. The selection of movies (Rosemary’s Baby, Pet Sematary, Crawl, Smile, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street) was a bit all over the place. Rosemary’s Baby is a classic, sure. And I really like Crawl, even though it’s more of an animal attack thriller than a horror movie. But Pet Semetary is far from a great film and Sweeney Todd is not only not really a horror movie, but it’s also not great. I’m happy to report that Paramount Scares: Volume 2 is a much better collection of films… although I still have a couple of minor issues with it. First of all, this set only includes four movies instead of five, and while I applaud the choices as being much better movies, the idea of including Friday the 13th Part 2 (and not Part 1) feels weird to me. Sure, Part 2 is the one that introduces Jason as the killer (although not the one that sees him don his iconic mask), but it feels strange to have a sequel included without the original. That said, I truly enjoy every film in this collection; in addition to the aforementioned Friday the 13th Part 2, you also get World War Z (one of my personal favorites), Breakdown (a terrifically tense Kurt Russell thriller), and Orphan: First Kill, which – while I would have rather seen the original included rather than this prequel – is a surprisingly effective movie. Still, for my money, these are all enjoyable movies, and as a whole I find this a much stronger collection of films than the first set offered up. Also, I do really love the Paramount Scares packaging and overall box-set quality. In addition to each film on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray, there are great extra features and some physical goodies in the box itself (see the section below for full details). Also, each film comes housed in its own newly-designed digipak with new artwork, and they are quite sharp looking, making this a nice collector’s item.
The 4K Video/Audio: As with any anthology, you can’t quite summarize four movies from an A/V standpoint in one fell swoop. Obviously Friday the 13th Part 2 is a much older and lower-budgeted film than the other three, and it shows. World War Z and Orphan: First Kill both look very good, and I’d have to give WWZ the edge in terms of the film that both benefits the most from the 4K upgrade and looks the best overall. Orphan: FK is a very stylized film, and the 4K transfer really captures the mood and atmosphere of the film in the way the filmmakers intended it. Breakdown also shines, having been recent enough (the late ‘90s) to have been shot with top equipment, so the improvements in terms of clarity and color are quite impressive. The surround soundtracks are similar, with Friday the 13th offering up some decent atmospheric effects (ch-ch-ch-ah-ah-ah), whereas World War Z is simply an assault on your senses from every speaker (and I mean that in the nest way possible). All in all, each of the movies in the set is represented well in the premium 4K format.
The Bonus Features: Each film has its own collection of archival extra features. On top of all that, the set also includes a sticker sheet, an exclusive-to-this-set glow-in the-dark enamel pin, a poster, exclusive slipcovers for each film, and a collectible Fangoria Magazine created especially for this release that includes classic articles about all four films in the set. There also digital copies for each film in the set. Individual bonus features include:
- Friday the 13th Part 2 – Four making-of features that run a little under an hour total, plus the film’s trailer.
- World War Z – Three making-of features that run about 50 minutes total.
- Breakdown – An audio commentary track with Kurt Russell and director Jonathan Mostow, an isolated score audio track, three featurettes that run about 22 minutes, and an extended alternate opening with optional commentary by Mostow.
- Orphan: First Kill – None.
Digital Copy Included: Yes
The Wrap-Up: Anthology box sets are always tricky because it’s hard to find a collection of movies that aren’t directly related and that everyone will like equally. That said, Volume 2 of Paramount Scares has four movies that I rated at B or higher when I graded them (B+ for F13, A+ for World War Z, A- for Breakdown, and B for Orphan: First Kill), and that averages out to a pretty high grade. I love the video and audio quality of the films, the packaging, and the extras, and I think any horror fan will decide this is a worthy addition to their collection.
