7.9 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Desperate to escape his mind-numbing routine, uptown Manhattan office worker Paul Hackett ventures downtown for a hookup with a mystery woman. So begins the wildest night of his life, as bizarre occurrences pile up with anxiety-inducing relentlessness and thwart his attempts to get home.
Starring: Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, Verna Bloom, Tommy Chong, Linda FiorentinoDrama | 100% |
Surreal | 28% |
Dark humor | 28% |
Film-Noir | 27% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Martin Scorsese's "After Hours" (1985) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the release include exclusive new program with Martin Scorsese; updated archival audio commentary by Martin Scorsese, actor/producer Griffin Dunne, producer Amy Robinson, cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, and editor Thema Schoonmaker; new program with designer Rita Ryack and production designer Jeffrey Townsend; deleted scenes; vintage trailer for the film; and more. In English, with optional Engish SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".
The man that had to be stopped
Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, After Hours arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.
The following text appears inside the leaflet that is provided with this release:
"Approved by editor Thelma Sschoonmaker, this new digital master was created from the 35mm original camera negative, which was scanned in 4K resolution on a Lasergraphics Director film scanner. Director Martin Scorsese's personal 35mm print was used for color reference. The origina monaural soundtrack was remastered from the magnetic track.
Transfer supervisors: Thelma Sschoonmaker, Lee Kline.
Colorist: Yvan Lucas/Company 3, Hollywood and New York."
The release introduces a brand new 4K restoration of After Hours that was approved by editor Thelma Schoonmaker. The same restoration is available on 4K Blu-ray as well. (You can see our listing and review of the 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray combo pack here).
I have provided comments about the presentation of the restoration on this release in the review that is linked above. Earlier today, I did some additional comparisons between the native 4K and 1008p presentations as well. If you choose to acquire this release, I think that you would be thoroughly satisfied with the 4K makeover. Delineation, clarity, and depth at around or at what I consider to be 'reference levels', so on a large the visuals can be very, very impressive. As noted earlier, color balance is convincing, too. There is some indoor footage with select shots that begin to appear a tad cool, but I did not think that there were any troubling anomalies. The main discrepancy between the native 4K and 1080p presentations is in the dynamic range of the visuals, though it might be more accurate to write in the dynamic range of some visuals. Why? Because there is plenty of dark nighttime footage where the uptick in quality is not easy to appreciate. When there is sufficient lighting, the discrepancy becomes clearer. Fluidity is outstanding in 1080p as well. Image stability is excellent. So, as far as I am concerned, After Hours looks great on Blu-ray. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).
There is only one standard audio track on this release: English LPCM 1.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.
I viewed After Hours in its entirety on 4K Blu-ray. Later, I did extensive comparisons between the 4K Blu-ray and Blu-ray releases. The comments about the quality of the lossless track are from our review of the 4K Blu-ray release.
The lossless track is outstanding. It is immediately obvious that it has been fully restored because the audio is very clear and wonderfully rounded. Its dynamic potency is great, too. The footage from Club Berlin, for instance, is quite intense, plus elsewhere the music produces terrific dynamic contrasts. I did not encounter any encoding anomalies to report in our review.
Sometimes in the real world you have to go through cycles of experiences that do not make sense. You do not try to understand them, you endure them and move on. In After Hours, Griffin Dunne's character gets stuck in one of these bizarre cycles and the more he attempts to behave as a rational human being, the more he compromises himself. The majority of his experiences are pretty darn funny, but only because they are manufactured. I assure you an authentic cycle like that would have ended much earlier and very, very differently. Criterion's 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray combo pack introduces an outstanding new 4K restoration of After Hours that will make fans of the film ecstatic. This restoration is also available on a 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray combo pack, which is listed and reviewed here. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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