Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		0.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.0

Black Mass 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Whitey Bulger sings the blues.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III August 19, 2024

Almost a full decade after their Blu-ray edition, Warner Bros. returns to the well with an unexpected catalogue UHD upgrade for Scott Cooper's Black Mass, a 2015 crime drama focusing on notorious gangster James "Whitey" Bulger as portrayed by Johnny Dep. (Since the film's release, the real-life Bulger was brutally murdered in prison at the ripe old age of 89.) It's a fitfully engaging but overwhelmingly uneven production, one clearly led by Depp's on-screen presence but bogged down by pacing issues, a questionable script, and other narrative missteps that make Black Mass, for lack of a better phrase, something akin to a store-brand version of Goodfellas, Casino, or even The Departed, whose main character Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) was inspired by Bulger. Needless to say, I'm not a huge fan.

I will say that I'm a little bit softer on it than reviewer Michael Reuben, who shared similar sentiments about Black Mass' dramatic missteps in his Blu-ray review linked above but to a much stronger degree. My overall opinion might be a bit closer to Brian Orndorf's 2015 theatrical review, which itself stands at a lukewarm 3/5 and likewise identified it as a somewhat crowded and slightly mismanaged production that's clearly led by Depp's lead performance. Either way, it's tough to get overwhelmingly excited about Black Mass and I dare say that it can only really be enjoyed if you go in with lowered expectations, yet it's almost inarguable that Depp's portrayal of the character -- historically accurate or not -- is at least a magnetic effort. But any film certainly needs more than a solid lead performance to earn its keep, and quite simply Black Mass doesn't have what it takes to stay afloat for the bulk of its 122-minute lifespan.

Nonetheless, established fans with the right setups will likely appreciate this 4K disc for its visual merits; even as "just an upscale", it offers a solid upgrade over the aging Blu-ray with a solid 2160p/HDR10 (Dolby Vision capable) master encoded on a triple-layer disc. Almost everything else about this release is the same as before, though.

Black Mass 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

NOTE: These screenshots are sourced from the 4K disc and downsampled to 1080p/SDR.

I've never understand fans who decry native 2K productions released on UHD as "just an upscale", especially since base-level resolution is only one reason why films can look superior on the format. Disc encoding and HDR support are the other two main pieces of the puzzle, and Black Mass certainly benefits from both of them. To be fair, Warner Bros.' initial 2016 Blu-ray edition was perfectly fine for its time and, in many ways, will still hold up capably enough on small to mid-sized displays. However, those with larger setups -- or perhaps just more discerning eyes -- should easily be able to appreciate the advancements of Warner Bros.' 2160p/HDR10 (Dolby Vision capable) transfer, which is almost certainly based on identical source material as that older release but gets a nice boost from the more efficient HEVC codec and a much greater amount of available format real estate. WB has thankfully seen fit to drop Black Mass and its accompanying 90 minutes of extras on a full strength triple-layer (100GB) disc, which typically more than doubles the running bit rate (at least during the scenes I checked periodically) with occasional spikes into 80+Mpbs territory that all but eliminates any traces of potential compression artifacts like macro blocking, banding, and posterization, with an overwhelmingly clean and stable appearance that more closely resembles a theatrical-grade presentation.

Colors and contrast levels unsurprisingly benefit from the new HDR grade; they clearly don't reinvent the wheel as far as timing and saturation level goes, just the overall range of hues and the way they're more naturally represented and, in almost all cases, stand out more convincingly against darker adjacent objects. Christmas decorations, blood splatter, headlights, clothes, vehicles, period-specific signage, and other usual suspects enjoy the full breadth of this format's wide color gamut and high dynamic range, with shadow details and darker contrast levels coming more into focus than on the Blu-ray's decent but comparably less exacting standards. This still may not be a transformative effort on the whole, but it's a solid step above the previous disc and that alone should make it desirable to die-hard fans.

Black Mass 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

This DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix appears identical to the one found on Warner Bros.' 2015 Blu-ray edition, which is itself a perfectly capable effort isn't consistently overpowered but kicks into gear when needed. Please note, however, that this is the only audio option available; a number of foreign dubs and subtitles present on the Blu-ray disc have not been carried over, nor are English subtitles even offered on the recycled bonus features listed below. (Even the existing English SDH subs for the film are presented in garish ALL CAPS this time around, which is never a good look.)

Black Mass 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a black keepcase with recycled cover artwork; no slipcover, inserts, or Digital Copy are included. All three excellent bonus features have thankfully been carried over from the WB's 2016 Blu-ray edition, although as mentioned above they no longer have optional English subtitles. These three returning extras are listed below in name only, but more information about each one can be found at the linked review.

• The Manhunt for Whitey Bulger (61:38)

• Black Mass: Deepest Cover, Darkest Crime (23:00)

• Johnny Depp: Becoming Whitey Bulger (12:24)

Black Mass 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Scott Cooper's Black Mass offers a dramatized look at the life of James "Whitey" Bulger, a notorious Boston-area mob boss who successfully avoided FBI capture for sixteen years, was eventually caught, and later died in prison only three years after the film's release in 2015. It's led by a magnetic performance from Johnny Depp, but in my opinion makes a lot of small narrative missteps that quickly pile up and contribute to its noticeably uneven level of effectiveness. It's not quite a total loss, but Black Mass certainly doesn't stand out in the genre even though it has a growing vocal minority of followers in the "underrated" camp. Warner Bros.' surprising UHD release advances upon their 2016 Blu-ray edition but only in the visual department, which makes this one recommended to established fans only.