6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
An ambitious, charismatic medical student persuades his classmates to take part in a reckless experiment. To see if there is life after death, they will kill themselves: temporarily shut down ("flatline") their heart and brain functions to briefly experience clinical death. Their horror begins when they realize that although they've come back alive... they haven't come back alone.
Starring: Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon, William Baldwin, Oliver PlattHorror | 100% |
Thriller | 43% |
Supernatural | 30% |
Sci-Fi | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: HEVC / H.265
Video resolution: 4K (2160p)
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
4K Ultra HD
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Considering how instrumental it was in the development of the Blu-ray format, and how respected it has become over the course of several years for its curation and transferring excellence of it catalog to high definition, it may come as a surprise to find out that some early Blu-ray releases from Sony were not especially well regarded for their technical merits. Take the 2007 (!) release of Flatliners, which my colleague Martin Liebman gave a relatively paltry score of 2.5 to for its video presentation. Kind of hilariously, while the video was nothing to write home about and there were absolutely no supplements included, take a look at the specs for the subtitles on that release, which suggest Sony may have had delusions of world domination with Flatliners, at least as evidenced by the global collection of languages offered in that department. Now, let's just get the bad news out of the way first and state that Arrow Video's new release of Flatliners does not offer French, Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Slovenian, Swedish, or Turkish subtitles, but it pretty easily trumps the old Sony release in every other category.
Note: Screenshots are sourced from Arrow's 1080 release. Per Arrow's standard operating procedure, this 4K UHD release does not
include a 1080 disc.
Flatliners is presented in 4K UHD courtesy of Arrow Video with a 2160p transfer in 2.39:1. Unless I've made the same stupid mistake I did
some time ago with another simultaneous 1080 and 2160 release of an Arrow product where the insert booklets had different information, I believe
that both the 1080 and 2160 releases of Flatliners contain the same insert booklet, which offers
the following information on the restoration:
Flatliners was restored in 4K by Sony Pictures Entertainment, 4K scanning by Prasad Corporation, Burbank, from the 35mm Original Picture Negative.As mentioned above, Marty wasn't exactly enthusiastic about the now long ago Blu-ray release of Flatliners actually by Sony, but of course technologies and dare I say it even understandings have evolved in the intervening years, and I can't imagine most fans of this film being much more pleased with this version than with the previous release, and I'd further venture a guess that real fans of Flatliners may want to experience this 4K UHD version, since it offers even more of the almost ridiculously suffused palette that Arrow's 1080 version does. There are some pretty obvious differences, with the Arrow version being noticeably darker and what I'd call more burnished looking, with an emphasis on almost yellow-orange tones that can give things a painterly air, and I'd argue that this tendency toward the very warm end of the spectrum is only increased courtesy of HDR and/or Dolby Vision. The increased resolution of this version also tends to support at least marginal increases in fine detail levels throughout, but perhaps surprisingly noticeably in some of the skewed hallucinatory moments. This has a grittier look than the Sony, and grain admittedly can be a little on the yellow side itself with occasional clumpiness, but nothing I personally found overly problematic, though the opening moments of this 4K UHD version may cause pause in some videophiles, as first the Columbia masthead and then the skies of the credits sequence can look like everything is covered in swarms of small insects. The black and white material also has excellent contrast and detail levels, despite (again) a somewhat psychedelic approach that can superimpose image on image and the like, and it maybe has a slightly more "video" like quality in this 4K UHD version, though detail levels are still excellent. There may be some who don't like a perceived minimizing of shadow detail since this is so much darker than the original Sony release, but I have to say just based on screenshots, the Sony looks artificially brightened to my eyes, and I found this version much more in keeping with the kind of Gothic undertones of everything, and all of this said, I found the HDR on this release to offer better shadow detail in general when compared to Arrow's 1080 version.
HDR color grading and confrom by colorist Sheri Eisenberg at Roundabout Entertainment, Santa Monica. Digital Image restoration by Prasad Corporation, India.
Audio restoration was completed at Deluxe Audio SErvices, Hollywood, sourced from the original 35mm LCRS stereo magnetic tracks.
Restoration supervised by Bill Karydes for SPE, with color approval by cinematographer Jan De Bont.
Perhaps surprisingly, Marty also wasn't especially enthused about the old Sony Blu-ray's PCM 5.1 track, but I'm happy to report either I'm a lot easier to please or things have been improved for this release (I suspect it's the latter) with both DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 audio options. I experienced none of the "mushiness" Marty described with regard to the Sony disc's audio presentation, and James Newton Howard's ethereal score in particular sounds beautifully full bodied and spacious in the surround track. There are a number of hallucinatory moments which admittedly probably don't have the same kind of "wow" factor that, say, a contemporary Christopher Nolan multilayered enterprise might offer, but there is still appealing immersion and both clear panning effects and discrete placement of individual effects in some of the "visionary" moments in particular. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. As jokingly referred to above, this release does not offer optional French, Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Slovenian, Swedish, or Turkish subtitles, but does come with the ever popular English SDH option.
While Arrow continues to release its 1080 and 2160 versions of any given films separately, they have commendably tended to offer the same set of supplements in both formats, and that's once again the case this time.
Kind of hilariously my wife, who was a news anchor in Chicago when this film released, and who is evidently a much pithier reviewer than I am, responded with a "kind of a silly film, but great shots of Chicago" when I told her it was in my queue. I have to agree with her, but among other pleasures a modern day viewing of Flatliners can give is playing the "who ended up with the bigger career" game with regard to its star filled cast, then in the relatively early days of their careers. I can't imagine anyone seriously arguing with the fact that this release is superior to the Sony release in both technical merits and some very appealing supplements. Recommended.
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