Friday Night Lights 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

Friday Night Lights 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Based on the 1990 book, 'Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream' by H. G. Bissinger, 2004's 'Friday Night Lights' arrives on 4K UHD disc in this new release courtesy of Universal. Starring Billy Bob Thornton, the film follows a high school football-obsessed town in Texas as their team makes a run for the state championship and would go on to spawn a television series which ran from 2006-2011. The film is equipped with a new Dolby Atmos audio track and brings forward all important of the legacy features from the previous Blu-ray release. A Blu-ray disc and a Digital Code are also included.

Friday Night Lights 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The stylized desaturated image presented in this HVEC-encoded 2160p transfer looks quite impressive. Considering that this film has an intentional look that reinforces the scorching Texas landscape, and the somewhat bleak chances of the team, primaries and other colors are not initially given an opportunity to pop or impress. Glowing "Exit" signs and the bright yellow goalposts are consistently the most vibrant colors in the early goings. As the season progresses and their record improves, though, colors gradually become more vibrant, and their richness and saturation are delightful, and a more typical, realistic, and familiar color palette fully emerges with approximately forty minutes remaining, making an impressive presentation even more visually exciting. Skin tones look realistic and healthy within the film's changing and evolving grading. Grain is present but is handled well and resolves naturally. Fine detail is typically impressive, with virtually every blade of grass on the fields being easily discernable, and facial and set particulars delivering similarly crisp and precise results. Blacks are suitably inky and help to establish great depth and dimensionality. As many of the scenes on the field are shot at night, most importantly blacks here are exactly what they need to be, deep and convincing without crushing. I did not detect any defects or anomalies. It's an excellent transfer.

Please note: all screenshots are sourced from the included 1080p disc.

Friday Night Lights 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Bone-crunching. If I were pressed to sum up Friday Night Lights 4K's Dolby Atmos audio track in one word, that would be it. The track is graced with a winning bass presence, that in a film such as this, where players are delivering hit after hit in practices and games, those hits need to be rendered with powerful authority. They are. Coupled with excellent surround involvement which places the viewer on the field in the middle of every practice and game, those hits come from every direction. And they're bone-crunching. Grunts from the players, thundering footsteps, and referee whistles likewise envelop the viewer, and the gunshots in the skeet-shooting scene echo realistically. Dialogue is handled well and is properly prioritized, though sometimes in game settings the level of the dialogue is purposefully brought down to keep the focus on the on-field action. That said, even in these instances dialogue is always intelligible with the only barrier to understanding what's being said being the occasionally very thick Southern accents. Directionality is excellent, with players moving fluidly through the sound field. Music occasionally erupts and is allowed to dominate the track, with Run DMC's "It's Tricky" being a particular sonic highlight, though fans of music from the film's era will appreciate how well it's reproduced in the brief strolls down memory lane.

Friday Night Lights 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

With the exception of the dated "My Scenes" and "BD-Live" features which have been dropped, all legacy supplemental materials have been brought forward to this new release. For an accounting of those elements, please follow this link. The single element that appears to be new is a 59-second clip of Director Peter Berg praising his assistant Maria Williams which is titled "Tribute to Maria". This was was a hidden element on the previous Blu-ray release and here is simply added to the menu. It should be noted that as the included Blu-ray seems to be identical to that of the previous release, "Tribute to Maria" is not found on the disc's menu, but both "My Scenes" and "BD-Live" are present and accounted for.

Friday Night Lights 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Since its original release, Friday Night Lights has lost none of its impact and raw emotion in its depiction of a region and a people whose lives and identities seem to revolve around and depend upon high school football. Thornton's performance is powerful, though his coaching style, with some exceptions, seems more focused on yelling and belittling rather than inspiring and developing, and his words and intensity are amplified by the performances, on-field and off-, of the players he's trying to shepherd to the state championship. The stylized color scheme gradually gives way to more impressive colors, and the percussive and punishing audio track adds incredible verisimilitude to each game and practice. Fans of the film will be pleased with the upgrades on display here, and Friday Night Lights 4K comes highly recommended.