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 SteelBook release. 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 spawn a television series which ran from 2006-2011. A Blu-ray disc and a Digital Code are also included. For a discussion of this new SteelBook, please scroll down to the 'Special Features and Extras' section of this review.

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

For an assessment of the new 4K transfer, please follow this link.

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

For a discussion of the audio track, please follow this link.

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

The cover of the Friday Night Lights 4K SteelBook features the film's title in the center of a collage of the main members of the cast. Star Billy Bob Thornton is located in the top right corner. Given that much of the film's action takes place at night, it is wholly appropriate that the headshots of the cast sit in a field of black. On the back cover is a shot of the team's locker room. It sits empty with the shadows of two players cast on the floor as they either enter or leave the locker room. As is typically the case, Universal's logo is positioned in the bottom left corner while the product number is found in the lower right corner. The SteelBook's black spine features the film's title in large white easy-to-read letters. Opening the SteelBook, the Digital Code is secured under the tabs on the left side. The two discs are each housed on their own offset and stacked hubs on the right side, with the 4K UHD disc on top. Removing all of the contents, a panoramic image of Thornton's Coach Gary Gaines as he speaks with his team is revealed as they, and the members of his staff, crowd around him. Both the front and back covers have been given a matte finish which does a commendable job of resisting fingerprints associated with normal handling.

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 

While not the most creative cover, it does convey mood and energy of the film. The Friday Night Lights 4K SteelBook's image on the rear cover is far more interesting and evocative, as is the interior panoramic still from the film, and I would argue that either of these images would have made a far more interesting front cover. That said, it's still an attractive product. For fans of the film and SteelBook collectors alike, the Friday Night Lights 4K SteelBook comes highly recommended.