Kick-Ass 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Kick-Ass 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 3, 2017

Lionsgate is continuing with its kind of random seeming assortment of 4K UHD releases. While other labels like Fox and Sony have been pumping out fairly regular supplies of 4K UHD content, often tied to their current releases, Lionsgate has taken a somewhat different route, spending the last few months in particular bringing out an arguably odd assortment of titles in this still developing format. Among the recent offerings Lionsgate has released on 4K UHD are The Lincoln Lawyer 4K, RED 4K, RED 2 4K, The Cabin in the Woods 4K, The Legend of Hercules 4K and Conan the Barbarian 4K . Kick-Ass perhaps makes a bit more “sense” as a 4K UHD release than Lionsgate offerings like The Lincoln Lawyer 4K, what with its manic action adventure proclivities, bright color palette, general comic book sensibility and boisterous sound design. The film had a tendency to split both audiences and critics upon its release, though it succeeded well enough at the box office to engender a sequel, Kick-Ass 2, a follow up which turned out to be just about as generic as its title. One of the “issues” some folks had with Kick-Ass is its almost gleeful depiction of completely over the top violence. When the film has a memorable sequence offering Nicolas Cage as a supposed nurturing father who repeatedly shoots his darling daughter (who is equipped with a Kevlar vest, it should be noted), that’s just one indication of a rather impish and maybe even pitch black sense of humor, an element that can clash a little uneasily with the film’s hyperbolic violence.

For a thorough recounting of Kick-Ass’ plot dynamics, I refer you to my colleague Dustin Somner’s Kick-Ass Blu-ray review. That said, I have slightly rejiggered Dustin’s scores to account for my personal tastes in this review. I found the film slightly less enjoyable than Dustin, but I also felt both the video and audio aspects of the Blu-ray release were perhaps slightly better than Dustin did.

Kick-Ass 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc. Watch for 4K screenshots at a later date.

Note 2: This release also features Dolby Vision, which we don't yet have the equipment to review.

Kick-Ass is presented on 4K UHD courtesy of Lionsgate Films with a 2160p transfer in 2.40:1. Kick-Ass was shot on film and finished at a 2K DI, from which I assume this new 4K version was culled. This presentation has pluses and minuses, many of which have been seen in some other Lionsgate 4K UHD releases. There's a definite uptick in detail levels throughout the presentation, with everything from the gruesome injuries some characters experience to more mundane elements like the spandex fabric of superhero costumes have a palpability that is more pronounced than in the 1080p Blu-ray version. Perhaps the biggest difference in the 4K UHD version comes courtesy of HDR, however, with the palette, which is already bordering on the surreal throughout the film, gaining significant new pop and saturation levels. From the first moment, with the red caped "mental case" high atop the skyscraper, there's an incredible vividness in primary hues especially that is quite remarkable. Later, after Hit Girl enters the fray, her bright purple hair also pops in a more lustrous way than it does in the 1080p Blu-ray version.

The film was pretty aggressively graded and/or tweaked, as was evident even on the Blu-ray release (I well remember thinking some of the pushed blacks, which resulted in oily sheen like surfaces on things like hair, was some kind of encoding error the first time I saw the Blu-ray), and those techniques are probably only more pronounced now on the 4K UHD version, but in a way that only helps to up the kind of fantastic ambience the whole story is attempting to offer.

As I've discussed in some reviews of previous 4K UHD releases (not necessarily relegated only to Lionsgate offerings, though Lionsgate seems to have a higher prevalence of these issues than some other labels I review), I have a problem with the look of some of the grain resolution throughout this presentation. At times it's at least relatively organic looking, moving through the frame in a natural manner. But at odd and kind of inexplicable intervals, it tends to swarm in a noisy manner. Pay attention, for example, early in the film when Dave (Aaron Johnson) arrives at school, and within the insets in the building's facade, it almost looks like swarms of tiny insects are flying in front of the building. While not as pronounced as in some other 4K UHD discs I've reviewed, I also experienced some minor judder in both lateral and vertical pans.

Kick-Ass 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

I was a big fan of Kick-Ass's DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 mix on Blu-ray and may well have granted it a full 5.0 score had I reviewed the Blu-ray. That said, there's a new presence and force in the Dolby Atmos mix included on this 4K UHD disc that brings a new excitement to the film's often incredibly boisterous sound design. From the first moments of the film, when floating voices join Dave's narration, there's a midair placement to elements that is spacious and very enjoyable. The film's smartly designed sound effects provide a glut of surround activity, and the Atmos channels regularly provide overhead effects, especially in some of the fight scenes. LFE is arguably even more pronounced in this Atmos iteration as well, with even "little" punches like gunshots having significant force and impact. Dialogue is always offered cleanly, and the entire track offers a well prioritized mix of dialogue, effects and score. Fidelity is top notch throughout, with extremely wide dynamic range.

Kick-Ass 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Lionsgate provides most but not quite all of the supplements Dustin details in his Kick-Ass Blu-ray review on the 4K UHD disc. Not present on the 4K UHD disc are the Bonus View mode, The Art of Kick- Ass, and the Marketing Archive's poster gallery, though the Marketing Archive's two trailers are still offered on the 4K UHD disc. The 1080p Blu-ray disc included in this package includes all of the supplements detailed in Dustin's review.

Kick-Ass 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Unlike some of the other releases Lionsgate has been bringing out on 4K UHD, Kick-Ass would seem to offer more of what ultra high definition fans are after — astounding visuals and over the top sonics. Both of those elements are well on display on this new disc, and while there are some recurrent issues with this release that we've seen on some other Lionsgate 4K UHD discs, I have to say that when this transfer looks good, it looks really good. There's no question that the Dolby Atmos mix grants the film whole new levels of enjoyment, and the really brilliant work in sound design on this film gains a new luster on this presentation.