8.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
A story that takes place in Los Angeles in 1969, at the height of hippy Hollywood. The two lead characters are Rick Dalton, former star of a western TV series, and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth. Both are struggling to make it in a Hollywood they don’t recognize anymore. But Rick has a new next-door neighbor, who may be a rising star…Sharon Tate.
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Emile Hirsch, Margaret QualleyDrama | 100% |
Dark humor | 98% |
Period | 67% |
Thriller | 54% |
Comedy | 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 7.1
Czech: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
French (Canada): Dolby Digital 5.1
Hungarian: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Korean: Dolby Digital 5.1
Polish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Russian: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Thai: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Bulgarian, Cantonese, Croatian, Czech, Estonian, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Thai
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
Digital copy
4K Ultra HD
Region free
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Note: The disc contents of this deluxe Collector's Edition are the same as detailed in our Once Upon a Time in Hollywood 4K Blu-ray review.
Therefore this review will repeat quite a bit of verbiage from that review, while also detailing some of the bonus items exclusive to this release.
Skip down to the Supplements section below for information about the packaging and contents of this release.
Perhaps understandably some social historians may argue that the culmination of 1967’s so-called Summer of Love took place during the summer
of
two years later, with Woodstock: 3 Days of
Peace & Music, but Woodstock itself took place in the pretty immediate wake of such a shocking event that it seemed to almost instantly
deflate
whatever “flower power” the hippie movement had sought to engender. It’s kind of amazing in a way to think that the infamous and horrifying
Manson
Family murders of Sharon Tate and several of her friends, and then a night later, of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, took place on August 8 and 9,
1969,
a
mere week or so before Woodstock tried desperately to remind people about such evanescent phenomena as “peace” and “music”.
Note: Screenshots 1 thru 6 are sourced from the 1080p Blu-ray. I included the sixth one as a kind of joke (it's during a pan, so quality
isn't great) to point out that considering some of the non-disc swag included in this set, Bounty Law was evidently the very rare
television western that got more than one Mad Magazine cover back in the day. In that regard, positions 7 thru 10 in this review are
photos of some of the packaging of this release. I've cropped them to approximate 1.78:1 windows that are the default for our reviews, but if you
look under the Packaging tab, I also uploaded "full frame" versions of them.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is presented in 4K UHD courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment with a 2160p transfer in 2.40:1.
This
is another great looking 4K UHD disc from Sony, one that has a greater delineation of formats (i.e., 8mm, 16mm, 35mm) courtesy of a more precise
rendering of grain, though that said, this can be a fairly gritty looking presentation, albeit sometimes evidently by design. One of the things I
noticed in
the 4K UHD presentation that hadn't struck me quite as strongly in the 1080p presentation was the use of "archival" snippets, like the Columbia
masthead, the brief shot of a PanAm 747 landing, or the cheeky homage to The Great Escape can see considerable upticks in the thickness of grain. Another thing that really stood out to me in this
version was the obvious "distressing" Tarantino has applied to other snippets, like the crazy World War II film with Rick utilizing a
flamethrower. Not only is grain at near "16mm levels", there's a glut of other "damage" including tons of white flecks and little scratches, something
that becomes much more evident with the increased resolution of the 4K UHD disc. At times the grittiness can approach noisy levels (look at the
skies
in the black and white Bounty Law snippet), but, again, this seems to have been done by design. Fine detail is improved across the board
in
this presentation, and, as with the 1080p presentation, tends to resist changes in lighting or grading. Some of the yellow tones assume an almost
orange-umber look here courtesy of HDR, and there are definite improvements in vividness in admittedly little elements like the reds of the kimono
Rick
wears as he's rehearsing lines for Lancer. The one place where I wasn't quite as impressed as I expected to be was in improvement in
shadow
detail. It's probably arguable that there is better shadow definition here, but there's still considerable murkiness in any number of dark
scenes, as in some interior car sequences or even the big party at the Playboy Mansion. And in fact a lot of this presentation looked at least a bit
darker to my eyes than the 1080p version.
I actually hadn't checked the specs of the 4K UHD disc before I granted the 1080p Blu-ray audio presentation a 4.5 score for its DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, and I'm glad I left myself a little "wiggle room" since the DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track definitely provides at least a bit more spaciousness and separation, as well as at times something approaching an Atmos-like verticality with regard to several effects. The great soundtrack is at least marginally opened up in the 7.1 rendering, and the same excellent placement of ambient environmental effects continues apace in this version. But several isolated moments stood out to me in this 7.1 iteration, including the great panning roar of the flamethrower in the film's climax, which definitely has a wider and to my ears higher presence in this mix. Fidelity is excellent, with nicely wide dynamic range, and dialogue is always rendered cleanly and clearly throughout.
I'm frankly not as conversant with the kind of odd Menu "topography" of Sony 4K UHD discs (you have to navigate both horizontally and vertically to get to everything), since I don't review a lot of their releases. I don't think I've missed anything in the supplements, but if I have, private message me and I'll happily update the review.
I frankly can't tell you exactly why I feel this way, but for some reason Tarantino's "revisionist" proclivities struck me as much more disrespectful in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood than they did in Inglourious Basterds. That may be because the appalling murders that took place on August 8, 1969 were so personal in a way that discarding the truth of what happened seems downright churlish. If you can get past that (and, at least for Bruce Lee fans, one other vignette), Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is vastly entertaining and it offers some of the most expert production design recreating a specific era that I've seen recently. Performances are top notch all the way around, even when the material doesn't give the actors that much to work with. Technical merits are first rate and the supplemental package on this Collector's Edition is kind of fun and kitschy and will be very enjoyable for some fans. The price on this has gone up pretty dramatically since I pre-ordered it, but it's an almost whimsical assortment of items that may well appeal to fans of the film. Recommended.
2019
2019
2019
2019
5 Limited Edition Collectible Postcards
2019
Limited Edition / Reprint
2019
2022
2014
2019
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
2014
기생충 / Gisaengchung
2019
2009
1990
2009
2017
2007-2015
2014
1994
2017
2013
2008
1994
1985
1999
2001
Includes Beanie
2014