Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Sympathy for the Devil 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Godard's avante-garde classic gets a... whoops, wrong movie.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III November 3, 2023

Released just a month after the standard Blu-ray, RLJ Entertainment brings Yuval Adler's Sympathy for the Devil to 4K in a Steelbook combo pack available at all major retailers. (To the studio's credit, the 4K was announced simultaneously rather than as a double-dip surprise, which would have rightly angered early adopters.) Although it curiously doesn't feature HDR enhancement like the wide majority of UHD releases, it nonetheless offers a substantially better video presentation due to the resolution bump and a much higher bit rate. But is the movie any good? Well...

Another one for the pile of mostly forgettable Nicolas Cage films, Sympathy for the Devil is almost a two-man show; Cage becomes "The Passenger" on a road trip by forcing "The Driver" (Joel Kinnaman), at gunpoint, away from the hospital where his wife is giving birth to their second child. (Don't worry, the other one is at Grandma's.) While their encounter initially seems like a random, isolated incident, it becomes apparent that the victim has been chosen for a very specific reason, which keeps us one step behind "The Driver"... and maybe even "The Passenger" too.

Described as "a high-stakes game of cat and mouse" on the back cover, Sympathy for the Devil doesn't generate any real suspense in the traditional hide-and-seek way; its characters are pretty much constantly within a few feet of each other, with each one trying desperately to understand the other's motivations, behavior, and next move. One's got wild red hair dye, a ridiculous outfit, and facial expressions to match, and the other is playing a respectable working-class dad who insists he's not who The Passenger thinks he is. This implies that we might be getting some kind of yin-and-yang exploration of the duality of man or whatever, but Sympathy for the Devil shrewdly attempts to pull the rug out from under us by making "the good guy" a mystery man as well. (See also: A History of Violence.)

It's a trick that almost works (and at least builds to a borderline satisfying non-ending), but there's just not enough meat here to justify a feature-length film. This is a mostly kind of threadbare story that starts vague and stays there for awhile, initially promising an anything-goes trip to wherever the night will lead -- think of the nightmarish joyride in David Lynch's Blue Velvet -- but really just amounts to two or three stops. The longest and most drawn-out detour is an uncomfortable break at a roadside diner (shrewdly named "Roadside Diner"), which ends up being a hostage situation that further escalates into a firefight and multiple explosions. It's supposed to be the biggest set-piece during a film in which almost every scenario goes dreadfully wrong, but it really ends up being an early climax before the much more subdued final showdown a mile or three down the road. As mentioned before, its character dynamics and any intrigue built from The Driver's backstory carry the weight, as does Cage's typically over-the-top performance... but it doesn't add up to much more than a fitfully engaging psychological thriller that won't stick with you for long.

Sympathy for the Devil 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

NOTE: This review's screenshots are sourced from the included Blu-ray.

Although I was admittedly disappointed to learn that RLJ Entertainment's welcome UHD edition of Sympathy for the Devil does not take advantage of the format's HDR capabilities, as the film progressed I realized it probably might have been overkill due to the film's native appearance. This 2160p transfer is quite impressive as-is, with bold uses of color, deep blacks, and striking detail that noticeably outpace the rather unimpressive Blu-ray (reviewed separately here) in direct comparison. The main reason is substantially better encoding and a bit rate that's often triple or even quadruple that of its 1080p counterpart; this makes a big difference in key scenes involving fog, smoke, busy background details, and high contrast. All of these elements are present during the climactic third-act showdown between "The Passenger" and "The Driver" in the diner's empty parking lot, which was rendered a mess on Blu-ray due to ghosting, softness, and splotchy compression artifacts that didn't play nice with the film's distinct color palette. (In hindsight, I might have actually been a little too kind to it my earlier review, now that I've seen the 4K for myself.) Now, this scene -- and the rest of the film, of course -- appears much more stable, precise, and accurate to its source.

In short, this is a sizeable upgrade that may even increase your enjoyment of the movie, and it's absolutely worth the double-dip if you saw and enjoyed the Blu-ray and have a system that supports 4K (or plan to in the near future). Buy it just for the Steelbook packaging if you must, but this is far and away the real reason to upgrade.

Sympathy for the Devil 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix, identical to the Blu-ray, doesn't always aim quite as high but still hits its target squarely, offering a satisfying mix of front-forward dialogue -- or more specifically, mostly traded monologues -- with occasional flavor added in the form of a decent original score by composer Ishai Adar and some respectable low end and discrete effects during extremely rare action scenes. It all mixes well enough to add to the tense atmosphere which, like the main feature, isn't consistently compelling but has a few elements working in its favor.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during the main feature only.

Sympathy for the Devil 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This two-disc release ships in a matte-finish Steelbook with a front cover that's still cast-focused but a bit more stylish, with our two main characters facing opposite directions and title text occupying the entire top half. The back cover is an out-of-focus, neon-tinted section of the diner (similar to the front cover, but not a continuation), and the interior splash image depicts "The Driver" standing ominously inside the same location. Both discs sit on overlapping hubs on the right side. It's a solid design overall, but more of a side-step than a full-on improvement in my opinion.

The following extras are included on both discs and identical to the standard Blu-ray.

• Bonus Interviews - Four short and surface-level video interviews with key cast and crew members, who speak very briefly about their characters and/or involvement with the film.

• Nicolas Cage (1:02) - "The Passenger"
• Joel Kinnaman (1:01) - "The Driver"
• Yuval Adler (1:07) - Director
• Allan Ungar (1:03) - Producer

Sympathy for the Devil 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Yuval Adler's Sympathy for the Devil is marginally better than most modern day Nicolas Cage camp-fests and might even play a little better on subsequent viewings, but it's painfully threadbare at times and could have worked just as well, if not better, as a short film. Nonetheless, there's a modest level of interest here and die-hard Cage fans may be unable to resist. This 4K features improved visuals -- largely due tomuch, much tighter encoding -- and of course nicer packaging, as well as a Blu-ray copy of the film for normies. It's still not the most recommended blind buy for obvious reasons... but if you're at all interested in Sympathy for the Devil, this is clearly the version to get.