Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		0.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

The Core 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Paramount has released the star-studded 2003 Disaster film 'The Core' to the UHD format. New specifications include 2160p/Dolby Vision video. The film features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack rather than a Dolby Atmos remix. The disc contains no supplemental features. The film was previously released to Blu-ray a year ago by Shout! Factory in what is, sadly, a better overall package.

The Core 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The included screenshots are sourced from Shout! Factory's 1080p Blu-ray disc.

Paramount brings The Core to the UHD format with a 2160p/Doby Vision presentation. The image can look intermittently OK-ish, and it can sustain a fairly decent output level, but at its best it's basically a decent looking Blu-ray with some minor UHD conveniences poking through. There are clear signs that the image has been tampered with, at least from time to time. Grain management is at times solid and at times disappointing, looking good (but never rich) and filmic here and flat and smooth in places there, with some digital clumping in spots (the classroom trumpet scene early in the film, a shot at the 21:04 mark as two of the more prominent examples). In these same scenes on the Blu-ray, the grain is more evenly presented and naturally filmic, and grain management overall on the Shout! disc is steadier and more broadly satisfying. Contrarily, look around the 19:30 mark. Here, and in many other spots, the image looks pretty passable, with more evenly organic grain and a fairly decent filmic texture at work. This is the story of this release. At times it looks solid and borders on "good," and at others it appears to be the work of some overzealous processing. Whatever look of "sharpness" that is on display in many scenes appears to be artificial in nature, a digital pass that merely renders the image less appealing, rather than more so, in the aggregate, often to hide some previous grain reduction. Yet there are many shots that look very nice: crisp, efficient, though certainly not reaching anything close to a format zenith but offering the film at a decently high level. Yet even at its best, the image frustrates through imbalance between "good" and "bland." There are also some mild-to-modest compression issues in play as well.

The Dolby Vision color grading doesn't offer much in terms of extensive pop and tonal vitality. Some vending machines at the 4:39 mark cannot offer much more color vividness than the Blu-ray, and some shadowy backgrounds in the same shot offer no more or no less in terms of black level depth and superiority. At this point I walked out of the room for a few minutes with this scene paused on both players (one the UHD, one the Shout! disc) and upon returning I honestly could not tell which version was on the screen. That's how little difference there is here. So, the question is raised: what about the rest of the film? The UHD can look a little brighter, at times, with fuller color accuracy, but never to a truly substantial degree. There's certainly a little more depth, some added vividness, but not much change in blacks, the flat white title cards that appear on the screen from time to time, or even skin tones. Color upgrades are usually incremental at best, and that describes this UHD in a nutshell: its best qualities and characteristics are incrementally better than the Blu-ray, but the Blu-ray offers the more consistent image. The UHD wins in spurts, but the Blu-ray runs a more even, and generally more appealing, race through the runtime. This may rank as the most inconsequential and forgettable UHD I have reviewed to date.

The Core 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack certainly shares in many of the same properties and dynamics as the Shout! disc, and in many audible, tangible ways is barely distinguishable from its Blu-ray companion. The UHD presents the audio at a higher average bitrate but doesn't drastically alter the end product, which in action, such as during one of the adverse effects of the core's malfunction as heard during a scene of catastrophic consequence at the 49-minute mark, offers ample surround engagement, plenty of discrete sound elements, abundant stage traversal, and hefty low-end content. The two tracks are very similar for raw output excellence, volume, and content. Such holds true in quieter dialogue scenes or with musical delivery. The review for the Shout! disc (found here) certainly suffices here. Even though there is no Atmos track, listeners should still have a blast with this 5.1 offering, which teeters on the edge being labeled as "prodigious."

The Core 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements are included. The Shout! disc included a handful of supplements, including a commentary, featurettes, deleted scenes, and trailers and promos. The release does include a digital copy code and a non-embossed slipcover.

The Core 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Core is a fun and loud, if not frivolous and lengthy, Disaster film that has some good content and makes for a fun genre ride. The film deserves better than what Paramount has offered here, which includes a middling, sometimes on, sometimes off 2160p/Dolby Vision transfer. Audio appears more or less unchanged from the Shout! disc. No extras are included, as opposed to the Shout! disc, which included a nice, if no average, array of supplements. Wait for a good sale or just hang onto the Shout! disc instead.