The First Wives Club Blu-ray review
Jun 16, 2022- Permalink
Paramount is releasing 1996’s The First Wives Club on Blu-ray for the first time. Those in the US will get the special Paramount Presents packaging. The comedy stars the fantastic trio of Bette Midler, Diane Keaton and Goldie Hawn in the story of three college friends who decide to get back at their ex-husbands (Dan Hedaya, Victor Garber, and Stephen Collins ) for leaving them for younger women (Sarah Jessica Parker, Elizabeth Berkley and Marcia Gay Harden). Comedies like this used to hit the theatres. Now they’re mostly relegated to streaming releases.
The 1080p AVC encoded transfer is presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. This Blu-ray is off of a newly restored 4K scan, so hopefully down the line we’ll see a 4K of this release. The video presentation looks great with amazing clarity, a fine film grain, and detail in the facial textures and hair, the clothing, and the sets and other locations in the movie. Black levels are nice and deep, there’s no evidence of crushing and there’s detail in the darker scenes. The colour palette is natural with nice flashes of colour that pop but don’t overpower the more muted tones. Flesh tones are natural and digital noise and compression artifacts are absent.On the audio side of things, we get an English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, an English Audio Description track and a French 5.1 Dolby Digital track. Subtitles are available for English, English SDH and French. It’s a very front-heavy mix, though the surrounds do get some light use for ambient atmosphere. You subwoofer basically has the night off, though it would be nice if it could give some more bass floor to the score. Dialogue is clear, centred and well prioritized in the mix. It’s not a bad audio presentation at all, but it’s not going to wow you.
As mentioned, if you get the US packaging, you’ll get the Paramount Presents slip cover which opens to reveal the original poster. A digital copy code is included. The bonus materials consist of an eleven minute interview with screenwriter Robert Harling and theatrical trailer.
The First Wives Club Blu-ray provides an excellent video presentation coupled with a very good, but front-heavy audio presentation. You can’t go wrong with Bette, Diane and Goldie in a comedy. Recommended.