Columbia Classics Volume 4 4K review
Feb 20, 2024- Permalink
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment dives into Columbia Pictures catalog once again to bring us Columbia Classics Volume 4 on 4K. This set includes six films making their 4k debuts: 1940’s His Girl Friday, 1967’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, 1979’s Kramer vs. Kramer, 1984’s Starman, 1993’s Sleepless in Seattle and 2002’s Punch-Drunk Love. I had a chance to take a look at the set.
In Howard Hawks’s screwball comedy, His Girl Friday, Cary Grant plays Walter Burns, a newspaper editor who’s about to lose his best reporter and ex-wife, Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell), to a new city and a new man (Ralph Bellamy). Burns concocts a plan to have her work on one last big story, hoping the situation will convince her to stay and leave her new beau. In 2000, the American Film Institute’s 100 Years … 100 Laughs ranked the comedy at #19.
The 2160p HEVC / H.265 encoded native 4K digital transfer with Dolby Vision and HDR10 is presented in a 1.37:1 aspect ratio. It’s a beautifully crisp image with great detail in facial features and textiles. The black levels are deep and the HDR allows the whites to pop and expands the gradient levels of the grays. The grain presentation is natural and filmic. The presentation appears to be devoid of compression artifacts. It just looks lovely.
On the audio side of things, you have the choice of an English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono soundtrack as well as French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono tracks. Subtitles are available for English, English SDH, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Swedish, Thai, and Turkish. Like its contemporaries, the soundtrack is a bit tinny, but the dialogue is clear and prioritized in the mix.
All the extras for this film are on the included Blu-ray copy. There’s a 17 minute look at the film’s costuming, an audio commentary by film critic and author Todd McCarthy, a look at the rapid fire dialogue, a video essay on Hawk’s films, a piece on writer Ben Hecht, a look at the careers of Grant and Russell, some vintage ads, and original and re-release trailers.
Stanley Kramer’s 1967 comedy-drama Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner explores interracial marriage. At the time of filming, it was still illegal in 17 U.S. states, with their laws finally struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in June of that year. Spencer Tracy (who died days after filming completed) and Katherine Hepburn star as liberal-minded parents who find the strength of their views challenged when their daughter (Katherine Houghton) comes home with a Black fiance, played by Sidney Poitier. The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won two, for Hepburn and screenwriter William Rose.
The 2160p HEVC / H.265 encoded native 4K digital transfer with Dolby Vision and HDR10 is presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. It’s a really good lucking transfer with great detail and any softness here and there comes from the source. The colour palette is excellent with natural skin tones, while primaries pop off the screen. Black levels are deep and the grain is true to the film source.
On the audio side of things, you have the choice of an English Dolby Atmos track that folds back to Dolby TrueHD 7.1. There’s also an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track and for purists, an English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track. There are also French, German, Italian and Spanish DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono tracks. Subtitles are available for English, English SDH, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Swedish, Thai, and Turkish. Obviously the Atmos and surround tracks are a modern addition, but the sound team has done a great job of moving the ambient sounds in the apartment into the new environment. The score sounds bright and the dialogue is clear and well prioritized in the mix.
The Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner 4K also comes with a Blu-ray copy. Most of the extras are on that disc but the audio commentary with film historians Eddy Friedfeld, Lee Pfeiffer and Paul Scrabo is also on the 4K. There’s a collection of introductions by Tom Brokaw, Quincy Jones, Karen Kramer, and Steven Spielberg, a 30 minute retrospective, some archival recordings with Hepburn and an interview with her niece and co-star Katharine Houghton, looks at Kramer’s vision for the film and his acceptance of the Irving Thalberg Award, a look at the 2007 Producers Guild Stanley Kramer Award, a teaser and a theatrical trailer.
1979’s Kramer vs. Kramer, written and directed by Robert Benton, stars Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Jane Alexander and Justin Henry. Hoffman plays Ted Kramer, a workaholic ad exec whose wife, Joanna (Streep), announces that’s she’s leaving him and not taking their seven-year-old, Billy (Henry). Ted and Billy struggle to adapt to their new dynamic, but just as they do, Joanna reappears and launches a custody battle. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards and walked away with Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actress (Streep), and Adapted Screenplay.
The 2160p HEVC / H.265 encoded native 4K digital transfer with Dolby Vision and HDR10 is presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Except for some occasional softness present in the original film, the video presentation here is sharp, with great detail in facial features and textiles. There’s natural film palette and the black levels are deep. The grain level is filmic and hasn’t been scraped to death in this excellent transfer.
On the audio side of things, you have the choice of an English Dolby Atmos track that folds back to Dolby TrueHD 7.1. There are two additional English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono tracks as well as French, German and Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks, Spanish and Thai Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks and a Turkish Dolby Digital 2.0 track. Subtitles are available for English, English SDH, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Thai, and Turkish. Like Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, the addition of an Atmos track may initially seem like overkill, but the sound design team have done an excellent job moving the original soundtrack into the surround soundscape and enveloping the viewer in the ambience of the surroundings. Dialogue is clear and well-placed in the mix.
The Kramer vs. Kramer 4K also comes with a Blu-ray copy, with extras split between the two. They include an audio commentary by film prof Jennine Lanouette, deleted scenes, a piece with director Benton discussing his work with Hoffman and Henry, an adult Justin Henry talking about his experiences on the film, a piece on Jane Alexander’s role, Benton talking about his feelings about the film, a theatrical trailer, a 49 minute making-of doc and some film previews.
John Carpenter’s 1984 film Starman is a sci-fi romance that stars Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen. Bridges plays an alien shot down by the U.S. government. Originally resembling a ball of energy, he clones a human body and tries to enlist a woman, Jenny (Allen), to help him reach a rendezvous point in Arizona. She’s first scared and then wary of him, but eventually a relationship grows as they race to avoid his capture by the government. Bridges received an Academy Award nomination for his performance.
The 2160p HEVC / H.265 encoded native 4K digital transfer with Dolby Vision and HDR10 is presented in a 2.39:1 aspect ratio. A crisp, detailed presentation, with a warm colour palette and deep blacks. Details are not lost in the darker scenes and the grain is nice and filmic.
On the audio side of things, you have the choice of an English Dolby Atmos soundtrack that folds back to Dolby TrueHD 7.1. There are two other English tracks, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, a German and Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks, French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks and a Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 track. Subtitles are available for English, English SDH, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Swedish, Thai, and Turkish. The newly created Atmos track shows the skill of the sound team upgrading the audio into the surround soundscape with action moving throughout the surrounds and the subwoofer giving some extra weight when needed. Dialogue is clear and well placed in the mix.
The Starman 4K is a four disc set, with three 4K discs and one Blu-ray. The two additional 4K discs contain the full 22 episodes of the 1986 Starman series that starred Robert Hays. What an unexpected treat in the extras. The rest of the extras are on the included Blu-ray copy and include an audio commentary by John Carpenter and Jeff Bridges, 20+ deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes time lapses, a 23 minute look back with John Carpenter, Jeff Bridges, Charles Martin Smith, and script supervisor Sandy King-Carpenter, a making-of piece, a music video, a stills gallery, and a theatrical trailer.
We’re in the home stretch now as the fifth of the six discs is 1993’s Sleepless in Seattle. Directed by Nora Ephron from a script she co-wrote with David S. Ward and Jeff Arch, the romantic comedy stars Tom Hanks as a widowed father whose son, Jonah (Ross Malinger), calls a talk radio show looking for a new love for his grieving dad. A Baltimore Sun reporter, Annie (Meg Ryan), hears the plea and begins to fall for the thought of him, despite being recently engaged. The ensemble cast includes Bill Pullman, Rob Reiner, Rosie O’Donnell, Gaby Hoffmann, Victor Garber, Rita Wilson, Barbara Garrick, and Carey Lowell.
The 2160p HEVC / H.265 encoded native 4K digital transfer with Dolby Vision and HDR10 is presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Sleepless in Seattle is a bit of an odd rom-com in that the two romantic leads actually share very little screen time together. And while most rom-coms are light and airy visually, this film is quiet dark and subdued in its colour palette though there are some occasional pops of bright colours. Still it’s a sharp presentation but just lacks a bit of the wow factor the other films in the set have visually.
On the audio side of things, you have the choice of an English Dolby Atmos and Dolby TrueHD 7.1 soundtrack as well as English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 tracks. There are also French and French (Canada), German, Italian, Korean, and Spanish, Thai and Turkish DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 tracks. Subtitles are available for English, English SDH, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Swedish, Thai, and Turkish. Though the soundscape is a little front-heavy, the surrounds do get some occasional work on ambient noise while the subwoofer does have some time to take a break and grab a coffee.
The Sleepless in Seattle 4K also comes with a Blu-ray copy which also holds the extras. There are two audio commentaries — a new one for the 30th anniversary track with Karen Han and David Sims and an older one with Nora and Delia Ephron. There’s a short, but new, talk between Gary Foster and Meg Ryan, an older piece on “Love in the Movies”, four deleted scenes, a music video and a theatrical trailer.
The final movie in the set is 2002’s Punch-Drunk Love, from writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson. It stars Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Luis Guzmán. Turning in at a crisp 95 minutes, the film follows Barry (Sandler), a bachelor whose overbearing sisters have led him to develop social anxiety but finds himself falling for one of his sister’s coworkers. Anderson won Best Director at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.
The 2160p HEVC / H.265 encoded native 4K digital transfer with Dolby Vision and HDR10 is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The colour palette can be saturated, but this was part of the indie art house aesthetic that Anderson and cinematographer Robert Elswit were going for. Primaries really pop, the detail is great, and the grain is filmic.
On the audio side of things, you have the choice of an English Dolby Atmos track that falls back to Dolby TrueHD 7.1. There’s also English, French, German, Italian and Spanish DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks and a Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 track. Subtitles are available for English, English SDH, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Swedish, Thai, and Turkish. Though at times a little front-heavy, the surrounds do immerse you into the scenes, the score is dynamic and dialogue is clear.
The Punch-Drunk Love 4K also comes with a Blu-ray copy. The extras are on the Blu-ray and include deleted scenes, “Blossoms and Blood” – a short film by PTA with Sandler and Watson, Jon Brion talking about the creation of the soundtrack, recording sessions, some scopitone art shorts, Jeremy Blake artwork and two trailers.
The Columbia Classics Volume 4 4K set comes in a hard cover box that unfolds to reveal two sides that contain the six films in standard cases. Each film comes with a Blu-ray copy and a digital code. The centre of the box holds an 88 page hardcover book chock full of photos, essays and other archival goodies. Covering multiple decades, styles and genres with great audio and video presentations and a nice set of extras, film lovers will be very tempted to add this to their collection.