BACK TO THE FUTURE - THE ULTIMATE TRILOGY (1985-1990) (4K UltraHD Review)

BACK TO THE FUTURE 

- THE ULTIMATE TRILOGY (1985-1990) 

Label: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

Region Code: Region-Free

Rating: PG

Duration: 116 Minutes, 108 Minutes, 118 Minutes 

Audio: English Dolby Atmos, DTS-HD MA 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 2160p UHD Widescreen, 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 

Director: Robert Zemeckis 

Cast:  Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Thomas F. Wilson, Crispin Glover,  Elisabeth Shue, Casey Siemaszko, Mary Steenburgen

I was twelve years-old when I first saw Back To The Future (1985). Not in a theater but in a darkened classroom on VHS in middle-school, when one of out teachers showed it to the class on the last day of school before summer break. This was the same teacher that showed us Alien dueling a sleepover lock-in event a few years later, he was a pretty cool guy. Anyway, it was love at first watch, growing up on a steady diet of vintage sci-fi TV and films I was already enamored with the idea of time travel, and this flick starring Michael J. Fox from my favorite TV show Family Ties was the sweet spot for me. The story of highschool kid Marty McFly being flung back in time in a sci-fi DeLorean care back to when his mom and dad were highschoolers themselves was so cool. I remember being a bit creeped out when his teenage mom (Jennifer Jason Leigh), not knowing who he was, found him attractive and obviously had the hots for him, and it's still pretty creepy watching it today, haha.  Christopher Lloyd is amazing as the looney scientist Doc Brown, Crispin Glover is terrific as both the nebbish father of Marty, and the even more nebbish teenage back in the 1950's, and then we have Thomas F. Wilson as the lunk-headed bully Big Tannen. 

I love all three of these time-travelling films, but it is still the first film that I revisit the most, I pretty much only revisit the sequels when I am entertaining younger members of the family and want to show them the whole trilogy, and it blows my mind how many younger kid have not seen all these films - that's just bad pop-culture parenting in my opinion, for shame! Anyway, I finally sat down and re-watched the trilogy last night for the first time in at least a decade, and the new 4K UHD presentation absolutely breathes new life into these timeless time-travelling flicks, and I look forward to sharing them with younger generation yet to come, because I don't think I will ever get tired of watching these awesome films. 

Audio/Video: The Back To The Future Trilogy arrives on 4K UltraHD + Blu-ray + Digital from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment with a new HDR color-grading. The films are each framed in the original 1.85:1 widescreen aspect ratio and looks stellar. Each film has a fine level of grain throughout that  is mostly well-managed with only a few spots that look like the digital noise reduction was applied a tad heavy, but overall I was quite pleased with the grain levels, as I was with the condition of the source elements, which are near pristine looking. The HDR color-grading is quite pleasing, enhancing the flick with deeper blacks and pushing the primaries with improved color saturation and better contrast levels, it's a sharp looking flick. This being a trilogy the films themselves each having their own production variable that affect the image, I think the first and third film have a definite edge over 

the middle film, which comes down to the first sequel being front-loaded with some now dated digital VFX, which coming from ILM were fantastic for the period but are quite a bit softer than the organic 35mm elements on UHD. That said, all three films look the absolute best they have on home video. 

Audio on comes by way of fresh Dolby Atmos remixes for all three films, in addition to English Dolby TrueHD 7.1, DTS-HD MA 5.1 with optional English subtitles. For reason involving a large glass of beer and a drunken get together I no longer have Atmos capabilities for the time being, so I had to being out now vintage but still 5.1 surround to the front room, but the audio sounded terrific. The sound field is spacious, dialogue and effects are presented clean and string, and the soundtracks with choice cuts from Huey Lewis and the News, ZZ Top and others is pleasing through and through. Looking forward to checking out the Atmos track at some point to see what goodies we get in the height channels.

Onto the extras we get most if not all the extras from the previous anniversary releases, with new stuff coming by way of  the 10-minute 'The Hollywood Museum Goes Back to the Future'  which is a cool look at the iconic pop-culture props from the films, including the DeLorean, the hoverboard (I still want one!), as well as smaller props and costuming from the flicks. There are also three featurettes that focus on the music adding up to about 31-minutes which did not interest me all that much, and the 20-minute YouTube series 'Could You Survive the Movies? Back to the Future edition, which was a fun bit of silliness that asks if you could really survive some of the scenarios from the film. The best of the extras is the 4-minute 'An Alternate Future: Lost Audition Tapes' which features some soon-to-be famous actors like Billy Zane, Peter DeLuise, Jon Cryer,  C. Thomas Howell, Ben Stiller, and Kyra Sedgwick auditioning for various roles. The bad news, that infamous unused footage of Eric Stoltz is still nowhere to be found! I've seen it pop up on YouTube once in a while so if you have not seen it keep looking! 

The seven-disc set arrives in a slipbox with an unfortunate floating-heads photoshop artwork on the cover, this trilogy has never had great artwork on the sets for some reason. Inside the discs are housed in a discbook,  with the cardboard sleeves that the disc slip into, which I am not a fan of. The good news is that the cover of the slipbox, the pages inside, and the UHD and Blu-ray discs at least feature the original Drew Struzan poster artwork, which is cool. I like that the pages also detail the extras for each film, and we get a Movies Anywhere 4K Digital Copy code for the trilogy. Tiny packaging gripes aside I do dig that we get the extras on both the UHD and Blu-ray discs, except for the bonus disc which is Blu-ray only. If you're not a fan of slipboxes there is a Best Buy Steelbook edition, but even it does not offer the original Drew Struzan artwork, which is a shame. 

Special Features: 

Back To The Future (4K & Blu-ray)
- Q&A Commentary with Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale
- Feature Audio Commentary with Bob Gale and Neil Canton
- Deleted Scenes with optional commentary by Bob Gale (11 min) HD 
- Tales from the Future: In the Beginning… (27 min) HD
- Tales from the Future: Time to Go (30 min) HD
- Tales from the Future: Keeping Time (6 min) HD
 -The Making of Back to the Future (14 min)
- Making the Trilogy: Chapter One (16 min)
- Back to the Future Night (27 min)
- Michael J. Fox Q&A (10 min) 
- Behind the Scenes: Original Makeup Tests (2 min) HD 
- Behind the Scenes: Outtakes (3 min) HD 
- Behind the Scenes: Nuclear Test Site Sequence with optional commentary by Bob Gale (4 min) HD 
- Behind the Scenes: Photo Galleries HD 
- Huey Lewis and the News “The Power of Love” Music Video (6 min)
- Theatrical Teaser Trailer (1 min)
- Join Team Fox Promo (6 min) HD 

Back To The Future II (4K & Blu-ray)
-Q&A Commentary with Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale
- Feature Audio Commentary with Bob Gale and Neil Canton
- Deleted Scenes with optional commentary by Bob Gale (6 min) HD 
- Tales from the Future: Time Flies (29 min) HD
 -The Physics of Back to the Future (8 min) HD 
- The Making of Back to the Future Part II (7 min)
- Making the Trilogy: Chapter Two (16 min)
- Behind the Scenes: Outtakes (1 min)
- Behind the Scenes: Production Design (3 min)
- Behind the Scenes: Storyboarding (2 min)
- Behind the Scenes: Designing the DeLorean (4 min)
- Behind the Scenes: Designing Time Travel (3 min)
- Behind the Scenes: Hoverboard Test (1 min)
- Behind the Scenes: Evolution of Visual Effects Shots (6 min)
- Behind the Scenes: Photo Galleries HD 
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min)

Back To The Future III (4K & Blu-ray)
- Q&A Commentary with Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale
- Feature Audio Commentary with Bob Gale and Neil Canton
- Deleted Scene  with optional commentary by Bob Gale (1 min) HD 
- Tales from the Future: Third Time’s the Charm (17 min) HD 
- Tales from the Future: The Test of Time (17 min) HD 
- The Making of Back to the Future Part III (8 min)
- Making the Trilogy: Chapter Three (16 min) 
- The Secrets of the Back to the Future Trilogy (21 min)
- Behind the Scenes: Outtakes (2 min) )
- Behind the Scenes: Designing the Town of Hill Valley (1 min) 
- Behind the Scenes: Designing the Campaign (1 min) )
- 5 Behind the Scenes: Photo Galleries HD
- ZZ Top “Doubleback” Music Video (4 min)
- FAQs About the Trilogy HD 
 -Theatrical Trailer (2 min)
- Back to the Future: The Ride (31 min) 

Bonus Disc  (Blu-ray)
- NEW! The Hollywood Museum Goes Back to the Future (10 min) HD 
- NEW! Back to the Future: The Musical - Cast and Creative Q&A (28 min) HD 
- NEW! Back to the Future: The Musical - “Gotta Start Somewhere” (3 min) HD 
- NEW! Back to the Future: The Musical - “Put Your Mind to It” (3 min) HD 
- NEW! An Alternate Future: Lost Audition Tapes (4 min) HD 
- NEW! Could You Survive the Movies? Back to the Future (20 min) HD 
- 2015 Message from Doc Brown (1 min) HD
- Doc Brown Saves the World (9 min) HD 
- OUTATIME: Restoring the DeLorean (22 min) HD )
- Looking Back to the Future (46 min)
- Back to the Future: The Animated Series - Brothers (23 min)
- Back to the Future: The Animated Series - Mac the Black (23 min
- 2015 Commercial: Jaws 19 Trailer (1 min) HD 
- 2015 Commercial: Hoverboard (1 min) HD

The Back to The Future - The Ultimate Trilogy is a fantastic set, the A/V upgrade is well-worth a double, triple or quadruple-dip, or whatever the case might be at this point, I know I have upgraded this set no less than three times! If you are a fan of the series and want the best looking and sounding editions this set is the way to go.