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THE EPITAPH VOL. 62:
WARNER BROS. HOME ENTERTAINMENT 4K UHD ROUND-UP EDITION!
WESTWORLD: SEASON 4 - THE CHOICE (2022) - DON'T WORRY DARLING (2022) - BLACK ADAM (2022)
WESTWORLD: SEASON 4 - THE CHOICE (2022)
Label: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Region Code: Region Free, A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 480 Minutes
Audio: Dolby Atmos (UHD), DTS-HD MA 5.1 (BD) with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 2160p Ultra HD (1.78:1) Widescreen, 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Cast: Evan Rachel Wood, Thandiwe Newton, Ed Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Tessa Thompson, Aaron Paul, Luke Hemsworth, Angela Sarafyan, Ariana DeBose, Aurora Perrineau, Daniel Wu.
Westworld ends with season four, not by design, but by cancellation - one of the tragedies of the recent HBO/WB shake-up. The sci-fi dark odyssey's fourth season picks up seven years after the season three finale, there's been a protracted war between A.I. hosts and sentient humans, and were dealing with the aftermath. This season seemed like a bit of course correction over the wildly uneven third season, rewiring the series to get things back on track... only to be cancelled. That said, Westworld is a slick looking and epic scale series, it has always looked fantastic on home video and this 4K UHD + Blu-ray + Digital set is no exception. We get a razor-sharp looking presentation with the benefit of Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos with a healthy set of extras for a streaming series. It's also worth noting the importance of physical media now that HBO Max has pulled the series in it's entirety from streaming.
Special Features:
- Westworld on the Road (Exclusive to 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD) (17 min)
- Westworld: An Exploration of Humanity (Exclusive to Home Entertainment) (8 min)
- Westworld’s Temperance: A Set Tour (6 min)
- Creating Westworld’s Reality Episodes 1-8: the Auguries (7 min), Well Enough Alone (5 min), Annees Folles(6 min), Generation Loss (5 min), Zhuangzi (5 min), Fidelity (5 min)
- Digital Copy
- Slipcover
Label: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: R
Duration: 122 Minutes
Audio: English ATMOS, TrueHD with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 2160p Ultra HD Widescreen (2.39:1), 1080p HD Widescreen (2.39:1)
Director: Olivia Wilde
Cast: Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Gemma Chan, KiKi Layne, Chris Pine, Nick Kroll, Sydney Chandler, Kate Berlant, Asif Ali, Douglas Smith, Timothy Simons, Ari’el Stachel
Olivia Wilde's follow-up to her debut film Booksmart is Don’t Worry Darling, wherein Alice (Florence Pugh) and Jack (Harry Styles) live an idealized mid-century experimental city where all the men work for the top-secret Victory Project, run by a mysterious and charismatic CEO (Chris Pine). The housewives enjoy their days cleaning, shopping and taking advantage of beauty spas, but despite the sheen of wealth and luxury Alice begins to experience a strange depression, she sees cracks in the advertised perfection, cracks that reveal a sinister darkness lurking just beneath the surface. Watching this I had no prior knowledge of the plot nor of the behind-the-scenes productions shenanigans surrounding it, and I am probably better off for it. This is a sneaky little riff on something along the lines of The Stepford Wives, a suburban Utopia that turns into a domesticated nightmare, and I dug it. I do think that the build-up is wasted on a finale that starts falling apart, but I like the style and atmosphere of it, and I am someone who can overlook a lack of substance if you're gonna candy-coat it is a glossy, pastel colored retro-vibes. While it was not perfection it was a fun enough riff on an old idea with some lavish set design that absolutely shines with the 4K UHD presentation bolstered with HDR and a Dolby Atmos upgrade that is fantastically immersive. I've heard this flick beat down for it's perceived style over substance approach, but what can I say, it's a visual medium and I don't mind losing myself in it.
Special Features:
- The Making of Don’t Worry Darling (17 min)
- Alice’s Nightmare Deleted Scene (1 min)
- Digital Copy
Label: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 124 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby ATMOS, TrueHD, DTS-HD MA with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Aldis Hodge, Noah Centineo, Sarah Shahi, Marwan Kenzari, Quintessa Swindell, Bodhi Sabongui, Pierce Brosnan
DC's a hot mess right now, and who knows what the future holds, but it looks like most of the DCU is being written off with no plans to continue any of the current atory arcs, that includes the recently released Black Adam as well as the still-to-come The Flash film. In it we have Dwayne Johnson playing a 5,000 year old Teth-Adam, a former slave imbued with God-like powers by a group of wizards. Once he is freed from his earthly tomb he reluctantly sets about freeing his homeland of Khandaq. His unchecked power and aggression results in many )many) deaths of the oppressive Intergang who have ruled over Khandaq for a quarter century, and this attracts the attention of the supergroup the Justice Society with Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Dr. Fate (Pierce Brosnan), Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell), and Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo). The pro not-killing baddies supes don't see eye-to-eye with anti-hero Teth-Adam's merciless brand of justice. It's a totally fine popcorn muncher that sort of wastes the charms of Johnson IMO, but he looks fantastic in the role, filling the stylish suit quite nicely with some truly dazzling action eye-candy set-pieces. I thought the Justice Society supes were well-done, I loved Bronson as the Dr Fate and Hodge as Hawkman has kind of turned me around on a character that always seemed a bit silly to me (in the cartoons at least), he's a total badass! Atom Smasher and Cyclone were less impressive for me, but on the whole a very entertaining and violent popcorn muncher of a supes film - which is about as good as it gets with the majority of these. Not surprisingly the flick looks fantastic in 4K UHD with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos enhancement - it's loud and the colors looks terrific, very pleasing. We also get over an hour of extras that get into the comic origins of Black Adama and the Justice Society, the world-building, characters, and the massive amount of special effects.
Special Features:
- The History of Black Adam (10 min)
- Who is The Justice Society? (14 min)
- From Soul to Screen (6 min)
- Black Adam: A Flawed Hero (5 min)
- Black Adam: New Tech in an Old World (5 min)
- Black Adam: Taking Flight (4 min)
- Kahndaq: Designing a Nation (6 min)
- The Rock of Eternity (6 min)
- Costumes make the hero (8 min)
- Black Adam: A New Type of Action (7 min)
- Digital Copy
- Slipcover
