Well I understand Firestarter (which wasn't bad as people say), The Black Phone was well deserving of a UHD.
Yeah, it's really annoying that both The Black Phone and Beast were apparently both finished in 4K, but we don't get 4K Blu-Ray releases for either. I almost swear I saw Dolby Cinema listings for both, which means they have Atmos and Dolby Vision. I could see Universal handing The Black Phone to Scream Factory for a UHD release, much like Happy Death Day and its sequel. Beast didn't perform that greatly to really think a boutique label would put the effort in where Universal won't.
Apparently, the German Blu-ray will have French and Italian audio / subtitles and Dutch subtitles, so it will be sold in multiple countries. It will be interesting to see if more countries also get the Atmos track, too. Regardless, this is becoming a weird quirk at Universal.
Yeah, it's really annoying that both The Black Phone and Beast were apparently both finished in 4K, but we don't get 4K Blu-Ray releases for either. I almost swear I saw Dolby Cinema listings for both, which means they have Atmos and Dolby Vision. I could see Universal handing The Black Phone to Scream Factory for a UHD release, much like Happy Death Day and its sequel. Beast didn't perform that greatly to really think a boutique label would put the effort in where Universal won't.
Now I’m in an awkward position if I should buy The Black Phone on Blu-Ray.
OWN IT ON DIGITAL OCTOBER 7, 2022
BLU-RAY™ AND DVD OCTOBER 11, 2022
FROM UNIVERSAL PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Universal City, California, September 30, 2022 – Idris Elba (Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw) gives a “forcefully magnetic” (Sara Michelle Fetters, Moviefreak.com) performance in the action-thriller BEAST available to own on Digital on October 7th, 2022, and on Blu-ray™ and DVD on October 11th, 2022, from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. Experience the epic adventure of this true fight for family in this “classic man-vs-nature” (Jake Coyle, AP) story that will keep fans on the edge of their seat. Bring the film home with behind-the-scenes featurettes diving into the creation of The Beast, a deeper look into the South African filming locations, and much more to get fully immersed into the world of BEAST.
From the director of Everest (Baltasar Kormáku), pulse-pounding BEAST follows recently widowed father Dr. Nate Samuels (Elba) who returns to South Africa with his two daughters Meredith (Iyana Halley; Wayward, “This Is Us”) and Norah (Leah Jeffries; “Rel,” Faith Under Fire) to visit an old friend, Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley; “Russian Doll,” Ted K) on a game reserve. What begins as a journey of healing turns into a fearsome fight for survival as his family find themselves hunted by a massive, rogue lion intent on proving that the savannah has but one apex predator.
With the purchase of BEAST on digital or disc, fans are eligible to earn points towards digital movies via the Universal All-Access Rewards program. Members can redeem their points for digital movies, swag and more! For registration and details please visit https://myuniversalrewards.com/.
BONUS FEATURES ON DVD, BLU-RAYTM & DIGITAL:
DELETED SCENE – Watch an exclusive unreleased scene from Beast
MAN VS. LION: THE FINAL BATTLE – Go inside the epic final battle between Nate and the beast himself as Director Baltasar Kormákur, star Idris Elba, and key members of the VFX team walk us through putting it all together.
CREATING THE BEAST – The vicious title character of Beast is no ordinary lion. He’s bigger, he’s meaner, and he’s got an axe to grind against humanity. Sit down with director Baltasar Kormákur as he explains what he envisioned for The Beast.
MAKING IT REAL: THE WOUNDS – Sit down with prosthetics supervisor Clinton Smith and prosthetic assistant Daleen Badenhorst as they walk us through all the gory details of creating realistic looking slices, gashes, and tears caused by a massive, predatory lion.
FILMING IN THE BEAST’S TERRITORY – Visit Limpopo South Africa where the cast and crew of BEAST travelled to capture all the vistas, planes, and mountains of Africa authentically on film.
FAMILY BOND: THE CAST OF THE BEAST – Meet the family at the heart of this story as director Baltasar Kormákur and cast members Idris Elba, Iyana Halley, and Leah Jeffries take us inside their characters’ journeys as they come together and heal in the direst of circumstances.
A LION’S PRIDE – Learn the tragic truth of lion poaching with this factual piece that takes viewers inside the fight to protect the big game of Africa.
CAST & FILMMAKERS:
Directed By: Baltasar Kormáku
Written By: Ryan Engle
Story By: Jamie Primak Sullivan
Produced By: Will Packer p.g.a., Baltasar Kormáku p.g.a., James Lopez p.g.a.
Cast: Idris Elba, Sharlto Copley, Iyana Halley, and Leah Jeffries
TECHNICAL INFORMATION BLU-RAYTM:
Street Date:October 11, 2022
Selection Number:1000818688 (US) / 1000818750 (CDN)
Layers:BD 50
Aspect Ratio:Widescreen 16:9 2.39:1
Rating:R for violent content, bloody images and some language
Languages/Subtitles:English, French Canadian and Latin American Spanish
Sound:English (DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 for Feature and Dolby Digital 2.0 for Bonus Content), French Canadian (DTS Digital Surround 5.1), Latin American Spanish (Dolby Digital Plus 7.1)
Run Time:1 hour 33 minutes (Theatrical)
TECHNICAL INFORMATION DVD:
Street Date:October 11, 2022
Selection Number:1000818687 (US) / 1000818749 (CDN)
Layers: DVD 9
Aspect Ratio:Widescreen 16:9 2.39:1
Rating:R for violent content, bloody images and some language
Languages/Subtitles:English, French Canadian and Latin American Spanish
Sound: English (Dolby Digital 5.1 for Feature and Dolby Digital 2.0 for Bonus Content), French Canadian (Dolby Digital 5.1), Latin American Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Run Time:1 hour 33 minutes (Theatrical)
ABOUT UNIVERSAL PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT:
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment (UPHE – https://www.uphe.com/) is a unit of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group (UFEG). UFEG produces, acquires, markets and distributes filmed entertainment worldwide in various media formats for theatrical, home entertainment, television and other distribution platforms, as well as consumer products, interactive gaming and live entertainment. The global division includes Universal Pictures, Focus Features, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, Universal Brand Development, Fandango, DreamWorks Animation Film and Television and Awesomeness. UFEG is part of NBCUniversal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production and marketing of entertainment, news and information to a global audience. NBCUniversal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, world-renowned theme parks and a suite of leading Internet-based businesses. NBCUniversal is a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation.
Universal's listing for the German Blu-ray is up and also confirms Dolby Atmos in English and German, with French and Italian audio and subtitles and Dutch subtitles:
I rented this from Redbox today. For all intents and purposes, it appears to be the US retail disc. The BDInfo scan appears identical to the scan Pieter V posted below, although the disc I have is fractionally (about 0.5 megabytes) larger in size.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pieter V
[Show spoiler]
BDInfo scan
Note that the audio track provided is DTS-HD MA 7.1. However, the film sports logos for both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X object-based audio mixes, neither of which are included on this disc:
[Show spoiler]
The Dolby Digital track is audio description with a female American voice.
The film opens with a scene of dialogue in an African language (possibly Tshivenda, which is referenced later in the film), then later in the film, there are a couple more subtitled lines regarding a character learning the Tshivenda language. These lines have English subtitles burned in:
[Show spoiler]
The extras consist of a deleted scene and several featurettes, the last of which is more of an environmental piece about the conservation of real African lion populations. Surprisingly and unfortunately, Universal has not provided any subtitles for the extras.
[Show spoiler]
Code:
Total Video
Title Codec Length Movie Size Disc Size Bitrate Bitrate Main Audio Track Secondary Audio Track
----- ------ ------- -------------- -------------- ------- ------- ------------------ ---------------------
00800.MPLS AVC 1:32:46 28,990,949,376 38,628,284,605 41.67 32.80 DTS-HD Master 7.1 4812Kbps (48kHz/24-bit)
I was kind of taken aback by this disc when it started. I get the feeling a ton of digital grading and tinkering (along with some digital grain) was done on this film and in the night sequences, I noticed that the location backgrounds could get blurry and out of focus somehow, even though it seems the footage was shot on location in South Africa. In fact, a number of scenes, primarily ones with heavy post-production, seemed to be less sharp than, say, actor close-ups or other shots that probably had little to no grading or manipulation.
Any shot with a lion in it would seem to be CGI and the CGI can look convincing to not-so-convincing depending on the complexity of the shot. Sometimes when we are looking at closeups or fast movements, the CGI can look somewhat artificial. However, from watching the extras, it does seem like more was CGI than is noticeable at first. For example, in one climatic scene, the extras seem to reveal that a t-shirt was not just digitally bloodied, but digitally added to the wearer, presumably necessary because of interacting with CGI. For a film with a reported budget of $36 million, it looks decent, but I wish
[Show spoiler]we were still using in camera techniques without CGI, like animatronics and puppets, to make animals look as realistic as possible on screen
.
One thing that's interesting about the film is that beyond the animal attacks, it is pretty squeaky clean and was probably scripted and possibly even shot with a PG-13 rating in mind. Some of the wound make-up is probably too explicit for that rating, but maybe the production banked on being able to digitally sanitize that in post-production if they had a realistic shot at a PG-13.
As for the film itself, I thought it was a very mixed bag. I had deliberately stayed away from much of the marketing and I was hoping that Elba would use his natural English accent instead of playing an American, but unfortunately, he doesn't. Some of the dialogue for his daughters is also pretty terrible, cliched and even borderline obnoxious, although that isn't the fault of the two young actresses, both of whom are very good when the script is up to par. Unfortunately, there are too many sidebars into tedious family drama and hallucinations of dead relatives, dragging down the pace and making the film feel longer than its short 93-minute run time. I really wanted more from the lion, too, especially since
[Show spoiler]he behaves more like a serial killer than a real lion, I wanted to see him change up his approaches and attack differently and with more intelligence
.
I'm still surprised that Universal failed to include Atmos (or DTS:X!) on the US BD, so I think I will wait for the UK BD to come out and give it a re-watch with the Atmos audio. The 7.1 track was very good, I thought, so I imagine the Atmos should be at least as good, if not better. The UK disc probably won't have the burned-in English subtitles, but to be honest, I think I prefer Universal's standard subtitle font to the burned-in font, which is smaller but just as plain and kind of unpleasant-looking. I suspect the UK BD will also have English subtitles for the extras, as well.
EDIT: Also, the deleted scene is a short conversation between the two daughters that had great work from both actors. It could have easily been kept in the film for some good character development.
What happened to this movie? I watched it last night via Amazon, and after the first minute I had to check if it was produced with an Iphone or a professional camera. And yes, according to IMDB Arri Alexa 65 & Arri Alexa Mini LF, but the movie doesn't look remotely like it.
The night sequences are so filtered and smeared that the image is often on the verge of collapse, and even the daytime shots, which are sharp in principle, show heavy DNR. However, there is no real consistency, little looks normal, but overall this film has been digitally butchered in a way I have rarely seen in a modern production.
Can anyone confirm that the theatrical DCP and Blu-ray had/have the same issues?
Went down to $9 and picked this up. Will be here in a few days. Looks fun and exciting, so hope I like it. If it's anything like The Ghost And The Darkness or Crawl then I should.
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Beast (2022)
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