Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Chinatown is a great jumping-on point for anyone looking to take their love of movies to the next level. It’s an entertaining and brilliantly constructed period fiction about the very real history of Los Angeles. Paramount’s new 50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition offers up a generous complement of bonus content that teaches us plenty about the true events on which the story is based as well as behind-the-scenes drama.

Jack Nicholson plays J.J. Gittes, a world-weary private investigator with a heart of gold, hired to find proof of the supposed extramarital affair of a rich, influential city engineer… but is there more to this case than meets the eye? And what does it have to do with the drought wreaking havoc on so many Angelenos? The locale of the title is a metaphor for a mysterious place where bad things happen and you can’t always be sure what’s really going on — our tipoff that this is far more than your average detective yarn.

A lot of effort was clearly invested to conjure ‘30s-authentic L.A., not with an artificial gold tint to the 2.35:1 image per se but a warm, vintage look nonetheless. Cinematographer John Alonzo’s magic hour shots intoxicate with their sumptuous hues, while the disc’s HDR highlights in street lamps and headlights have a greater than expected pop. That’s the good news. Unfortunately, the blacks are mostly flat and lifeless, surrendering no detail and even taking on an unnatural appearance at times. Film grain remains but looks to have been significantly reduced.

The remixers were apparently not intending to reinvent the soundtrack here, demonstrating respectful restraint versus modern flash in the transition from Oscar-nominated mono (which can also be found on the disc, as Dolby Digital 2.0) to the default TrueHD 5.1. The surrounds are called upon for faint atmospheric fill, echo, and the occasional discrete cue. Jerry Goldsmith’s achingly nostalgic melodies, built largely from heartfelt brass and strings, extend into the rear channels as well.

The extensive array of ported featurettes and even a couple of new ones enlighten us about the twilight of Hollywood’s pre-blockbuster era and the struggles to make Chinatown an ultimate and enduring triumph, while the commentary pairs the film’s Oscar-winning screenwriter Robert Towne with superfan filmmaker David Fincher. Although a single-vendor copy code is supplied, no HD Blu-ray of this movie is included. There is, however, a 1080p platter of the not-as-bad-as-you’ve-heard Nicholson-directed 1990 sequel, The Two Jakes.

ULTRA HD 4K BLU-RAY
STUDIO: Paramount, 1974
ASPECT RATIO: 2.35:1
HDR FORMAT: Dolby Vision, HDR10
AUDIO FORMAT: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
LENGTH: 130 mins., R
DIRECTOR: Roman Polanski
STARRING:Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, Perry Lopez, John Hillerman, Darrell Zwerling