Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Patently rejecting the notion that brevity is the soul of wit, IaMMMMW is Hollywood’s first (and last?) “epic comedy,” clocking in at two hours and 24 minutes in its popular version. Just about every A-list comedy actor of the era is involved in this sprawling tale of some everyday folk who drop everything for an unplanned dash to find a deceased criminal’s buried loot.

The vintage 65mm elements were scanned at 4K with impressive results: The exceptionally well-composed 2.76:1 frame boasts minimal grain, superb detail, and well-saturated colors. An extended 197-minute version on a separate disc adds back in some scenes culled from a 70mm print, with only modest quality shifts in the video and the clean, balanced DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack. Three companion DVDs mirror both edits plus the extensive bonus content, which spans the original 1963 release all the way up to the present day, with an audio/special effects discussion endearingly entitled “Sound and Vision.”