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John Sciacca

What Do You Do with a Room with a View?

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What Do You Do with a Room with a View?

What Do You Do with a Room with a View?

“These oceanfront residences are built on raised piers to keep them above the flood zone, which means they almost never have a basement, the most traditional location for a home theater”

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You don’t need to sacrifice your scenic vistas to have great home entertainment experiences—or vice versa

by John Sciacca
March 6, 2022

I live and do most of my installations in an area of South Carolina known as the Grand Strand, which is defined as “an arc of beach land on the Atlantic Ocean in South Carolina extending more than 60 miles from Little River to Winyah Bay.” You’re probably more familiar with it as the generic “Myrtle Beach,” and we happen to be the golf capital of the world, so tourism is a huge part of the economy.

Many of our clients have beachfront property with large banks of floor-to-ceiling windows providing unobstructed views, and one of the biggest design priorities is preserving that “million-dollar view.” But that doesn’t mean the clients want to abandon all of the entertainment possibilities; it just means they want us to be more creative about how we integrate technology throughout their homes. In addition, many of these residences are second (or even third) homes, which can also influence the decisions the owners make when selecting the technology they want throughout the home.

While all of that open glass is great for looking out during the day, it also means people can look back in, especially at night when it’s dark out and you have lights on in the home. This was something I discussed in Women Do Care About This Stuff,” where the homeowner was keen to preserve his beautiful views but wanted privacy so his family wasn’t on display at night. 

For these applications, dual-roller shades from companies like Lutron are becoming increasingly popular. With the shades built into recessed pockets, the hardware is completely out of site and doesn’t have an impact on the gorgeous views. Sheer shades can be lowered to keep out the sun and provide some privacy during the day while retaining the views, with the hembars creating a nice architectural line across the windows. After the sun sets, a blackout shade silently lowers in front of the windows for total privacy. 

These shades can be programmed to raise and lower automatically based on sunrise and sunset. They can even use Lutron’s Hyperion sun-tracking feature to adjust their levels based on the sun’s position throughout the day, meaning the home is always set to deliver the perfect view, while respecting the occupants’ privacy. 

Something else we’ve learned is that the hurricane-rated glass in these windows wreaks havoc on Wi-Fi signals. Instead of passing through the glass like a typical window, the radio signals actually bounce back into the home, so getting solid Wi-Fi coverage throughout the rooms—and porches—means using outdoor-rated wireless-access points. 

Another installation obstacle is our very high water table, which means these oceanfront residences are built on raised piers to keep them above the flood zone. So homes in our area almost never have a basement, the most traditional location for a home theater. 

Because of that, we do far more multi-purpose media rooms in large, open areas than we do dedicated theaters with projectors, which require serious lighting control via blackout shades or drapes. We’ll often employ large, 75- and 85-inch direct-view LED displays that produce bright images that can compete with the sunlight for viewing during the day and that are big enough to be cinematic for an evening movie. We’re also excited about the new jumbo-sized direct-view sets from companies like Sony, which give us an option for doing screen sizes up to 100 inches. In fact, my business partner just sold three of these new 100-inch sets for an upcoming project!

For customers who don’t want a large screen potentially dominating a room’s décor, there are other solutions. One is LG’s Rollable OLED—a self-contained technological marvel that delivers a fantastic image when in use but that completely disappears when not. Ultra-short-throw projectors offer another great solution, with a variety of creative furniture options that can conceal the projector and any other electronics the system requires. Aegis AV offers its Andromeda solution that conceals everything—including a motorized projection screen up to 120 inches diagonal—in a customizable cabinet.

Just as every homeowner has different wants, needs, tastes, and budgets, homes themselves will often have elements that can dictate design. But there are often creative ways to solve these installation challenges and end up with a project that looks and sounds great. 

Probably the most experienced writer on custom installation in the industry, John Sciacca is co-owner of Custom Theater & Audio in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, & is known for his writing for such publications as Residential Systems and Sound & Vision. Follow him on Twitter at @SciaccaTweets and at johnsciacca.com.

“While all of that open glass is great for looking out during the day, it also means people can look back in

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Review: Severance

Severance (2022)

review | Severance

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This Ben Stiller-directed AppleTV+ series is less comedy and more sci-fi/mystery/thriller

by John Sciacca
March 4, 2022

Launched on November 1, 2019, Apple TV+ has been languishing as one of the many “others” in the streaming space. While trying to figure out how to gain subscribers and increase its content offerings, the company was literally giving the service away to anyone who purchased an eligible Apple product (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV, or Mac). After buying a new iPad for my wife, we enjoyed the free first year, which was then extended to nearly 18 months. After our grace period ran out, I found enough value in the service to keep it for the $4.99/month subscription.

Apple’s original offerings were pretty slim pickings but they’ve since developed a solid roster of compelling series including the highly-acclaimed Ted Lasso, For All Mankind, and The Morning Show, along with two of Tom Hanks’ latest films, Greyhound and Finch, and the Academy Award-nominated The Tragedy of Macbeth. One of the latest originals is Severance, and it’s one of those shows that will likely stick with you and stir up some conversations after an episode ends, with a lot of conjecture and “What if . . ?” thoughts.

Don’t let the fact that the series is directed by Ben Stiller make you think it’s a comedy. While there are some comedic moments, the humor is bone dry, and Severance is far more a psychological, sci-fi mystery think piece. Well, at least it is three episodes in.

We follow Mark (Adam Scott) as he works in an office with Irving (John Turturro), Helly (Britt Lower), and Dylan (Zach Cherry), along with ever-present supervisor Milchick (Tramell Tillman) keeping an eye on things, and department head Harmony (Patricia Arquette). 

Mark and team work on what is known as a “severed floor” deep within the basement bowels of a giant corporation called Lumon Industries. Severance is a controversial medical procedure the employees have all voluntarily—as far as we know—undergone that divides—severs—their work (“innie”) and non-work (“outie”) memories. Once you step into the Lumon elevator and begin descending to your floor, you completely forget all knowledge of your life that exists outside work. And once you ascend in the elevator, you have no recollection of what you do for Lumon. We’re told the severance procedure is complete and irreversible. 

The four employees work in a division known as “microdata refinement,” where they look at antiquated monochrome CRT monitors filled with numbers. Their job is to analyze the data until something jumps out at them and then they isolate “the scary numbers” from others, grouping them and putting them into data buckets. What does the data mean, what is it for, and what are they really doing? Speculation abounds, but answers are slow coming inside Lumon. 

Mark recently lost his wife, and chose severance as a way to deal with the pain. Both Irving and Dylan have been with Lumon for a couple of years, though we know virtually nothing (yet) of their past. Irving, played with wonderfully sincere seriousness by Turturro, is a strict company man, while Dylan seems far more interested in the tchotchkes that come from a job well-done, including the ultimate prize: A waffle breakfast. We do get a few brief factoids about Irving’s outie during a “wellness check” in Episode Two, “Half Loop,” where Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman) shares facts that he should enjoy equally. 

Helly is a new employee introduced early in the first episode, “Good News About Hell.” Hired to replace suddenly-gone department head Petey (Yul Vazquez), we glean bits and pieces about life inside Lumon and the job through her training.

Parallels can undoubtedly be drawn between fictional Lumon and the ultra-secretive real-life Apple Corporation, which would probably love to offer an actual severed floor. While the facility itself doesn’t actually resemble “The Ring” of Apple Park (the company’s new headquarters in Cupertino, California), its symmetry, size, and scale are certainly evocative. And the balance—or rather division—of work and home life are easily relatable. 

Streamed in 4K HDR with Dolby Vision, image quality is definitely good enough for conveying the story. We get some nice punchy highlights from the numerous fluorescent lights and ever-present white walls, hallways, and corridors inside the massiveness that is Lumon, and there is plenty of facial detail in closeups and enough resolution to make out the individual pixels in the staff’s monitors. 

Severance also features a Dolby Atmos mix that so far is little more than serviceable. The vast majority of the show takes place inside the stark and sterile office space, and we do get a bit of office-sounds ambience and some expansion of the score. But dialogue is the key here, and fortunately it’s clear and intelligible. 

Unlike Netflix and Amazon Prime, which prefer to dump all of the episodes of a series at once, Apple takes more of a Disney+ approach and doles out new episodes each Friday. This makes it a perfect time to jump into Severance as you’re only three episodes “behind” as of this writing, meaning you can quickly catch up.

Probably the most experienced writer on custom installation in the industry, John Sciacca is co-owner of Custom Theater & Audio in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, & is known for his writing for such publications as Residential Systems and Sound & Vision. Follow him on Twitter at @SciaccaTweets and at johnsciacca.com.

PICTURE | The image quality of the 4K HDR Dolby Vision stream is definitely good enough for conveying the story, with nice punchy highlights from the numerous fluorescent lights and ever-present white walls inside the massive office space

SOUND | The Atmos mix is little more than serviceable, although dialogue is clear and intelligible and there is some office-sounds ambience and some expansion of the score

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Review: Tick, Tick . . . Boom!

Tick, Tick . . . Boom (2021)

review | Tick, Tick . . . Boom!

Lin-Manuel Miranda acquits himself nicely in his directorial debut with this musical tale of the final days of Rent creator Jonathan Larson

by Anthony Savona
February 22, 2022

He’s not well known in the wider world but in the musical theater domain, Jonathan Larson is considered a tragic genius. The creator of Rent (the Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning ’90s Broadway show that inspired a whole generation of theater fans and creatives), Larson died of a sudden aortic dissection the night before the show was to have its first preview, never knowing the tremendous success his work would receive or the influence it would have. 

And while his life story is ripe for the telling—a starving artist who dreams of changing musical theater and does so but passes away just before he can see his dream become a reality—that isn’t the tale Tick,Tick . . . Boom! tells. It’s more of an origin story for Rent, based on a one-man musical written and performed by Larson himself. And, as the film’s opening narration says, “Everything is true . . . except for the parts Jonathan made up.”

In Tick, Tick . . . Boom!, Larson (played by Oscar nominee Andrew Garfield) shares the stresses he’s under preparing for a first reading of a musical he’s been working on for eight years (not Rent), his best friend and roommate Michael (Robin de Jesus) moving out of the dumpy downtown NYC apartment they share, and his girlfriend Susan (Alexandra Shipp) looking to move out of the city and settle down. Oh, and he’s about to turn 30 and still hasn’t made a name for himself on Broadway, unlike his hero Stephen Sondheim (Bradley Whitford).

The film moves between a stage version of the musical—which includes Larson, a small band, and two singers, Roger (Joshua Henry) and Karessa (Vanessa Hudgens)—and his life at the time, juggling the pressures of his creative and personal life with shifts at the Moondance Diner to scrape a living together until he hits it big.

Garfield is a marvel and deserves all the attention and awards love he’s receiving. He’s no stranger to Broadway, having won a Tony for the play Angels in America in 2018. But he admits he had no deep knowledge of Larson prior to this film, and that keeps his performance from being a star-eyed tribute. His Larson is charming and talented but also so driven that he’s often blind to everything else happening around him.

The film’s director, Lin-Manuel Miranda—yes, of Hamilton fame and composer for seemingly every Disney animated film of late (including Encanto)knows quite a bit about the business of Broadway and what it takes to break through. Having been deeply influenced by Rent and Larson, he’s the perfect person to tell this story, which is clearly important to him—and it shows in the care he’s taken to present it.

Thanks to Miranda’s well-connected address book. two scenes feature cameos from Broadway’s best. In one—a musical number at the diner where Larson works—stage stars from the ’60s through today harass Larson for brunch, including Miranda himself along with fellow Hamilton alums Phillipa Soon and Renee Elise Goldsberry. In  the other, Larson is presenting his songs in a workshop where the class is made up of some of Broadway’s biggest writers, composers, and producers. (You can read up on who’s who here.)

Miranda works in several homages to Rent, including the answering machine “beep!,” Larson riding his bike past the Cat Scratch Club (where one of the characters worked), Jonathan lighting a candle while speaking with his girlfriend in the dark, and a rooftop scene where numbers on a nearby building add up to 525,600. (Anyone who knows the song “Seasons of Love” just sang that number instead of reading it.)

All of that is fantastic for theater fans but what if you could care less? Tick, Tick . . . Boom! still has you with a gripping, well-paced story of a frustrated artist trying to decide whether to give it all up or keep on trying. That we already know what Larson chooses doesn’t make the story any less compelling, and knowing how little time he has left only adds to the urgency, punctuated throughout by the sounds of a persistently ticking second hand.

Shot in 7K resolution, Tick’s transfer is taken from a 4K digital intermediate. On paper, this should translate into truly stunning image quality but it didn’t feel like the Netflix stream was able to deliver on all of its visual potential. It looked more like it was shot on film than having the hyper-clear sharpness and detail of video, and often felt more like I was watching a 1080p Blu-ray. One scene that really delivered, though, was the haunting ballad “Why?,” which was beautifully shot in the empty Delacorte Theater in Central Park. It hits you right in the feels, and the image quality has great depth and sharpness, letting you clearly see the sharp lines of the theater and count the rows of seats.

The HDR grade isn’t overly aggressive, with the focus on making natural, lifelike images with good depth and shadow detail. We do get some nice highlights of bright sunlight streaming in through windows, glowing street lights and lamps, and white-hot stage lighting. 

Of course, a musical is only as good as its songs. Fortunately, Larson knew how to write a good rock song, Garfield knows how to deliver them, and Miranda knows how to handle the multi-layered delivery. The Dolby Atmos track makes the music the worthy star of this performance. Audio is kept across the front, except when the musical numbers begin; then the soundstage expands, filling the room with the score, occasionally placing some vocals out in the surround channels. The mix also gives a bit of ambience to other scenes, such as the spaciousness and echoes in the open rehearsal room where the reading happens or street noises in the city. Don’t expect a lot of action out of your subwoofer, though it does come to life courtesy of some drums.  

“I’m the future of musical theater,” Larson tells one obnoxious party-goer. Unfortunately, he didn’t live to see the truth of that statement. All in all, this is an encouraging directorial debut from Miranda and another star turn for Garfield, making it an easy recommendation the next time you’re wondering what to watch on Netflix. 

Anthony Savona is the Editor of Residential Systems and the VP of Content Creation for Future’s B2B—AV Tech Group. He is also the keeper of a wealth of useless knowledge in topics such as comic books, modern Broadway, ’90s punk music, and outdated AV media.

PICTURE | The Netflix stream doesn’t deliver on all of the 4K transfer’s visual potential, looking more like it was shot on film than having the hyper-clear sharpness and detail of video 

SOUND | The Atmos track makes the music the star of the performances, with the audio kept across the front except when the numbers begin. The soundstage then expands, filling the room with the score. 

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Women Do Care About This Stuff

Women Do Care About This Stuff

Women Do Care About This Stuff

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“After a quick walk-thru, the wife totally embraced the lifestyle improvements of automated shading and ended up adding shades for 30 windows”

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As entertainment technology shows up in more & more places in the home, women increasingly want to know all about the benefits—but without getting bogged down in the geeky details

by John Sciacca
February 16, 2022

It’s often said that “women just aren’t interested in this stuff.” And, truth is, when it comes to things like tech, features, and specs, women often aren’t interested—or at least aren’t as interested as their male counterparts.

Start talking about amplifier power and projector resolution and speaker performance, and women will often check out. I can say that from having worked directly with hundreds (probably more like thousands) of couples over the past 24 years designing, selling, and installing systems. I’ve also been married for 27 years, and have tried to engage and excite my wife about the benefits of improving a processor, upgrading a projector, or adding additional speakers or subwoofers to our theater system.

The usual response is, “Where is that going to go?”

But you know what women are very interested in? Design, lifestyle, and experience. When the discussion turns to how a system will look, function, or interact with users or the home, then they’re keenly interested and often have very strong opinions.

The equipment I review for various AV publications comes and goes from our home all the time, usually without comment from my wife, but when she walked into our living room one day and saw a pair of Meridian DSP5200SE tower speakers in Cerulean Blue finish, she noticed. And was impressed. “Wow! Do we get to keep those?”  And when it came time for me to review automated shades for our bedroom, she couldn’t have cared less about their automation capabilities or how they would be powered but she wanted to pour through the fabric sample books to find a color and style that looked best in our room.

And when there’s an issue with a system, it’s nearly always the woman who calls for service. While she might not be interested in the technology, she’s most frequently the one using the system day in and out, and typically the first to notice when there’s a problem.

I’ve had two customer encounters lately that speak well to this point.

In the first case, a couple came into my showroom looking to buy a simple flat wall-mount for their new TV. After discussing different options with them and going over how they planned to use and watch the TV, I showed them a fully automated and motorized mount. At the press of the TV’s power button, the set magically lowers off the wall and then swivels to turn to the primary viewing position.

“That’s what we need,” the wife said.

At first the husband balked since the mount was about 3,000% more expensive after installation than the fixed mount, but the wife understood the lifestyle and experience improvement. She knew she would be the one using the TV throughout the day, and the fact that she could power on the set and it would automatically lower from the wall, clear the fireplace mantel, and get to the perfect viewing height and position without her doing anything made the step up a simple decision. And once she decided that was the right solution, there was little room for further discussion. Plus, the mount allowed the husband to step up to a larger-screen display, so it was a “win” for him as well.

In the second case, I walked through a new build with the husband prior to doing a pretty massive prewire. We discussed options for audio and TVs throughout, and looked at shading for four of the bedroom windows. The next day, the wife came to walk the house and we spent some time together. When I told her we could use ultra-quiet automated shades from Lutron that have one sheer shade that allows privacy during the day while still letting in light and giving them a view, and then a second blackout shade for night that gives total privacy, she got it.

“And these shades can all automatically go up and down with sunrise or sunset, or I can just push a button to adjust them all? From anywhere in the home?”

Yes! (And actually, from anywhere in the world . . .)

After a brief discussion and walk-thru, the wife totally embraced the lifestyle improvements of automated shading and ended up adding shades for 30 windows throughout the home. The next day, the husband told me how excited his wife was over the decisions she’d made, and couldn’t wait to have the system installed.

So, women might not care about this stuff but they care about being able to watch their programming, listen to their music, and have the house look and function the way they want. At Cineluxe, we’re trying to embrace the lifestyle and experience benefits of technology throughout the home in a way that’s attractive, exciting, and appealing to all readers.

Probably the most experienced writer on custom installation in the industry, John Sciacca is co-owner of Custom Theater & Audio in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, & is known for his writing for such publications as Residential Systems and Sound & Vision. Follow him on Twitter at @SciaccaTweets and at johnsciacca.com.

“The wife might not be interested in the technology, but she’s most frequently the one using the system day in & out, and typically the first to notice when there’s a problem”

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Review: Reacher

Reacher (2021)

review | Reacher

The successful book series spawns an even more successful Amazon Prime series, with Tom Cruise nowhere to be seen 

by John Sciacca
February 13, 2022

“My name is Jack Reacher. No middle name, no address. I’ve got a rule: People mess with me at their own risk.”
                                                                                                                   —Jack Reacher’s Rules

The name Reacher either immediately conjures up a pre-defined and fully formed image in your mind, or it means nothing. If you’re in the first group, then you’ve probably already devoured all eight episodes of Amazon Primes’s original series Reacher and might enjoy this review from one fan to another. If you’re in the second group . . . well, I envy you in a way. You have an incredible literary road ahead of you and a fantastic new series to kickstart your journey.

I first discovered Lee Child’s character Jack Reacher while visiting my wife’s family in Alabama. There were a couple of paperbacks lying around that my father-in-law had recently finished, so I picked one up and started reading. And that was it.

Since then, I’ve devoured all of  the Reacher novels, which currently number 27. And while they mostly follow a similar pattern—Reacher rolls/walks into a new town with nothing more than the clothes on his back and a few dollars in his pockets where he randomly stumbles across some trouble or injustice he’s compelled to settle, and in doing so he meets some strong, smart, attractive female he either needs to help or work with to resolve the issue before putting his folding toothbrush back in his pocket and heading on to the next place—they’re still great fun to read. Child keeps the language simple, the story interesting, the locales and characters varied, and the pace fast. 

What we learn early on—and hear continually throughout each novel—is that Reacher is a hulking, muscle-mountain of a man who’s never intimidated by anyone or anything. While he doesn’t go looking for fights per se he certainly doesn’t back away from them. Standing 6 foot 5 inches and weighing upwards of 250 pounds, in the novel Never Go Back, Child describes him as having “a six-pack like a cobbled city street, a chest like a suit of NFL armor, biceps like basketballs, and subcutaneous fat like a Kleenex tissue.” 

While Reacher is incredibly observant (“details matter”) and brilliant at deducing clues and connecting the dots from even the smallest lead à la Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot, he solves most problems with his fists (or forehead—a brutal headbutt is one of his preferred attacks) or a gun (“Twelve-gauge lead shots settle most disputes at the first time of asking”). His hyper-tuned instincts and investigative skills have been honed and refined from his years leading the Army’s (fictional) 110th Special Investigations Unit (“You don’t mess with the special investigators”) where he solved some of the Army’s toughest cases, and now that he’s on his own, he prefers to just drift around wherever whim or the next bus or hitchhiked ride takes him. 

And coffee. Lots and lots of hot, black coffee. 

When I saw Amazon was going to have an original series about Jack Reacher, I was excited but a little apprehensive. After all, we’ve been down this road twice before with films starring Tom Cruise (Jack Reacher and Never Go Back). And while those films weren’t bad, 5-foot-whatever Cruise could just never be the physical monster Child has created and cemented in reader’s minds. (For the record, I always pictured Reacher as looking like a younger Dolph Lundgren.) Even with forced perspective and other camera tricks, Cruise was just never going to be convincing as Reacher. But when I saw that Child was serving as executive producer and a writer on the series (and actually has a brief cameo at the end of episode eight in the diner) and they cast Alan Ritchson (famous for playing Hawk on Titans and District 1 tribute Gloss in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire), I knew this had a shot to be the series I’d been hoping for. You can’t have a believable Reacher series without a believe actor in the lead, and Ritchson brings all the Reacher feels. Need more convincing the creators of this series understand and respect the character? You’ll recall the phrase, “Reacher said nothing,” throughout the books. Well, that he sits silent without saying a single word until about 7 minutes into the first episode. 

Season One covers the events from the first novel, Killing Floor, and opens with Reacher rolling into Margrave, Georgia on a whim to learn more about jazz musician Blind Blake. Shortly after arriving, he’s arrested for a murder he didn’t commit. As is the way with his life, things get personal and he gets entangled in the events—and bodies start piling up—so he decides to figure out what’s wrong with picturesque Margrave and its seemingly too-good-to-be-true benefactor Mr. Kliner (Currie Graham). While he figures things out and gets events sorted, he befriends Officer Roscoe Conklin (Willa Fitzgerald) and Captain Oscar Finlay (Malcolm Goodwin).

The story hews pretty closely to the book, though they’ve humanized Reacher a bit. In the books, no one typically lands a finger on him in a fight and pre-fight discussions usually go something like this:

“You’re about to get your ass kicked!”
“No. I’m just gonna break the hands of three drunk kids.” 
“There’s four of us.” 
“One of you has got to drive to the hospital.” 

In the series, fights are a little more two-sided, with Reacher taking his share of punches, kicks, and even knife wounds, though he always prevails. Another change is the addition of Frances Neagley (Maria Sten), an ex-member of the 110th who served under him and is one of the few recurring characters in the series. And while much of the books are told from Reacher’s point of view based on what he is thinking—and the lizard-brain instincts that help him act and survive—there are no voiceovers here. 

Also, be mindful of the TV-MA rating. (Amazon actually rates it 18+.) While I’d say the books are mostly PG-13, there’s some pretty strong language throughout the series, more than a fair bit of
violence, and a couple of brutal crime scenes, one involving, ummm, genital mutilation. 

Shot in the increasingly-popular-for-streaming aspect ratio of 2:1, Reacher walks a visual line between cinematic and made-for-TV. Resolution and clarity mostly shine in closeups, letting you appreciate the fine patterns, sharp lines, and details in Finlay’s variety of tweed jackets or vests, or the bulging muscles in Ritchson’s super-human arms. The lenses used often give a very “portrait mode” look to images, with characters in the foreground often in clear, sharp focus, with everything behind or around them blurred. 

Dark and night scenes are clear and have plenty of depth and shadow detail, but the color grade on exterior shots often has a kind of bronze cast. The contrast is often pushed, with clouds losing definition in favor of brightness. 

Sonically, the 5.1 Dolby Digital audio does a fine job of serving the mostly dialogue-driven story, letting you clearly understand what the characters are saying. The surrounds are brought into play for some ambient sounds as well for music, but it isn’t an overly dynamic mix. The series finale has the most traditional action with gun battles and explosions that offer a bit more sonic excitement and bring the subwoofer into play, but this isn’t a series designed to showcase your audio system’s capabilities. 

While clearly designed to appeal to the millions of existing Reacher fans, the interesting story and solid acting are enough to bring the unaffiliated into the fold. And after being released for just three days, Amazon announced Reacher will return for a second season, claiming it’s already one of their Top Five most-watched shows of all time and among its highest-rated original series, with subscribers giving it an average rating of 4.7 out of 5. For those who can’t wait for more Reacher until Season Two drops, Die Trying is the next book in the series. Enjoy. 

Probably the most experienced writer on custom installation in the industry, John Sciacca is co-owner of Custom Theater & Audio in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, & is known for his writing for such publications as Residential Systems and Sound & Vision. Follow him on Twitter at @SciaccaTweets and at johnsciacca.com.

PICTURE | Reacher walks a visual line between cinematic and made-for-TV. Details mostly shine in closeups, and dark scenes are clear with plenty of depth and shadow detail, but the color grade on exterior shots often has a bronze cast and the contrast is often pushed. 

SOUND | The 5.1 Dolby Digital audio does a fine job of serving the mostly dialogue-driven story, but this isn’t an overly dynamic mix, with the surrounds brought into play mostly for ambient sounds and music

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Review: Raya and the Last Dragon

Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)

review | Raya and the Last Dragon

Disney rewrites the princess playbook with this effort to play to the girl-power crowd

by John Sciacca
March 8, 2021

Raya features the classic elements of Disney princess fairy tales: A girl loses her family and is forced to grow and trust in herself to solve some major problem, having to enlist others along the way to aid in her struggle. She even passes many of the “princess tests” from Ralph Breaks the Internet. What kind of princess are you? Do you have magic hair? (No.) Magic hands? (No.) Do animals talk to you? (Kind of.) Were you poisoned? (No, but it’s mentioned.) Cursed? (There is a curse on the land.) Kidnapped or enslaved? (No.) Made a deal with an underwater sea witch where she took your voice in exchange for a pair of human legs? (Ummm, no.) Have you ever had true love’s kiss? (Big no.) Do you have daddy issues? (Yep.) Don’t even have a mom. (Yep.) Do people assume all your problems got solved because a big strong man showed up? (A big strong man does join her quest and helps, but he doesn’t solve her problems.)” Also, put a checkmark in the “stare at important water” category.

But Raya is also definitely not your typical Disney princess or princess film as Raya (voiced by Kelly Marie Tran) is indisputably Disney’s most bad-ass, girl-power princess ever, featuring a lot of attitude and swagger. She never backs down from a fight and engages in various forms of hand-to-hand combat throughout. In fact, Raya reminded me of the live-action Mulan remake, including the fact that there’s no singing. (Another break for your typical Disney princess.) 

The story takes place in the once prosperous land of Kumandra, where dragons co-exist with humans and bring water, rain, and peace to the land. Evil spirits called the Druun come, turning all humans to stone, and the dragons sacrifice themselves in order to save humanity, placing all of their spirits into a single magic gem. A power struggle to possess the gem causes the once peaceful land to split into five tribes: Fang, Heart, Tail, Spine, and Talon. 

After 500 years, Raya’s dad, Chief Benja (Daniel Dae Kim) of the Heart tribe, holder of the gem, tries to reunite the tribes but the Dragon gem is broken into five pieces, with each tribe taking a piece and causing the Druun to return and turning many to stone. 

Raya escapes, and armed with her father’s sword and riding atop her combination pill bug/armadillo/hedgehog creature Tuk Tuk (Alan Tudyk), she embarks on a quest to find Sisu (Awkwafina), who is said to be the last surviving dragon. With hopes of ridding the Druun once and for all and bringing her father back, Raya’s quest leads her to all of the villages, which have their own visual style, and have Indiana Jones-like elements to complete.

Disney animation is top-notch so the fantastic visuals shouldn’t come as any surprise. There are amazing levels of detail in closeups, with rich texture in fabric, wood, stone, and hair. Water—which plays an important role in the film—also looks photo-realistic, with incredible movement and reflection. Closeups of Sisu in human form reveal strands of hair that seem to be individually colored in her purple-pink-blue-white ombre style. And the care the animators took in the way fabric drapes and moves on characters has lifelike realism. The computer animation style is different from Pixar’s, but equally top-shelf

HDR provides beautiful depth, highlights, shadow detail, and rich colors, especially when viewed on a Dolby Vision-capable display. The magic Dragon gem has a real Arkenstone quality, internally lit by shifting, glowing, sparkling shafts of light, and the Talon village at night is especially gorgeous, glowing with rich, warm, and vibrant lighting and lamps that leaps from the screen. Raya features a frequently bright and saturated color palette that is visually arresting and a treat to look at.

Having watched Raya twice—once on my 115-inch JVC 4K projector and again on a 65-inch Sony 4K LED—I did notice that backgrounds frequently have a bit of a grainy/noisy/cloudy haze. As this is computer animation, it’s obvious it isn’t actually grain or noise, so it must be a stylistic choice the animators took to keep the world from appearing too perfect. They also frequently chose to use “portrait mode” styling on closeups, where objects not close up in frame are defocused. 

The soundtrack was pretty lackluster—unfortunately, a common complaint with many recent Disney transfers. Even played back at reference volume on my Marantz processor, dynamics were heavily compressed and rarely delivered any impact. It wasn’t until the climax that it seemed like the subwoofers really kicked in, and even then, they were restrained and didn’t deliver the impact I expected. Whether this was a shortcoming of the film itself or my Apple 4K TV, I can’t say, but I was disappointed with the sonics. However, judging by the quality of the song “Lead the Way” (performed by Aiko) played over the end credits with a lot more dimension, dynamics, and space, I feel like it is the mix itself. There are some atmospheric surround effects—particularly at the very beginning and end—such as wind, rain, forest sounds, and echoes, and the score is expanded across the front of the room, but primarily this is a front-channel-centric mix that feels like it is designed to be listened to through a TV or soundbar.

Raya and the Last Dragon looks gorgeous, and the voice acting—especially the always likable Awkafina, who brings the right level of humor and quirkiness to Sisu—is on point. While the lack of any songs and intense scenes might limit its replay value for younger viewers, it’s an entertaining film that will appeal to many viewers, as attested to by its 95% Rotten Tomatoes critics’ rating and 85% audience score. I have two daughters—ages 14 and almost five—so for us, a movie night where we can all get together and enjoy a new Disney animated film was an easy yes. 

Probably the most experienced writer on custom installation in the industry, John Sciacca is co-owner of Custom Theater & Audio in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, & is known for his writing for such publications as Residential Systems and Sound & Vision. Follow him on Twitter at @SciaccaTweets and at johnsciacca.com.

PICTURE | HDR provides beautiful depth, highlights, shadow detail, and rich colors, especially when viewed on a Dolby Vision-capable display

SOUND | The soundtrack is lackluster. Even played back at reference volume on a Marantz processor, dynamics were heavily compressed and rarely delivered any impact.

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Review: Luca

Luca (2021)

review | Luca

The least satisfying Pixar film since The Good Dinosaur does turn out to be more kid-friendly than Soul

by John Sciacca
June 21, 2021

When I was in high school, my favorite band was the Talking Heads, and I had this weird love-hate anxiety when they would release a new album and I would go to listen to it for the first time. Would I love it because I actually loved it, or would I make myself say I loved it because it was from the Heads, or would lead singer David Byrne have taken them off on some new musical direction that meant I actually didn’t love it and I couldn’t even bring myself to lie that I did? That’s a bit how I feel about a new film from Pixar.

Pixar Animation is about one of the surest bets around when it comes to delivering solid entertainment. And I don’t mean only in animated titles, but in just great movies in general. While I used to get a bit concerned because Pixar trailers used to seem so generic and uninteresting—always fearing, “Well, this is the one where Pixar finally misses the mark”—I’ve come to realize the company just doesn’t produce great trailers, often because their stories are so layered you can’t really hope to encapsulate the whole spirit in a one-to-two-minute spot. 

So, even though I wasn’t overly excited by the trailers for Luca, the studio’s 24th film, which premiered on Disney+ this past Thursday (June 18), I wasn’t overly concerned. But, I’m sad to say, I think this might be the company’s weakest film to date, certainly rivaling 2015’s The Good Dinosaur, which is widely considered the worst film in the company’s canon. 

It’s not that Luca is bad by any means; in fact, it might even be a good movie. It’s just that it’s not a great one, and that is the nearly impossible situation Pixar has placed on itself after delivering one great film after another that anything less than a home run is considered disappointing. 

The letdown is even more compounded by the fact that Luca follows Soul, the studio’s most adult and ambitious title to date that was so full of, well, soul. Soul took on incredibly complex and heavy issues and had such fantastic depth that the light and saccharine sweetness of Luca just seems all the emptier because of it.

Luca is just . . . simple. It’s hard to really care too deeply about its characters because the story doesn’t give us enough to care about them. Sure, there are tons of metaphors and parallels you can draw. The characters’ goal is to win a race that will give them enough money to buy a Vespa, which the film literally tells us is freedom—the freedom to get out and see the world beyond your four walls, which is especially exciting for Luca Paguro (voiced by Jacob Tremblay), who has lived a very sheltered and protected life. (“I never go anywhere. Just dream about it.”) The characters are also hiding the secret about what they really are (sea monsters), looking to fit in and gain acceptance from the small Italian city of Portorosso which hates/fears what they really are. And if you want to draw a parallel to the LGBTQ community here, well, it doesn’t take much of a stretch. 

The film takes place around the ‘50s and ‘60s on the Italian Riviera, where sea monster Luca spends his days herding fish like a shepherd. One day while out swimming, he meets Alberto Scorfano (Jack Dylan Grazer), who shows him that when dry on land, they transform into human form. Alberto pushes Luca beyond his comfort zone until one day Luca’s parents (voiced by Maya Rudolph and Jim Gaffigan) discover what he’s been doing and threaten to send him away to the deep to live with his bizarre—and semi-translucent—Uncle Ugo (Sacha Baron Cohen). 

Luca and Alberto swim over to the city of Portorusso, where they attempt to blend in with the “land monsters” and fulfill their dream of getting a Vespa. They befriend Giulia (Emma Berman) whose dad Massimo (Marco Barricelli) happens to be a major fisherman and sea-monster hunter. The film builds to the Portorusso Cup Triathlon, a race where the winner gets a trophy and prize money, with the boys in constant fear of getting wet and revealing their secret.

One thing you can’t fault Pixar on is the technical presentation, as Luca just looks gorgeous. I watched it the first time on my 4K projector in HDR10 and then again on a new Sony OLED in Dolby Vision and the colors are just straight-up eye candy throughout. The animation is definitely more cartoony, not having that hyper-realistic look found in some of Pixar’s other films (e.g.., the jazz-club scene in Soul). Even still, the colors burst off the screen and this make your video display pop.

Water is notoriously difficult to animate and render, but here it looks fantastic. Also, even through Disney+ streaming (via my Apple TV), I didn’t notice any banding issues as the sunlight filtered from the surface down through various layers, colors, and shades of the ocean— something that looked especially natural on the OLED with Dolby Vision. One scene had water crashing into a rocky shoreline with clear and individual detail to each rock, with the foam, froth, and bubbles in the water incredibly detailed. There are also subtle details like the different shades of color in the sand as water laps in and out. And there’s super-fine detail in clothing, letting you clearly see the differences in fabric texture, patterns, and weaves worn by characters.

Much of Luca takes place in daytime in the town of Portorosso, with brilliant sun shining in piercing blue skies; bright, emerald grasses; and multi-colored buildings, or the warm, golden-orange hues as the sun sets. It all looks gorgeous. 

Kind of like the story itself, Luca’s audio mix was just satisfactory. Dialogue is well rendered primarily in the center channel (though it does occasionally follow characters as they move off screen), making it clear and intelligible, but even though it’s a Dolby Atmos mix, it was very subtle and reserved.

Italian songs of the era are sprinkled throughout, and they get some room across the front channels and a bit up into the overheads, but the rest of the effects are pretty sparse. There were some instances of the sounds of boats passing overhead or a harpoon thrown that passes by but I didn’t find the mix dynamic at all. (Again, whether this was a streaming issue or an Apple TV issue, I can’t say.) 

I did notice that the soundfield opened up a bit as Luca left the water and went onto dry land. It wasn’t through a big use of audio, but rather just the sonic sense that the room had expanded with sounds of gentle wind, rustling leaves, and birds that let you know you are up in the human world.

Is Luca worth seeing? For Disney+ subscribers, I’d say definitely. If nothing else, it’s beautiful to look at. And, it’s not that it’s a bad film. In fact, you could easily say that while Soul was a Pixar title made for adults, Luca sets its sights squarely on a younger audience, with a coming-of-age story about friendship, acceptance, childhood dreams, and overcoming fears that never gets too deep or strays too far from safety and cuteness that kids will be drawn to. And if it came from any other studio (well, with the exception of Disney Animation, Pixar’s parent company), it would likely be heralded as a triumph. It’s just that Pixar has come to make us expect so much more.  

Probably the most experienced writer on custom installation in the industry, John Sciacca is co-owner of Custom Theater & Audio in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, & is known for his writing for such publications as Residential Systems and Sound & Vision. Follow him on Twitter at @SciaccaTweets and at johnsciacca.com.

PICTURE | Luca looks gorgeous. The colors burst off the screen and will make your video display pop.

SOUND | The audio is just satisfactory. There are some instances of the sounds of boats passing overhead or a harpoon thrown that passes by, but the mix isn’t dynamic at all. 

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Review: Free Guy

Free Guy (2021)

review | Free Guy

Ryan Reynolds indulges in his trademark snark as he makes his way to a video-game kind of freedom

by John Sciacca
September 29, 2021

Of all the post-pandemic film openings, the one that’s had me the most excited was Free Guy. (I’d be lying if I said The Matrix Resurrections wasn’t also at the top of that list!) Taking place in a fantasy video-game world where Ryan Reynolds can really lean into his Ryan-Reynolds-ness in a more family-friendly PG-13 way (think Deadpool-ish snark and humor with way less F-words), the movie looked like a perfect summertime film. 

But even though I’d been tracking Reynolds and his usual hilarious self-aware online and social advertising for the film, including this brilliant bit on Reynold’s YouTube channel titled “Deadpool and Korg React,” Free Guy wasn’t quite enough to draw me back to my local cineplex. The film took the recently-all-too-familiar torturous route to the big screen, planned for release on July 3, 2020, then moving to December, then May 2021, then finally settling on—and sticking with—an August 13 release. Fortunately, it had a fast-track to the home market, becoming available to digital retailers like Kaleidescape just 45 days after its theatrical release.

Interestingly, this is the one of the first 20th Century Fox releases following the company’s acquisition by Disney. IT currently isn’t available on Disney+—there is a link to it if you search on Google, but it takes you to an error page—so if you want to watch it now, Kaleidescape offers the highest-quality version available in full 4K HDR with a Dolby Atmos soundtrack.

Free Guy is one of those movies that has two different levels of appeal. For the hardcore gamer, there are tons of inside nods, winks, and cameos that will resonate as true and familiar, but having an understanding of gaming and open worlds isn’t necessary to enjoying the film and having a good time.

It also feels like a bit of a mash-up of other movies. This isn’t meant as a negative, just that as much as it is new, it also feels familiar and you can tell it borrows ideas and style from movies like The Lego Movie, Ready Player One, The Truman Show, The Matrix, and Live Die Repeat and videogames like Grand Theft Auto and Fortnite, but interspersed with Reynolds’ snarky humor and one liners such as compared with ice cream “coffee tastes like liquid suffering.” There are also some fun cameos—many you might not recognize until the credits—and a couple of really fun refs to the MCU. 

The film opens in Free City, an open-world game environment where sunglasses-people are heroes, or at least are human players acting like gods doing whatever they want, which is typically wreaking all manner of havoc on the city and any NPCs (non-playable characters) they encounter wandering around going through their programmed routines. 

One of the NPCs is Guy (Reynolds), a bank teller that wakes up every morning, says hello to his goldfish, gets the same scalding cup of medium coffee, cream, two sugars, and then heads in to work to be robbed over and over along with his best friend, a Kevin Hart-esque security guard named Buddy (Lil Rel Howery).

One day while headed home, Guy encounters Molotov Girl (Jodie Comer), a player whose real name is Millie. Hearing her humming a song awakens something in Guy, and the next time he’s robbed, instead of just lying down and taking it, Guy decides to grab the sunglasses from his robber. When he puts them on, his eyes are opened to the “real” world around him, and he sees things the way human gamers do. This gives him the power to be Free and the ability to break his routine and do whatever he wants, which is trying to track down Molotov Girl. During his exploits of trying to level up, he becomes a worldwide sensation known as “Blue Shirt Guy” due to his ever-present “skin” choice of light blue shirts and khaki pants. 

While this is all happening in the Free City game world, Millie is involved in a lawsuit with Soonami Games in the real world. She contends that head developer Antwan (Taika Waititi) stole the source code she and her partner Walter (Joe Keery) developed for another project known as “Free Life,” which would give NPCs far greater AI and the ability to grow and act like real people, and that the evidence lies hidden somewhere inside the game. The race is on for Millie to find the proof she needs before Antwan shuts down the Free City servers and switches over to his new game, Free City 2, which will erase all proof of Millie’s stolen IP, as well as wipe out Guy’s world and all of his friends. 

Shot in a variety of resolutions—2.8, 3.4, and 6.5K—this transfer is taken from 6.5K source material and finished at a 2K digital intermediate, not unusual for films with this much CGI work—and there is a ton of CGI, with virtually every image you see within the Free City world somehow digitally manipulated, altered, or enhanced.

Images are beautifully clean, clear, and noise-free. Some shots within Free City—specifically backgrounds where much of the CGI is happening—have occasional softness, almost appearing film-like but without any grain or noise. Closeups really shine with detail, letting you appreciate every line, whisker, and pore in actors’ faces. One scene has a closeup of Buddy’s security badge, and you can see every bump, line, and detail of its texture. Other shots—such as near the end where a crowd of NPCs gathers—just had incredible depth and full-field razor-sharp focus. 

There’s also a nice play between the visuals in the idyllic perfection of Free City and life in the real world. Free City is bright and vibrant—especially once Guy puts on his glasses—and really lets the wider color gamut strut its stuff with things like bright neon signs and lights, or the gleaming reds, yellows, oranges (and even pinks) of the near constant stable of exotic cars racing around the streets, whereas the real world is darker and more sterile. Visually, Free Guy is a treat to look at, with lots of varied environments inside the game—such as Molotov Girl’s base, or Revenjamin Buttons’ (Channing Tatum) lair, or the multi-player hang-out lounge—which all have totally unique looks to them keeping things visually interesting.

With such a fabricated fantasy environment as Free City, you’d expect an active and engaging Dolby Atmos mix, and it delivers. From the very opening, you get the sounds of things swooshing past and overhead, with tons of ambient street sounds—sirens, traffic, gun fire—that fill Free City. This is a place where tanks roll through the streets, helicopters swoop overhead to blow stuff up, and trains suddenly barrel across the street right in front of you, and the Atmos audio puts you right in the middle of it. 

There’s frequent activity in the height channels, and lots of demo-worthy material here to show off your system. During one scene, a game developer engages God-mode, and pillars, beams, and stairs appear and construct from all around and fall in from the ceiling; or there’s the sounds of characters walking around up overhead; and a scene reminiscent of the dream world collapsing in Inception, where buildings are crushing in and collapsing all around. Deep, authoritative bass is frequent, whether from the numerous gun shots—with pistol and shotgun-blast concussions you feel in your chest—explosions, crashes, or the randomly appearing freight train. 

Free Guy definitely doesn’t take itself too seriously and is just a load of fun to sit back and enjoy. Unless you belong to that sub-section that just hates Ryan Reynolds—and, come on, get over Green Lantern already!—this makes a great night at the movies, with a bunch of little Easter eggs that look great up on a large home-cinema screen and reward repeat viewing. 

Probably the most experienced writer on custom installation in the industry, John Sciacca is co-owner of Custom Theater & Audio in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, & is known for his writing for such publications as Residential Systems and Sound & Vision. Follow him on Twitter at @SciaccaTweets and at johnsciacca.com.

PICTURE |  Some of the shots within Free City have occasional softness, appearing almost film-like but without any grain or noise, but images are generally beautifully clean, clear, and free of noise

SOUND | With such a fabricated fantasy environment as Free City, you’d expect an active and engaging Dolby Atmos mix, and it delivers

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Review: Cruella

Cruella (2021)

review | Cruella

Disney does yet another live-action remake of an animated film, this time providing an origin story for Cruella de Vil 

by John Sciacca
June 28, 2021

Walt Disney Pictures has gotten into a bit of a rut with its live-action films, choosing to take the safer road of remaking classic animated titles like Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and Mulan instead of trying to break new, original ground. With Cruella, we get an entirely new origin story of one of Disney’s classic villains, Cruella de Vil from 1961’s 101 Dalmatians.  

Even though I’m a fan of Emma Stone (who stars as both Estella and Cruella), I didn’t have especially high hopes for this film. I didn’t think much of the 1996 live adaptation of 101 Dalmatians starring Glenn Close (who serves as an executive producer on Cruella) and didn’t think de Vil’s backstory would be interesting enough to make for a compelling story, and would just end up diluting what was such an iconic character. Boy, was I wrong!

I enjoyed Cruella far more than expected. Here we learn what makes her tick, see where her sense of fashion and design came from, and discover what ultimately leads her to becoming the villain we all know from the original Disney animated film. And while she’s just a straight villain in Dalmatians—what could be more heinous than wanting to steal puppies to harvest their fur for coats?—here Cruella is an anti-hero living on the streets and fighting for her adopted family against domineering fashionista The Baroness (Emma Thompson), who holds the London fashion world in her fist along with a secret to Estella’s past. 

Beyond the writing and wonderful costumes and set dressing, much of the credit for the film being so entertaining goes to Stone, who is just so wickedly delightful and mischievous as Cruella. You can’t help but root for her even though you know where her path ultimately leads. The scenes featuring Stone and Thompson are also some of the best, and the idea of making Stone two characters with distinct looks and personalities allowed for the two to share more screen time. 

We learn early on that Estella loves fashion and design, but she also has a bit of a cruel streak, a personality her mother refers to as Cruella. To fit in—and stay out of trouble—Estella pushes her Cruella nature aside, dyes her hair red, and lives as a creative and eager-to-please girl hoping to start a new life in London. But when things become too much for her to handle, she turns to Cruella—the wild black-white-haired girl with a hard edge, sharp tongue, and cruel streak—to step in and take care of business.

Like every film released in the past year, Cruella had a twisty trail to market. Scheduled to be released theatrically on December 23, 2020, it was delayed to May 28, 2021, where it also simultaneously bowed as a Premier Access title on Disney+, maintaining the $29.99 pricing Disney has established. After less than a month in theaters, Cruella was released to digital retailers on June 25, including Kaleidescape, which offers the film in a full 4K HDR version with Dolby TrueHD Atmos audio.

While the filmmakers did loads to tie this prequel to the original animated title, they weren’t dogmatic about it, and they made changes (such as setting the film in the ‘70s) that helped modernize the story. Retained are Cruella’s friends/family/henchmen Jasper (Joel Fry) and Horace (Paul Walter Hauser), and this pair provides most of the film’s comic relief (though I found the laughs to be more chuckles than guffaws, and some of the antics—such as chasing around a small dog dressed as a rat—will likely appeal more to youngsters.) Estella’s/Cruella’s relationship with Jasper also helps serve as a humanizing one, as we see him wanting to accept his friend but not always liking what that means, with Horace more content just trying to figure out, “What’s the angle?” to whatever scheme they were planning. 

There’s also a wonderful scene of Cruella maniacally driving a giant saloon through the streets, swerving back and forth crashing into things and hunching over the steering wheel with a crazed look that is a moment from the animated title brought perfectly to life. And absolutely stay through the first part of the end credits where the film really dovetails into the original.  

Fashion—specifically haute couture—plays a huge role, and the costume design and attention to detail is fantastic and easy to appreciate due to the video quality. The sheer number of costumes worn by Stone and Thompson—let alone the numerous additional designs made for fashion shows and worn by party-goers—is amazing, and will likely garner Cruella an Academy Award nomination. With the resolution and sharpness of the video, you can easily appreciate the layers, textures, and small details that went into the many costumes, easily noting the different fabric weights, fine stitching, and design. 

Shot on location throughout London, the film has an authentic feel. Whether it’s the set dressing of London streets, a near-perfect recreation of the famous Liberty department store, a variety of estates—principally Hellman Hall—or numerous visits to Regents Park, a making-of doc included with the Kaleidescape download shows the extent the filmmakers went to to cover every little detail, including many things that didn’t even appear on camera. All of this makes Cruella feel like a real world. There are many exterior scenes, which look terrific, especially shots of London at night—with the many lights, buildings, and shadows—looking especially good. 

The extended color gamut also lets things like the bright red of London’s buses, or the light show at Cruella’s “I Wanna Be Your Dog” outdoor fashion show really pop. Beyond just giving great shadow detail and a more natural-looking image, there are some eye-reactive uses of HDR including headlights at night and the pop and flash of camera bulbs, some red-orange-white flames in a big fire, and the bright white sheens of satin material or the glossy highlights coming off black leather/vinyl. 

Sonically, the soundtrack is the big star. The film takes place in London in the 1970s, when the punk rock movement was starting to take hold, and features an extensive soundtrack of era-appropriate music, including The Doors, Queen, Blondie, The Clash, and the Rolling Stones. In fact, the music is like an extra character in the film, helping to establish the mood and emotion of nearly every scene, and gives it an edgier, punk vibe that fits Cruella and her fashion-design-sense to a T. Also, the music is given plenty of room to stretch its boundaries across the speakers and up into the height channels, giving it a ton of space and presence. The expansiveness and immersive music soundtrack throughout Cruella is a great sales pitch for Atmos music in general! Dialogue is clear and well presented in the center channel, with the exception of some of Cruella’s voiceover narration, which can be a bit forward sounding. 

This isn’t a dynamic surround soundtrack, with most of the audio kept across the front of the room, but it does a decent job of serving the story. We do get some establishing ambience in scenes, such as park and street noises—cars and people in the distance, the sound of water in fountains, or another scene in a jail has off-camera whistles, phones, chattering, and the jangle of keys to place you in the moment. During another big moment, a swarm of bugs come flying out and then travels overhead and around the room before exiting to all sides. I did notice on moment that highlighted more the subtle detail of the soundtrack, when  The Baroness is having lunch in a car and she throws her trash—including a metal fork—out the window, and you can hear the delicate sound of the fork hitting the road.

While the film is mostly family-friendly fare—not a single swear or sexual moment to be found!—it does carry a PG-13 rating mainly for some intense themes (it’s implied dogs are killed) and peril (one character is left in a burning room to die). At over two hours, this also might be a bit much for younger kids to take on, and it definitely features a story with depth and themes designed more to appeal to adults. 

Cruella is one of the most original live-action films to come out of Disney in recent years, and if it didn’t grab your attention in the theaters or on Disney+, now is the perfect opportunity to enjoy it in highest-resolution at home! 

Probably the most experienced writer on custom installation in the industry, John Sciacca is co-owner of Custom Theater & Audio in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, & is known for his writing for such publications as Residential Systems and Sound & Vision. Follow him on Twitter at @SciaccaTweets and at johnsciacca.com.

PICTURE | Images are clean, sharp, and detailed. The filmmakers shy away from intense, tight, pore-revealing closeups of Emmas Stone & Thompson, but even still we are given loads of detail. 

SOUND | Sonically, the soundtrack is the big star, with an extensive selection of era-appropriate tracks, including The Doors, Queen, Blondie, The Clash, and the Rolling Stones

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Review: American Underdog

American Underdog (2021)

review | American Underdog

This true-life stock-clerk-to-Super-Bowl-MVP tale makes it to the home market just in time for this year’s Big Game

by John Sciacca
February 8, 2022

We’ve covered the spectrum of “based on true events” here recently—from the fantastical and fable-ized tale of Princess Diana’s final days in Spencer, to Ridley Scott’s over-the-top interpretation of family events that inspired the biographical crime drama House of Gucci, to Denzel Washington’s film of too-good-to-be-true soldier Charles King in A Journal for Jordan. The latest true story to get a  film makeover is American Underdog, which covers the life and unlikely rise to stardom of NFL quarterback Kurt Warner. Warner famously worked as a stocker at a grocery store prior to joining an Arena Football League team before being called up for tryouts to join the St. Louis Rams in 1999, where he led them in his rookie season to a 13-3 record and into Super Bowl XXXIV against the Tennessee Titans. 

While the film received generally positive reviews—78% on Rotten Tomatoes with a 98% Audience Score—it was released on Christmas Day 2021, where it had to compete with the juggernaut that was Spider-Man: No Way Home, as well as the release of The Matrix Resurrections and the animated sequel Sing 2, leading to pretty soft performance at the box office. Now Underdog is available for purchase through digital retailers such as Kaleidescape, which offers it in 4K HDR quality.

The film’s marketing implied it was going to be a “faith-based” story—“With the help of his family and his faith . . .”—which can be a bit polarizing for viewers. In reality, the aspect of Warner’s faith—and more so that of his girlfriend/wife Brenda—are pretty minor parts of the movie, and really shouldn’t be a factor swaying you one way or the other in your decision to watch.

While it will appeal to sports fan, with a fair bit of football action interspersed throughout, the film is definitely designed to have broader appeal. The story emphasizes Warner’s (Zachary Levi) struggles off the field as he tries to cope with life after football after graduating college and not being drafted to the pros, and managing a relationship with new girlfriend Brenda (Anna Paquin) and her two children, one of whom, Zack (Hayden Zaller), is blind. While football is the backdrop, the film’s heart is about perseverance, hard work, and believing in yourself and your abilities to accomplish a dream. I watched with my wife and daughter—neither of whom care about football—and the story was enough to keep them involved, though my wife did feel it was a little slow in the middle and a bit long overall.

Based on Warner’s book All Things Possible (he also gets a screenwriting credit here), the film starts with a young Warner watching Joe Montana lead the San Francisco 49ers to a victory—and earn an MVP title—in Super Bowl XIX, which causes Warner to make a commitment to one day become an MVP quarterback himself. He sets the stage of how difficult this dream is via a voiceover, saying that only 5% of players make it to college and then only 1% of those players make it to the pros. We then cut to Warner as a fifth-year senior as backup quarterback at the University of Northern Iowa, where seeing 40-plus-year-old Levi as a college senior was perhaps the film’s biggest stretch. The third act is interspersed with real footage of Warner playing, and while this can be a bit jarring from a picture- and sound-quality standpoint, it certainly lends another level of authenticity to the story. 

The 4K HDR video quality is mostly solid, with clean images; tight, sharp focus; and plenty of detail in closeups. My biggest complaint lies with the black levels, which are more often deep grey than true black. This is readily apparent during the opening credits when there is what should be a true black on screen but we get a dark grey instead—definitely noticeable in a light-controlled room watching on my OLED. This also flattens the depth of some of the dark or night scenes a bit. 

Otherwise, Underdog delivers the quality you’d expect from a modern 4K HDR title. Closeups reveal plenty of sharp detail, like the tight lines in the pattern of a flannel shirt, or the weave in a mesh-fabric football jersey, or the fine lines and wrinkles in faces. Bright outdoor scenes look great, whether it’s capturing a football practice or establishing shots as the camera pans in on a stadium.

Colors are bright and vibrant, like the green turf of the indoor Arena stadium, or the vivid yellows of the Packers helmets, or the deep, rich blues of the Rams uniforms. There are a few scenes inside of bars where overhead lights and neon signs are given plenty of room to shine with the HDR grade. 

One thing I did notice was a particular neon beer-bottle sign that exhibited some unusual and very noticeable black and blue circles and blobs. The sign is shown a few times and each time, it has obvious moving spots that aren’t visible in any other sign and which clearly aren’t part of its design. (You can see it, for instance, at the 26:54 and 1:39:13 marks.) It was distracting enough that I rewound the film to make sure it wasn’t some temporary glitch. Kaleidescape says these elements were present in the mezzanine source file provided to them by the studio, so it appears to be a gamut-clipping error captured in-camera and not part of the home transfer. 

Sonically, Underdog features a 5.1-channel DTS-HD Master track that isn’t overly dynamic, but does serves the story. Dialogue is delivered clean and intelligibly in the center channel, making it easy to understand all of the conversations. While there isn’t a ton of surround activity, the surround speakers—and height speakers if you’re using an upmixer—are used for some nice establishing atmosphere, with sounds of birds, wind, insects, traffic, and even planes far off in the distance that really help to open your listening space and establish the outdoor environment. There’s one scene where a blizzard blows through the town, and you can hear wind whipping through your listening space and lashing the walls around you, and the country music in the bar is also used to fill the room.

The audio’s intensity picks up when the action is on the football field and you hear the roars of the crowd all around you, other players yelling, and the crash and smash of bodies colliding. You also get a nice sense of the spatial and size difference between the crowds of the Arena games and the NFL.

As the title suggests, American Underdog is a feel-good story about a guy who follows his dream and succeeds in spite of all that life puts in his path. If you’re looking for a film to watch to get amped for the Big Game, you’d be hard-pressed to find one more apropos. With the Rams (now back in Los Angeles) playing the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI this Sunday, the timing of Underdog’s home release couldn’t be any better if it had been scripted by a Hollywood writer.

Probably the most experienced writer on custom installation in the industry, John Sciacca is co-owner of Custom Theater & Audio in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, & is known for his writing for such publications as Residential Systems and Sound & Vision. Follow him on Twitter at @SciaccaTweets and at johnsciacca.com.

PICTURE | The 4K HDR video quality is mostly solid, with clean images; tight, sharp focus; and plenty of detail in closeups. But the black levels are often a deep grey instead of true black.

SOUND | The 5.1-channel DTS-HD Master Audio track isn’t overly dynamic but it serves the story well, delivering dialogue cleanly and intelligibly in the center channel

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