Why So Blu?

The Fate of the Furious (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)

When I first sat down to work on this movie review prior to seeing the actual movie itself this spring I thought to myself what a wonderful world.  LOL.  I am kidding.  I pondered about what they can do in this outing that hasn’t been done in the previous seven ones.  I must admit I was a bit nervous.  However, the one thing I always manage to do is have fun with this franchise.  Therefore, I wasn’t expecting anything less than a good time with this eighth episode in the franchise.  Much like attending a Posion concert back in the late 80’s you can always count on the Fast & Furious franchise to deliver nothing but a good time.  You don’t even need to know about cars except the fact that they can fly in these movies.  All you need to do is come equipped with the ability to laugh, giggle and excite from the larger-than-life action pieces and humorous one-liners.  I think the majority of us can at least do that.  What say you?  Let’s tackle Universal’s newest 4K release.

Film 

So in the grand scheme of things and not meant to complicate matters I often get confused on the titles of these movies.  For instance The Fate of the Furious is also known as Fast & Furious 8 and Fast 8.  One can even take it a step further and just call it F8 for short.  Ha ha.  You confused yet?  Don’t be.  I just wanted you to be prepared in case people in your circles call it by different names.  The proper name, however, is The Fate of the Furious.  I’m all about being proper so that’s how I will be handling the movie’s title throughout the remainder of this review.  And now you know.  Don’t you feel pumped and primed with that knowledge?  That was a rhetorical question.  Moving on…

This time out of the gate (kind of a racing term or is that horse racing?) this eighth Fast & Furious film is directed by F. Gary Gray via a screenplay written by Chris Morgan.  These features are successful because of the charisma of their cast.  Nothing changes here as the filmmakers aim to wow.  It’s once again another big, beautiful cast.  This big action movie delivers stars Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris Bridges, Nathalie Emmanuel, Kurt Russell, Scott Eastwood, Charlize Theron and Helen Mirren.  Those are some heavy hitting names.  Usually if your flick has Charlize or Kurt in it, you can call it a day and take it to the bank.  But the Fast & Furious franchise doesn’t roll like that.  Everything is always bigger and as we all know size matters most in life.

Sad to note though The Fate of the Furious marks the first film of the franchise since The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift in 2006 not to star Paul Walker.  He tragically died in a vehicle crash on November 30, 2013, during the time when Furious 7 was being filmed.  Therefore, the dynamics of the Vin Diesel character will be interesting to note here as he always played and fed off Walker and vice versa.  Thankfully, as I mentioned up above, the cast is so big there’s extra star power and padding to fill in pretty much every gap.  However, as loyal fans of the franchise can attest to, Paul Walker left some pretty big shoes to fill.  So in addition to recapping the movie below we’ll also talk about how successful Universal was or was not in that regard.  We did our homework so let’s get started with things now!  Gentlemen start your engines!  Vroom…

One thing the Fast and Furious franchise never disappoints on is all the exotic locations they take you to.  You can almost obtain some culture by watching the past three installments.  Now that they are free and not wanted criminals anymore after the sixth film they are pretty much free to go where they want.  Maybe I should say instead of where they want how about where the work takes them to?  Continuing with that grand tradition of the past several films The Fate of the Furious takes us to several locales and even a white, frozen one.  When I refer to the frozen one I don’t mean my hometown of Cleveland, OH, but fret not they stopped there too.  Principal photography began in March 2016 in locations such as Mývatn, Havana, Atlanta, Cleveland and even New York City where Vin Diesel promised us after the seventh film we were headed.

So here’s the deal folks.  Yes, Paul Walker is gone.  No he is not coming back.  Yes, his name was mentioned in the film, but under no circumstance should you enter this with the belief the family is dead.  Oh no!  You would be so wrong with that way of thinking.  The family is stronger and bigger than ever in The Fate of the Furious and I’m here to tell you it’s SERIOUS F-U-N.  Yes, the physics and reality of it all are completely over-the-top and unbelievable (some even boldly call it Matrix-like), but it’s also a mandatory commitment that when you sit down to watch a Fast & Furious film you leave all logic checked at the door.  These films although released in the month of April are very much summer action blockbusters and they are meant as an escape from the majority of our dull, boring lives.  Now when I say the family gets bigger here let me tell you why I say what I do.

I’m going to be vague here intentionally as I’m not going to tell you who all the major players or what their motivations are to prevent any unwanted spoilers, but I wanted to clear up this notion that the family is fractured here because of no Paul Walker.  My biggest concern before diving into this feature is why does Dom (Vin Diesel’s character) go rogue and what caused this.  Even bigger than that was the doubt as to whether or not I would believe this transformation of thought too.  The last thing I wanted is another rushed Revenge of the Sith kind of storyline from this franchise.  Thankfully, I sincerely believe Dom’s justifications for what he does works exceptionally well.  Is it far fetched at times?  Of course it is, but may I remind you that we checked our logic at the door before coming in here and who really cares about repercussions for his hostile actions.   Now I know I got a bit off topic, but this really does all relate to family.  We can’t call Brian (Walker’s ex character) for help anymore, but we can call in the reinforcements.  And what I mean by that is there’s a slew of both old and new characters returning here.  Now let me expand upon that for one second.

First of all the family that we have globe trotted with the past three films are all back here minus Brian, Mia, Gisele (Gal Gadot’s character) and one of my personal faves, Han.  That much I can tell you.  I can also tell you fans of The Rock who wished he would have been a larger part of Furious 7 definitely won’t be disappointed here.  Finally, there’s even more Jason Statham.  He alone in my opinion carries the weight of no Paul Walker.  There are a lot of other surprises, cameos from the past films and whatnot, but let’s focus on Statham and The Rock for one moment.  I keep telling you the family gets bigger and I really do mean it.  This film unlike the others is not a Dom/Brian bromance.  Even if Brian was a character in this film, which he is not, this film would still be different.  Dom has gone rogue.  Dom is an enemy of the team we love so much.  Furthermore, Deckard (Statham) and Hobbs (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) like it or not must put their differences aside temporarily and work together to as they say it save the world.  Now I mentioned newbies and there are those here too.

Old characters and new like the ones portrayed by Eastwood and Mirren for example must work together if they want to stop a nuclear armed submarine from wreaking havoc overseas.  It’s the way these characters are introduced and mingle with the fan favorites that’s so refreshing here.  They could have just dropped them in without a care in the world, but that would be so un Fast & Furious like of the filmmakers.  Part of the charm and what has made this franchise so successful is its likable characters.  Take for instance the wild charisma and comedic antics of Tyrese Gibson.  I alone could spend hours watching him hilariously banter back and forth with Scott Eastwood’s character.  But the yin yang of the team has to be Hobbs and Deckard here.  They trade insults and threats left and right and at one moment in time even share laughs over how outrageous their quips really are.  Move over Brian and Dom because there’s a new bromance here in town and I for one really hope it carries over to the next film in the series, but only time will tell.

I kind of feel like I spent the past several paragraphs telling you why I liked The Fate of the Furious so much rather than even giving you a glimpse of what it’s all about so let me do my best to rectify that situation here.  There’s no doubt about it that Dom’s character goes rogue.  To keep it very simple he turns into a very bad, bad man.  This all happens while he’s on his honeymoon with Letty (Rodriguez) too.  I won’t tell you all the reasons why, but just rest assured he has his own motivations to take care of before the team’s.  Now with that being said Dom gets himself into some very bad business, even nuclear too.  It’s up to Hobbs, Mr. Nobody (Russell) and the rest of the team to figure out how to stop him.  That’s what makes this film so much damn fun and interesting.  Dom is one of them so he knows all their tricks.  How do you stop someone like that who knows your every move and how you think?  Well remember I said the family gets bigger here?  There’s a reason I keep pounding that point in.  Friends and adversaries old and new must come together to not only stop and detain Dom, but catch the ever elusive Cipher (Theron) who controls Dom just like a puppet on strings.  Let me tell you ladies and gentlemen this woman is “nasty.”  She’s cut throat and by no means would you ever want to cross her.  You’ve been warned.

Now what would a Fast & Furious film be without over-the-top action, carnage and mayhem?  Well for starters it would not be a Fast & Furious film that’s for damn sure.  Like all sequels the body count is higher and the stakes are greater.  However, unlike let’s say John Wick: Chapter 2 for me, The Fate of the Furious doesn’t lose its entertainment factor, never wallows too long in its own feces and does what I described best before.  It makes you forget about all the problems you have in everyday life.  Sure it’s not perfect.  There are some lulls and pacing issues, but by the film’s fiery/snowy conclusion I am left with a smile on my face and in my world that’s truly all that matters.  The action and thrill ride of it all are insane here from hijacking a fleet of self driving cars to driving a million dollar Lamborghini on ice with hopes of stopping a nuclear submarine.  That’s insane and ludicrous folks!  But it’s the way that it’s executed with pizazz, fun and humor that make The Fate of the Furious an out of the ballpark grand slam for me.  Yes, I’m probably rating this higher than everyone else, but dammit I still have FUN with this one after three viewings and I’ll be the first to admit I can’t wait for the ninth installment.  Truth be told I hope I’m saying the same thing after The Last Jedi this December too.  Ha ha.  Enjoy!

Video 

The below video score and related critique of things here are based solely upon my viewing of Universal’s 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation of The Fate of the Furious, which comes equipped with Dolby Vision.

• Encoding: HEVC / H.265
• Resolution: 4K (2160p)
• Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
• Size: BD-66
• Dolby Vision: Yes
• Clarity/Detail: F8 was captured at various resolutions, but from everything I can find it was mastered in a 2K DI.  Now I’m sure someone will find fault with my 5 out of 5 scores for both audio and video here, but shoddy special explosion effects aside I was very pleased with how stellar onscreen events looked throughout here.  For the most part everything is sharp and in focus here from beads of sweat, stubble, hair, moles, freckles on actors to dirt, grease, dust and whatnot on everything else.  You can even count every piece of shattering glass when it explodes, which is quite frequent throughout.  Even in Cuba the landscape is so crystal clear that you can really see how old and run down some parts are and how beautiful other scenery is.  Take it all in folks.  This is culture in 4K!
• Depth: Depth is immaculately on display throughout here with such rich examples of the island of Cuba and it’s old streets, the soccer field where the Hobbs’ daughter plays on, the many vast New York City landscapes and streets and much impressive the car warehouse where our heroes cars are stored.  Everything just has that crisp three-dimensional pop throughout, which made Blu-ray so infamous 10 years ago.
• Black Levels: The black levels throughout are dark and natural thanks to the HDR infused presentation.  They are never too deep or inky, just very natural and authentic pleasing.  A fine example of what I am talking about can be found in Act 1 within the Berlin nighttime sequence.  It looks like a million bucks how it’s pitch black out, but nothing is lost in the shadows minus that one freckle on the corner of the Rock’s snout.
• Color Reproduction: Much like the black levels just mentioned up above the color palette is wide open, natural and authentic looking throughout thanks to the WCG and HDR of it all.  However, there is one exception.  Remember how cartoonish the fire and explosions look in Mad Max: Fury Road on 4K UHD?  Well, it’s much the same here.  It kind of takes you out of the movie for a split second until all the fake fire is extinguished.  That’s my only nitpick though, but not a slam to the presentation itself.
• Flesh Tones: The temperatures of the skin are all natural, sweaty and authentic throughout.  There’s really never a moment where things are exaggerated with them.  The skin on the butts in the Cuba race sequences look really nice too.  What?  I’m just being honest.  Ha ha.
• Noise/Artifacts: There’s absolutely NOTHING to nitpick about here.  No noise.  No obtrusive grain.  Just pure bliss.  Enjoy!

Audio 

Like I mentioned up above in the video section, the below audio score and critical comments of such are based solely upon my viewing of Universal’s 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation of The Fate of the Furious.  Both the 4K UHD disc and the regular 1080p Blu-ray come equipped with an ear smashing DTS:X Immersive Audio surround track.

• Audio Format(s): DTS:X Immersive Audio; 2.0 DTS Headphone:X; English DVS 2.0 Dolby Digital, Spanish and French (Canadian) DTS Digital Surround 5.1
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French (Canadian)
• Dynamics: Do you remember in The Fifth Element where Leeloo’s character says in a funny tone big badaboom or something to that effect?  Well it’s no joke here.  BIG BADABOOM indeed!  This sound track is as loud as the cars revving themselves.  I actually had to turn this one down by Act 3 as my ears were annihilated by it all.  It’s like vehicular onslaught for the ears with this DTS:X surround track, but I mean that in a very good way.  The score, soundtrack and onscreen action engulfs you from the sides, fronts, rears and overhead and never lets you go like being held hostage by a ferocious beast.  LOL.  I had no idea what that last part means, but you get the idea I hope.  There’s a sense of priority and directionality in each and every sequence.  There’s a rhyme and a reason for everything as no speakers take a rest and I saw my fronts and center doing a lot of heavy lifting in the bass department too.  However, what’s most impressive is not a single spoken word is sacrificed here.  Boom!  Some scenes almost sounded like I had a subwoofer in the center of my TV.  It was most impressive.  Think Universal’s Battleship on 4K and you’ll get the big picture of what I’m trying to convey here.  This one takes no prisoners.
• Height: There are so many prime examples of how the height channel was employed throughout here so for sake of writing them all out eloquently let me just list some of the ways: many explosions (big badabooms), cars flying up in the air, cars falling down from parking garages, cars flipping over, percussion grenades shooting up, water splashing, airplanes and helicopters overhead and so much more.
• Low Frequency Extension: The LFE channel is like the Hulk always smashing you and is also very exaggerated.  I don’t know how my dogs hung in there with me as it even made my big boy ears hurt from all the cars wrecking and vehicular destruction/mayhem.  From the booming bass of the soundtrack and percussion in the score to the revving of the cars, smashing through brick and glass walls and more explosions than eating at Taco Bell the night before F8‘s DTS:X surround track is a dream come true in the LFE category.  It can be quite brutal at times.  I’m just preparing you for that.  It’s a hefty experience to be had.
• Surround Sound Presentation: The surround presentation is equally as strong and ferocious as everything we have talked about thus far.  From ambiance and little trickles of score and soundtrack to cars passing you going 100 mph, horns, crowds, EMP blasts and more this one puts you right in the middle of ALL the action, carnage and mayhem.  My favorite moment though in the rear channels has to be the voice I heard saying “slice some bacon off your back pig.”  LOL.
• Dialogue Reproduction: For all the onscreen action and mayhem going on not once did any line of dialogue ever get lost in the mix.  All spoken words and screams are loud, clear, understandable, directional and prioritized throughout.  Badaboom!

Extras 

Universal’s The Fate of the Furious gets the red carpet rolled out for it as it arrives on 4K Ultra HD in a combo pack and includes the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray and Digital HD version (redeemable in 4K UHD in VUDU) of the film plus all the extra we’re gathered her to chat about.  The 4K Ultra HD combo pack includes all its bonus features on the Blu-ray disc.  Don’t forget too there’s also an Extended Director’s Cut here as well as an hour of never-before-seen bonus features.  However, not so fast!  Moronically the Extended Director’s Cut is on the Digital HD version only!  WTF is right.  I have no kind words to say about that matter so I best be moving along.  So let’s fill up the gas tanks and hit the road down below in exploration of all the said extras.  Vroom!

• The Cuban Spirit (HD, 8:04) – This one is history in the making, baby!  This extra is all about the fact that The Fate of the Furious is the first major studio motion picture to shoot in Cuba in decades.  Michelle Rodriguez introduces this one as we segue to the people of Cuba.  The film crew was in Cuba before even Obama got there. They also chat about the team and months of negotiations it took between the governments to shoot there.  They brought all the infrastructure to Cuba to film this.  What a profound experience for all involved!
• In the Family (HD) –  In The Fate of the Furious, family ties are put to the ultimate test. Here you get an inside look at the family divide in the following four separate segments.  There is no play all functionality to make things easier.
  • Betraying the Family: Cipher and Dom (6:35) – Ludacris (Bridges) introduces this one about Dom’s betrayal of his family and the instigator of it all, Cipher, portrayed by Charlize Theron.  It’s also discussed how her characters ties back to the previous two films and the respective villainous teams in them.
  • Leaderless: A Family Lost (5:00) – Tyrese introduces to us what it took for the family in this extra to soldier on without Dom.
  • Shaw Family Values (3:56) – Our director here introduces us to this extra where we get up close and personal with the villainous Shaw family from the previous two entries including the newest family member in this feature (no spoilers).
  • Meet the Nobody’s (5:45) – Once again our fearless director introduces to the Nobody’s, portrayed by Kurt Russell and Scott Eastwood.  Interesting to learn that Scott was a friend with Paul Walker for over twenty years and it fueled his decision to join the gang in this adventure.
• Car Culture (HD) –  In this supplemental feature it’s time to put yourself in the driver’s seat of the supercharged vehicles showcased in The Fate of the Furious.  There are three segments int total here.  Sadly there’s no play all here either.
  • The Hero Cars of Fast (10:24) – Tyrese introduces this one about the new cars here that showcase the style of each character.  There are double the amount of hero cars here compared to the last film.  Dom and the crew definitely love all the Dodge cars here including the limited edition Demon.  There’s even an ice Charger that goes through the snow!  Ha ha.  The Lamborghini because it is all-wheel drive handles the ice like a champ.  They of course talk about all the other cars within here too.
  • Zombie Cars (5:35) – Ludacris talks about one of the film’s most stunning sequences where are swarm of CG cars go flying everywhere.  It’s a rather incredible sequence and I remember being in awe of this sequence when I saw it theatrically.  This one made me sad though because it was filmed in my hometown of Cleveland, OH.  LOL at the way the car drivers are hidden in this.  The way they sent cars launching from the parking garages was just crazy insane, but very cool.  I would have never guess that was all real.
  • The Ripsaw (5:22) – Ludacris talks about his hero car (or should I say tank) in the film’s final act on the ice and how it really comes via approvals from the Department of Defense.  They provided two of these.  It’s originally designed for the desert not ice.  So this was all an epic test in itself.
• All About the Stunts (HD) –  Here we go behind the scenes to witness how The Fate of the Furious accomplished the most epic stunts in franchise history.  Once again there are three individual segments without a play all option.  Boo!
  • Malecon Street Race (6:15) – Michelle introduces us to the making of the Cuban car race.  The director really wanted a throwback to the fans and found a way to squeeze a legit car race within this feature.
  • Iceland Stunt Diaries (6:45) – Tyrese introduces a look at all the climatic action sequences that happen in the third act of F8.
  • The Streets of New York (5:27) – Ludacris introduces this extra about how they captured the action in New York City despite not being able to drive really fast.  This one also discusses the challenges of filming amongst the busy streets of endless pedestrians in the city.
• Extended Fight Scenes (HD, 5:03) – Ironically the final extra on the Blu-ray disc has a play all functionality, and includes only two scenes:  Extended Prison Fight and Extended Plane Fight.
• Feature Commentary – Here we have a feature length commentary with Director F. Gary Gray.  It’s too bad they can’t add Vin, Rock, Jason or any of the other family members, but nevertheless he’s solo here to deliver the goods on the production of F8.  This one is also available on the 4K UHD disc too.

Summary 

The #1 action film in the world, The Fate of the Furious, goes full-throttle on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on July 11th, from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.  It’s the latest exhilarating installment of the nitro-fueled blockbuster action franchise and it features a gripping new storyline, the most outrageous collection of vehicles yet and an all-star cast of fan favorites and series newcomers.  From the shores of Cuba and the streets of New York City to the icy plains off the arctic Barents Sea, the close-knit crew criss-crosses the globe to stop an anarchist from unleashing world chaos  and to bring home the man who made them a family in the first place.  With more than an hour of never-before-seen bonus features, an Extended Director’s Cut, a death defying DTS:X surround track and extremely wicked 4K visuals make no mistake about it The Fate of the Furious will be the crown jewel of every fan’s 4K UHD collection.  Get it while it’s hot!  Pre-order this sucker today!

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DISCLAIMER: This 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray review was judged and graded using the following 4K certified Ultra HD Premium television set found here and player here.  For your ultimate reading pleasure make sure to check out all our 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray reviews archived here.

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This July 11th

Go Full Throttle With

The Fate of the Furious

on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

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