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Kid (The) (Blu-ray)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray B - United Kingdom - Signature Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Rick Curzon (14th July 2019). |
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The Film
 Following a violent altercation, a young boy, Rio (Jake Schur), is forced to go on the run across the American Southwest in a desperate attempt to save his sister (Leila George) from his villainous uncle (Chris Pratt). Along the way, he encounters Sheriff Pat Garrett (Ethan Hawke), on the hunt for the infamous outlaw Billy the Kid (Dane DeHaan). Rio finds himself increasingly entwined in the lives of these two legendary figures as the cat and mouse game of Billy the Kid’s final year of life plays out. Ultimately Rio is forced to choose which type of man he is going to become, the outlaw or the man of valour, and will use this self-realisation in a final act to save his family.
Video
Unusual rendering of the Billy the Kid saga told from a different point of view. A pet project for director Vincent D'Onofrio who also appears in a supporting role. Pratt has a nice turn as the villain of the piece, an unusual role for him ... and sporting a killer beard! Dehaan is especially good as the title character and Hawke etches a fine turn as Pat Garrett. Newcomer Schur can more than hold his own so hopefully we can expect more good things from him in the future. DeHaan looks the spit of the Kid from the surviving photos. Recommended and a shame this didn't get a theatrical release. The image is typically excellent being shot digitally with well rendered, robust colour values decently encoded. This is at times a dusty looking film with plenty of Earthy browns and beiges and the dust comes through nicely; you'll want to take a long cool drink aftwerwards. The blacks are deep and rich with absolutely no signs of crush. Contrast is perfectly balanced; the many daylight scenes have a nice range of light to dark with fine detail coming through on all focal planes. Closeups are especially sharp with healthy, natural skin tones. The grain field is fine, as you'd expect from a film digitally shot in 2K or 4K (not sure which at the moment) and well handled by the encode. I saw no signs of digital artefacts or signs of compression. 1080/24p / MPEG-4 AVC / 2.4:1 / 100:13
Audio
English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Subtitles: English HoH A thunderous 5.1 sound mix that fully uses the sound field with plenty of surround activity as you'd expect from a modern, well-funded action film. It's nit quite on the level of the latest £250+ million James Bond epic but it's rendered on this disc as well as it can be. I'm also overjoyed to say that subtitles for the hearing impaired have been included. More of these on all of your DVDs and Blu-rays please Signature?
Extras
"The Making of The Kid" featurette (9:25) An EPK puff piece, nice to have but superficial and brief.
Packaging
Standard, BD keepcase.
Overall
A decent reworking of the Billy the Kid story gets a solid HD release from Signature Entertainment. Picture and sound are as good as can be given the fact it's a recent, digitally shot, well-funded production with plenty of action and it's on a BD25. I suspect an uptick in detail and grain resolution would be a boon were this on a BD50 with a suitably maxed out rate. Extras are fleeting, EPK and generally worthless but the same as on the US disc from Lionsgate. A great disc for those who want to see this fine film and it has subtitles for the hearing impaired.
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