Review for Strange Days - 20th Anniversary Edition

Introduction

Ultrabit actually is a thing! When Sony came up with the initial Mastered at 4k Blu-rays, taking Ghostbusters, getting a new 4k scan of the film, and putting it onto a Blu-ray disc having stripped out the extra features to maximise the bitrate, I facetiously dubbed it Ultrabit, likening it to the same thing that Sony did with Superbit DVDs. Back then, they put new masters of films on SD discs, maxing the bitrate for audio and video by dumping extras. Well it turns out that in Germany, Koch Media are releasing Blu-ray titles under the Ultrabit label. They originally released Strange Days on Blu-ray in 2009, with everything on one disc, extra features and movie. Then last year, for the film’s 20th Anniversary, they re-mastered the film, and this time it resides on a Blu-ray all by itself. The extra features are moved to a second DVD disc. And yes, even after all these years in the Blu-ray lifecycle, the only way that I could get one of my favourite sci-fi thrillers in high definition was to import from Germany. No-one else has released Strange Days on Blu-ray.


When the FBI develops the Super-conducting Quantum Interference Device or SQUID for short to replace listening devices, they open up a Pandora’s Box. Allowing a person’s experience to be recorded onto mini disc, it lets a user to vicariously indulge in that experience from the original viewpoint, find out what it’s like to rob a store, be someone of the opposite sex, anything they can imagine or pay for, it’s the ultimate in safe sex. Ex-cop Lenny Nero is a dealer in these stolen dreams, and scrapes a living on the other side of the law. His only scruple is that he doesn’t deal in blackjacks, clips that end in death.


Lenny spends his days in the past, wired up and reliving his happier days with Faith, a former prostitute he ‘rescued’, but who left him for the big time with record producer Philo Gant. He’s about to get a rude awakening after a chance encounter with Faith’s friend Iris, who leaves a clip in his car just before it is repossessed, making him an unsuspecting target. Soon Iris is killed and the psychotic murderer is leaving blackjack clips of the crime for Lenny to ‘enjoy’. The answer to this is on that disc in the impounded car, and the only people who can help him get it is security expert Mace and his old cop buddy Max. Lenny is about to be sucked into a mystery that could tear LA apart, on the night of the biggest party in history.

Picture

Strange Days gets a 2.35:1 widescreen transfer on this Blu-ray disc, and it’s a fantastic transfer. The image is clear and sharp throughout, with rich, vivid colours. There’s a nice level of film-grain, the ever so-slight organic wobble that you’d expect in film (really only noticeable during the credit sequences), and the film comes across with exquisite levels of detail. Skin tones are natural, and there’s no sign of any post-processing such as DNR, filtering or sharpening to make it HD ready. It looks like a movie. Add to that, all signs of age, print damage and dirt have been removed, which is a big step up over the old DVD release. I haven’t seen the first Blu-ray release, but this one is spectacular, not even troubled with compression when it comes to the climax, the party with 100,000 people in the street, a veritable hurricane of confetti in the air. It all looks pixel perfect.

Sound

You have the choice between DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround English and German, with optional English and German subtitles. It’s an excellent surround track that immerses you right in the middle of the action, doubly so when the film puts you in the middle of a ‘clip’. There’s a whole lot of thoughtful sound design in this film which really comes across well on the Blu-ray. The dialogue is clear throughout, the action sequences presented well, but the real draw for me in terms of the audio experience is the music soundtrack, really evoking the anarchic ‘end of the millennium’ feel with a collection of rock, pop and world music, perfect for an end of the world party.

Extras

You get two discs in a thin Blu-ray Amaray, with one disc on either inner face. The sleeve art is reversible, so that you can lose the oversized German ratings logo. Disc 1 presents the film with a slightly (at first) animated menu. The only extras on this disc are the German trailer (1:20 fullscreen), and the English trailer (2:50 letterbox). The trailers aren’t in HD though, rather in 576i PAL format, which is a missed opportunity.

The second disc is a PAL DVD, and is where you’ll find the rest of the extras. These extras always launch with optional German subtitles where required, and you’ll have to turn those off manually.

The Commentary from Kathryn Bigelow lasts 59:27, and is the same commentary from the UK DVD, albeit with an introduction from the film’s producer added to the front end and a single run through of the opening of the movie without commentary in a postage stamp box onscreen. This is all about how the POV sequences were accomplished.


The Visual Effects lasts 10:04 and effects artists Jim Hillin and Allen Cappuccilli talk over some postage stamp clips of before and after work on the effects sequences in the film.

The Making of Strange Days lasts 23:26, but this featurette is presented with German voiceover for all participants. Brush up on that German GCSE, or give this one a miss.

There are 19:37 of interviews with the cast and crew, 2 deleted scenes in letterbox format running to 5:42, the music video for Skunk Anansie’s ‘Selling Jesus’, an English teaser trailer and a German TV Spot.

Conclusion

Watching one of my favourite movies last night was actually a depressing experience. I still love the movie, mind, it’s a great, near future sci-fi tech thriller, that has fantastic characters, a gripping story, and is paced just right. You might think that it’s the depression of encroaching middle age, 16 years after the millennium that this film prophesied, 21 years after I first saw it, but it isn’t that. What’s depressing about Strange Days is that it is even more relevant now than it was when it was first released.


Back in 1995, Strange Days was a great piece of entertainment that had a strong political message, coming off the back of the L.A. Riots that were themselves provoked by the Rodney King beating. It was a thinly veiled warning that we as societies need to come together in mutual respect, lest we tear ourselves apart. The key moment in the film was the police murder of a popular rap star, where a witness caught the crime on ‘tape’, having worn a SQUID; the hunt for that evidence putting into motion the wheels of the story.


And welcome to 2016, where Black Lives Matter is a sadly necessary movement, where police killings of young, black men are caught on security cameras, on phone cameras, on police cameras, and are out there for all to witness, where the killing of Mark Duggan sparked off destructive riots across the UK, let alone gun culture USA. The future that Strange Days depicted has come to pass; only it’s a lot worse than this movie made out. For one thing, we don’t have VR memories to escape into when things get too depressing.


But the film itself is still fantastic, and 15 years further down the line since its UK DVD release, those aspects that might have dated the film in 2001, just one year after the actual millennium when you could do a direct compare and contrast, don’t seem quite as relevant now. All that’s left is that perfectly paced tech thriller. Set mostly at night, it has something of a Blade Runner feel to it, a society ever so slightly twisted out of recognition, seething on the edge of nihilistic self-destruction. The characters too are great, and for me what makes this film special is the role reversal between Lenny and Mace, with the Mace the strong, female pragmatist, trying to keep Lenny on the straight and narrow, while Lenny’s a little too in touch with his feelings, easily swayed by his obsession with Faith, and superficially vain and selfish.


This Blu-ray is fabulous! It looks and sounds fantastic, and best of all, it’s uncut when compared to the UK release. It’s brilliantly priced too, you can have it for less than 10 Euros, so better get importing before we Brexit, or you’ll have to pay duty on top!