Eddie the Eagle Soars in UltraHD 4k Blu-ray

I have to say that this one slipped past my radar initially. And from both my family and myself I have to thank this movie for giving us a great family time, Sunday afternoon entertainment. Dexter Fletcher’s film Eddie the Eagle (2016), starring Taron Egerton, Hugh Jackman, Christopher Walken, Jo Hartley, and Tim McInnerny is such a joy to watch. It’s rare that an international sports biopic packs such heart and soul. Based on the true story of Britain’s Eddie Edwards played by Taron Egerton the movie scores a solid long jump for being uplifting and funny. It may not make it to the BAFTA or the Academy Awards, but it proved a solid hit with my kids with both Taron Egerton and Hugh Jackman turning and noteworthy performances.

Now that I’ve told you about the movie let’s talk about the quality of the Ultra HD 4K Blu-ray. The set from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment comes ‘Eddie The Eagle’ to 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray as a two-disc combo pack with a flyer for a Digital HD Copy. Encoded in HEVC H.265 with the HDR10 standard, the disk is the newest state of the art format set to replace standard Blu-ray. Such high standards can reveal the true quality of the original film. Unfortunately, even though the film was shot using a RED EPIC with a Dragon sensor in native 6K RAW, the UltraHd 4K Blu-ray misses the jump on a few key scenes. It appears that some of the special effects shots are unmasked as obvious green screen shots. While my kids didn’t notice, it was quite clear to my eyes. This may become a problem when you take a lower budget movie and encode it into such a high standard such as UltraHD 4k. It certainly shows the weak points. The High Dynamic Range looked amazing with the subtle ranges of color clearly evident. I do think the color grading could have utilized the wider color gamut better. The punch that I have seen in “The Martian” was not here.

The Dolby Atmos soundtrack does deliver a gold medal performance. You can close your eyes and FEEL the crowd chanting around you. The devil is in the details, as they say, and I could not find issue with those details. The background ambient sounds matched and enhanced the film beautifully.

The pack contained some fun extras.

• Let the Games Begin (HD, 47 min) — Is divided into three parts with, “All or Nothing: The Hero’s Heart,” “An Unlikely Friendship: Eddie & Peary” and “Attitude is Altitude: Filming The Ski Jumps”. These are all EPK-style pieces that have the cast & crew interviewed chatting about the production Also added in are some of the real-life events that inspired the film and the performances of the characters.

• Still Gallery (HD)

• Trailer (HD)

Although not the best technical example for the new UltraHD 4K Blu-ray format, the film is so much fun that no matter what you will be cheering for Eddie to the last jump.  Is it enhanced by being presented in this format? The answer is a resounding yes. Definitely, a keeper for my whole family to watch again.