Michael Mann’s Heat (1995) has been long overdue for a 4k upgrade. It’s been on our radar for at least a year after having been listed as an upcoming Ultra HD Blu-ray release, albeit with no street date or package art. The 2-disc “Ultimate Collector’s Edition” from 20th Century Studios (owned by Disney) includes a 4k Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and code to redeem a Digital Copy via Movies Anywhere. Best Buy also released a 4k SteelBook edition.
Heat was already remastered in 4k over 5 years ago for the release of the Director’s Definitive Edition on Blu-ray Disc, and since 4k Blu-ray has been around since 2016 it’s surprising it took this long to release on the higher-quality disc format. The sound has stayed the same with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. And, there are no additional bonus features.
For the most part, we can say there is more good 4k video than bad in this UHD BD presentation. Some of the skylines of Los Angeles would have been better left in SD (that’s meant to be sarcastic), as the newly remastered video in 4k really makes some of the poorer images stand out. There are some shots where the black levels are somewhat crunched and there is a lack of detail resulting from a darker color grading for the 4k/HDR10 presentation.
See scores and read the full review of Heat on 4k Blu-ray.
