You’ll believe a computer nerd can be handsome and ripped. Or maybe you won’t. It’s Michael Mann’s (Thief, Heat) Blackhat (2015), and it’s finally releasing in 4K UHD from Arrow this Tuesday, November 28th. But more importantly, the 2K Director’s Cut, the best version of the film, is included.

Note: This review is based on a pre-production check disc and will not cover any packaging or literary insert materials.

The 4K box of Blackhat should be a perfect pickup for cineastes and Mann fans, and it’s maybe Arrow’s most anticipated release of the year, but its inclusion of the director’s cut is both what makes it essential, and what detracts from it. The director’s cut is simply the better film, but it looks worse in 2K when held up against the very impressive 4K UHD remaster of the theatrical cut. It wasn’t even intended for inclusion in the box until customer demand caused Arrow to delay the release in order to add it.

So, to Arrow and Universal Pictures, thank you very much for including the director’s cut, and pretty please remaster that, too.

Blackhat, for those many moviegoers who skipped it in theaters, is the last film Michael Mann directed before this year’s Ferrari. It stars Chris Hemsworth (Thor, Extraction) as Hathaway, a “blackhat” hacker offered clemency in exchange for stopping a criminal and/or terrorist hacker who’s targeted both China and the U.S. and thrown the world into chaos.

How that story begins depends on which cut you watch. Famously, Mann decided at the last minute to move the mid-film set piece to the beginning of the film in order to make the film “more exciting” when its pre-release tracking looked poor. Today, you can instead watch the properly ordered, slow-burn, globetrotting epic on this Blu-ray.Here’s what you’re getting:

DISC ONE – THE US AND INTERNATIONAL VERSIONS (4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY)

• 4K UHD Theatrical and International cuts of the film
• Brand new audio commentary by critics Bryan Reesman and Max Evry
  • Starring film critics and journalists Reesman and Evry, this is the 2nd most courageous thing Arrow has done here, after releasing the director’s cut, because these two don’t seem to like Michael Mann’s Heat (1995) very much, or maybe even Blackhat for that matter. And they seem to loathe Miami Vice (1984). And that’s what makes this a great commentary. Instead of going with an easy layup for the Mann stans Arrow’s targeting with this disc, they chose two critics who love The Keep (1983) and Michael Man, but don’t treat him as infallible. Quoting other critics like Jordan Hoffman, Richard Brody, and Matt Singer, this commentary feels more like an episode of Blank Check with guest hosts than an afterthought extra. It’s good criticism and a great commentary.
• Firewall – new interview with cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh
  • Dryburgh explains his process for digital photography, prioritizing highlight gradation instead of shadows. He also discusses trying out the Canon 50d and 70d on the film, catching gun flares on camera, and Michael Mann excluding cinematographers from the color grading process. The interview looks great.
• Zero Day Threat – new interview with production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas
  • Topics for this interview range from Dyas’s career path through Industrial Light and Magic to production designer, insane overpreparation when working with Michael Mann, and dropping the truck into a data bank for real. Very cool.
• The Cyber Threat
  • Archival extra.
  • A lot of fearmongering about the danger of Chinese hackers in American infrastructure and the reasoning behind a hacker being absolutely jacked.
• On Location Around the World
  • Archival Extra.
  • A play-by-play talking head interview on the plot of the film and why each location was chosen.
• Creating Reality
  • Archival extra.
  • Discusses Hathaway’s backstory (which should have been more important to the film), giving minor characters backstory, and Michael Mann’s process with actors.
• Image gallery
  • Seemingly uncropped still exports from the film, played in sequence with no ability to speed it up. Very pretty, very annoying.
• Menu
  • Arrow, please turn the volume down on your opening bumper; it’s higher than your menu audio by a large margin. Thank you.
  • Normal-enough menu, weirdly hides the archival extras.

DISC TWO – THE DIRECTOR’S CUT

• 2K Director’s Cut

In the end, this disc should be celebrated for at the very least providing a way to see the (again, much better) director’s cut outside of catching it on FX. I imagine many of us will be revisiting Blackhat this month, I just wish you could see the best of it in 4K, too.

Available on 4K UHD and Blu-ray November 28th, 2023.

For more information, head to the official Arrow Video Blackhat webpage.
To purchase, head to the official MVD Entertainment Group Blackhat webpage.

Categories: Home Release, Home Video, Recommendation, Reviews

Tags: 4K UHD, action, Andy On, Arrow Video, Blackhat, Chris Hemsworth, crime, Forward Pass, Holt McCallany, home release, home video, John Ortiz, Leehom Wang, Legendary Pictures, Michael Mann, Morgan Davis Foehl, MVD Entertainment Group, Ritchie Coster, Tang Wei, thriller, Universal Pictures, Viola Davis, Yorick van Wageningen