SNEAKERS Tiptoes Onto 4K UHD, and Remains an All-Time Great Comic Caper

Comfort films come in all shapes, sizes, and genres, but few are as utterly stacked cast-wise as 1993's Sneakers.

Settle in for a minute while I list off the names here -- Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, River Phoenix, Dan Aykroyd, Ben Kingsley, David Strathairn, Donal Logue, Stephen Tobolowsky, and James Earl Jones. Almost any one of them is worth watching a movie for all by themself, but all nine in the same film? Cinema, baby.

Martin Bishop (Redford) leads a group of like-minded hackers and experts with past missteps who now work to test company security systems. It's barely a living, so when an opportunity arises that's too good to be true, well, they leap at it. They're hired to steal a little black box and succeed, but when they discover what it actually is, they decide they need to steal it back again -- and the fate of the world may depend on it.

Sneakers might just be the most delightful spy thriller you've ever seen, even as it explores some serious themes like integrity, honor, and the limits that someone (or some government) will go for power. It's a heist film gifting fans of the subgenre with one mini-theft and one far more elaborate and suspenseful, as our "good" guys realize they've been duped and go about fixing things, but through it all, it's the characters who hold our attention.

It helps, of course, that these are characters brought to life by the actors listed above, and all of them are doing great work here. Everyone will have their own favorites -- from Strathairn's blind but highly intuitive hacker to Phoenix's quirky, love-seeking jack of all trades -- but Redford sits amid them all as a paternal figure with a past. The film gives a glimpse of that past, but just as many of us like to imagine Enemy of the State as a sneaky sequel to The Conversation, Redford's character in Sneakers could very easily be seen as a follow-up to his young but disillusioned spy in Three Days of the Condor.. Shhh, let us have our fun.

Kino's 4K UHD features a new HDR/Dolby Vision master, and it looks expectedly terrific. It's not a film that needed much in the way of improvement on the visual front, but the new transfer still adds depth and detail to some of the nighttime scenes and elsewhere. The extras are all ported from previously releases, but they're good ones including two commentary tracks with director/co-writer Phil Alden Robinson and crew and a making-of documentary.

While the film above is a classy good time, 1978's Foul Play can't claim the same -- but I still love its goofy, silly, funny charms. Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn remain a magical pairing, and here the two comedic talents star as a San Francisco detective and a witness to a murder, respectively, and while some of the beats might upset today's comedic watchdogs, the damn thing is just a really fun time.

Hawn plays a librarian who witnesses a man's death, but not before hearing him whisper "Beware the dwarf!" She soon finds herself marked for murder, so along with Chase's capable but silly detective, they set out to find the killer before it's too late. Car stunts, shootouts, Nazis, a sex-hungry Dudley Moore, a wickedly fun fight between Burgess Meredith and a female assassin -- Foul Play has it all. There's even a plot to kill the pope, which makes this one timely as well!

This was Chase's first big screen leading role, and he's a terrific partner to Hawn as their banter sees them both bouncing between being the straight "man" and the goofy one. Their best pairing is Seems Like Old Times from two years later, but Foul Play remains an innocently ridiculous good time complete with action, laughs, and some real suspense.

Kino's 4K UHD features a new HDR/Dolby Vision master, offering sharp detail and bright colors throughout the fast-moving, well-lit film. The extra features are both new for this edition and include a commentary track with journalists Bryan Reesman and Max Evry, and a featurette celebrating the film's late director, Colin Higgins.

Kino's also brought two John Wayne classics into the world of 4K UHD with new releases of 1949's Sands of Iwo Jima and 1963's Donovan's Reef. Both films see Wayne hanging around islands in the Pacific, but they couldn't be more different in tone or intent. Where the former is a serious look at wartime heroes, the latter is a romp pairing Wayne with the great Lee Marvin for some saloon shenanigans.

Sands of Iwo Jima sees Wayne as Sgt. Stryker, a tough as nails U.S. Marine tasked with training new recruits for an inevitable assault on Japan. He's far from beloved, and that's okay with him, but the more time he spends with these men, the more he comes to see them as people worth befriending and respecting.

We get plenty of character bite, as Stryker's personality and methods rub everyone the wrong way, but the film's core themes are all about building character for and through the conflict that kicks off in the back half. The wartime action blends scenes with archival footage, and it's all intentionally jingoistic in its aim while building to its most iconic scene featuring the raising of the American flag on Iwo Jima.

The black & white feature looks good via the new HDR/Dolby Vision master, with both depth and detail feeling clean, despite the obvious contrasts against the archival footage. Kino's disc features two extras, an older making-of featurette and a new commentary with Steve Mitchell and Steven Jay Rubin.

The film above is a solid slice of American, but for my money, John Ford's Donovan's Reef is the far better and more enjoyable film. Wayne and Marvin are joined by Cesar Romero, Jack Warden, and Dorothy Lamour, and everyone's having a good time cavorting around the island, getting into bar fights, and dealing with racial tensions.

Donovan's Reef is the last of 14 collaborations between Wayne and director John Ford, and while it can't touch classics like Stagecoach and The Searchers, it's a fun enough time. The film's at its best when Wayne, Marvin, and Romero are bantering, fighting, and plotting, while the inevitable romance that builds between Wayne's character and the noticeably younger Elizabeth Allen can't quite garner the same interest. That's okay, though, as there's plenty more to enjoy here including some beautiful island visuals.

Those images have never looked better than they do here as Kino's 4K UHD and Paramount's new HDR/Dolby Vision master for Donovan's Reef look brilliant. I'm of the opinion that color films from the 1950s through the 1970s offer the best potential for 4K upgrade, and Ford's film offers ample evidence to that. The colors are vibrant, the details are exquisite, and the film just pops. Kino's extras include a short film by Ford, 1957's "The Growler Story," and two new commentaries with film historians Jospeh McBride and Dwayne Epstein.

Criterion has also brought a trio (quartet?) of non-English films, all certified classics, onto 4K UHD with highly satisfying results. All are worth the time and money for film lovers, but my heart belongs most to Wong Kar-wai's Chungking Express.

(See our own Peter Martin's full review.)

Two men, two women, and a late-night food stand -- it sounds like a riff on an American sitcom, but it's actually a gorgeously filmed, beautifully performed exploration of longing and love. Brigitte Lin and Faye Wong are the women, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Tony Leung are the men, and that's already four reasons to watch and love Wong Kar-wai's ode to the senses and emotions that swirl together in the presence of someone special.

Boiling the film down to a plot synopsis is difficult as the film is less about story and more about experiences both real and imagined. It's about the romantic connection between people, even if they start as strangers, with voiceover offering glimpses into their heads and minds. There's both warmth and wonder in those words, but the film is at its most poetic when it moves without dialogue. From the sumptuous sax to repeated use of "California Dreaming" and (a Chinese cover of) "Dreams" by The Cranberries, the music is key, but so is the silence held in glances between characters.

Everyone here is missing someone else -- employees, collaborators in a scheme, lovers both in and out of bed -- and that longing permeates the screen to affect our souls. Hyperbolic, maybe, but easily provable to anyone capable of turning off distractions and settling in for a watch.

Criterion's new 4K transfer, originally completed for their Wong Kar-wai boxset, looks very good, but there's some disagreement as to whether or not it's actually an improvement on UHD. Essentially, the 4K transfer on Blu-ray and UHD feel very comparable without much of a visible difference. Both capture the dreamy haze, colorful sequences, and nighttime magic, and both are treats for the senses. The extras are all archival and include a television episode from the 1990s featuring interviews, deleted scenes, and a 2002 interview with cinematographer Christopher Doyle.

1953's Ugetsu offers up a haunting, introspective fable set in 17th century Japan. It follows two couples disrupted and scattered by war, and while the men seek fortune and infidelity, the women suffer. (I didn't say it was a happy fable.) Ghostly presences weave in and out of the story's threads, often unnoticed by the oblivious men.

(See our own Michele "Izzy" Galgana's full review.)

Kenji Mizoguchi's dreamlike tale is, at its most basic, an effective look at the high cost of ambition and ignorance. Deeper introspection, though, sees a commentary on his own post-war homeland that pulls no punches. From its biting takedown of a patriarchy's excesses and incompetence to an angry rebuke of the way women are treated by men, the film hits hard with a scathing awareness of the inhumanity of the living.

It's far from aggressive, though, as its dreamlike visuals carry over with pacing slowed down for moments of ghostly wonder while pressing down on the gas during its brief action beats. Characters make choices -- the women are brave and resolute even as the men act more out of selfishness and ignorance. Through it all, the lessons and themes remain clear and effective.

Criterion's new 4K release, like most upgrades of black & white films, is most noticeable in the increased depth and detail within pockets of shadow and darkness. Fans of the film's grim, ethereal beauty will be pleased. The extras include an audio commentary by critic Tony Rayns, a 1975 documentary on the director, and a handful of interviews from the 1990s and early 2000s.

Lastly, Criterion brings to 4K UHD and Blu-ray Claude Berry's epic two-part saga with a double feature release of Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring. Released the same year, just a few months apart, the story told moves across generations and moralities to deliver a story of greed and revenge that sings equally with sadness and beauty.

(See our own Lia Matthew Brown's complete review.)

Part one, Jean de Florette, sees a man and his nephew hoping to create a successful carnation business in the French countryside, but doing so requires a lot of water. The only real solution is a hidden spring on their neighbor's land, but the owner has died and passed it on to her son (Gerard Depardieu) who arrives, family in tow, with plans of his own. What follows is a deliberate effort by the duo to dupe the rube and "steal" his land. Manon of the Spring picks up some years later after the rube's young daughter has grown into a smart young woman (Emmanuelle Beart) -- a daughter hungry for revenge.

Fans of densely plotted tales of highly satisfying revenge owe it to themselves to seek out this release. Each film is terrific on its own, but together they make for an epic tale of vengeance told with engaging performances, stirring scores, and absolutely gorgeous cinematography. Beart is quite affecting in part two, but it's the antagonists played by Yves Montand and Daniel Auteuil who take hold as we see the effects of ambition, greed, and ultimately regret play across their faces and lives.

Criterion's new four-disc release offers each film on UHD and Blu-ray, and both movies stun on the visual front. The French countryside is a landscape of color, shading, and distant views, and the new 4K restorations capture it all with an eye for utter beauty. Seriously, you'd be hard-pressed to find a more visually stunning revenge movies. The only extras are two documentaries on the director and the films, both from the last decade, and they're worth a watch for fans.