REVIEW: St. Elmo’s Fire on 4k UHD from SONY
SONY delights with another 4k transfer on 4k Blu-ray. This time with Joel Schumacher’s classic “St. Elmo’s Fire”.
Seven friends, recent college graduates, are searching for a place in the real world, as they face issues of career and commitment. Leslie and Alec (Ally Sheedy and Judd Nelson) try to save a crumbling romance. Wendy (Mare Winningham), a shy virgin, hides a love for Billy (Rob Lowe), a reluctant father/husband still searching for goals. Kevin (Andrew McCarthy) is a cynical writer who scorns love until he realizes he's in love with his best friend's girl. Kirbo (Emilio Estevez), a law student, obsessively pursues an older woman. The beautiful, neurotic Jules (Demi Moore) paints a poignant picture of life in the fast lane. Against the backdrop of St. Elmo's, their local hang-out, they save, betray and love one another as only the closest of friends can.
The film is presented on a BD-100 disc and contains Dolby Vision + Dolby Atmos and included with the packaging is a collectible nice and sturdy slipcover.
This film is revered as a classic from the 80s featuring more than half of the cast of THE BREAKFAST CLUB - haha!
The film was originally shot on 35MM so naturally the film looks very filmic and maintains that level of grain with this 4k transfer.
The Dolby Vision/HDR adds an array of color palette to the picture and applied throughout gives a crisp clean image throughout and allows for the picture’s colors to have a bold prevention on screen.
The HDR adds significant contrast as well. Having this on a BD-100 disc makes all of the difference with the encoding giving space for the film to have the highest quality presentation as possible!
The Atmos track is where it truly shines - not the kind of film you’d expect to have one, but SONY knows collectors and know we want Atmos! And boy did they did deliver - the audio is very clear in all channels with dialogue crisp and effects well balanced. The film has an incredible soundtrack that Atmos truly highlights.
Overall, I found this transfer to be much better than My Girl. It was brighter and sounded better - maybe they had stronger elements to work with. Either way, the folks over at SONY know what they’re doing. Looks and sounds terrific! 10/10
BONUS:
Commentary with Director Joel Schumacher; Joel Schumacher Remembers 'St. Elmo's Fire' Featurette; 12 Deleted Scenes; Original Making-of Featurette; "Man in Motion" Music Video;