Offering subtle or moderate improvements to the film's audio and even two resurrected vintage extras (rare territory for Warner Bros.), for many fans

Contrary to Warner Bros.' usual habits, the included Blu-ray is a brand new disc (not available separately) that sources its 1080p transfer The Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition: The Complete Adventure Limited Edition is a 3-disc set here in the States that includes the DE in 4K, a newly-authored 4K of the previously-released Theatrical Cut as well as the Special Longer Version (included via seamless branching), and a Blu-ray full of bonus content that I’m told includes basically everything ever created and released for the film on home video. (I’m awaiting confirmation of the exact contents from the studio.) But it does NOT include a Blu-ray of the DE itself, nor are Blu-rays of the Theatrical and SLV versions included. The DE is available separately on Blu-ray, and obviously the Theatrical Cut Blu-ray was included in the original 4-Movie Collection from last year. ever-present layer of film grain that clearly hasn't been subjected to excessive noise reduction. The HDR10 enhancement takes over in subtle but They Are Here: The Real World of Poltergeists, Part 2 – Communing with the Dead (Upscaled SD – 15:33)directed this piece), actor Craig T. Nelson, and director Tobe Hooper, as well as candid footage from the set including a few good looks at special effects from the recent remaster and has been encoded with the more efficient AVC codec. As such, it displays similar strengths including more refined This two-disc release ships in a standard keepcase with...uh... different cover artwork, a matching slipcover, and a Digital Copy redemption

Of course, there’s a different element of Poltergeist that provides the single biggest reason why it works, and it’s one that tends to get overlooked. Without a solid family dynamic at the heart of the film, everything else would have been little more than sound and fury, signifying nothing. The Freeling household is a credible family unit, and without having that to anchor the film, the supernatural shenanigans wouldn’t work nearly as well as they do. The action may not be believable, but the family dynamic is, and that’s what keeps audiences grounded even when the film goes on its flights of fancy. Yet it’s not really the children who matter. Heather O’Rourke is fine as Carol Anne, and both Oliver Robins and Dominique Dunne make adequate siblings for her, but everything depends on Craig T. Nelson and JoBeth Williams as Steven and Diane Freeling. Carol Anne may have become the face of the franchise, but Steven and Diane were its heart and soul. Nelson and Williams have a natural, easygoing chemistry with each other that works on multiple levels. They don’t just make a plausible couple; they make plausible parents as well, and that’s the real key to Poltergeist. Even when the dialogue fails them, the sincerity of their performances manages to sell it anyway—Williams manages to take that cringeworthy line about Carol Anne passing through her soul, and play it with utterly believable conviction. There’s an argument to be made that the film could be called “Craig T. Nelson and JoBeth Williams’ Poltergeist.” The construction of the film is also wonderful, and this makes even more sense once the outcome of the film is revealed – the opening scene with the TV playing the Star-Spangled Banner, knowing on what the house is built is simply delicious. While the opening foreboding/foreshadowing elements that come into play show a maturity and audacity of film-making that gives a respect to the audience as well as world-builds the environment. And all from childhood fears from producer Steven Spielberg. they'll immediately strike viewers as impressive, especially on an OLED or even LCD screen with reliable local dimming. (There are even dual Two points need to be mentioned about both the master used for this 4K presentation, and the disc itself. The first is that this isn’t quite the original theatrical version of the film. The infamous jump cut at 34:13 is still present, of course, as some dialogue about Pizza Hut was removed long before Poltergeist ever hit home video in any version. (Whether or not the dialogue was actually present in theatrical prints is a debate for another time.) That’s old news, but the new changes involve digital fixes like the ones that were performed for the Indiana Jones series. Wires have been removed, the dog trainer has been erased from the opening of the film, and a few other mistakes like that have been corrected. There are still a few that haven’t, like the reflection in the toaster when the crew members swapped chairs offscreen for the table gag, but the most prominent ones are now gone. (For a complete list of the changes with time codes, see Movie-Censorship.com.) NOTE: Both the 4K and Blu-ray discs in this release feature the same audio options, reviewed below.The reality is that the success of Poltergeist can’t be attributed to any one person. Film is a collaborative medium, and neither Spielberg or Hooper could have created it alone. It took a legion of talented artists including co-writers Michael Grais and Mark Victor; co-producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall; cinematographer Matthew F. Leonetti; editor Michael Kahn; visual effects supervisor Richard Edlund (as well as his own legions of supporting crew); and myriad others. Jerry Goldsmith also contributed one of his finest scores (even though calling it “one of his finest” doesn’t really narrow things down very much, as that could be said of nearly half of the scores that he wrote). It took a village to make Poltergeist work, and Spielberg tends to get too much deference simply because his name is the most recognizable one in the credits.

They Are Here: The Real World of the Poltergeists (2 parts, 31:00 total) - Carried over from the 2008 Blu-ray (and what Here's the huge disappointment of this set. These extras totally blow. In fairness to Warner, however, a birdie in the know tells me it has always been camp Steven Spielberg that has nixed the idea of a true 'Poltergeist' making-of (due to the still-sensitive issues over who really directed the film, etc.) So instead of cast and crew interviews and all that sort of good stuff, all we get is an utterly lame "documentary" on real-life spook hunters. Ugh...

Sound

very nice glimpse behind the scenes of the film with comments from writer-producer Steven Spielberg, producer Frank Marshall (who actually

retained but improved is good news for everyone -- another feather in WB's cap, as they're not usually known for this. The second point is that some people have reported issues with the disc freezing for them at approximately 13:50. There’s no consistency regarding the players that seem to be having the issue—for example, some people have had the problem using an Oppo UDP-203, while others haven’t. (For the record, it played fine for me on an Oppo UDP-205, which is mechanically identical to the 203.) Strangely enough, it hasn’t always occurred consistently, as some users have reported that it played fine the first time, but then froze every time after that. It may not affect your specific player, but it’s something to keep in mind. format's capabilities. Poltergeist isn't a visually showy or even attractive production, as only a handful of wistful suburban pans are This conceit is the anchor that gives 'Poltergeist' it's true dramatic weight. Spielberg makes it essential that Diane and (in particular) Steve are ex-'70s liberals who have now been fully Reaganized, yet still have the heart of hippies (they are even seen rolling a joint late one night while the children fall asleep). On the surface, 'Poltergeist' is often dismissed as little more than an effects-filled story of one family's supernatural rescue mission of their little girl. But the real reason the film has resonated for twenty-five years is because it's really the journey of two modern suburbanites who must reclaim their belief in the spiritual, at least if they are to restore their metaphysically-fractured family. That it is the ultimate symbol of '80s consumerism -- the TV set -- that the ghosts use to first attract Carol Anne is certainly no coincidence.That would be silly, of course, but Poltergeist is the kind of film where any possessory credit is dubious at best. It’s old-school Hollywood factory filmmaking, but in the best possible sense. Both Tobe Hooper and Steven Spielberg deserve fair credit, as does everyone else involved. There’s enough quality craftsmanship on display here that it overcomes any weaknesses in the story and the dialogue—the whole of Poltergeist is far greater than the sum of its parts. has been granted a substantial bitrate boost from the old Blu-ray's lossy 192kbps Dolby Digital (that's DVD quality) to full-fledged