Not every movie can be a winner, even when your filmography is as revered as that of Michael Mann. His hacking thriller Blackhat starring Chris Hemsworth was given mixed critical reviews and considered a flop at the box office, but it has a new 4K UHD that allows for an opportunity to re-evaluate it, especially considering the increase in cybercrime since it was released eight years ago. But is it worth another look?
Of course it is, it’s a Michael Mann film. Anyway, Blackhat is about a mysterious hacker who is causing some serious issues across the world with an undetermined motive. First they send a nuclear power station in Hong Kong into meltdown after taking control of the cooling fans, and then they send soy prices rocketing in an attack on a financial market in Chicago, so computer experts from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and the FBI join forces to try and root out the hacker. To do this, they make a deal to spring Nick Hathaway (Hemsworth) from jail, who is in for hacking banks. It turns out he also wrote the code that the hacker adapted for his attacks, so they set him free and let him do his thing.
READ MORE: Le Combat Dans L’ile (1962) – Blu-ray Review
Blackhat is an excellent thriller full of tension and excitement, despite that so much of it involves people typing on a laptop. Hemsworth is decent value for the lead – people complained when it came out because he’s attractive and muscly and the average image of a computer hacker in people’s minds is a fat nerd, but those people suck. His American accent takes some getting used to, but otherwise he’s fine, and has good chemistry with the rest of the fine cast, including Viola Davis, Leehom Wang and Tang Wei. The latter is important being the love interest for Hathaway, and it works out as a nice parallel between this and Miami Vice, another underrated Mann flick.
As expected, Mann lays it out almost like a procedural that unfolds and unfolds and it’s great fun. There are the usual themes of loyalty and isolation and freedom and the rush of the job, with Hathaway being of a kind with Neil McCauley from Heat and Will Graham from Manhunter – there’s one bit where he does Graham’s ‘son of a bitch’ external narration and it’s great. It looks and sounds amazing too, with a fine music score that’s credited to Harry Gregson-Williams, Atticus Ross, and Leo Ross, although who did what is anyone’s guess; Gregson-Williams said when he saw the film barely any of his music survived.
Arrow has brought Blackhat to UHD with three different versions of the film – the theatrical cut, the international cut, and Mann’s director’s cut. We were sent the disc with the first two versions. Those two are both in 4K resolution and they look great, with the film shot completely on digital with Stuart Dryburgh (The Piano) as director of photography. Different cameras were used for different shots and you can tell the difference, usually with an increase of grain, but it still looks amazing, with a notable evolution from Mann’s previous explorations of digital photography, particularly on Collateral, Miami Vice, and Public Enemies. Audio is 5.1 lossless and it’s typically great, with those wonderful unique gun sound effects Mann specialises in that sets them apart from other movies.
It’s worth noting that there is barely any difference between the theatrical and international versions, it’s literally down to snippets of dialogue. The extras are decent, although there’s no Mann commentary, sadly. Instead you get one from film critics Bryan Reesman and Max Evry and it’s pretty annoying. They start by slagging Mann off for his use of the international computer and network shots as if he didn’t realise it was a trope, and continue with an irritatingly irreverent style that goes between reading facts from a script and unfunny jokes. Better features come with interviews with Dryburgh and production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas and these are genuinely fascinating, especially with Dryburgh talking about why he likes shooting digitally and Dyas explaining how he came up through the ranks at ILM. There are also three archival featurettes that are your basic EPK bits.
READ MORE: The Munsters – Pilot Error!
Blackhat is a terrific thriller as only Michael Mann can do, and it looks great and sounds great on UHD. The interview features are excellent, and you also get the director’s cut on a bonus disc, which is supposed to be the better version. I’ll probably buy it myself, and you can’t get a better recommendation than that.
Blackhat is out now on 4K UHD and Blu-ray from Arrow Video.
