Sinners - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Sometimes a movie comes along at the right place and the right time, and the word of mouth spreads like a brushfire. In a landscape of exploited intellectual property, it’s nice to see an original film hit the cultural zeitgeist. It's even more fun when it's a genre picture. Ryan Coogler took the flavors and spices of horror mainstays and fan favorites, shook them up, peppered in some insightful socio-economic observations, dropped in a fantastic Blues-fueled soundtrack, and gave us the box office smash, Sinners. 

The Smokestack Twins (Killmonger and Creed) are back in town. After going to war and serving under Capone in Chicago, they’ve come back to the Mississippi plantation community that birthed them to open a juke joint of their own. Armed with plenty of booze, they enlist their cousin, Blues guitar prodigy Sammy (Miles Caton), and old-timer Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo) to deliver the tunes. Smoke reconnects with his estranged wife Annie (Munmi Mosaku) to help set up and cook. Stack recruits local shop owners Bo and Lisa Chow (Yao & Helena Yu) will do the signage and work the tables while avoiding his old flame Mary (Halie Steinfeld). Everyone inside is having a grand time with great food, tasty liquor, and music that rattles the soul, but then everything goes to hell when three vampires arrive looking to have some bloody good fun of their own. 

So, if my star rating wasn’t clue enough, I loved Sinners. I don’t often get to see a film more than once in the theater, let alone three times, but I made that journey for this one. The first time was about experiencing everything Ryan Coogler was throwing at the screen; the sound, the visuals, the story. The second time was to pick up all of the little nuances within those visual and music cues and to digest the themes and ideas. The third time was just for the fun of seeing again on IMAX because it’s just that damned good. Two more times now at home on Digital and Disc were desert viewings.

I know there are some out there who are quick to highlight similarities to other films to take Sinners down a peg. And it’s true, Sinners draws inspiration from a number of films ranging from the likes of From Dusk Till Dawn to The Faculty to The Thing to Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Coogler has even said as much in interviews discussing the films that he loved growing up and that inspired him. The point is Sinners isn’t just a replay of one or the other of any of those films, but parts of all of them with its own insightful looks at class systems, culture clashes, all rooted in the idea of original sin mixed with plenty of practical effects gore, and a banging Blues soundtrack. 

Performances across the board are fantastic. Miles Caton as Sammy is a magnificent piece of why this film works so well. Delroy Lindo once again delivers another scene-stealing performance; genuinely deserving og of award recognition when the time comes. Munmi Mosaku stands strong as the soul of our group while Hailee Steinfeld delivers a sultry performance all her own. Jayme Lawson is another highlight as the gal who captures Sammy’s eye. Jack O’Connell’s vampire Remmick is an impressive feat, being menacing and terrifying but charming and affable all at the same time. 

Ultimately, Sinners is Michael B. Jordan’s showcase as twin brothers Smoke and Stack. On the surface, as twins, they seem almost identical. But between the red and blue hats, there are subtle quirks that make each character's performance distinct; they operate as two halves of a whole. Jordan has always been a dynamic presence, but these dual roles are a career highlight. 

Not that Sinners needed me to throw more praise its way, it’s certainly had plenty of that. But here I am, throwing more praise its way. I’m under no illusion that this film is something of a rarity; an original non-IP horror film that became a box office smash. But this film wasn’t made in a bottle; it’s still a product of franchises, even if indirectly. 

For the last decade, Ryan Coogler has been killing it, delivering two Black Panther films with a combined global box office of over $2 billion. On top of that, he helped revitalize the Rocky franchise with the very successful Creed spinoffs. It’s because he had those successes that Coogler was able to command the insane deal he got and get a $90+ million horror film off the ground. You don’t go from Fruitvale Station (another incredible film in Coogler’s catalog) and immediately get to make Sinners. But Sinners is a magnificent accomplishment, a culmination of years of effort. While the comic nerd in me would love to see Coogler return to Wakanda for a trilogy-concluding chapter, the film fanatic in me is more excited about what other new material he’s ready to bring to theater screens. Apparently, demand is high for a Sinners sequel, but in all honesty, I don’t need or want one. Some films should proudly stand alone and far apart from the franchise machine. I may have some nitpicks here and there about Sinners, I wouldn't go so far as to call it perfect, but dollar for dollar, it's a hell of a film, and I can't wait to watch it again.

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray 
Sinners draws 2160p blood with a single-disc 4K UHD + Digital release from Warner Bros. and SDS. The film is pressed on a BD100 disc and is housed in a standard black case with identical slipcover artwork. The disc loads to a static image main menu with standard navigation options. The included digital code is Movies Anywhere compatible.

Shot on 65mm and partially with IMAX cameras, Sinners is a showcase for the 4K format. Presented in 2160p Dolby Vision, the film exploits the shifting aspect ratio to perfection. Sometimes with sudden jumps to full 1.78:1, other times the transition from 2.75:1 is a gradual, stylish expansion. Regardless of aspect ratio, it’s a beauty. Details are sharp and crisp, allowing us to fully appreciate facial features, the practical makeup FX, the impressive production design, and all of the amazing period-speciffic costumes this production bought off one of the abandoned Blade reboot projects from Marvel (it’s wild that the Blade reboot even got that far that costumes were made and ready for extras!). Production design also deserves an extra shout-out.

One of my favorite shots of the film is a oner that traverses the rough black side of the street against the nicer, more colorful white side. Likewise, the main sawmill location might not be a lot to look at aestically, but the nuanced details are there when you look for them. Where this film really shines is with the Dolby Vision grading pulling out those natural colors and lighting highlights. Daylight scenes that are bright and sunny look splendid. I enjoyed the color dynamics of Smoke and Stack’s red and blue hats with Sonny’s mustard yellow in between. Red gets plenty of play, but the glowing eyes of the vampires from the hand-painted contacts give these creatures an otherworldly feature and pop beautifully. Against the deep inky blacks and nuanced shadows, those tiny glowing red orbs shine. The whole transfer is a stunner.

On the audio front, we have an equally impressive Dolby Atmos mix, which shouldn’t be all that shocking, really. I mean, after that theatrical run, did we expect it to sound terrible on disc? Dialog, screams, car engines, the echos of a church, a raging inferno, and some damn good music occupy this wall-to-wall mix. A lot of the appreciation for this Atmos track is in its subtleties. Simple conversations aren’t simple dialog exchanges. I loved Delroy Lindo’s moment telling his story as a Blues player and the tragedy of his partner’s lynching. As the story unfolds, there are these subtle sounds of partying and revelry peppered through the channels, just soft enough to be audible but not loud enough to dominate or distract. Throughout the film, there are moments like that where the subtle pieces of the mix get a moment to stand out. But when the big music scenes and the action/horror come in, the full spread hits the soundscape. Height channels get plenty of distinct uses that is purposeful. It’s not just noise coming out of the height channels to have noise. LFE is also impactful; all of the bass of the music and the hard hits and stomping feet give extra weight and attention to the action on screen and rattles your floors. 

On the bonus features front we’re given over an hour of making-of featurettes. While I’d have loved a commentary, I have to tip my hat to some very focused and informative materials. The dedicated making-of is a nicely paced look at how the project came together so quickly. Then we get brief but still relevant and interesting focused featurettes on the music, performances, culture, and best of all - the creature FX of the film. Probably most interesting to some is 18-minutes of deleted scenes. Most of these cuts are mainly for time and pacing. However, there are two sequences with Delroy Lindo that I can understand why they were cut, but I would not have cared at all if those five minutes had been added to the runtime. The alternate edit of the climax is also an interesting look at what could have been - even if the final edit is certainly the better option. This is a quality-over-quantity effort.

• Dancing with the Devil: The Making of Sinners (HD 32:39)
• Blues in the Night: The Music of Sinners (HD 13:47)
• Thicker Than Blood: Becoming the Smokestack Twins (HD 10:47)
• Spirits of the Deep South (HD 8:00)
• Wages of Sin: The Creature FX of Sinners (HD 10:53)
• Deleted Scenes: (HD 18:32 Total)
• Farmhouse Dinner
• Juke Building Montage
• Sammie and Slim Talk at Piano
• Slim Plays “My Preachin’”
• Mary and Annie Talk About Gumbo
• Joan Watches Cornbread
• Jed Sermon and Steal Away

Ryan Coogler has long been a dynamic storyteller and filmmaker. Even through the big spectacle of a Marvel production, he kept focus on human characters you want to follow through to the credits. Sinners is the culmination of years of effort and success on other projects to give audiences his most personal film to date. It’s a blend of classic Blues music, cultural history, and a tribute to the genre films Coogler loved and inspired him to become a filmmaker in the first place. Pitch-perfect execution with an incredible script gives us a phenomenal feature to celebrate and watch again and again. And as someone who lived about a block away from a particular famous Chicago Blues club, that mid-credits scene was the perfect garnish to one hell of a feast of a film. I think I’ve watched this film five times now, and I’m not tired of it yet. On 4K UHD, Sinners stakes out a perfect disc. With a demo-worthy Dolby Vision Dolby Atmos A/V presentation and some genuinely informative and interesting extras, it’s a disc fans will absolutely want for the collection. And for those folks, consider it a Must Own