Richard Pryor: Here and Now - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

There will only ever be one Richard Pryor. The comic genius left his mark on the stage and screen, delivering one hilarious performance after another. Who else could outshine Superman in his own movie? An inspiration for a legion of young comedians coming up in his wake, Pryor etched the template for comedy concert films. Nowadays, we tune in to HBO or Netflix for these specials, but there was a time when an event like a live Richard Pryor stand-up special drew crowds to local movie theaters. After the success of Live on the Sunset Strip, Pryor took the stage once again and filmed Here and Now. 

A little more relaxed, a little more confident, the film is a riot, but perhaps not quite as raw as Live on the Sunset Strip. Part documentary, part standup show, part one-man performance, Pryor dives into a full range of topics from his numerous marriages to drug use and sobriety to traveling to Africa. He delivers his standard eye for racial differences while delivering punchlines that are universally funny as hell. When discussing drugs and sobriety, he delivers the sharp jab about national drug abuse: “They call it an epidemic now. That means white people are doing it.” It’s a shock, it’s a laugh, it’s pure Richard. And true to himself, he’ll take the honesty of sobriety and turn it into a joke about the unfortunate loss of penis length.

Here and Now isn’t my favorite of Pryor’s live shows, but it’s still a fun time. Thanks to HBO, this, along with Live on the Sunset Strip, were the comedy concert films that introduced me to Pryor’s stand-up material. I knew the man was funny; I’d seen Silver Streak, but I never saw him in his true form entertaining a live audience before. And to his credit, he manages the hecklers well (even though at times you can see he’s had enough with interruptions as he’s working a bit). One of the best gags is the unexpected gift of a hermit crab that sends Pryor into a several-minute detour, but as a detour, it's a showcase of how funny the man could be when delivering jokes on the fly.  

In terms of Pryor’s stand-up comedy legacy, I think it’s almost a shame his original comedy albums weren’t films. You want true, raw, unrelentingly hilarious Richard Pryor? Go check out those first albums! Given he had a strong run of “safe” and formulaic comedies through the rest of the 1980s, it’s a shame this was his last comedy concert film. Granted, Eddie Murphy was running up that scene behind him, but I always thought Pryor was at his best in front of a live audience. He did well in films, but scripts felt too restrictive for an improvisational talent like his. As his final bow in stand-up comedy filmmaking, Here and Now may not be Pryor’s magnum opus, but it’s a huge gut-buster of a laugh to end on. 

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray 
Bypassing a run on Blu-ray, Richard Pryor: Here and Now comes to 4K UHD as a single-disc 4K + Digital release. Pressed on a BD66 disc, the disc is housed in a standard case with identical slipcover artwork. The disc loads to a static image main menu with basic navigation options.

While I will give Sony all the credit in the world for making this film available on physical media, I have to say that 4K UHD with Dolby Vision is an odd choice. It’s an odd choice for the format because the concert was captured on a Norelco PCP70 655/24 video camera, which was then transferred to 35mm film for distribution. So, yes, technically, this transfer is sourced from a 35mm negative, but that negative is still only a high-quality video transfer with limited visuals. So it’s nowhere near as sharp and clean as Live on the Sunset Strip. There is film grain, but it’s not exactly organic to the original recording itself, but a byproduct of the transfer process to film stock. Watching through the show, details look pretty good; they do offer some sharp moments, mostly in close-up shots, but not exactly true to life with the kind of crystal clarity we expect from 2160p. The Dolby Vision HDR grade helps matters somewhat; colors are certainly vibrant and healthy, as in Pryor’s red shirt or the blue balloon on top of the cup the crab comes in. Going from seeing this special on cable when I was growing up to having it on DVD, this is absolutely an improvement, but is it a worthy entry on 4K UHD? At 4K disc prices? That might be a stretch for some fans.

The comedy film comes to life with an excellent DTS-HD MA 2.0 track. It’s a comedy show, so while the video can be iffy and survive, the audio absolutely must nail it. And this track is great. We get all of Pryor’s vocals and voices, so we never lose a gag. We get a nice sense of the atmosphere and space of the venue, while we can hear the hecklers and enjoy the crowdwork. The opening of the film plays like a pseudo-documentary with Richard lending some voice-over about where he’s at in life against the background of some of his smaller venue shows leading up to this big performance. This is a brief intro, but the dialogue is clean, and we do get some great bits with Richard with smaller audiences. All in all, a clean mix for a comedy special.

There are no extra features on this one.

Richard Pryor: Here and Now may be the final concert film from the great comedian, but he left that New Orleans stage on one hell of a laugh. The film might not be as strong or sharp as Live on the Sunset Strip - I think the constant heckling was getting under his skin - but it’s still a damned funny 90 minutes of material that only a comic like Richard Pryor could deliver. Skipping over Blu-ray, Richard Pryor: Here and Now makes the jump to 4K UHD, but it might have leapt too far. I applaud Sony for bringing this comedy concert film back to physical media disc, and it certainly deserved better than the old DVD, but 4K isn’t exactly a benefit for a film that was shot on video and then transferred to film for theatrical distribution. It’s certainly better than what we’ve seen in the past, and the Dolby Vision grade does help a little, but it’s a nominal return on that level of investment. 1080p Blu-ray might have been a more appropriate format to close the book on. So I love the film, it’s hilarious, it’s one of the comedy concerts that got me into Pryor, but it might not be what people want or expect on 4K. It’s the best we’ll likely see, but that’s a very limited prospect. I love this film, but I’ve got to call this particular disc For Fans Only since 4K disc really is a strange way to watch this show.

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