NOTE: The below Blu-ray and 4K UHD captures were taken directly from the respective disc.

ADDITION: Capelight Pictures 4K UHD (July 2019): The Man Who Killed Hitler and then The Bigfoot is such a compelling new title and seemed destined for a 4K UHD home theatre release. The 4K image quality, on our system has quite intense colors, and very warm skin tones (much more than the images below can attest without seeing through a UHD monitor) - this 4K UHD is good in terms of the high resolution but I had a few pauses when it came to the colors where the HDR may have been applied too liberally. Ther captures below can indicate the improved detail and contrast that the higher resolution brings to the presentation... but the colors do seem significantly warmer on our system - bordering on saturated. Everyone has a 'George Hamilton tan'. Our software's uniformly simulated HDR doesn't seem as effective as it has in all other reviews. I'm still looking into why. The resolution/detail is, however, very impressive.

It is likely that the monitor you are seeing this review is not an HDR-compatible display (High Dynamic Range) where each pixel can be assigned with a wider and notably granular range of color and light. Our capture software if simulating the HDR (in a uniform manner) for standard monitors. This should make it easier for us to review more 4K UHD titles in the future and give you a decent idea of its attributes on your system. So our captures may not support the exact same colors (warmth of skin tones, brighter or darker hues etc.) as the 4K system at your home. But the framing, detail, grain texture support etc. are, generally, not effected by this variance. 

NOTE: 25 more full resolution (3840 X 2160) captures for Patrons are available HERE.

We have reviewed the following 4K UHD packages to date: Bram Stoker's Dracula (software uniformly simulated HDR), Lucy (software uniformly simulated HDR), They Live (software uniformly simulated HDR),  Shutter Island (software uniformly simulated HDR),  The Matrix (software uniformly simulated HDR), Alien (software uniformly simulated HDR), Toy Story (software uniformly simulated HDR),  A Few Good Men (software uniformly simulated HDR),  2001: A Space Odyssey (HDR caps udated), Schindler's List (simulated HDR), The Neon Demon (No HDR), Dawn of the Dead (No HDR), Saving Private Ryan (simulated HDR and 'raw' captures), Suspiria (No HDR), The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (No HDR), The Big Lebowski, and I Am Legend (simulated and 'raw' HDR captures).

The audio is no an upgrade over the Blu-ray. We get the option of a 16-bit original English 5.1 track via DTS-HD Master or a similarly encoded, but far more robust, German DUB (24-bit). The score is by Joe Kraemer (Jack Reacher, The Way of the Gun) and there is other music; A Winters Sleep, Lonely is the Night, Bill Withers' Use Me, Animotion's Obsession and sounding beautiful Vince Guaraldi Trio's Cast Your Fate To The Wind as well as Moonglow performed by Benny Goodman. There are optional German subtitles and as with all 4K UHD discs, this is Region 'Free' playable worldwide. 

There are the same extras on the 4K UHD disc as found on the UK Blu-ray minus the short 'Conceptual Designs' video. There is the commentary by writer/director Robert D. Krzykowski who fills in details that he would be most privy to about the production with back-stories about the crew (Douglas Trumbull!) and cast. It's a shade dry but informative. There are a whopping 40-minutes of 'Behind the Scenes' footage with snippets from Elliot and others, a 9-minute 'Deleted Scenes' and Krzykowski's 6-minute short "Elsie Hooper" short described as "In the sleepy town of Campbell Falls, Ridley Hooper awakens to discover that his little sister has been stolen by an army of creepy Shadowmen. Arming himself, Ridley embarks on a terrifying adventure to rescue Elsie Hooper..." We get a short Joe Kramer Interview and German trailer plus the package has a 24-page Media book with photos and German text by Krzykowski (translated?). The Book-style case includes a Blu-ray and DVD of the feature.

I enjoyed The Man Who Killed Hitler and then The Bigfoot for the pulpy-adventure-fantasy angle with unrequited love and as one commenter on our Twitter feed reminded us "... any film with Sam Elliott makes it 25% better... and if it has his moustache it is 50% better". But I was not crazy about the 4K image colors that, frankly, seemed overly vibrant. But the overall presentation was still a positive one for this reviewer - you do get used to the intensity of the color palette. I think this package would lean more to German 4K UHD adopters (German text in book) or those that thoroughly embrace this rousing boy's heroic adventure.

Gary Tooze

***

ON THE Blu-ray (May 2019): Sparky Pictures in the UK have transferred The Man Who Killed Hitler and then The Bigfoot to a Blu-ray package. It's on a dual-layered disc in 1080P with a high bitrate. It seems to have been shot in HD and looks about as pristine as you might expect for a modern film. It is in the 2.40:1 aspect ratio and looks quite striking in-motion with strong detail - notable in the film's close-ups - and impressive locations and use of effects, although, not unlike a true creature-feature, 'The Bigfoot' is rarely in focus for long. Overall,  the image quality is, predictably, impressive.

The audio is transferred via the option of a linear PCM stereo track or a DTS-HD Master 5.1 surround option. The films effects are strongly represented by the depth and separation of the surround track.  The lossless audio quality is as flawless as the HD video. There are no subtitles offered on this Region 'B' Blu-ray.

Sparky Pictures add plenty of supplements that start with a commentary by writer/director Robert D. Krzykowski who fills in details that he would be most privy to about the production with back-stories about the crew (Douglas Trumbull!) and cast. It's a shade dry but informative. There are a whopping 40-minutes of 'Behind the Scenes' footage with snippets from Elliot and others, a 9-minute 'Deleted Scenes' and Krzykowski's 6-minute short "Elsie Hooper" short described as "In the sleepy town of Campbell Falls, Ridley Hooper awakens to discover that his little sister has been stolen by an army of creepy Shadowmen. Arming himself, Ridley embarks on a terrifying adventure to rescue Elsie Hooper..." We get a short Joe Kramer Interview and a couple of minutes of some of the film's impressive conceptual designs.

The Blu-ray presentation is fabulous, plus there is a commentary, and other extras. A superior popcorn'er, with an amazing title, that I had to see and review!

Gary Tooze