NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Criterion Blu-ray (June 2023): Criterion have transferred Martin Scorsese's "After Hours" to Blu-ray and 4K UHD in Dolby Vision HDR. It is cited as being from a "New 4K digital restoration, approved by editor Thelma Schoonmaker". We hope to eventually post 4K UHD captures here as soon as we can. We reviewed the Warner DVD from 2004 HERE and have compared that edition to the 1080P Criterion below. It was also on DVD in the Martin Scorsese Collection (After Hours / Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore / Goodfellas / Mean Streets / Who's That Knocking At My Door?) Everything is superior on the 1080P - purer whites, deeper black levels, consistent grain, realistic flesh tones, color balance, it's tighter, sharper, has depth - it looks marvelous at over 6 times the bitrate of the 19-year old SD rendering. Anticipate that the 4K UHD will further enhance those image attributes - notably the wonderful textures.

NOTE: We have added 60 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Criterion use a linear PCM mono track (24-bit) in the original English language. "After Hours" has no demonstratively aggressive moments - some loudness in Club Berlin's 'Mohawk Night'. Effects are authentically flat. The score is by Howard Shore (The Silence of the Lambs, An Innocent Man, Cronenberg's Crash, Maps to the Stars, Scanners and The Brood, Tim Burton's Ed Wood, Fincher's The Game and Se7en etc.) with a mood-enhancing, mysterious, repeating theme augmented with so many other Scorsese-chosen pieces; including Mozart's Symphony, no. 45, D major, K.95, mvt. 1: Allegro, Bach's Air Ouverture No. 3 in D, Cole Porter's Night and Day, Johnny Green's Body and Soul, Gershwin's Someone to Watch Over Me, Robert & Johnny's You're Mine + We Belong Together, and of course Peggy Lee's Is That All There Is?  It all sounds crisp inn the lossless transfer. Criterion offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

The Criterion Blu-ray offers the same commentary from 2004 featuring Scorsese, Thelma Schoonmaker, director of photography Michael Ballhaus, actor and producer Griffin Dunne, and producer Amy Robinson, with some additional updating comments recorded in 2023. Repeated is the 2004 documentary, "Filming For Your Life: The Making of After Hours", featuring director Martin Scorsese, actor-producer Griffin Dunne, producer Amy Robinson, and editor Schoonmaker who discuss the film almost 20 years later of its release. They share stories about the movie's inception, the filming process etc. New is a 20-minute program, produced by the Criterion Collection in 2023, where writer Fran Lebowitz interviews director Martin Scorsese about living in New York City in the 1980s and what he captured of that era in After Hours. There is also a new (2023) 18-minute video piece, produced by Criterion, featuring audio interviews with costume designer Rita Ryack and production designer Jeffrey Townsend, illustrated with film clips, production stills, and ephemera from After Hours. Included are seven deleted scenes - 8 minutes worth - from After Hours previously found on the DVD. There is a theatrical trailer and the package has a liner notes booklet with an essay by critic Sheila O’Malley.

Personally I have three go-to Scorsese films: Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and After Hours - all masterpieces and now they are all on 4K UHD. We have After Hours in our neo-noir section - also described as a "surrealist black comedy cult-film thriller" although has also been defined in the "yuppie nightmare cycle" which combine the screwball comedy genre and film noir. Paul Hackett's (Griffin Dunne) misadventures almost exclusively involve women who appear more eccentric the later it gets into his journey - each defeating his normalcy. Mysterious Marcy (Rosanna Arquette) entices him with a wild evening but is emotionally unable to accept his sexual advances; impersonal sculptor Kiki Bridges (Linda Fiorentino) moves toward intimacy before falling asleep during his massaging seduction, waitress Julie (Teri Garr) is stuck in the 60's and expresses desire for him but he rejects her bizarre demeanor, while self-absorbed, Mister Softee truck driver, Gail (Catherine O'Hara) professes a desire to save him but eventually leads the vigilante mob seeking him. Lastly, June (Verna Bloom) encases Paul in plaster circling back to Kiki's 'cowering screaming male' sculpture. Castration is a repeated theme in After Hours (originally entitled 'One Night in Soho') notable in the bathroom wall scrawling of a shark biting a penis. There are so many small delights in After Hours; Marcy's "Surrender Dorothy!" honeymoon story and the sly double entendres to the dialogue between Paul and the large doorman at Club Berlin - "If you're so drawn to it - force your way in." If Rosanna Arquette asks me, in a coffee shop, if I want a plaster-of-paris bagel and cream cheese paperweight - I would naturally say 'Yes'.... without knowing the artist or the price. Paul is defeated and emasculated in his adventure - returning right back at his unsatisfying work. The Criterion Blu-ray (and 4K UHD that includes the Blu-ray) offers a much-deserved, essential, upgrade to a true cinema cult masterwork. We have waited a long time. Our very highest recommendation.

Gary Tooze