Equalizer, The 2 4K Ultra HD

In "Equalizer 2," Denzel Washington returns in this sequel as Robert McCall, a man who serves unflinching justice for the exploited and oppressed. But how far will his no-holds-barred vengeance go when the victim is someone he loves? (Gary Reber)

Special features include the featurettes: "Denzel As McCall: Round Two" (HD 07:00), "Seconds Till Death Action Breakdown" (HD 05:15), "Through Antoine's Lens: The Cast" (HD 06:43) , TV promos, 11 deleted and extended scenes (HD 23:18), upfront previews and a Movies Anywhere digital copy code.

The 2160p HEVC/H.265 Ultra HD HDR10 picture, reviewed on a Sony Bravia Z9D 4K Ultra HD HDR display, was photographed digitally using the Arri Alexa Mini and Arrii Alexa XT camera systems at 2.8K resolution and sourced from a 2K (not 4K )master Digital Intermediate format. As the 2K Digital Intermediate has been unconverted to 2160p, there is no real gain in native resolution. The imagery exhibits excellent clarity and sharpness throughout, with excellent detail. Close-ups are particularly finely detailed with respect to facial features, skin pores, hair, clothing and object textures. The color palette is rich and warm, as well as striking in saturation and depth, and render fleshtones perfectly natural. Hues at times pop with boldness. The HDR component delivers deep blacks and revealing shadow delineation contrasted with brilliant lighting highlights. To fully appreciate the richness of the imagery, a darkened environment is required and a display capable of deep black performance. WOW! segments include 0.55 to 02:45, 01:23:45 to 01:29:48, and the long scene froom 01:31:40 to 01:49:00. This is an excitingly engaging picture that is reference quality. (Gary Reber)

The Dolby Atmos/Dolby TrueHD 7.1-channel soundtrack is excellent with a fully engaging sonics that excite all eight channels. Dynamics are terrific, from nuanced, intimate soundscapes to bold, powerful action sequences. The opening train sequence delivers powerful low frequency extension and weight. The strong deep bass foundation is formidable and enhances the well-recorded orchestral score. The music spans the frontal soundstage and aggressively wraps around to all the surround channels. The surround channels nicely enhance the sense of dimensional envelopment. Atmospherics and sound effects are preciously directionalized throughout and create a spatially dimensional soundfield. Deep bass is powerful and extends to sub-25 Hz frequencies in the .1 LFE channel. Atmospherics are subtly effective in creating a sense of realism, such as reverb around the grounds of McCall's apartment complex, bustling city streets, blaring sirens, rolling thunder and background music in a book shop. Sound effects are often aggressively powerful, with effective bass support, especially during the climactic hurricane scene. Dialogue is impressively integrated spatially. The orchestral score is dynamic sounding and extends wide and deep across the soundstage with full envelopment in the surrounds.

The Immersive Sound element opens with brief intermittent train track sounds, followed by the music score, which is strong throughout, a woman's reverberant voice, gunshots, city street and police siren effects, reverberant in-head voices and effects, people talking in McCall's apartment complex, subtle seagulls, people chatting in hotel lobby, jet passenger plane landing, explosion and people screaming, reverberant fight sounds, rap music, loud car horns, ambient city freeway sounds, young man's voice, thunder and rain on car windshield, hurricane winds, door kicked in, pigeons flight, creaky door and debris sounds in winds. Except for the music, which is intermittent throughout and the climactic hurricane scene, the elements are extremely brief, Far more could have been done to achieve a superior Immersive Sound experience. Still, this is one of the better Immersive Sound treatments.

This is a terrific dynamic and dimensional holosonic® spherical surround soundtrack that is reference quality throughout. (Gary Reber)