American Movie 4K (1999/Sony 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray)/Kevin Smith's The 4:30 Movie (2024/Lionsgate Blu-ray)

4K Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: X/B+ Sound: B+/B- Extras: C+/B- Films: C/B-

Now for films that give personal, albeit semi-fictitious, looks at filmmakers, independent filmmaking and living that life in the late analog filmmaking era.

Chris Smith's American Movie 4K (1999) does not just offer, a movie within a movie but, a movie within a movie with another movie. As one independent film gets finished and is about tom get released in a theater, the makers decide to go back and finish an unfinished one. Both are horror movies, but this is not a film where the makers start dying, getting killed off or anything predictable like that. Instead, it is a tale of what it was (and still is in most cases) what it takes to get 'any' independent production made.

Passing itself off as a documentary, I can almost buy it, but any comedy is actually very rare and unintentional and is not the King Of Comedy of horror indie filmmaking either. I was not for sure what to believe was for real or not, but it does show the hard work it takes to make a film and now in the Ultra HD era of Ultra HD cameras and lower def, the only thing I kept thinking was since both films are actually shot on film in the movie, they are far more likely to survive than the vast majority of HD-shot and produced features with no photochemical backup, backup that this film already too has.

Besides a few interesting moments here and there, it is a time capsule of Milwaukee's Northwest side that has definitely seen changes since this was released and (like most places of late) not for the better, so you get as much 'America' here as you do 'movie' and that is why it is worth a look for more than just film fans and horror fans.

The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 1.33 X 1, HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image was entirely shot on Kodak 16mm photochemical film, mostly color, and looks really good for booth its age and the format, which is ever-underrated. Most of it is in color with some black and white moments, all flowing well with good color, some depth and some detail. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix is solid for its age and as good as this film will ever sound.

Extras include a Director & Cast feature length audio commentary track, Original Theatrical Trailer, Deleted Scenes and short film Coven by Mark Borchardt.

Kevin Smith's The 4:30 Movie (2024) is another semi-autobiographical film from the filmmaker whose had a more interesting career in film than most. His films have certainly taken different tones over the years as he has explored various aspects of the horror (Tusk, Red State), drama (Dogma, Chasing Amy), and comedy (The Clerks Trilogy) genres. This film, however, feels pretty innocent in comparison to his previous work with his vulgar humor put on ice in favor of capturing authenticity of the time period. Not all the jokes land and some are pretty cringe, even by Wonder Years standards, but Smith definitely goes out of his way to state just how much has changed over the past forty years.

A love letter to moviegoing in the '80s, the romantic comedy follows a 16-year-old boy who attempts to win over the girl of his dreams, of whom he shared a romantic moment with the year before. When she agrees to go to a movie with him, he swoons over her and spends the day goofing off with this two male friends all day at the movie theater. After one wild incident after another, they get banned for being too crazy by the eccentric theater owner (Ken Jeong). With his date on the way, the boy has to figure out how he can win the girl over when his plans take a left turn.

The film stars Austin Zajur, Siena Agudong, Nicholas Cirillo, Genesis Rodriguez, Reed Northrup, Ken Jeong, Diedrich Bader, and cameos by Diedrich Bader, Jason Biggs, Logic, Harley Quinn Smith, Justin Long, Jason Mewes, Method Man, Rosario Dawson, and Jason Lee to name a few.

The 4:30 Movie is presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with an MPEG-4 AVC codec, a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and a lossless, English Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for older systems, all @ 48kHz, 24-bit) mixes. The film also has a sort of Wonder Years-type haze to a lot of the coloring which gives it a more vintage feeling vibe.

The film is also available on 4K UHD with I'm sure is an even cleaner transfer.

Special Features:

Feature Length Audio Commentary with Kevin Smith

Going Home Again: Making The 4:30 Movie

and an Original Theatrical Trailer .

The 4:30 Movie has the same story beats as other Kevin Smith movies, but is toned down a lot in comparison to his cult film hits. Aside from all of that, it's basically an R-rated episode of (yes, I said it again, but not necessarily a send-up of) The Wonder Years.

- Nicholas Sheffo (4K) and James Lockhart

https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/