Blue Hawaii - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Blue Hawaii



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
Back in 1961 Elvis was on top of the world. He was 26 years old and selling out stadiums everywhere. His face was plastered across every newspaper and magazine, and he was starring in multiple movies a year due to his ever growing popularity. After coming off the mediocre Wild in the Country, the powers that be decided to capitalize on the burgeoning beach movie phenomenon that was sweeping the country, and figured what better way to do that than make a romantic little summer romp with the King himself in it.

Mirroring his real life stint in the military, the film opens up with cool cat Chadwick Gates (Elvis) coming back from 2 years of military service to his home state of Hawaii. Chad wants nothing more than to chill with his island buddies, catch a few waves, drink a few beers, and make out with his long time girl friend Maile (Joan Blackman, attempting to play a Hawaii native with some makeup). However, his mother and father (played by Angela Lansbury and Roland Winters) have other plans for him. Fred Gates owns the states largest pineapple factory and his wants his son to take over the family business. Drunken busy body Sara Lee Gates (Lansbury) is a whiny co-dependent leech who just wants her baby boy to dote on her and do what his father says. But Chad is a young man coming out of the military and wants to make his own way in the world.

His way turns out to be working for Mr. Chapman (legendary actor Howard McNear), Maile’s boss, at the local tourist guide service. His first gig turns out to be guiding a group of 17 year old old girls and their teacher Miss Abigail Prentice (Nancy Walters) around the island for the week (much to the chagrin of Maile, who sees how Abigail is eyeing her man). What happens next is your typical rom com of unfortunate events as Chadwick has to dodge amorous advances by the young girls, make sure Maile doesn’t murder him for checking out Miss Prentice, and trying to keep his parents off his back while he serenades the audience with his Elvis charm.

Blue Hawaii is pure fluff at it’s core. The film never attempts to try and be a serious film ala King Creole, but instead fully leans into the light and breezy nature of a 1960s summer beach film. There’s tons of the King singing to the audience, him sparkling his pearly whites at all the girls, and more singing. It’s not the greatest of films, and the powder puff nature of the movie doesn’t exactly make it an endearing classic. In reality it’s a silly beach movie that really holds no cultural significance other than the fact that it’s one of the early Elvis movies. That being said, it is still quite a lot of fun, and if you’re an Elvis fan, it’s easy to fall into the breezy nature of the flick and just go where the waves take you.




Rating:

Rated PG by the MPAA




4K Video: Video:

According to Paramount the film was remastered and rescanned from the original negative at a native 4K 16 for the home video master (which both the included Blu-ray and the 4K UHD are pulled from) and the results are generally amazing. Paramount has had a sort of hit or miss relationship with their new 4K UHD releases (the missed color timing on Mars for War of the Worlds, Planes trains and Automobiles) and luckily this is one of their slam dunk hits (Scream 2, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance). Looking objectively at the transfer it looks very nice in 4K, with a slightly dimmer look than the Blu-ray (which looks washed out and over brightened in comparison) with some really great colors. The bright pink of the boats, the vivid red of Maile’s dress all stand out BEAUTIFULLY. Fine details are excellent as the master appears fairly unmolested in terms of grain structure. There’s been some minor grain management done in my opinion though. You can see a few moments of frozen grain ala the old Lawry remasters of the 007 films, and a few moments where I SWEAR there’s been some very minor DNR done. However, if it has, it’s most certainly been very judicially applied as it’s barely noticeable even when I’m looking for it. The end result is that the film has never looked better, a 4K UHD disc that easily outclasses the excellent included Blu-ray (which is actually the only way to get the film on Blu-ray, as Paramount isn’t releasing a Blu-ray stand alone release. Just the Blu-ray included in this 4K UHD combo pack).








Audio:

Interestingly enough, the Blu-ray in the set includes a restored Dolby Digital Mono track (the original mix) as well as the restored 5.1 Dolby TrueHD track, but the 4K UHD disc only sports the 5.1 mix. It’s not a HORRIBLE thing, but it’s a weird little quirk to have the mono track left off the 4K disc when it’s included on the Blu-ray, even if it’s only in lossy Dolby Digital. Either way, the 5.1 TrueHD track is still quite excellent, giving us a robust mix that really takes advantage of Elvis singing (It IS pretty obvious that they over dubbed the singing tracks, like really obvious at times) with constant surround usage. Vocals are crisp and clear, and had you not told me, I wouldn’t have been surprised to find out that it was recorded much more recently than 61 years ago.








Extras:

• NEW Commentary by historian James L. Neibaur
• NEW Blue Hawaii Photo Scrapbook—contains high-res images from the Paramount archives, including behind-the-scenes shots
• Original theatrical trailer
• Collectible packaging featuring a foldout image of the film's theatrical poster and an interior spread with key movie moments

Final Score: ​

Blue Hawaii is a goofy little beach movie starring the King himself, and while it’s not exactly high brow entertainment (even by 1961 standards) it has all the charm and fun of Elvis Presley schmoozing the audience as he always did. It’s one of his more lighthearted affairs, with very little seriousness to the movie, so take it as a fun little romp more than anything. The 4K UHD (and included Blu-ray) are stellar, with top notch audio and video and some moderate extras to flesh it out. Definitely worth checking out if you’re an Elvis film fan.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Elvis Presley, Joan Blackman, Angela Lansbury, Nancy Walters
Directed by: Norman Taurog
Written by: Allan Weiss, Hal Kanter
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 HEVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, French, German DD Mono
Subtitles: English SDH, French
Studio: Paramount
Rated: PG
Runtime: 102 Minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: November 15th, 2022

Recommendation: Breezy Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I have seen a few of his movies when it was shown on TV when I was younger.

Just out of curiosity, I checked his movie listing and I was surprised to find that he made 31 movies! Wow. that is a lot of movies for a singer!

1. Love Me Tender (1956)
2. Loving You (1957)
3. Jailhouse Rock (1957)
4. King Creole (1958)
5. G.I. Blues (1960)
6. Flaming Star (1960)
7. Wild in the Country (1961)
8. Blue Hawaii (1961)
9. Follow That Dream (1962)
10. Kid Galahad (1962)
11. Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962)
12. It Happened at the World's Fair (1963)
13. Fun in Acapulco (1963)
14. Kissin' Cousins (1964)
15. Viva Las Vegas (1964)
16. Roustabout (1964)
17. Girl Happy (1965)
18. Tickle Me (1965)
19. Harum Scarum (1965)
20. Frankie and Johnny (1966)
21. Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966)
22. Spinout (1966)
23. Easy Come, Easy Go (1967)
24. Double Trouble (1967)
25. Clambake (1967)
26. Stay Away, Joe (1968)
27. Speedway (1968)
28. Live a Little, Love a Little (1968)
29. Charro! (1969)
30. The Trouble with Girls (1969)
31. Change of Habit (1969)