Go - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Go



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


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Movie
I, embarrassingly enough, have never seen Doug Liman’s Go even though I’ve owned the Blu-ray since about 2009 or 2010 when it initially came out. Back then it was just a filled disc in a “B2G1 free” sale at Best Buy, and it’s sat on my shelf ever since. When I saw that Arrow was releasing a 4K UHD edition, I figured it was about time I sat down and watched it, and I’m glad I did. It wasn’t what I was expecting at all coming from Doug Liman. I’m used to his action films like The Bourne Identity, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, or Edge of Tomorrow, so this sort of psychedelic take on Pulp Fiction meets Magnolias (with a dash of Rat Race for good measure) took me by surprise.

Ronna (Sarah Polley) is down on her luck and out of time, a 17-year-old who is about to be evicted from her apartment if she doesn’t pay the $380 back rent that’s due. So when her coworker Simon (Desmond Askew) offers her his shift and some cash if she takes his shift so he can go to Vegas, the overworked teen takes it to avoid getting kicked out. But things take a turn for the worse when Ronna sees an opportunity to make some quick cash when Adam (Scott Wolf) and Zack (Jay Mohr), two daytime soap actors who are looking to score some quick drugs for a party that night. Simon is their go-to man, but with him gone on his Vegas trip, Ronna sees an opportunity to use Simon’s plug (played by Timothy Olyphant) and sell the drugs to the boys herself. AAAAND of course things go wrong in epic fashion.

Go is told through the lens of three different groups of people and three different perspectives throughout the three acts. The first is by Ronna and her friends as they score some quick drugs, and watch as things dissolve in fast fashion when it turns out Zack and Adam are actually setting them up to a narcotics detective (played by William Fichtner). Now Simon’s plug is after them, and poor Ronna has to figure out a way to make things before it's too late. The second is told by Simon and his buds (played by Taye Diggs and Breckin Meyer) as they head out to Vegas using Simon’s plug’s credit card (oh,h that’s going to end up well), where a strip club encounter ends up with the boys having a price on their head. And finally, the third act tells how this whole thing kicked off, with Zack and Adam being revealed as being caught up in the drug bust themselves, having been popped for possession and roped into a sting by Officer Burke (Fichtner). All of it leads to the inevitable head-on collision where all three groups of people come face to face with each other.

Kind of like Magnolia, this is a tale of fractured stories all coming together into one big story, and à la Pulp Fiction, it ends in brutality, violence, and some dark humor that keeps it from being too serious (there were times where I genuinely thought the second act was channeling Rat Race energy, especially with Breckin Meyer’s involvement in both projects). Each third of the film coalesces at the end into one tale, but each original isolated narrative is told with its own tone, feel, sense of humor, and originality as well. The first one is a teenage thriller, the the 2nd a Pulp Fiction inspired bit of slapstick comedy, and the third a bizarro world story of a dirty cop trying to use his perps to further his own goals (and holy cow, William Fichtner is gold in this act).

The story isn’t perfect, but it’s a wildly kinetic ride that just moves at such a fast clip that the audience sort of glosses over some of the flaws. When it started, I was just a tad bored, but by the time the film ended, I was fully invested in Ronna’s adventures to the point where I rewound a few scenes just to watch them again (the car accident is easily the darkest part of the whole movie). It’s chaotic, grungy, and pure late 90s to the core,e and I ended up enjoying things way more than expected.




Rating:

Rated R for strong drug content, sexuality, language, and some violence




4K Video: Video:

According to the information from Arrow and the back of the case, Go was restored by Sony Pictures, scanned at 4K from the 35mm negative and then completed at Prasad Corporation, with the entire thing supervised by Bill Karydes of Sony Pictures Entertainment. That out of the way, I remember the Sony Blu-ray looking kinda “meh” back in the early days of Blu-ray, and popping in my old disc confirmed that. It was early on in the format, and while Sony was usually exceptional, this was one of the mid-range titles (video-wise). The new transfer looks amazing though, with colors getting a big pop from the Dolby Vision, and the detail levels looking much clearer and robust. The grain structure is pretty good, with no swarming or spikes, but every once in a while I noticed that it looked just a little clumpy. Almost as if some minor processing was done to it. The film can jump from grungy and dirty (such as in the store) to the bright and overly shiny (the Merry X-mas party, for example), with primary colors getting that ruddy look that late 90s films were known for. It’s not massive, but there are enough sepia tones in there to take notice, giving some of the primary shades a sort of burnished 70s look at times. Black levels are great, though, with no signs of crush or banding anywhere in sight.








Audio:

In place of the older 5.1 Dolby TrueHD track found on the Blu-ray, we get a new 5.1 DTS-HD MA track, which sounds pretty much sonically the same as the TrueHD mix. Most likely the same mix, just given a new encoding wrapper. It’s a bass-heavy experience, with slamming car crashes, gunshots going off in a strip club, and that club scene at around the 30-minute mark is BONKERS. My twin SVS PB-3000’s were going off the charts with midrange bass that just thumps you in the chest and doesn’t let go till the scene changes. Dialog is strong and well positioned in the front of the room, and surrounds are given a lot to work with depending on whether we’re in a car chase across Las Vegas, or in the middle of a rave where everything is bumping and thumping around you. All in all, a very pleasant audio experience.

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Extras:

• Brand new audio commentary with critics Bryan Reesman and Max Evry
• Archival audio commentary with director Doug Liman and editor Stephen Mirrione
• From the Word Go, a brand new interview with screenwriter, co-producer and second unit director John August
• A View Askew, a brand new interview with actor Desmond Askew
• Archival making-of featurette
• 14 deleted scenes
• God, John August's 1998 short film featuring Melissa McCarthy, shot using the short ends of film stock from the production of Go with much of the same crew, presented in high definition for the first time on home video
• Optional audio commentary on Go with John August, Melissa McCarthy and editor Douglas Crise
• Theatrical trailer
• Image gallery
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Ben Beach
• Collectors' booklet featuring new writing on the film by David Michael Brown and Michelle Kisner, and original production notes

Final Score: ​

Go was a surprise for me. I wasn’t sure what to expect as the only thing I had ever seen was the trailer (even though I’ve owned the Blu-ray for at least 15 years), but it ended up being an interesting tale. It follows the same “multiple stories in one story” path that films like Crash, Magnolias, and Pulp Fiction employed in the same time frame, but with a different twist. This was a wild and kinetic ride, starting out slow, but ending on a high note. The 4K UHD disc looks and sounds great, with some new extras on board and stellar technical specs. Definitely a solid watch, and a good upgrade over the Blu-ray.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Sara Polley, Jay Mohr, Scott Wolf, Timothy Olyphant, William Fichtner, Katie Holmes, Desmon Askew
Directed by: Doug Liman
Written by: John August
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Arrow
Rated: R
Runtime: 102 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: September 29th, 2026

Recommendation: Fun Watch