La La Land (2016)
Comedy, Drama, Romance, Music • 2h 9m
Director: Damien Chazelle
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, John Legend, Rosemarie DeWitt, J.K. Simmons, Amiée Conn, Terry Walters, Thom Shelton, Cinda Adams, Callie Hernandez, Jessica Rothe, Sonoya Mizuno, Claudine Claudio, Jason Fuchs, D.A. Wallach, Trevor Lissauer, Olivia Hamilton, Anna Chazelle, Marius de Vries, Finn Wittrock, Josh Pence, Nicole Coulon, Damon Gupton, Christopher Michael Stevens, Keith Harris, Kaveh Rastegar, David Douglas, Miles Anderson, Bobo Chang, Meagen Fay, John Hindman, Valarie Rae Miller, Nicole Wolf, Corrin Evans, Kiff VandenHeuvel, Tom Everett Scott, Hemky Madera, Zoë Hall, Dempsey Pappion, Clifton 'Fou Fou' Eddie, Cal Bennett, Nedra Wheeler, Javier Gonzalez, Khirye Tyler, Briana Lee, Shaylah J. Stevens, Natalie Imani, Camryn Ray Cavaliero, Sandra Rosko, Arthur Horowitz, Reshma Gajjar, Candice Coke, Hunter Hamilton, Damian Gomez, Amanda Balen, Lou Becker, Dominic Chaiduang, Cindera Che, Chris Moss, Marissa Labog, Tiffany Daniels, Melinda Sullivan, Stephanie Landwehr, Britt Stewart, Clarice Ordaz, Nathan Prevost, Mecca Vazie Andrews, Scott Hislop, KC Monnie, Krystal Ellsworth, Sarah Mitchell, Khasan Brailsford, Morgan Larson, Becca Sweitzer, Gakenia Muigai, Michael Stein, Mario Diaz, Julie Schmid, Samantha Abrantes, Lexie Contursi, Eartha Robinson, Sybil Azur, Tara Nicole Hughes, Kayla Kalbfleisch, Martha Nichols, Anthony Marciona, Bill Prudich, Robert Roldan, Ryan Novak, Demian Boergadine, Gustavo Vargas, Robert Haynes, Doran Butler, Matt Cady, Carol Connors, Patrick Cook, Aaron 'Deuce' Cooke, Bubba Dean Rambo, Nick Drago, Shaun Evaristo, Dana Fukagawa, Daniel Gaymon, Liz Imperio, Casey Johansen, Cris Judd, Yoori Kim, Bradley M. Rapier, Dana Wilson, Terrance Yates, Tracy Shibata, Dominique Domingo, Asiel Hardison, Corey Anderson, Nick Baga, Leah Adler, Noel Bajandas, Denzel Chisolm, Montana Efaw, Natalie Gilmore, Shannon Holtzapffel, Galen Hooks, Jeremy Hudson, George Lawrence Jr., Scott Myrick, Cassidy Noblett, Brittany Parks, Víctor Rojas, Tony Bellissimo, Ryan Ramirez, Catalina Cat Rendic, Bryan Tanaka, Ava Bernstine-Mitchell, Quinn Lipton, Monie Adamson, Matthew Aylward, McKenzie Anderson, Pamela Chu, Mallauri Esquibel, Michael Higgins, Chris Jarosz, Matthew Kazmierczak, Paul Kirkland, Megan Lawson, Michael Munday, Brandon O'Neal, Chelsea Thedinga, Danny Valle, Emily Williams, Tommy Cooley, Kristin Slaysman, Ana Flavia Gavlak, Noah James, Ottavio Taddei, Destinee Handly, Steffen Dziczek, Vince Donvito, Patty Tobin, Crystal Nichol, Kaye L. Morris, Trent Kerpsack, Holly Houk, Andrea Lareo, April Martucci, Heather Turman, Jenna Curtis, Jordan Ray Fox, Anna Lunberry, Christopher Aber, Margaret Newborn, C.J. Stussi, Cameron Brinkman, Kristin Elliott, Lynn Moore, Nilla Elizabeth Watkins, Andres Perez-Molina, Shannon Leann, Milica Govich, Frederick Keeve, Amanda Fields, Hunter Clowdus, Jessica Rotter, Bruce Davison, Bunny Levine
Best video format
UHD tiers
Italian import
better compression than Lionsgate & brightness levels fixed
Overview
Mia, an aspiring actress, serves lattes to movie stars in between auditions and Sebastian, a jazz musician, scrapes by playing cocktail party gigs in dingy bars, but as success mounts they are faced with decisions that begin to fray the fragile fabric of their love affair, and the dreams they worked so hard to maintain in each other threaten to rip them apart.
Director: Damien Chazelle
IMAX scenes are reference quality, everything else is solid
Director: Roman Polanski
Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray see caps. Much better contrast and grain exposure but the grade is a bit questionable as it skews heavily towards magenta in some caps and the encode looks low-pass filtered.
Atmos Remix: Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray
Original 5.1: Imprint Australia Blu-ray or StudioCanal Germany/France Blu-ray
Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray encoded the "Original 5.1" as lossy Dolby Digital, which is very different from the AC3 on the original DVD. This new "Original 5.1" may in fact be a downmix of the Atmos track. FWIW, the original DVD AC3 still sounds very good.
Director: Jamie Babbit
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray is a disaster. The compression on the base layer is horrid, and the oversized 18 Mbps FEL barely helps.
Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray includes original matrixed Dolby Stereo mix, albeit lossy, and a 5.1 surround upmix. The stereo track on previous BD and DVD releases is also lossy and sounds about the same.
Sources: fanrestore.com (opens in a new tab) · originaltrilogy.com (opens in a new tab)
2017 StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray and subsequent 4K Blu-rays are notorius for being heavily denoised and smoothened. Alternatively, 35mm scans for the theatrical cut is also available.
For the Ultimate Edition with the T-1000 searching John's room and the happy future ending, the 2009 Skynet Blu-ray, which is the older pre-2017 transfer, but has DNR.
Director: Carol Reed
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray or Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray/Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray (shared encode); slight improvement over the 2015 StudioCanal Blu-ray
StudioCanal/LG UHDs
StudioCanal/LG UHDs port the 1999 Criterion DVD, considered the best source
StudioCanal has a remastered Blu-ray, Lionsgate only a 4K Blu-ray
2D: Spain Emon Blu-ray
3D: US Lionsgate, Germany StudioCanal, or Netherlands Entertainment One 3D Blu-ray?
Sources: caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)
Criterion 4K Blu-ray scheduled for Dec 2026 release
US Lionsgate Blu-ray looks very different from either Italy Eagle Pictures or Germany Kinowelt Blu-ray: https://caps-a-holic.com/c_list.php?c=502 but other than color grading looks better
Director: Werner Herzog
More Comedy on Blu-ray
TV series
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative for all episodes
Director: Norman Taurog
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Delbert Mann
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Garson Kanin
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
Only Streaming has 1080p
Director: Preston Sturges
No information on French Elephant Films Blu-ray
Director: Ralph Bakshi
Director: Tommy O'Haver
Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Eureka UK are considering doing a 4K and actively exploring the possibility: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=24363810&postcount=264
Wonderful underlying remaster by Criterion and Resillion, but NexSpec encode has clipped highlights with the occasional blockiness. The Criterion Blu-Ray, sourced from their 4K remaster, ironically makes for a more consistent and overall pleasing experience.
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