[Excerpt from our Theatrical Review]
"Ridley Scott purchased the rights to this Gucci story back in 2006 after he came across the book The House Of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed by author Sara Gay Forden. Since then, the film has gone through many iterations and has had a treasure trove of actors coming aboard to play the titular roles, before eventually landing with Ridley himself behind the director's chair. Adam Driver, Lady Gaga, Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Salma Hayek, and Jared Leto were cast as this dysfunctional family and the results are extraordinary. The film can lag in a few places, especially towards the final act of the film, but the journey to get there along with the stellar performances by everyone is truly outstanding and worth the extra time.
Those who don't know the history behind the Gucci family are in for a treat here. Before the mid-'90s, Gucci was strictly owned by the family. The two estranged brothers Aldo (Al Pacino) and Rodolfo (Jeremy Irons) Gucci ran the company how they saw fit, never really changing the style over the years. They had two sons Maurizio (Adam Driver) and Paolo (Jared Leto). The latter was an eccentric goofball who wanted nothing more than to run the Gucci company one day, but like a red-headed stepchild, Paolo never lived up to anything serious and was considered the black sheep and clown of the family."
Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray
House Of Gucci models its way to a two-disc Blu-ray + DVD + Digital release from Universal. The discs are housed in a hard, blue plastic two-disc case with an identical cardboard slipcover. The artwork features the cast in monotone expressions. There is an insert for the digital code as well to iTunes.
House of Gucci comes with a great 1080p HD transfer and looks amazing in all of its brilliant settings and locations.
The film starts off with a more amber and orange tint to it with sandy and gravel roads. But as the film progresses and the main stars become enthralled in their own brand, the color palette quickly gets colder with tons of blues, silvers, and of course black and greens. Club sequences have some excellent blues and purples, and the interiors of Gucci stores and the offices look amazing with their white, beige, and silver-colored decor. The wardrobe throughout the film is exceptional as well, bringing a ton of primary colors to the screen.
The sequences overseas in the snowy mountains have a great white balance that never seems to bleed over. Black levels are also deep and rich without any murky shadows. The detail always reveals fine makeup effects in the actor's faces with individual hairs, makeup blemishes, and wrinkles looking amazing. The asking tones are natural and there are never any major issues with banding, aliasing, or noise.
This release comes with a fantastic lossless DTS-HD MA 7.1 audio mix that utilizes its atmospherics perfectly. From a bustling shop and office to runway shows, this track makes great effort in capturing the camera flashes, footsteps, cheers, and fabric movement in a great way.
Other than its soundtrack and other noises of vehicles driving, and of course, a gunshot or two, this track relies on its dialogue and needle drops of songs. There is a nice low end of bass that never gets into rocky territory. But the dialogue is clean, clear, and easy to understand, free of any audio issues.
There are only about 22 minutes of bonus features here, all of which are EPK type of material, but they're all interesting and insightful.
House of Gucci is a fantastic tale about the Gucci family and how the heir of the clothing empire was killed by his ex-wife. It's Scorsese light and it works perfectly The performances are wonderful in all their charm, especially Lady Gaga. The 1080p HD image and the 7.1 audio track are both excellent and the few extras are worth watching. Hopefully, we'll someday see a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release, but until that day comes, this 1080p disc will hold us over. Highly Recommended!
