Ultra HD Blu-ray

From its tortuous attempt to incorporate an 'eight' sound into its original US title (The Fate of the Furious) to its laboured bid to shoe-horn in an old-school race and its truly bonkers finale, this eighth instalment of the Fast and Furious franchise sometimes feels like it's trying too hard. Fortunately, though, some super-slick, energetic and spectacle-driven direction from F. Gary Gray keeps your pulse rate high, while the cast are now so comfortable in their characters that they manage to inject oodles of charm into proceedings.

Picture: Fast & Furious 8's all-important visual pyrotechnics are tailor-made for 4K HDR. The latter, in particular, brings the movie's stunning cars into your viewing room in a riot of gleaming metal, dazzling headlights and 'bold' paint choices.

Universal's disc offers both HDR 10 and Dolby Vision playback. As with its Despicable Me discs, DV does improve the viewing experience. Colours clearly have more range and subtler toning, making many shots richer in detail and more three-dimensional. That said, the DV transfer did cause black colours to become distractingly elevated on a resident LG OLED TV.

Both the encodes feature superior sharpness and texture over the Full HD Blu-ray – so much so that it highlights a few sub-4K digital effects shots in the film's latter stages. Otherwise, this looks fine.
Picture rating: 4.5/5

Audio: Fast & Furious 8's largescale DTS:X mix works as hard as the visuals to cover up some of the film's dafter plot points, providing a ceaseless barrage of aggressively steered effects, with car engines revving and roaring so hard that you'll think you've got your head stuck under the bonnet. A boisterous LFE channel gives solid weight to the musical tracks that accompany key action scenes. Very enjoyable.
Audio rating: 4.5/5

Extras: The only extra on the 4K platter is a commentary by Gray, who is a passionate speaker, but often falls into the trap of just describing the action.The accompanying all-region Blu-ray contains a collection of mostly short featurettes – All About Stunts is the most informative. Two extended fight sequences offer little extra.
Extras rating: 3/5

We say: Glorious 4K HDR visuals and enormous soundtrack – this ludicrous action sequel ticks over nicely on UHD Blu-ray.

Fast & Furious 8, Universal Pictures, All-region BD, £40
HCC VERDICT: 4/5