Everybody Wants Some!! appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this Blu-Ray Disc. This was a consistently positive presentation.
Sharpness looked solid. Only minimal softness ever crept into the occasional wide shot, so the movie usually seemed concise and accurate. Jagged edges and moiré effects failed to appear, and edge haloes remained absent. Print flaws also stayed away from this clean image.
In terms of palette, Wants went with a mildly stylized palette. Much of the film opted for a light amber tone, but other tints appeared as well, and the colors were well-rendered. Blacks showed good depth, and shadows looked smooth. I felt pleased with the image.
As for the film’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack, it worked pretty fine for the story. The audio tended to be somewhat restrained most of the time, but some sequences – such as those at clubs or on the street – opened up the spectrum in a satisfying manner. Music offered the dominant element, as the omnipresent songs spread around the speakers.
Audio quality was perfectly acceptable. Speech showed nice clarity and naturalism, and music was distinctive and dynamic. Effects lacked much to stand out, but they appeared accurate, and they showed mild punch when necessary. All of this seemed good enough for a “B-“.
As we head to the set’s extras, we start with four featurettes. Rickipedia runs three minutes, 57 seconds and features writer/director Richard Linklater and actors Justin Amelio, Juston Street, Glen Powell, Forrest Vickery, J. Quinton Johnson, Ryan Guzman, Tyler Hoechlin, Will Brittain, Tanner Kalina and Blake Jenner. The clip looks at Linklater’s memory for period-specific details. It’s mildly interesting.
During the six-minute, 42-second Baseball Players Can Dance, we hear from Brittain, Amelio, Street, Linklater, Powell, Vickery, Jenner, Johnson, choreographer Andrea Ariel, assistant choreographer Samantha Weidhaas, and actor Temple Baker. This piece looks at how the actors learned how to dance for the movie. We find a mix of decent insights.
Skills Videos lasts five minutes, 17 seconds and features Amelio, Street, Baker, Brittain, Guzman, Hoechlin, Vickery, Kalina, Johnson, and actor Wyatt Russell. Here we see parts of try-out videos the actors made to show their baseball abilities. These prove to be fun to see, though the production choice to add fake scan lines makes them uglier than they should be.
Finally, History 101: Stylin’ the 80s lasts four minutes, 20 seconds. It features Street, Powell, Vickery, Johnson, Guzman, Johnson, Hoechlin, Brittain, Kalina, Russell, and Amelio. The short tells us a little about efforts to bring period realism to the film. Like its predecessors, it works reasonably well.
Called More Stuff That’s Not In the Movie, a collection of outtakes fills 25 minutes, 24 seconds. Most of this compilation provides short deleted scenes that emphasize character bits. No new story elements emerge, so we find a lot of random moments. Some bloopers show up as well. Fans of the movie will enjoy these lost snippets, but none of them stand out as especially memorable to me.
A second disc provides a DVD copy of Wants. It lacks any of the Blu-ray’s extras.
With its throwback to Dazed and Confused, Everybody Wants Some!! shows promise. Unfortunately, the movie seems too random and rambling to offer more than sporadic entertainment. The Blu-ray provides solid picture along with adequate audio and a handful of supplements. Wants becomes a forgettable work.