Synopsis: Two college arch-nemeses reunite years after graduation for a destination wedding and pretend to be lovers for their own personal reasons.
Stars: Sydney Sweeney, Glen Powell, Alexandra Shipp, GaTa, Hadley Robinson, Michelle Hurd, Dermot Mulroney, Darren Barnet, Bryan Brown, Rachel Griffiths
Director: Will Gluck
Rated: R
Running Length: 103 minutes
Movie Review in Brief: A sleeper-hit rom-com finally lands on 4K two years late, with a modest picture bump, a new Atmos mix, and a commentary the Blu-ray never got. Shelf Worthy, mostly for the movie.
Buy the film here
Anyone But You 4K Review: Two Years Late, Still Charming
In December 2023, a Shakespeare adaptation in swimwear did what nobody at Sony expected. Anyone But You opened opposite Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and Migration, collected mixed notices, then refused to leave theaters. It rode word of mouth to $220 million worldwide on a $25 million budget. The rom-com revival talk started there, and since then, there’s been a notable uptick in quality genre entries. Sony has finally issued Anyone But You on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, more than two years after the Blu-ray showed up. This 4K review of Anyone But You is about what that delay actually bought us.
Much Ado About Sydney
Bea (Sydney Sweeney, Christy) and Ben (Glen Powell, Twisters) get one perfect night, one dumb misunderstanding, and years of mutual loathing. A destination wedding in Sydney drops them under the same roof, where they agree to fake a romance to solve separate problems. Will Gluck directs from a script he wrote with Ilana Wolpert, based on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. The Bard’s Beatrice and Benedick have been insulting their way into bed since 1598 and in this plucky screenplay, the scaffolding holds.
What Gluck has that most modern rom-coms don’t is two leads who look like they might combust. Sweeney plays Bea with a nervy impatience that keeps her from turning into a type. Powell does his specialty, the handsome guy who is secretly a doofus, and he commits hard to that goofy half. The chemistry between the leads is off the charts because Sweeney and Powell aren’t simply performing attraction for the camera, they’re barely containing it.
The supporting cast only adds to the fun. Alexandra Shipp (Tick, Tick… Boom!) Hadley Robinson (Moxie) play the couple whose wedding everyone has gathered for. Dermot Mulroney (The Inhabitant), Rachel Griffiths (Muriel’s Wedding), and Bryan Brown (Cocktail), and Michelle Hurd (Office Romance) work the parent circuit.
Nobody should pretend this is a reinvention. The beats arrive on schedule. The whole thing is lit like a resort brochure. Sydney Harbour, spotless interiors, abs, cleavage, and a Natasha Bedingfield needle drop that turned into its own phenomenon. But the jokes land more often than not, the slapstick is game, and Gluck knows the assignment. It’s a movie to watch with someone you like, and it works.
Abs, Atmos, and Australian Sunlight
Sony’s catalog upgrade program continues here with a native 4K presentation in 2160p carrying both Dolby Vision and HDR10. Admittedly, Australia does the heavy lifting. Rugged coastlines, sparkling harbors, sun-bleached rocks, and those magazine-ready interiors all gain depth and separation over the 2024 Blu-ray. Colors run bright without going radioactive, fine detail is solid, and black levels hold during the night exteriors. The HDR layer is the real difference maker, giving contrast a punch that the 1080p disc could only suggest.
Here’s the honest part for you to consider. The original Blu-ray release was already very good and gave you plenty of value. There’s also a somewhat worked-over quality to the 4K image that suggests some processing along the way, which keeps me from calling this a truly top-tier release. However, between the two, the 4K comes out on top. It just never runs away with it as many of Sony’s previous releases have.
The new Dolby Atmos mix follows the same pattern of naturally stepping up the experience. Sharpening effects and elevating the score by Este Haim and Christopher Stracey, the Atmos track is an improvement but not a sole reason to replace your existing Blu-Ray. The 5.1 carries over here as a secondary option and still sounds fine.
The Commentary That Missed Its Own Wedding
Extras on the Blu-ray were fairly standard (with the theatrical to home window so short, gone are the days of the true quality extras) but the 4K has two new additions.
The keepcase ships with poster-themed artwork, a matching slipcover, and a digital copy code. Fans will take note of the addition of a feature-length audio commentary with Gluck, Sweeney, and Powell, which sounds like it was recorded shortly after the film was finished and first screened. While it’s engaging and free from dead zones, it’s not incredibly deep but rather self-congratulatory on a job well done. And y’know, it doesn’t come off as egotistical. All three seem to recognize they made something special. Also new are the addition of 4:49 of Green-band and red-band trailers.
The rest is ported and brief. “He Said She Said” (4:01) and “Everyone Down Under” (3:54) are standard promo pieces. “Outtakes & Bloopers” (3:10) is the most fun of the short stuff, and “Deleted Scenes” (1:37) barely qualifies as plural. “Marketing Materials” (3:26) collects “ASMR Pickup Lines” and “Aussie Snacks,” exactly as silly as they sound.
Bea Mine, or Ben There Done That?
Two years is a long wait for a movie this popular. The price stings when the Blu-ray is right there doing most of the job. But weighing the whole package, the 4K is an improvement across the board. Better picture, better mix, a commentary featuring the stars, new trailers, and a slipcover for those who rabidly covet them. The film earns its space on its own because the leads deliver the rarest thing in the genre: Chemistry you can believe in.
Shelf Worthy. Buy it for the movie, take the upgrade as a bonus, and let the commentary be the reason you spin it again. Some rom-coms you stream once and forget. This one keeps getting pulled off the shelf, sand and all.
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