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Christopher Lee

Christopher Lee

30 films on Best Blurays19 in 4K11 in HD
Christopher Lee photo

Christopher Lee (May 5, 1922 – June 7, 2015) was an English actor and musician. Lee initially portrayed villains and became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films. Other notable roles include Lord Summerisle in The Wicker Man (1973), Francisco Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), Count Dooku in Star Wars episodes II and III (2002, 2005) and Saruman in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003). Lee considers his most important role to have been his portrayal of Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the biopic Jinnah (1998). He is well known for his deep, commanding voice. Lee has performed roles in 266 films since 1948 making him the Guinness book world record holder for most film acting roles ever. He was knighted in 2009 and received the BAFTA Fellowship in 2011.

Biography from TMDB

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Leading role · Director: Alan Gibson

Leading role · Director: Alan Gibson

Leading role · Director: Robin Hardy

4K · Excellent
Best Video:

Final Cut: StudioCanal/Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray Theatrical Cut: StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray Director's Cut: StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray

Leading role · Director: Guy Hamilton

Video format: 4K Streaming

Best English-Friendly:

4K Streaming

Sources: 007homemedia.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

4K Streaming SDR master on streaming seems to look quite a bit better than the Blu-ray

MGM Blu-ray is the best physical media release

Caps of the 4K SDR master: 007 on Home Media: The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)

Best Audio:

MGM 1993 LaserDisc

Leading role · Director: Terence Fisher

Upcoming Release:

Hammer & Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray

Supporting role · Director: Billy Wilder

Best Video:

UK MoC Blu-ray

Sources: caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

UK MoC Blu-ray has the better encoding

US Kino Lorber Blu-ray has inferior encoding and likely suffers from the Quicktime Gamma Bug see caps

Best Audio:

MOC Blu-ray or MGM Laserdisc

Additional Info:

Eureka MOC is far superior to Kino with also more printed booklet extras. The reconstruction work, transfer and extras date back to MGM's Laserdisc attempt. The LD master and materials were ported to the MGM DVD which in turn was paired with an updated HD master for the BDs. The film still cries out for a proper modern restoration and reconstruction attempt with the partially surviving cut sequences. The extras on LD also have PCM audio and one of the visuals in one of the cut episodes is more untouched which is censored for nudity on the modern versions. It's small but the particular element has been blurred on most versions today.

Supporting role · Director: Terence Fisher

4K · Excellent
Best Video:

Hammer & Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Hammer & Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray are confirmed by Randy Miller to be identical down to the encode, the only difference being different studio logos.

Best Audio:

Warner Bros 2002 DVD

Audio Notes:

Warner Bros 2002 DVD has the best sounding mono

Supporting role · Director: Jesús Franco

4K · Excellent

Supporting role · Director: George Lucas

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

Best Video:

High seas for recreated Theatrical Cut or HDTV rip

Video Notes:

Disney 4K Blu-ray is a mediocre upscale.

Best Audio:

Cinema DTS

Supporting role · Directors: Jules Bass & Arthur Rankin, Jr.

Supporting role · Director: Steven Spielberg

Best Video:

Universal Blu-ray

Supporting role · Director: Richard Lester

4K · Excellent
Best Video & Audio:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

StudioCanal's 4K release is similar in encode quality, but has significant glitches in multiple frames. See comparisons 9-16 here: https://slow.pics/c/YkSVb3Ey

Audio Notes:

The pitch of the StudioCanal 4K's English audio is too high

Additional Info:

Criterion has more extras than StudioCanal.

Supporting role · Director: Peter Jackson

4K · Solid
Best Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Caveat: mostly great video but the 4K Blu-rays have had additional DNR applied in some scenes on top of the DNR that had been applied in post-production and was already present on the DVDs & Blu-rays

The 2020 Blu-ray (the one without the green tint) may be better than the 4K Blu-ray?

Best Audio:

New Line Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

New Line Blu-ray have the original 6.1 mixes

Additional Info:

4K Blu-ray set is missing extras from the old Blu-ray/DVD releases

The 2011 Blu-ray notoriously had a green tint, the 2020 one removes it.

Supporting role · Director: Martin Scorsese

4K · Excellent
Best Video:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Supporting role · Director: Arthur Dong

Best Video:

Kino Lorber Blu-ray

Supporting role · Director: Tim Burton

Best English-Friendly:

Warner Bros Blu-ray

Sources: movie-censorship.com (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

Theatrical Cut: Warner Bros US 2-disc Deluxe Edition DVD set

Extended Cut: Warner Bros Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Theatrical Cut: Cinema DTS

Extended Cut: Warner Bros Blu-ray

Supporting role · Directors: Tim Burton & Mike Johnson

4K · Excellent
Best Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray caps. Original 1.85 framing restored, much better colors, image detail and a film stock-like tone curve was restored.

Best Audio:

Warner Bros HD-DVD

Audio Notes:

Warner Bros HD-DVD has the original 6.1 mix in a better format than the Blu-ray (Dolby Digital Plus instead of standard Dolby Digital), but is still lossy and a disc prone to disc rot. The Blu-ray is a good alternative.

Supporting role · Director: George Lucas

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Disappointing
Best Video:

High seas for recreated Theatrical Cut or HDTV rip

Video Notes:

Disney 4K Blu-ray is a mediocre upscale.

Best Audio:

Cinema DTS

Small role · Director: Tim Burton

Best Video & Audio:

Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray

Small role · Director: Tim Burton

Best Video:

Disney US 4-disc Blu-ray set for both 2D and 3D versions

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