Cast
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Sean Connery

Sean Connery

27 films on Best Blurays18 in 4K9 in HD

Sean Connery photo

Sir Thomas Sean Connery (August 25, 1930 - October 31, 2020) was a Scottish actor and producer who won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards (one being a BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award), and three Golden Globes, including the Cecil B. DeMille Award and a Henrietta Award. Connery was the first actor to portray the character James Bond in film, starring in seven Bond films (every film from Dr. No to You Only Live Twice, plus Diamonds Are Forever and Never Say Never Again), between 1962 and 1983. In 1988, Connery won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Untouchables. His films also include Marnie (1964), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Highlander (1986), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Dragonheart (1996), The Rock (1996), and Finding Forrester (2000). Connery was polled in a 2004 The Sunday Herald as "The Greatest Living Scot" and in a 2011 EuroMillions survey as "Scotland's Greatest Living National Treasure". He was voted by People magazine as both the “Sexiest Man Alive" in 1989 and the "Sexiest Man of the Century” in 1999. He received a lifetime achievement award in the United States with a Kennedy Center Honor in 1999. Connery was knighted in the 2000 New Year Honours for services to film drama. On October 31, 2020, it was announced that Connery had died at the age of 90.

Biography from TMDB

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Leading role · Director: Sidney Lumet

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Video Notes:

4K restoration from Original Camera Negative

Leading role · Director: John McTiernan

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray

Leading role · Director: Peter Hyams

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Leading role · Director: Michael Bay

Video format: HD Streaming

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Disney+ HD Streaming

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

4K possibly teased?

Video Notes:

Disney+ has new master better than Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

Criterion DVD/Disney Blu-ray is missing a line:

Hummel: (line missing)
 
Lou Lindstrom: "Hello Frank. Lou Lindstrom"

Disney+:

Hummel: Hummel.

Lou Lindstrom: "Hello Frank. Lou Lindstrom"

Leading role · Director: Lewis Gilbert

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Leading role · Director: Terence Young

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray, despite prevalent frozen grain

Best Audio:

1991 Criterion LaserDisc with end credits from 1992 MGM LaserDisc

Additional Info:

Criterion LaserDisc includes an exclusive commentary, which was later banned by EON and caused the release to be recalled.

Leading role · Director: Guy Hamilton

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

1988 MGM VHS Hi-Fi, 1988 LaserDisc analog

Additional Info:

Criterion LaserDisc includes an exclusive commentary, which was later banned by EON and caused the release to be recalled.

Leading role · Director: John Milius

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Leading role · Director: John Huston

Best English-Friendly:

WB Blu-ray

Best Video:

Warner Archive

Leading role · Director: Terence Young

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray despite some frozen grain

Best Audio:

1992/1993 MGM LaserDisc

Additional Info:

Criterion LaserDisc includes an exclusive commentary, which was later banned by EON and caused the release to be recalled.

Leading role · Director: Guy Hamilton

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

MGM 1990/1993 LaserDisc

Leading role · Director: Terence Young

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray despite frozen grain

Best Audio:

UK mix: 1984 CBS Fox VHS Hifi but missing one scene
International mix: WB 4K Blu-ray though source origin is unknown

1995 MGM stereo remix: 1998 LaserDisc and 2000 DVD fix gunbarrel dropout

Leading role · Director: Irvin Kershner

Best English-Friendly:

MGM Blu-ray 

Best Video:

MGM Blu-ray despite dated master

Best Audio:

WB 1995 letterbox LaserDisc

Leading role · Director: John Boorman

Best English-Friendly:

OOP Arrow Blu-ray

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

Best Video:

OOP Germany Koch Media Blu-ray

Video Notes:

OOP Germany Koch Media Blu-ray has better encode than Arrow Blu-ray, see caps

Leading role · Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

UK Second Sight 4K Blu-ray

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

Video Notes:

UK Second Sight 4K Blu-ray is FiM encoded and superior to French Severin or German 4K Blu-ray: see comparison

Leading role · Director: Rob Cohen

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray

Leading role · Director: Alfred Hitchcock

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Universal 4K Blu-ray

Leading role · Director: Steven Spielberg

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Worse Than BD
Best English-Friendly:

35mm scan, Blu-ray, DVD or LaserDisc

Sources: YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray heavily revisionist. Purist option: 35mm scan, Blu-ray, DVD or LaserDisc

Best Audio:

LaserDisc 2.0 matrix stereo, DVD 5.1, Blu-ray 5.1

Additional Info:

The Paramount 4K master is HEAVILY revisionist in that all of the effects and opticals were redone and tweaked with errors and issues. There has been grain management (moments of stagnating grain and haloing) and the encoding isn't great hence the typical Paramount noise in the image. (especially skies) The HDR is a bit bright in the highlights. The Blu-ray is showing its age but does not have any of these digital alterations. It is from the scan done by Laser Pacific and is the highest quality unaltered master we have. The DVD was done by Lowry Digital and had much scrubbing and processing of grain in addition to edge enhancement. The letterbox LaserDisc was the first widescreen release and is very good for its time. There was also a rare SVHS release using the letterbox LaserDisc master.
The 4K Blu-ray audio is seemingly an Atmos remix of the 5.1 found on the Blu-ray which itself is very similar to the DVD 5.1. All are presumably based on the 70mm Dolby six track mix. The Atmos is more processed and moves the sound around more so it is inferior to the older 5.1 iterations. On release, Last Crusade had Dolby 70mm with stereo surrounds, Dolby Stereo SR for 35mm and was mixed in a THX sound theater to ensure the ultimate in technical quality in 1989. The DVD was supposedly made from the 70mm mix and the Blu-ray 5.1 seems to bring that into lossless. This is unconfirmed but each seems to be a healthy and accurate version of the original audio. However, the LaserDisc despite only having matrix PCM stereo is punchier and livelier as a listening experience. Despite not being discrete it arguably sounds better than the 5.1 versions. Some who remember seeing each of the original release versions claim to remember the 35mm Dolby DR as sounding better than the 70mm Dolby.  This is a case where both sound great and it's up to fans to decide which they prefer. Both are essential for any Indy collection and the LaserDisc is very cheap. The VHS hifi seems to be the same 2.0 matrix with format differences so it can also be compared against the DVD and Blu-ray 5.1 versions.

DFIC extensive review: https://youtu.be/evsrJOTIjdA?si=wtdWGxZBfhPYTIeW

Leading role · Director: Brian De Palma

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

LaserDisc

Supporting role · Director: Russell Mulcahy

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

StudioCanal/Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray

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