The Blues Brothers (1980)
Music, Comedy, Action, Crime • 2h 13m
Director: John Landis
Cast: Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Steve Cropper, Donald 'Duck' Dunn, Murphy Dunne, Willie Hall, Tom Malone, Lou Marini, Matt Murphy, Alan Rubin, Carrie Fisher, Henry Gibson, John Candy, Kathleen Freeman, John Lee Hooker, Tom Erhart, Gerald Walling, Walter Levine, Alonzo Atkins, Chaka Khan, Armand Cerami, Steven Williams, Kristi Oleson, Gary McLarty, Joe Cuttone, Layne Britton, Toni Fleming, Sheilah Wells, Rosie Shuster, Judith Belushi-Pisano, Lou Perryman, Paul Reubens, Ben Piazza, Gwen Banta, Lari Taylor, Cindy Fisher, Elizabeth Hoy, Tony M. Conde, Eugene J. Anthony, Dean Hill, Jack Orend, Gene Schuldt, Gary Houston, Charles Mountain, Frank Oz, John Landis, Elmore James, Charles Napier, Steven Spielberg, Curt Clendenin, Twiggy, Steve Lawrence, De'voreaux White, Jeff Morris, Mr. T, James Avery, Raven De La Croix, Leoda Richards, Norman Matlock, S.D. Nemeth, Carolyn Franklin, Jack Callahan, George Sasaki, Ralph Foody
Best English-friendly & video release · updated 1 year ago
UHD tiers
Overview
Jake Blues, just released from prison, puts his old band back together to save the Catholic home where he and his brother Elwood were raised.
Director: Tony Scott
The 70mm 6-track mix has a higher bitrate on the Paramount 1998 DVD, but is more limited than on the THX LaserDisc The Paramount 1998 DVD also has open matte versions in fullscreen 1.33:1 and widescreen 2.00:1 instead of the theatrical aspect ratio of 2.39:1, but the 2.00:1 widescreen presentation is non-anamorphic. The THX LaserDisc is available in both fullscreen 1.33:1 and widescreen 2.00:1 variants.
Director: Terrence Malick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Lovely underlying remaster by Criterion and Resillion but encode is sadly low-pass filtered by Pixelogic, and even then, the encode is still less than ideal. Still easily obliterates any prior disc release, but certainly wouldn't hurt to have a UK or German label take a crack at this same master.
Director: Anthony Mann
Criterion 4K Blu-ray, Universal 2008 DVD
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
2008 Universal DVD mono
The mono on the Criterion is severely filtered resulting in it sounding incredibly muffled. It is nearly as filtered as the 2003 original Universal DVD which had extreme filtering and sounds horribly thin. The 2008 DVD remaster and original Laserdisc analog mastering are mostly left alone. The original LD master is from a worn element but otherwise sounds very natural. The 2008 DVD is the highest quality version we have without the heavy filtering and the defects of the LD master. It isn't perfect but easily the best of the main four sources by a dramatic margin.
The existing 4K SDR restoration looks excellent, but the Criterion extras are limited and disappointing. The classic Stewart interview commentary from the LD is ported over but given a new mastering. Compared to past releases it has been very slightly noise reduced.
Criterion Box Set coming October 20th with FiM encode, work done to un-Nolan the 4K master, the first ever appearance of the 35mm mono track on physical media and a new restoration/remastering of the 70mm 6-track mix.
(early pressing has errors of a shot, later pressings fixed)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Criterion Box Set coming on October 20th with FiM encode
DTS:X mix most closely approximates original surround mix
Criterion DVD has additional features not found on the 4K Blu-ray
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Criterion Box Set coming October 20th with FiM encode, new restoration of mono mix which should be better than what was on the WB 4K Blu-ray and 1999 DVD and revised colour timing to make the film look more like it did in 1971.
WB 4K 5.1: a remix but has higher fidelity
Mono: 4K Blu-ray/1999 DVD
Director: Stanley Kubrick
US Cut: WB 4K Blu-ray
International Cut: Old 2007 Europe Blu-ray
Criterion Box Set coming October 20th with FiM encode, both the US and the International Cut, new restoration/remastering of the mono mix which should be better than the 1999 WB DVD, revised colour timing to make the film look more like it did in 1980 and for the first time ever on physical media, the film will be in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1.
No Blu-ray or DVD release has presented the movie in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 for the US cut or 1.66:1 for the International cut.
The packaging on the back of the 4K Blu-ray incorrectly states it as 1.85:1 when the movie is actually 1.78:1 as is the original Blu-ray.
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: John Landis
Video format: UHD Blu-ray
Paramount 4K Blu-ray is disappointing
Director: John Carpenter
Sources: blog.sporv.com (opens in a new tab)
1997? Signature Collection LD
Good: 2017 Arrow and 2016 Shout! Factory Blu-ray have the original audio options.
the only track on Universal 4K, which is in DTS:X, has a mixing error of around 6dB too low on side channels, otherwise very similar to other 5.1 mixes.
Director: James Whale
Universal Complete Legacy Collection 4K Blu-ray set on September 26 2026
?
Director: James Whale
Universal Complete Legacy Collection 4K Blu-ray set on September 26 2026
1993 CIC Video LaserDisc
2D version: Universal 4K Blu-ray
3D version: Turbine Germany 3D Blu-ray
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