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The Holdovers (2023)
The Holdovers (2023) poster

The Holdovers (2023)

Comedy, Drama • 2h 13m

Director: Alexander Payne

Best English-friendly & video release

Video notes:

> Dazzler UK

Updated 1 year ago


UHD tiers

Excellent
Shout US > Dazzler UK
Solid
Dazzler UK

About the film

A curmudgeonly instructor at a New England prep school is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually, he forms an unlikely bond with one of them — a damaged, brainy troublemaker — and with the school’s head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam.

More from Alexander Payne

See more →

Director: Alexander Payne

4K · Good in DV Only
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Director: Alexander Payne

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Fox Blu-ray

More from Shout! Factory

See more →

Director: Rob Reiner

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Germany Capelight 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray releasing December 14 2026

Video Notes:

Like many of Capelight's other releases, the 4K Blu-ray is low-passed but still looks good.

Best Audio:

30th Anniversary Shout! Factory BD has the original stereo mix

Director: Gary Ross

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly:

Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray, but a shot was cut from the film

Warner Bros Blu-ray for the uncut version, but it's an older master.

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab) · YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray, but a shot was cut from the film. See comparison

Warner Bros Blu-ray for the uncut version, but it's an older master.

Director: John Woo

Best English-Friendly & Video:

US Shout! Factory or UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray?

Director: Tsui Hark

Best English-Friendly & Video:

US Shout! Factory or UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray?

Director: John Woo

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

US Shout! Factory or UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

> Disk Kino/WCL China import

review: Disk Kino

Both have better encoding than Disk Kino, some shots are better on Shout! Factory, others on Arrow

Shout Factory still has the best video while Arrow did a questionable regrade. Arrow definitely has less grain in most shots, has a worse encode and is cm v2.9 compared to Shout’s cm v4.0.

Audio Notes:

Shout! Factory/Arrow 4K Blu-ray has the original mono

Director: John Milius

Best English-Friendly & Video:

US Shout! Factory or Germany/UK Capelight 4K Blu-ray?

Director: Gus Van Sant

Best English-Friendly:

US Shout! Factory Blu-ray

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

Best Video & Audio:

French Carlotta Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Shout! Factory and Carlotta use the same scan https://slow.pics/c/Wcn5YFlw, the Carlotta has two extra bonus features

Director: Michael Mann

Best English-Friendly:

88 Films UK Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray  in December

Best Video:

88 Films UK Blu-ray for both cuts 

Best Audio:

88 Films Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

88 Films Blu-ray is missing Michael Mann commentary for the DC found on other BDs

Director: John Carpenter

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Universal 4K Blu-ray

Sources: blog.sporv.com (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:
Audio Notes:
  • 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: Henry Selick

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

2D Version: Laika/Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray

3D Version: 2011 3D Blu-ray

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

Best Video:

2D Version: Laika/Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray

3D Version: 2011 3D Blu-ray caps 

More Comedy on Blu-ray

Director: Jacques Tati

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly:

Criterion for 1949 and 1964, BFI for 1964 English Variant and 1994/5

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray (part of Jacques Tati boxset releasing December 2026)

Best Video:

Jour Germany fete (1949) - Criterion only, HD Jour Germany fete (1964) - Criterion only, HDThe Village Fair (1964, English variant) - BFI only, HDJour Germany fete (1994/5) - Criterion SD, BFI HD

Director: Jacques Tati

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray (part of Jacques Tati boxset releasing December 2026)

Director: Jacques Tati

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray (part of Jacques Tati boxset releasing December 2026)

Director: Jacques Tati

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion/StudioCanal Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray (part of Jacques Tati boxset releasing December 2026)

Video Notes:

> BFI. New restoration unreleased.

Best Audio:

Old R2 DVD 1.0

Director: Jacques Tati

Best English-Friendly & Video:

BFI Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray (part of Jacques Tati boxset releasing December 2026)

Video Notes:

> Criterion/StudioCanal. New restoration unreleased.

Director: Jacques Tati

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

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

Upcoming Release:

StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray (part of Jacques Tati boxset releasing December 2026)

Best Audio:

2014 StudioCanal Blu-ray

Additional Info:

The UHD is slightly cropped in.

Director: Ben Stiller

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

Sony 4K Blu-ray

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

Video Notes:

Comparisons

Audio Notes:

Spectrograms

Directors: Chris Appelhans & Maggie Kang

Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Additional Info:

"Sing-Along Edition" not included on the Criterion 4K Blu-ray, only available on Netflix Streaming

Director: Bong Joon Ho

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

UK Artificial Eye 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray releasing January 2027

Best Video:

France The Jokers 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

France The Jokers 4K Blu-ray has the least DNR (UK Artificial Eye might be similar? Both better than Universal 4K Blu-ray)

Criterion even though doesn’t have 4K, it has the B&W version and a lot of extras.

Director: Damien Chazelle

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Excellent
Upcoming Release:

US Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray re-release announced with Dolby Vision, a new exclusive bonus, and the previously retailer pre-order bonus-exclusive/Hong Kong-exclusive bonus interviews in HD

Video Notes:

Italy Eagle Pictures has DV, better encode, and no brightness shifts compared to Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray for the original Dolby Atmos mix

Additional Info:

Hong Kong Panorama 4K Blu-ray has two interviews available in HD that are SD everywhere else and only included as retailer-exclusive pre-order bonus DVDs with the US Blu-ray

Edit history

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Researched and maintained by

vanshady

· last reviewed 1 year ago

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