John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017)
Action, Thriller, Crime • 2h 2m
Director: Chad Stahelski
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Common, Laurence Fishburne, Riccardo Scamarcio, Ruby Rose, Lance Reddick, Peter Stormare, Bridget Moynahan, Franco Nero, John Leguizamo, Ian McShane, Claudia Gerini, Wass Stevens, Tobias Segal, Thomas Sadoski, Erik Frandsen, David Patrick Kelly, Perry Yung, Youma Diakite, Peter Serafinowicz, Luca Mosca, Midori Nakamura, Mario Donatone, Giorgio Carminati, Elli, Thaddeus Daniels, Margaret Daly, Christine Hollingsworth, Ciscandra Nostalghia, Chukwudi Iwuji, Vadim Kroll, Simone Spinazzè, Chris LaPanta, Guyviaud Joseph, Diane Gooch, Alisa Ermolaev, Kelly Rae LeGault, Joan Smalls, Basil Iwanyk Sr., Aaron Cohen, Airon Armstrong, Alex Ziwak, Aly Mang, Angel Pai, Bill Walters, Bruno Verdirosi, Heidi Moneymaker, Jennifer Dong, Johnny Otto, Justin L. Wilson, Kenny Sheard, Kitty Crystal, Mark Vincent, Marmee Regine Cosico, Nancy Cejari, Nico Toffoli, Niko Nedyalkov, Nobuya Shimamoto, Nora Sommerkamp, Oleg Prudius, Ottaviano Dell'Acqua, Sidney Beitz, Shade Rupe, Stephen Dunlevy, Tim Connolly, YAMA, Dylan Eiland
Best English-friendly & video release · updated 1 year ago
UHD tiers
Overview
John Wick is forced out of retirement by a former associate looking to seize control of a shadowy international assassins’ guild. Bound by a blood oath to aid him, Wick travels to Rome and does battle against some of the world’s most dangerous killers.
Director: Chad Stahelski
Lionsgate/Titans of Cult 4K Blu-ray
(Titans of Cult 4K Blu-ray has Dolby Vision)
Director: Jamie Babbit
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray is a disaster. The compression on the base layer is horrid, and the oversized 18 Mbps FEL barely helps.
Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray includes original matrixed Dolby Stereo mix, albeit lossy, and a 5.1 surround upmix. The stereo track on previous BD and DVD releases is also lossy and sounds about the same.
Sources: fanrestore.com (opens in a new tab) · originaltrilogy.com (opens in a new tab)
2017 StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray and subsequent 4K Blu-rays are notorius for being heavily denoised and smoothened. Alternatively, 35mm scans for the theatrical cut is also available.
For the Ultimate Edition with the T-1000 searching John's room and the happy future ending, the 2009 Skynet Blu-ray, which is the older pre-2017 transfer, but has DNR.
Director: Carol Reed
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray or Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray/Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray (shared encode); slight improvement over the 2015 StudioCanal Blu-ray
StudioCanal/LG UHDs
StudioCanal/LG UHDs port the 1999 Criterion DVD, considered the best source
StudioCanal has a remastered Blu-ray, Lionsgate only a 4K Blu-ray
2D: Spain Emon Blu-ray
3D: US Lionsgate, Germany StudioCanal, or Netherlands Entertainment One 3D Blu-ray?
Sources: caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)
Criterion 4K Blu-ray scheduled for Dec 2026 release
US Lionsgate Blu-ray looks very different from either Italy Eagle Pictures or Germany Kinowelt Blu-ray: https://caps-a-holic.com/c_list.php?c=502 but other than color grading looks better
Director: Werner Herzog
More Action on Blu-ray
Director: John Ford
Sources: ibb.co (opens in a new tab)
Warner Archive Blu-ray is 4K restoration from nitrate projection elements
Germany Filmjuwelen Blu-ray is AI upscaled https://ibb.co/album/mCJ7RQ
Director: Michael B. Jordan
Caveat: No IMAX expanded aspect ratio
Director: James Gunn
Commentary is only on Streaming
Director: Anthony Mann
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
Olive Blu-ray
Barebones Olive BD of a Paramount HD master. Visually it's solid overall with some moments of great clarity, primarily in the big outdoor and aviation sequences. Otherwise it shows its age.
Director: John Woo
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
review: Disk Kino
better encoding, some shots are better on Shout! Factory, others on Arrow
Shout! Factory/Arrow 4K Blu-ray has the original mono
Director: Michael Mann
Director: Guillermo del Toro
WB 4K Blu-ray teased by Guillermo Del Toro
CA Alliance Blu-ray or dutch Blu-ray are the same masters but have additional sharpening.
The original DVD has an isolated score and a exclusive easter egg
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