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Cypher (2002)
Cypher (2002) poster

Cypher (2002)

Thriller, Science Fiction • 1h 36m

Director: Vincenzo Natali

Best English-friendly & video release

Updated 7 months ago


About the film

An unsuspecting, disenchanted man finds himself working as a spy in the dangerous, high-stakes world of corporate espionage. Quickly getting way over-his-head, he teams up with a mysterious femme fatale.

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Directors: Banjong Pisanthanakun & Parkpoom Wongpoom

Best English-Friendly:

Australia Umbrella 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

Australia Umbrella 4K Blu-ray encoded by FiM

Director: Mamoru Oshii

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

US GKIDS 4K Blu-ray authored by FiM

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

Best Video:

US GKIDS/Australia Umbrella 4K Blu-ray authored by FiM

Video Notes:

US GKIDS/Australia Umbrella 4K Blu-ray authored by FiM with identical encodes

UHD vs BD comparisons

Best Audio:

4K restoration includes a high-fidelity Dolby Atmos remix sourced from new transfers of original magnetic elements, with inconsequential content differences from the original mono mix. Umbrella 4K Blu-ray only includes a 5.1 mixdown of the remix, other discs have it in Dolby Atmos.

Umbrella/GKIDS 4K Blu-ray's 2.0 track is a stereo downmix. Older BDs and LDs have the original mono mix in varying quality, but are all inferior in fidelity to the new Dolby Atmos remix. The digital track on the Bandai/Emotion Japan LaserDisc BELL-942 is the best of the bunch.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=23714400&postcount=159

Only the GKIDS 4K Blu-ray has the English dub.

Director: Hal Needham

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Vinegar Syndrome 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

2026 Vinegar Syndrome 4K Blu-ray, 2025 Umbrella 4K Blu-ray

Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Disappointing
Upcoming Release:

Umbrella 4K Blu-ray, part of Alejandro Jodorowsky Collector’s Edition, scheduled for November 2026 release

Best Video:

Severin 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Severin 4K Blu-ray has bad encode

Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky

Best English-Friendly:

Arrow/US remastered abkco Blu-ray or Germany Bildstörung Blu-ray depending on preference

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

Upcoming Release:

Umbrella 4K Blu-ray, part of Alejandro Jodorowsky Collector’s Edition, scheduled for November 2026 release

Best Video:

Even though Arrow/US remastered abkco Blu-ray are the newer restoration, the Germany Bildstörung Blu-ray seeming look better in many of the scenes see caps  ut the grading might also be over-exposed see caps
Ultimately it's up to personal preference.

Directors: Alan Mak Siu-Fai & Andrew Lau Wai-Keung

Best English-Friendly:

Criterion US Blu-ray or Umbrella Australia 4K Blu-ray

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

Best Video:

Maybe Umbrella Australia 4K Blu-ray (FiM encode), Plaion Germany 4K Blu-ray, or Pony Canyon Japan 4K Blu-ray. All other existing 4K Blu-rays have terrible compression: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=21423337&postcount=173

The master is heavily DNR'd.

Best Audio:

Original 5.1 from Jokers France 4K Blu-ray or Criterion US Blu-ray or older Blu-rays

Director: Richard Stanley

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly:

Umbrella AU 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

Umbrella AU 4K Blu-ray, encoded by Fidelity in Motion

Best Audio:

Original matrixed Dolby Stereo mix: 2018 Ronin Flix US Blu-ray / 2009 Optimum UK Blu-ray
5.1 surround remix: Umbrella AU 4K Blu-ray / Umbrella Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

The 2.0 on the 4K Blu-ray is a downmix.

Director: Christopher Nolan

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Spain Selecta Vision 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab) · linkedin.com (opens in a new tab) · dvdcompare.net (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

Collector's edition of a new restoration from Umbrella

Video Notes:

> other releases and old 2006 release - impressions of Selecta Vision release

Director: Ted Kotcheff

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

Umbrella/Arrow 4K Blu-ray

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

Video Notes:

Umbrella/Arrow 4K Blu-ray (FiM encode but the mastering shows signs of DNR albeit only momentarily); all other BDs pretty bad.

Audio Notes:

But whether in the correct speed/pitch is TBC.

Director: Rolf de Heer

Best English-Friendly:

Umbrella Blu-ray

Best Video:

Australia Umbrella Blu-ray or French Intersections Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Australia Umbrella Blu-ray or French Intersections Blu-ray no comparison available

More Thriller on Blu-ray

Director: Steven Spielberg

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

Universal 4K

Video Notes:

Dolby Vision grading looks identical to a cinema DCP, which is the highest compliment that could be given. Encode is perfectly solid in motion.

Director: Satoshi Kon

4K · Disappointing
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Sony 4K Blu-ray

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

Video Notes:

Sony 4K Blu-ray is very smeary with the upscaling but has correct aspect ratio and very good HDR grade.
UK Blu-ray has wrong colors, and Sony 2007 Blu-ray is the worst (encoding and AR)
See professorwho's review

Director: Stanley Kubrick

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

The 4K discs in both Criterion and Imprint sets are low-passed even though encoded by FiM and has better contrast and highlights compared to Kino Lorber.

Best Audio:

MGM DVD/Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray mono

Additional Info:

The Criterion Complete Kubrick and Imprint 1953-1957 sets include remastered BDs. All standalone releases are from an earlier master.

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

Director: Doug Liman

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

4K · Worse Than BD
Best English-Friendly & Video:

US Cut: US Universal HD-DVD

International Cut: International Universal HD-DVD

Video Notes:

The Universal Blu-ray is slightly filtered and DNR'd compared to the HD-DVD, and the Universal 4K Blu-ray, on top of being upscaled, adds additional DNR and is softer than both previous HD releases.

Best Audio:

Universal Blu-ray DTS-HD 5.1

Additional Info:

Versions:
- The International version contains a short additional scene (part of the "Farmhouse" extended scene from the special features). See additional detail below.
- The US version does not contain this scene during the film. Director Doug Liman confirms in his audio commentary that the scene was cut from the original US theatrical release "for time".
- "The Explosive Extended Edition" found on some DVD releases is not an alternate cut of the film, simply an access mode that plays "The Bookend Scenes" features via non-seamless branching.

Deck the Halls scene:
The U.S. release is 118:17 while the European/Australian/Japanese releases are 118:36. There is no difference between the two running times from the start, but at 81:21, the U.S. version cuts from a kitchen scene of Marie and Eamon washing dishes, to a scene of Eamon bringing blankets to Jason and Marie. On the European/Australian releases, at the same point, there is a scene of Jason, Marie, Eamon and his children eating dinner while "Deck the Halls" plays in the background. There is no dialogue, the characters just each exchange uncomfortable glances. The scene goes to 81:40, then picks up the same scene of Eamon bringing blankets. This scene is included as an extra ("Farmhouse" extended scene) albeit sans the holiday themed music. Many thanks to Rewind user Mark Bowen for comparing these releases and letting us know the difference.

Director: Akira Kurosawa

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

BFI 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

2015 Star Media Blu-ray/2019 BFI Player WEB-DL

Director: John Boorman

Best English-Friendly & Video:

WB Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

2027 Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

1984 WB LaserDisc

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: David Fincher

Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

20th Century Studios Blu-ray

Additional Info:

Digipack release includes an Amazing Amy book the standard edition doesn’t have.

Director: Brian De Palma

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

1993 Universal LaserDisc

Additional Info:

Carlito’s Way was released theatrically in both Dolby Stereo and DTS. The 2.0 on the Arrow UHD is the original stereo mix, unknown if the 5.1 mix on the  Arrow disc is the original DTS mix.

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Researched and maintained by

tyyuxJojoTheMovieOtter

· last reviewed 7 months ago

Every recommendation follows the same method — how these calls are made.