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The Hot Spot (1990)
The Hot Spot (1990) poster
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The Hot Spot (1990)

Romance, Crime, Thriller • 2h 10m

Director: Dennis Hopper

Cast: Don Johnson, Virginia Madsen, Jennifer Connelly, Charles Martin Smith, William Sadler, Jerry Hardin, Barry Corbin, Leon Rippy, Jack Nance, Virgil Frye, John Hawker, Margaret Bowman, Debra Cole, Karen Culley, Cody Haynes, George Haynes, James N. Harrell, Edith Mills, Shannon Quinlan, Roosevelt Williams

Letterboxd
IMDbThe Movie Database (TMDB)

2026 Radiance 4K Blu-ray

Best English-friendly & video release · updated 1 month ago

UHD tiers

Excellent
Radiance

Overview

Upon arriving to a small town, a drifter quickly gets into trouble with the local authorities — and the local women — after he robs a bank.

Release details

Length
130 mins
Type
Movie

More from Dennis Hopper

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Director: Dennis Hopper

4K · Disappointing
Best English-Friendly & Video:

BFI Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

BFI Blu-ray renders grain structure better than Severin 4K Blu-ray’s disappointing encode, although Severin does feature an HDR grading with Dolby Vision. Furthermore, Severin’s soundtrack is worse due to the noise reduction applied.

Additional Info:

Severin 4K Blu-ray has very good extras that are more relevant to the film

Director: Dennis Hopper

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Sony UK 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

More from Radiance

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Director: Mitra Farahani

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Radiance Treasures from the Golestan Film Studio Blu-ray

Director: Ebrahim Golestan

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Radiance Treasures from the Golestan Film Studio Blu-ray

Director: Ebrahim Golestan

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Radiance Treasures from the Golestan Film Studio Blu-ray

Director: Ebrahim Golestan

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Radiance Treasures from the Golestan Film Studio Blu-ray

Director: Ebrahim Golestan

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Radiance Treasures from the Golestan Film Studio Blu-ray

Director: Forugh Farrokhzad

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Radiance Treasures from the Golestan Film Studio Blu-ray

Director: Ebrahim Golestan

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Radiance Treasures from the Golestan Film Studio Blu-ray

Director: Ebrahim Golestan

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Radiance Treasures from the Golestan Film Studio Blu-ray

Director: Ebrahim Golestan

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Radiance Treasures from the Golestan Film Studio Blu-ray

Director: Ivan Passer

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Radiance 4K Blu-ray

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

Video Notes:

Though note its different color grading from the IP-sourced but poorly compressed Fun City Editions US Blu-ray (caps)

Audio Notes:

Judging from spectrograms at https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=23933756&postcount=57, Fun City Editions US Blu-ray appears to have marginally less filtering than Radiance 4K Blu-ray (whose padded 16-bit depth is a non-issue). There are also loudness differences, though it's unclear whether dynamic range also differs. Caveat: need to A/B both tracks to confirm, but no one has posted actual A/B impressions.

More Romance on Blu-ray

Director: Terrence Malick

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

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.

Best Audio:

1999 Paramount DVD

Director: Rose Glass

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

A24 4K Blu-ray

Best Video & Audio:

Plaion Germany 4K Blu-ray 

Video Notes:

Markedly better encoding on Plaion than A24 and without any low-pass filtering

Director: Anthony Mann

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

Shout Factory Blu-ray

Additional Info:

Shout's BD has both cuts of the film in addition to the 3.0 stereo and  2.0 mono mixes making it the first time the full theatrical cut is available with the 3.0 mix. The new commentary is good. The 3.0 stereo sounds wonderful and the mono sounds solid.
That's where the positives end. This is the same terrible Universal DVD master slapped on a Blu-ray disc with a terrible encode making both versions share the disc separately taking up more space. This master was already poor for DVD and is nearly unwatchable here on the Shout disc. It looks virtually identical to the upscaled DVD most of the time with only a bit less noise due to it being 1080p. This is one of the most appalling cases of "DVD master slapped on a Blu-ray disc" you can possibly find. Absolutely shameful video presentation. This should have never been released this way. Sadly it's still ever so slightly better than the DVD and the only way you get the proper theatrical cut with lossless 3.0 stereo. This is still the best source we have for the film.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Universal 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

2005 Universal DVD

Director: Jacques Demy

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

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

For Blu-ray Criterion Demy Set > StudioCanal

Director: Howard Hawks

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Indicator Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Director: Martin Scorsese

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Audio:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

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

Audio Notes:

(same as all tracks since the DVD)

Best Video:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray see caps

Video Notes:

Phenomenal disc, and perhaps the single greatest testament to NexSpec's positive 180 this year. Highlights are beautifully handled and grain structure is fully intact in areas where NexSpec's (and Pixelogic's) encodes would frequently fall apart in 2025 and before then. Criterion BD encode also looks to be robust from linked caps, save for this one frame: https://slow.pics/c/cMjMefmi

https://slow.pics/c/qQbJum0H

https://slow.pics/c/C3kJJZg0

Director: Leos Carax

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Kino BD has original stereo mix.

Director: F. W. Murnau

Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

MoC OOP Blu-ray

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

Upcoming Release:

Flicker Alley 4K confirmed for 2027 https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=24404584&postcount=1

Directors: Emeric Pressburger & Michael Powell

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Imprint 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · filmalert101.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

FiM encode and none of the low-pass filtering present on the Criterion 4K, resulting in more detail and better handling of highlights on Imprint https://filmalert101.blogspot.com/2026/09/on-4k-uhd-david-hare-rhapsodizes-over.html?m=1

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· last reviewed 1 month ago

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