Films

The best release of every film, picked by the community. How we decide

6,202 films · page 46 of 311

Director: Kirk R. Thatcher

Video format: HD Streaming

Best Video:

OG broadcast version: Disney UK DVD for OG 1.78:1 aspect ratio

Extended version: Disney US DVD or Disney+ HD Streaming

Video Notes:

(caveat: both cropped to 1.33:1)

Directors: John Musker & Ron Clements

Best Video:

OG theatrical version: Disney Deluxe Edition LaserDisc

2004 restored version: Disney 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

OG theatrical version - uncensored: Pre-1993 35mm scans

OG theatrical version - censored: 1993+ 35mm scans or Disney Deluxe Edition LaserDisc

Audio Notes:

OG theatrical version has a racially insensitive lyric in opening "Agrabah" song replaced for re-releases, available on OG soundtrack CD and pre-1993 35mm prints only

Every release since the 2004 restored version on the OG Disney DVD has the line "Come on, good kitty, just take off and go" replaced with "Take off, good kitty" due to the 1992 line being misheard as "Come on, good teenagers, take off your clothes" (an occurrence called a "mondegreen")

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos

Video format: 4K Streaming

Best English-Friendly & Audio:

Streaming

Audio Notes:

Streaming has the original theatrical Dolby Atmos mix
Disney/Fox Blu-ray only has a 5.1 downmix

Kaleidescape is lossless (TrueHD 7.1), others are all lossy (E-AC-3 5.1 JOC) at varying bitrates.

Best Video:

Streaming: Kaleidescape

Video Notes:

Streaming: Kaleidescape > Movies Anywhere > Disney+

Directors: Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne

Best Video:

New Yorker Video DVD

Sources: ifccenter.com (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

4K restoration screened in 2023, no Blu-ray yet 

Director: Makoto Shinkai

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

Hong Kong Neofilms 4K Blu-ray

US/UK Crunchyroll Blu-ray for English dub

Upcoming Release:

US/UK Crunchyroll 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

Hong Kong Neofilms 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Hong Kong Neofilms 4K Blu-ray/Japan Toho 4K Blu-ray

US/UK Crunchyroll Blu-ray for English dub

Additional Info:

Hong Kong Neofilms 4K Blu-ray has better bitrate and detail than Japan Toho 4K Blu-ray, both releases have English subtitles.

The original theatrical Atmos mix has not been given a home release.

TV series

Best Video & Audio:

UK Anime, Ltd. Blu-ray

Additional Info:

Netflix HDR is false HDR against the original creative intent. US Aniplex Blu-ray only has lossy audio.

Director: James Ivory

Best Video:

Cohen 4K Blu-ray

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

Video Notes:

Cohen 4K Blu-ray caps. Same 4K master that Cohen released on BD but grain resolves much better and the gamma levels are now correctly set.

Director: Martin Campbell

Video format: 4K Streaming

Best English-Friendly:

MGM Blu-ray 

Best Video:

MGM Blu-ray: old DNRed video master

4K Lowry master on Streaming (better than DNRed Blu-ray) and Ultimate Edition DVD more detailed but heavily cropped on all sides

LaserDisc master: excellent LaserDisc video master ported to Special Edition DVD

Best Audio:

Theatrical Dolby Digital 5.1: LaserDisc and Special Edition DVD

Theatrical Dolby Stereo SR: LaserDisc

Theatrical DTS 5.1: DTS LaserDisc

Blu-ray 5.1 new transfer

Director: Sergio Leone

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly:

251 min cut (Extended): Fox Blu-ray

229 min cut (Theatrical): WB Blu-ray

139 min cut (US theatrical): VHS

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

Video Notes:

251 min cut (Extended): Fox Blu-ray. Eagle Pictures has forced Italian subs in some parts

229 min cut (Theatrical): WB Blu-ray

139 min cut (US theatrical): VHS

Eagle Pictures 4K Blu-ray, caps

The 4K includes both theatrical and extended cuts. It's overall a solid upgrade over previous discs, but some will strongly dislike the color grading.
There are some issues with encoding and grain management.


Nic's review:

Some definitely messed with it as there’s grain management going on that resulted in magnetic, squishy grain movement. Both cuts (4K discs) are affected and it doesn’t look like an encoding issue to me as the bitrates don’t drop down to single digits á la Paramount or StudioCanal. During opticals, the lowest I’ve noted on the Extended 4K was around 30 MB/s vs. ~5 MB/s more for the theatrical cut.

Darker scenes are mostly (but not always) better but when it gets brighter, particularly in exteriors or scenes like the Jennifer Connelly dance scene at minute 38, I can’t unsee the digital tinkering as it does some damage texturally.

I compared it with the Eagle Pictures and Warner Bros Fox Blu-ray of the extended cut and they all look fine without grain management like that. Eagle Pictures’s Blu-ray is an older one if anyone’s curious and credited to another authoring house than 64Biz, which did the 4K.

Other than that, except for some encoding-related chroma noise that peeks through in the DV layer, Eagle Pictures did everything right. They corrected the framing to 1.85, kept the original English titles, the English restoration note, subtitles, HDR/DV is gentle and respectful of the source black levels are better than on the Warner Bros/Fox Blu-ray. Without that grain management, this would’ve been the all-timer release we all longed for.

Best Audio:

251 min cut: Fox Blu-ray

229 min cut: Warner Bros LaserDisc

Audio Notes:

251 min cut: Fox Blu-ray (24-bit, Eagle Pictures is 16-bit, not audible)
229 min cut: Warner Bros LaserDisc (missing 2 minutes, but original mono mix was never released on DVD/Blu-ray)

Additional Info:

Extended edition adds scenes cut from the theatrical, but from a much lower quality source. It's intended to approximate the original cut, but to what extent that is true is debatable.
US theatrical cut is infamously bad, was panned at release and never re-released on home video.

Director: Gordon Douglas

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Audio:

Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · catalog.afi.com (opens in a new tab) · archive.org (opens in a new tab) · +1 more

Best Video:

Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray see caps

Video Notes:

SF is in 1.66 aspect ratio. Whether this is the intended ratio or a compromise isn't clear.

American Film Institute's catalog and Variety's contemporary review list it as 1.66, but other sources disagree.
Exhibitor's contemporary review lists it as 1.85, IMDB and an internal pre-production note from Warner Bros. list it as 1.75.

Director: Keenen Ivory Wayans

4K · Solid
Best Video & Audio:

Vinegar Syndrome 4K Blu-ray

Director: David Lynch

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

Criterion or StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

The DV/HDR grade is tasteful and not overdone. SC has better compression, though not flawless; encoded by FiM, but Criterion also holds up quite well. Both releases claim to be approved by Lynch.

SC has a missing fade that Criterion reinstated.

Best Audio:

Original matrixed Dolby Stereo mix: 2001 R1 Paramount US NTSC DVD/2008 R2 Optimum UK PAL or 1999 Pioneer JP LaserDisc

Restored stereo mix: Criterion / StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

The film was originally mixed in Dolby Stereo (matrixed LCRS). For the 4K restoration, this mix has been transferred from the original magnetic elements and remastered with Lynch's supervision. Unfortunately, the fidelity suffered in the process, with many sections ending up significantly less detailed due to a noise reduction pass. This track has been altered compared to the original, with reverb added to some dialogue, different ambient sound effects, changed panning, and extended bass.

For the unrestored mix, there are two major options, each with its own merits and flaws. The 2001 Paramount DVD, which I would say is the best well-rounded mastering, and the 1999 Japanese LaserDisc, which has noticeably better clarity and high-end detail, as well as better dynamics, but suffers from occasional distortion and has less bass than the DVD.

The LD also has some ambiance buried too low in the mix, and some dialogue panned more to the centre than the DVD. There are no content changes I was able to find. Unfortunately, I don't know what accounts for those differences.

The other available tracks all have more significant flaws. The Italian and Japanese BDs use the same base mastering as the DVD, but with some patching in a few shots. HD-DVD is sourced from an inferior transfer, the same as the Momentum DVD.

The 5.1 remix, originally introduced on the 2002 DVD, and carried over without changes to the 2009 BD is a light and mostly faithful remix, with fairly minimal LFE and surround use, but still potentially worthwhile as the only discrete track.

TV series

Best Video:

S1: OOP Shout! Factory Blu-ray
S2 & 3: Australia Blu-ray or Germany Blu-ray

Video Notes:

S1: OOP Shout! Factory Blu-ray
S2 & 3: Australia Blu-ray or Germany Blu-ray for the uncut episodes?

TV series

Video format: HD Streaming

Best Video & Audio:

YouTube Streaming

Sources: YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Additional Info:

YouTube Premium is needed for superior bitrate

TV series

Video format: HD Streaming

Best Video & Audio:

YouTube Streaming

Sources: YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Additional Info:

YouTube Premium is needed for superior bitrate

Director: Ronny Yu

Best English-Friendly:

Director's Cut: Hong Kong Edko Films Blu-ray

International Theatrical Cut/US Theatrical Cut: Universal Blu-ray

Hong Kong Theatrical Cut: Disney+ Streaming in Singapore

Thai Theatrical Cut: Disney+ Streaming in Thailand

Best Video:

Director's Cut: Hong Kong Edko Films Blu-ray

International Theatrical Cut (aka. Unrated Cut): Universal Blu-ray

US Theatrical Cut: Universal Blu-ray, Starz Streaming for open matte

Hong Kong Theatrical Cut: Disney+ Streaming in Singapore, Singapore Disney DVD for open matte

Thai Theatrical Cut: Disney+ Streaming in Thailand, Thailand Disney DVD for open matte

Best Audio:

Director's Cut: Hong Kong Edko Films Blu-ray, Universal Blu-ray for original 5.1

International Theatrical Cut/US Theatrical Cut: Universal Blu-ray

Hong Kong Theatrical Cut: Singapore Disney DVD

Thai Theatrical Cut: Thailand Disney DVD

Director: Goro Miyazaki

Best English-Friendly:

2015 US Disney Blu-ray

Best Video:

2011 Japan Studio Ghibli Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Japanese audio: 2015 US Disney Blu-ray

English audio: 2015 US Disney Blu-ray

Additional Info:

US GKIDS Blu-ray has bonuses not on the Disney Blu-ray, but the latter has some bonuses of its own not on the former.

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: Jonathan Demme

Video format: HD Streaming

Best Video:

Disney+

Video Notes:

Disney+ is streaming in HD with OAR

Director: Wong Kar-Wai

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly:

Criterion US Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · hd-dvd.over-blog.fr (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

4K restoration: Koch Media DE 4K Blu-ray
Original digital master: Cannes 2006 Promo HD-DVD

Video Notes:

4K remaster is cropped 2.35:1 from the original 2.55:1 presentation, and has significantly different color grading, as is the case with most WKW supervised restorations. Due to DNR the detail is sometimes lacklustre compared to the old master. CGI scenes appear to be rerendered. A sepia tinted scene was altered to be fully black and white.

Caps: Criterion US BD vs Cannes HD-DVD, HD-DVD vs KR BD vs DVDs vs US BD

Best Audio:

Remixed 5.1: The Jokers FR 4K Blu-ray
Original 5.1: Cannes 2006 Promo HD-DVD

Audio Notes:

The remixed track has different front panning and little LFE use compared to the original.

HD-DVD is by far the best option for the original track, as DVDs and Korean BD suffer from noise gating, limiting and duplicated surrounds. Remixed tracks are all similar, but French disc has slightly better dynamics, particularly on the LFE channel.

Additional Info:

The 2006 HD-DVD is a promotional release made in only 100 copies, handed out to VIPs at Cannes Film Festival. See this blog post for details. The same master can be found on KR BD, though it suffers from interlacing, blended frames and a gamma bug, as well as older DVD releases.