Films

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

6,202 films · page 59 of 311

Director: Jiao Zi

Video format: 4K Streaming

Best Video:

4K Streaming

Director: Jiao Zi

Best Video:

Well Go USA 4K Blu-ray

Director: John Lasseter

Best Video:

Disney 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

US original mix with Jeremy Piven: DTS-HD MA 6.1 track on the 2019 Disney 4K Blu-ray
UK mix with Jeremy Clarkson: Dolby TrueHD 6.1 on the 2008 UK Disney Blu-ray

Additional Info:

Harv is voiced by Jeremy Piven in the US cut while Jeremy Clarkson voices him in the UK cut.

Director: Zack Snyder

Best English-Friendly:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray
Caveat: No Dolby Vision metadata

Additional Info:

Justice is Grey Edition (black-and-white version) is exclusive to HBO MAX 4K Streaming

Director: Hayao Miyazaki

Best Video:

Studio Ghibli The Collected Works of Hayao Miyazaki Blu-ray

Additional Info:

The Ghibli ga Ippai SPECIAL Short Short 1996-2016 Blu-ray has a different video transfer that has a tealer tint and slightly tighter framing.

Director: Roberto Rossellini

Best English-Friendly:

Criterion Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

Criterion 4k transfer

Best Audio:

2003 BFI DVD

Additional Info:

The audio track on the BFI DVD is less processed than the Criterion Blu-ray.

Director: Richard Rush

4K · Excellent

Director: Walter Fyrst

Best Video:

Norway Norske Filmklassikere Blu-ray

Video Notes:

4K restoration from a tinted nitrate print

Director: Edward Yang

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

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

Video Notes:

France Carlotta 4K Blu-ray is FiM encoded and superior to Criterion 4K Blu-ray see caps but the Carlotta release is not English friendly

Best Audio:

2011 Criterion Blu-ray

Additional Info:

A user writes: 'the 5.0 mix does not closely resemble the matrixed stereo track included on all prior releases (save for a 2003 French DVD which had 5.1). There is significant dialogue emphasis in the 5.0 mix while the older stereo mix has ambient sounds and dialogue mixed at nearly the same loudness. Additionally, the 5.0 mix has minor limiting in select loud sequences and a strange distorted quality on occasion (one notable example is the sound of a plane taking off which plays during a static shot of clouds in the sky). The stereo mix included on the FRA UHD/BD is a downmix of the 5.0 track.'

Director: Clint Eastwood

Video format: HD Streaming

Best Video & Audio:

Amazon Streaming Release

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

Additional Info:

The Amazon Streaming release is the only HD release so far, and looks to be a faithful, non-upscaled copy of the film, so preferable to the old DVD.

The Streaming release also has a 2.0 mix which is likely the original mix and preferable to the 5.1 mix on the old DVD. 

Director: Clint Eastwood

4K · Solid
Best Video & Audio:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

Dolby Stereo mix

Additional Info:

According to one source: "Best audio is the original dolby stereo that is included on the UHD Blu-ray. It sounds miles better than anything released on DVD, Blu-ray (they sound much more muffled), and when compared to the atmos...However, it's not without its faults, as WB had to spoil and boost it causing clipping, still it's the best audio available for the time being."

Director: Chen Kaige

Best Video:

MGM MoD Blu-ray

Best Audio:

MGM NTSC DVD

Audio Notes:

MGM NTSC DVD includes 5.1, Blu-ray is only stereo

Additional Info:

The Blu-ray has burned-in English subtitles

Director: Robert Butler

4K · Excellent
Best Video:

Radiance 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Radiance 4K Blu-ray is superior to Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray, see mfunk9786 review:

Despite being at a considerably tighter bitrate than the Kino, the BD-66 from Radiance /Transmission is the release to own. Looks fantastic (FiM again), grain pattern is crisp, and the repeating scene error isn't on it, either. Really nice packaging that isn't as beefy as a Second Sight LE is another big plus.

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

4K · Worse Than BD
Best Video:

1991 Home Video Cut: Paramount 2008 Blu-ray

Theatrical Cut: Paramount 4K Blu-ray, but it has problems described below in the additional info section, and worse encoding than the Coda cut.

Coda Cut: Paramount 4K Blu-ray, but it has problems described below in the additional info section, and also has slightly better encoding than the Theatrical/1991 Home Video cuts on 4K.

Sources: YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

LaserDisc for original mix

Additional Info:

The Paramount 4K "restoration" is a desecration. It has completely revisionist color timing, harsh HDR, treatment of stock footage, bad encoding, selective DNR and grain management so bad that the entire screen frequently freezes up with only characters moving around in grain soup. It is so bad that the film's restorer Robert Harris publicly washed his hands of it saying essentially the 2007 restoration (with Willis and Coppola supervising) is how the film was intended and made. This is Paramount's modern version done their way. The new 1080p SDR Blu-rays in print are the crap 4K desecration master with the same problems still there just harder to spot and with crap encodes. Part III fares best of the three and these issues are at their most minimal-but they're still there. The new Coda version is given prominence with lesser encodes for the other two versions. The original mix was remixed into 5.1 decades ago and we have yet another version of this instead of the original Dolby Stereo SR as heard on the LaserDisc release.
The 2008 Blu-ray of the 2007 restoration, while an imperfect outdated disc, is LIGHT YEARS better than this 4K desecration. The only truly major issue is that it is very slightly redder than the 2007 finished master as seen on DCPs.
DFIC review of the hideous crap 4K Blu-rays: https://youtu.be/0uw6-Kcy_UA?si=ob1nDg0wTCvemjH0

Despite being restored alongside the Coppola Restorations of The Godfather: Parts I and II, the Part III restoration is not officially labelled a Coppola Restoration.

Director: J. Lee Thompson

Best Video:

Kino Lorber Blu-ray

Director: Ernst Lubitsch

Best English-Friendly:

Kino Lorber Blu-ray

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

Best Video:

Kino Lorber Blu-ray or OOP MoC Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Kino Lorber Blu-ray or OOP MoC Blu-ray have different grading see caps

Additional Info:

Subjective, but the concertina score by Bernard Wrigley on the OOP MoC Blu-ray is generally regarded as very weak. For example, it frequently doesn't match the action. The Meg Morley score on the Kino Lorber Blu-ray is considered superior.

Director: Michael Cimino

Best Video & Audio:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

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

Audio Notes:

Reportedly.

Director: Max Ophüls

Best English-Friendly:

French version: Criterion Blu-ray

German version: Filmmuseum DVD

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · cinema-scope.com (opens in a new tab) · fredcamper.com (opens in a new tab) · +1 more

Best Video:

French version: 2020 Carlotta Blu-ray

German version: Filmmuseum DVD

Video Notes:

French version: Criterion Blu-ray (Carlotta has no English subtitles)

German version: Filmmuseum DVD

Additional Info:

Carlotta Films corrects the mistakes of Criterion due to the compression on dark scenes and gives the gorgeous transfer of the restoration a better encode/compression and more bitrate.

The German cut, titled Lola Montez, is considered by Ophüls scholars such as Jonathan Rosenbaum, Dan Sallitt and Tag Gallagher to be superior to the French cut. It has only been reissued on the Filmmuseum DVD.

Director: Max Ophüls

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly:

2017 Olive Films Signature Blu-ray

Best Video:

The Jokers 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

(Jokers 4K Blu-ray has forced France subs)

The Jokers 4K Blu-ray has raised black levels/gamma issue, good when fixed

Best Audio:

1992 Republic Pictures LaserDisc

Director: Jean Renoir

Best English-Friendly:

BFI Blu-ray (flawed restoration)

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

Best Video & Audio:

BFI or Gaumont Blu-ray

Video Notes:

(both from the same flawed restoration)

Additional Info:

The BFI and Gaumont Blu-ray releases are both from the same restoration by Éclair. Although this restoration is much superior in detail to the old Criterion DVD, like many Éclair restorations, it has issues with colour. There is a definite yellow cast to the footage, making skin tones appear sickly and dampening the impact of the colour. The image is also murkier than the Criterion. 

As Renoir scholar Tag Gallagher notes: "I talked a lot toward the end about the light blue walls (Criterion); but when I got the BFI blu I was greatly deflated, because the walls are light gray!"

That said, as visible in the screen caps at DVD Beaver, the Criterion has compromised colour too, and often looks too blue/magenta. There is a regraded edition of the BFI Blu-ray out there on the high seas.

The audio on the Blu-ray releases is slightly compressed, but better than earlier DVD releases and relatively full frequency.

The BFI is most likely the best English-friendly release as it includes English subtitles for the bonus features.