Films

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

6,200 films · page 61 of 310

Director: Andrzej Wajda

Best Video:

Polish Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Polish Blu-ray (with English subtitles) or France Intersections Blu-ray (without English subtitles) no comparison available

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

Director: Orson Welles

4K · Excellent

Director: Jean Renoir

4K · Excellent

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

The Criterion 4K Blu-ray has marginally better detail and grain structure than ESC 4K Blu-ray

The ESC France 4K Blu-ray is an SDR grade erroneously presented in HDR, but if your player can force the HDR into SDR it looks very good.

Best Audio:

2011 Criterion Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

2011 Criterion Blu-ray has the least tampered with audio of the DVD era, but it's possible the 1993 Criterion LaserDisc or the 1998 Japan LaserDisc are preferable.

Director: George Sidney

Best Video:

2D version: Warner Archive Blu-ray

3D version: Warner Archive 3D Blu-ray

Director: Akira Kurosawa

4K · Excellent
Best Video:

BFI 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

BFI 4K Blu-ray has excellent master and grade, no DNR and tasteful HDR

Best Audio:

Restored original mono mix: Toho Japan 4K Blu-ray
Unrestored original mono: 2014 BFI Blu-ray

BFI 4K Blu-ray has OG Perspecta (in 5.1 container) and a stereo downmix of it; no original mono.

Additional Info:

The unrestored track on BFI's earlier release appears to be an almost entirely unmanipulated transfer of the original mix. It suffers from a distracting low-frequency hum. The 4K restoration comes with a restored track, which appears to be the same transfer, but which appears to be cleaned up with a moderate amount of noise reduction and some EQ, nicely opening up the high-end, and which is likely to be preferable to most listeners. All earlier releases sound poor.

Perspecta isn't a discrete surround format, instead only relying on manipulating volume and panning of the mono track across L/C/R channels, based on embedded control tones. As such, even the Perspecta track is technically just the mono mix, though the omission of the proper mono on BFI's 4K is still unfortunate.

Director: Vincent Ward

Best Audio:

US end credits song: US Universal Blu-ray

International end credits song: International Universal Blu-ray

Additional Info:

The US uses the end credits score “Beside You” from composer Michael Kamen, while in other markets it is Simply Red “Besides You”.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Best Video:

2D version: Warner Archive Blu-ray

3D version: Warner Archive 3D Blu-ray

Director: André de Toth

Best Video:

2D version: Warner Archive Blu-ray

3D version: Warner Archive 3D Blu-ray

Director: Tim Burton

4K · Excellent
Best Video:

International Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray

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

Video Notes:

International Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray > US Paramount 4K Blu-ray for the US Cut.

International Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray, is significantly better than the US Paramount 4K Blu-ray (even with FEL Baked in and Dolby Vision), with more grain retention and detail
SDR Comparisons: International Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray vs US Paramount 4K Blu-ray: https://slow.pics/c/TEPHtKjl
HDR Comparisons: International Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray vs US Paramount 4K Blu-ray: https://slow.pics/c/hIFe11Hx
Comparisons in SDR using L8 Trim from CM v4.0 (both UHDs can use CM v4.0): Remux vs USA UHD: https://slow.pics/c/mkrhVtpl

The International Cut, which contains alternate, more violent shots in the final act, hasn't been released on home video to date.

Additional Info:

International Cut contains alternate, more violent shots in the final act.

Director: John McTiernan

4K · Excellent
Best Video:

Fox 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

70mm Six-track mix: THX AC3 or DTS LaserDisc

Director: John Woo

Best Video:

MVD Blu-ray (2018 version with both cuts)

Best Audio:

Director's Cut: Scandinavia/UK MGM DVD DTS 5.1

Additional Info:

Germany Century³ Cinedition - Director's Cut Blu-ray has exclusive extras

Director: Terry Jones

4K · Excellent
Audio Notes:

Universal Region 2 PAL DVD (original Dolby Stereo), Region 1 NTSC is minimally worse

The DTS:X remix is very revisionist with a lot of sound effect changes

Directors: Terry Jones & Terry Gilliam

4K · Solid
Best Video:

2025 Sony 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Majority of film (theatrical and extended cuts): 1991 Columbia US VHS (or possibly 1994 Columbia LaserDisc?)

32-second scene (extended cut): 1993 Criterion LaserDisc

Director: Hayao Miyazaki

Best Video:

2017 US GKIDS Blu-ray

Video Notes:

2017 US GKIDS Blu-ray has better detail and grain, 2014 Japan Studio Ghibli Blu-ray from the Hayao Miyazaki box set for MGVC with added bit-depth for supported players

Best Audio:

2011/2014 Japan Studio Ghibli Blu-ray for original 6.1 audio mix, Cinema DTS for the English dub

Director: John Ford

Best Video:

Fox Blu-ray

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

Best Audio:

Fox Blu-ray mono mix

Audio Notes:

As noted at Blah-Ray, the mono mix on the Fox Blu-ray, although not perfect, sounds better than the 5.1 remix and at least as good as earlier LaserDiscs, which suffer from being murky.

Director: Mel Stuart

4K · Solid
Best Audio:

1991 Warner Bros LaserDisc (for original mono track)

Additional Info:

1996 Warner Bros 25th Anniversary LaserDisc has isolated music and effects track (incorrectly labeled "music minus vocals") not present on any other release

Director: Ernst Lubitsch

Best English-Friendly & Audio:

Kino Lorber Blu-ray

Best Video:

Kino Lorber 4k resto

Additional Info:

The audio on the Kino Lorber Blu-ray comes from a better source than the various DVDs and the previous HD version on streaming. This audio is relatively untampered with, and is likely the best available source as no laserdisc was ever issued.

Director: Wes Craven

4K · Excellent
Best Video:

France M6 Video 4K Blu-ray

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

Video Notes:

Geoff D review.

Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray disappointing - Avoid. Terrible release. Another Kino-grade encode with a huge DV layer. The Lionsgate Limited Steelbook has a different disc with exclusive bonus discs and apparently another poor encode but they also messed up the DV metadata and made that disc unwatchable with DV enabled.

Best Audio:

US releases for the original audio

Pay per view version audio is on the UK Entertainment in Video Blu-ray and the France M6 Video 4K Blu-ray

Additional Info:

Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray has exclusive extras