3+ Hour Epic Movies on 4K Blu-ray

dir. Damien Chazelle • 3h 9m

S-Tier Paramount 4K. Shot on 35mm, native 4K with Dolby Vision on a BD-100 disc. Divisive film that plays better on a second watch when you know what you're getting into.

Paramount Pictures · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Stanley Kubrick • 3h 8m

S-Tier Criterion 4K. Kubrick's three-hour period piece. The inside cover art is great. The candlelit scenes are a real test for any display and the HDR handles them well.

Criterion Collection · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. William Wyler • 3h 32m

Transfer praise is strong. People are watching it for the first time at age 50 and ordering Lawrence of Arabia the next day. The 4K remaster is pulling a new generation into the epic format films.

Warner Bros. · 4K Ultra HD

dir. Richard Attenborough • 3h 11m

S-Tier Sony 4K. Attenborough's epic biopic. The scale of the production benefits from 4K.

Sony Pictures · Steelbook

dir. Kevin Costner • 3h 2m

S-Tier Warner Bros. 4K. Costner's self-financed three-hour western saga. Most people are holding off on chapter one and waiting for the complete set whenever the rest of the saga actually materializes.

Warner Bros. · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. David Lean • 3h 48m

The post calling this disc a personal benchmark for the format stayed one of the week's biggest threads. The replies are a collective argument for 70mm on 4K, with Suspiria, Vertigo, Ben-Hur, Blade Runner, and The Sound of Music all named. Shot on film, all of them, with restorations that match the source. If you don't own this one yet, the community is running out of patience.

Sony Pictures · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Spike Lee • 3h 22m

S-Tier Imprint 4K. Spike Lee's Malcolm X, and the 4K has one of the largest file sizes for any movie on disc. Three different 4K releases exist from Criterion, Icon, and Imprint, with Imprint having the best A/V quality overall including the original stereo mix. Criterion has better extras and shelf presence. Angela Bassett weeping over Denzel at the end still destroys people.

Imprint · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Christopher Nolan • 3h 1m

S-Tier Universal 4K with a perfect 5.0 score. Oppenheimer sold out in one week, which prompted a Variety article about why retailers were pulling physical media while discs were selling like this. The IMAX scenes that fill the full screen are the reason to own the disc over digital, since the streaming version crops them. Nolan films consistently drive 4K sales more than anything else.

Universal Pictures · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Steven Spielberg • 3h 15m

The black and white photography in 4K is consistently cited as reference quality for the format. The 30th Anniversary steelbook is the current edition most people are buying. Paramount's 4K handling of their prestige catalog has been strong, and this is one of the best examples. Not a film anyone watches casually, but the one everyone owns.

Universal Pictures · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Akira Kurosawa • 3h 27m

The BFI vs. Criterion debate dominated every thread. BFI has HDR and what people call the best authoring house in the world (Fidelity in Motion), while Criterion has the deeper extras catalog. Most people who already own the Criterion Blu-ray went BFI for the encode quality bump. The BFI hardbox at $35 USD from OrbitDVD was considered a steal compared to the typical $42-60 USD range for rigid box editions. Criterion's 4K is SDR, which stung given BFI was offering HDR of the same restoration. Seeing it in theaters during the 4K restoration tour was almost too sharp for some viewers, with bald cap seams visible for the first time.

Criterion Collection · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Stanley Kubrick • 3h 17m

Universal S-Tier 4K with a perfect 5.0 score. Kubrick's sword-and-sandal epic gets cited as a reference disc in every catalog discussion. The 70mm photography has more detail than a modern display can fully resolve, and HDR finally gives the gladiator pit scenes the contrast they need. Available for under $13 USD on Amazon as a standalone, same disc as the one in the Kubrick 4K box set.

Universal Pictures · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Brady Corbet • 3h 35m

A24's 4K presents a film shot in VistaVision and scanned at 6K for the VistaVision portions, which is exactly the kind of pedigree that should make this a reference disc. The catch is that the disc is SDR only, confirmed on the back cover. The transfer still scores 4.5 on blu-ray.com because VistaVision's resolution and detail carry it even without HDR.

Elevation · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Francis Ford Coppola • 3h 22m

In the continuing saga of the Corleone crime family, a young Vito Corleone grows up in Sicily and in 1910s New York. In the 1950s, Michael Corleone attempts to expand the family business into Las Vegas, Hollywood and Cuba.

Paramount Pictures · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Francis Ford Coppola • 9h 43m

Following the release of The Godfather Part III in 1990, Coppola, Barry Malkin, and Walter Murch edited the three Godfather movies into chronological order. As had the earlier compilations, this film incorporated scenes that are not part of the theatrical releases.

dir. Frank Darabont • 3h 9m

Warner S-Tier 4K. The Green Mile steelbook kept selling out at Gruv and getting restocked, with people stuck on backorders for weeks. The Darabont/King emotional gut-punch lands differently at this resolution, and the HDR gives the prison interiors depth the old Blu-ray flattened.

Warner Bros. · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Jean Eustache • 3h 39m

Aimless young Alexandre juggles his relationships with his girlfriend, Marie, and a casual lover named Veronika. Marie becomes increasingly jealous of Alexandre's fling with Veronika and as the trio continues their unsustainable affair, the emotional stakes get higher, leading to conflict and unhappiness.

Criterion Collection · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Zack Snyder • 4h 2m

Determined to ensure Superman's ultimate sacrifice was not in vain, Bruce Wayne aligns forces with Diana Prince with plans to recruit a team of metahumans to protect the world from an approaching threat of catastrophic proportions.

dir. James Cameron • 3h 12m

A-Tier Disney 4K. Better transfer than the first Avatar. The underwater sequences work well in HDR more than almost anything else in the format. The steelbook leak photos became a meme before the real artwork was revealed.

Walt Disney Studios · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. George Stevens • 3h 21m

Wealthy rancher Bick Benedict and dirt-poor cowboy Jett Rink both woo Leslie Lynnton, a beautiful young woman from Maryland who is new to Texas. She marries Benedict, but she is shocked by the racial bigotry of the White Texans against the local people of Mexican descent. Rink discovers oil on a small plot of land, and while he uses his vast, new wealth to buy all the land surrounding the Benedict ranch, the Benedict's disagreement over prejudice fuels conflict that runs across generations.

Warner Bros. · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Sergio Leone • 3h 49m

A-Tier 20th Century Studios Blu-ray. Leone's epic crime saga, and the 4K announcement had people demanding a 100GB disc for a film this long. No one can decide if they love it or hate it, which is part of the appeal. People have been asking Criterion for a proper release for years. A new restored version was shown at a special screening that only De Niro got to see.

20th Century Studios · Blu-ray

dir. Michael Cimino • 3h 3m

Three steelworkers enlist in the army and are sent to Vietnam, one leaving behind a rushed marriage, the others a shared love. What they encounter during the war changes their lives forever.

StudioCanal · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Peter Jackson • 3h 21m

As armies mass for a final battle that will decide the fate of the world--and powerful, ancient forces of Light and Dark compete to determine the outcome--one member of the Fellowship of the Ring is revealed as the noble heir to the throne of the Kings of Men. Yet, the sole hope for triumph over evil lies with a brave hobbit, Frodo, who, accompanied by his loyal friend Sam and the hideous, wretched Gollum, ventures deep into the very dark heart of Mordor on his seemingly impossible quest to destroy the Ring of Power.​

Warner Bros. · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Philip Kaufman • 3h 13m

At the dawn of the Space Race, seven test pilots set out to become the first American astronauts to enter space. However, the road to making history brings momentous challenges.

Arrow Video · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Cecil B. DeMille • 3h 40m

Still coming up in Easter and Passover context. Someone rewatched it ahead of their Ben-Hur collector's edition arriving and the comments went to Spartacus comparisons. The 4K is A-Tier.

Paramount Pictures · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Martin Scorsese • 3h 0m

A New York stockbroker refuses to cooperate in a large securities fraud case involving corruption on Wall Street, corporate banking world and mob infiltration. Based on Jordan Belfort's autobiography.

Arrow Video · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Martin Scorsese • 3h 26m

First physical release after nearly three years of waiting. Criterion disc. Early rewatchers are calling it one of the best films of the decade, and the consensus is that it rewards a second and third viewing far more than the theatrical experience.

Criterion Collection · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. James Cameron • 3h 14m

The 25th Anniversary Collector's Edition showed up at Deep Discount for $12 USD. It retails around $100 USD. Someone bought it to get free shipping on Crawl. The transfer is C-tier Cameron but the collector's packaging at that price is hard to argue with.

Paramount Pictures · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Peter Jackson • 3h 8m

D-Tier Universal 4K. Peter Jackson's three-hour epic got the Universal DNR treatment. Collectors have been asking for a proper 20th anniversary edition. The Panasonic UB820's HDR optimizer can help with the brightness issues.

Universal Pictures · Blu-ray

dir. King Hu • 3h 0m

Gu Sheng-zhai, an artist in his early 30s, still lives with his mother, but he is suddenly shaken by the arrival of Yang Hui-zhen, a mysterious princess on the run. Yang brings Gu into her circle of protectors, including a nameless monk whose spiritual guidance transforms him into a valiant fighter.

dir. James Cameron • 3h 18m

May 19 release confirmed with a steelbook and Blu-ray 3D, which is a real draw for the 3D holdout crowd that still maintains active setups. Most people are waiting for the collector's edition that came with the other two films.

Disney · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Kenneth Branagh • 4h 2m

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns home to find his father murdered and his mother now marrying the murderer... his uncle. Meanwhile, war is brewing.

Universal Pictures · 4K Ultra HD

dir. Quentin Tarantino • 4h 13m

Quentin Tarantino's complete cut combining Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 follows The Bride, a former assassin who awakens from a four-year coma after being shot by her mentor and lover, Bill. She embarks on a vengeful quest to eliminate Bill and the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad who betrayed her.

Lionsgate · 4K Ultra HD

dir. Akira Kurosawa • 3h 5m

Aspiring to an easy job as personal physician to a wealthy family, Noboru Yasumoto is disappointed when his first post after medical school takes him to a small country clinic under the gruff doctor Red Beard. Yasumoto rebels in numerous ways, but Red Beard proves a wise and patient teacher. He gradually introduces his student to the unglamorous side of the profession, ultimately assigning him to care for a prostitute rescued from a local brothel.