Spy Thriller movies available on 4K Blu-ray, ranked by transfer quality.
dir. Steven Soderbergh
S-Tier Universal 4K. Steven Soderbergh's latest. Walmart steelbook shipping complaints are a recurring theme.
Universal Pictures · 4K + Blu-ray
dir. Brad Bird
S-Tier Paramount 4K. Brad Bird's Mission Impossible entry with the Burj Khalifa sequence. The steelbook dropped to $14.89 USD on sale. People wish the IMAX aspect ratio expanded on the disc. Not a lot of dedicated discussion for this specific entry, though the MI franchise as a whole is well-collected.
Paramount Pictures · 4K + Blu-ray
dir. Alfred Hitchcock
S-Tier Warner Bros. 4K. Hitchcock's chase film with Cary Grant, scoring a perfect 5.0 overall. WB's protective steelbook packaging was praised as an industry standard others should follow. A World Cinema Library premium edition exists for the truly dedicated. To Catch a Thief is also coming to 4K, and people want Strangers on a Train and Dial M for Murder next.
Warner Bros. · 4K Ultra HD
dir. Christopher Nolan
Someone found it with a slip this week. Half the comments are about the deer in the background of the photo. The other half are '4.5 stars, a perfect movie, minus half a star for being utter gibberish.'
Warner Bros. · 4K + Blu-ray
dir. John Glen
S-Tier Turbine 4K. Timothy Dalton's first Bond. The Turbine German release is the one collectors talk about.
Turbine · 4K + Blu-ray
Part of the Hitchcock Classics Collection Volume 3, which Gruv has discounted as low as $18 USD with coupons. Collectors call this the weaker of Hitchcock's two versions of the story (the 1934 British original is preferred by purists) but the Doris Day performance and "Que Sera, Sera" sequence make it the more visually interesting disc.
dir. Martin Campbell
A-Tier MGM 4K. The first Daniel Craig Bond. Part of the Titans of Cult steelbook line.
MGM · 4K + Blu-ray
dir. Guy Hamilton
A-Tier Warner Bros. 4K. Connery's last official Bond. The 4K Bond catalog has been consistent.
dir. Terence Young
A-Tier Warner Bros. 4K. Connery as Bond in Istanbul. The Connery-era Bond 4Ks have been well received.
A-Tier Warner Bros. 4K. Bond in HDR. The Connery-era Bonds on 4K have been well received.
dir. Christopher McQuarrie
A-Tier Paramount 4K. McQuarrie's MI7, and Paramount re-released it with "Part One" removed from the title after the planned two-parter structure changed. The US steelbook design didn't match the silver and grey style of entries 1-6, which bothered collectors going for a matching set. The UK Zavvi steelbook was better-looking but pricey at around CAD imported.
A-Tier Paramount 4K. McQuarrie's first MI entry. The Rogue Nation steelbook has been sitting at $5-6 USD for a while, which tells you where it sits in the franchise pecking order. Part of the matching steelbook set that collectors are building.
A-Tier Paramount 4K. The Final Reckoning wraps up the two-part story that started with Dead Reckoning. The steelbook art was called bland and lacking color, and a Polish exclusive briefly appeared before getting swapped for the US version. Mixed reception on the film itself, with people saying 45 minutes of great action was buried in two hours of exposition.
dir. J.J. Abrams
A-Tier Paramount 4K. J.J. Abrams' MI entry with Philip Seymour Hoffman as the villain, and part of the matching 1-6 steelbook re-release set from July. People are building custom display cases for the MI steelbook collection. The series artwork consistency became a talking point when Fast & Furious was cited as the standard for keeping steelbook art matching across entries.
dir. Cary Joji Fukunaga
Bond has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica. His peace is short-lived when his old friend Felix Leiter from the CIA turns up asking for help. The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology.
dir. Roger Donaldson
Navy Lt. Tom Farrell meets a young woman, Susan Atwell , and they share a passionate fling. Farrell then finds out that his superior, Defense Secretary David Brice, is also romantically involved with Atwell. When the young woman turns up dead, Farrell is put in charge of the murder investigation. He begins to uncover shocking clues about the case, but when details of his encounter with Susan surface, he becomes a suspect as well.
dir. Marc Forster
Betrayed by Vesper, the woman he loved, 007 fights the urge to make his latest mission personal. Pursuing his determination to uncover the truth, Bond and M interrogate Mr. White, who reveals that the organization that blackmailed Vesper is far more complex and dangerous than anyone had imagined.
dir. Sam Mendes
Collector Instagram is full of this one right now. The 4K transfer was already well-regarded and the steelbook packaging turns up in almost every Bond collection photo.
A-Tier 4K Spectre disc with the usual Sony Bond treatment. The opening Day of the Dead tracking shot benefits from the extra resolution, though some people have run into playback issues on older machines.
dir. Paul Verhoeven
Sony A-Tier 4K. Verhoeven's satirical military sci-fi gets a real workout in HDR, especially the bug battle sequences where the dust and plasma colors have space to breathe. The 25th anniversary DV steelbook was limited to the US, which frustrated international collectors. The film continues to get reappraised as satire rather than straight action.
Sony Pictures · 4K + Blu-ray
dir. John McTiernan
A new technologically-superior Soviet nuclear sub, the Red October, is heading for the U.S. coast under the command of Captain Marko Ramius. The American government thinks Ramius is planning to attack. Lone CIA analyst Jack Ryan has a different idea: he thinks Ramius is planning to defect, but he has only a few hours to find him and prove it - because the entire Russian naval and air commands are trying to find Ramius, too. The hunt is on!
A criminal organization has obtained two nuclear bombs and are asking for a 100 million pound ransom in the form of diamonds in seven days or they will use the weapons. The secret service sends James Bond to the Bahamas to once again save the world.
dir. Tomas Alfredson
StudioCanal A-Tier 4K via Kino Lorber. Oldman's understated Smiley is the performance everyone remembers and the muted 70s color palette translates well to HDR.
StudioCanal · 4K + Blu-ray
dir. Sydney Pollack
Kino Lorber 4K from a new scan of the original negative with Dolby Vision. The DV grade is considered more faithful than the earlier StudioCanal European release. Two commentaries, a 60-minute Sydney Pollack documentary, and a 25-minute Redford conversation make this one of the better extras packages in the Kino catalog. The slipcover goes in and out of stock so grab it during a Kino sale if you care about that. One of the essential 70s paranoia thrillers alongside The Parallax View and All the President's Men.
Kino Lorber · 4K + Blu-ray
dir. Michael Polish
Two married spies caught in the crosshairs of an international intelligence network will stop at nothing to obtain a critical asset. Joe and Lara are agents living off the grid whose quiet retreat at a winter resort is blown to shreds when members of the old guard suspect the two may have joined an elite team of rogue spies, known as Alarum.
Signature Entertainment · 4K Ultra HD
