1979 on 4K UHD

dir. Ridley Scott

The 40th Anniversary Edition from 20th Century is the best release for the 1979 original, and it earns the S-Tier on transfer alone. The franchise's 4K story is messier than it looks once you move past the first film. Aliens (1986) shipped with Cameron's degrained, regraded master, which split the fanbase down the middle and sent grain purists back to the older Blu-ray. The recent Romulus steelbook from Vice Press has been the main franchise focus on the new-release side.

20th Century Studios · 40th Anniversary Edition

dir. Francis Ford Coppola

S-Tier 4K. The 6-disc set with the Final Cut, Redux, and theatrical versions is the best home video release of this film. It was a Best Buy exclusive that went out of stock and has been trading at a premium on eBay. The Eagle Pictures Italian release is also well regarded.

Eagle Pictures · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Jean Rollin

S-Tier Indicator 4K. Jean Rollin's erotic vampire film. Indicator's European horror releases are for the dedicated collector.

Indicator · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. George Miller

S-Tier Kino Lorber 4K UHD with Dolby Vision, a new scan from the original 35mm elements, and the Australian dub that Warner stripped from their release. Warner has the film on 4K via the Anthology and 5 Film Collection but Kino's pressing is the reference.

Kino Lorber · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Albert Brooks

A pushy, narcissistic filmmaker persuades a Phoenix family to let him and his crew film their everyday lives, in the manner of the ground-breaking PBS series "An American Family".

Criterion Collection · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Simon Wincer

A young hairdresser enters into the modeling world while fearing retaliation from her puritanical mother and stalker ex-boyfriend.

Indicator · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. David Cronenberg

Second Sight Limited Edition 4K. Part of Cronenberg's body horror trilogy alongside Scanners and Videodrome, and the one that established his obsession with flesh as a medium for psychological damage. The Second Sight packaging matches Scanners and Crimes of the Future for shelf consistency.

Second Sight Films · Limited Edition

dir. Walter Hill

Arrow put The Warriors on 4K as a Limited Edition in 2023, then a standard edition in 2024. The Limited goes for well over retail now and is what collectors chase. The transfer is the draw either way, with the subway neon and the Baseball Furies makeup pulling real depth out of a film that always looked muddy on Blu-ray.

Arrow Video · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Robert Benton

S-Tier Sony 4K. Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep's divorce drama. Sony's release has a nice set of extras including commentary and deleted scenes. No real collector buzz around this title, but the transfer is well-done with a huge subtitle language list.

Sony Pictures · 4K Box Set (Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection Volume 4)

dir. Stuart Rosenberg

88 Films put out an S-Tier 4K of the 1979 horror. The grain is preserved, the house interiors hold up in HDR, and 88 Films got access to a clean master most US labels didn't bother chasing. Worth tracking down if you missed the original pressing.

88 Films · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Rod Hardy

The descendant of Elizabeth Bathory is abducted by a cult of self-proclaimed supermen who achieve this state of superiority by drinking from the "blood cows" kept at the "dairy farm", and they try to get her to join them.

Indicator · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Tinto Brass

After the death of the paranoid emperor Tiberius, Caligula, his heir, seizes power and plunges the empire into a bloody spiral of madness and depravity.

dir. Lo Wei

After the death of his master, martial arts student Tong Huo-wan travels with his adoptive family to seek redress from the man responsible but finds himself torn between righteousness and filial piety after becoming entangled in a feud between a local clan and gangsters.

dir. Jonathan Demme

Secret agent Harry Hannan suffers a mental breakdown when a botched mission in Mexico results in the death of his wife. He is sent to a mental asylum, after which he eventually returns to work. But, once again, he begins to doubt his sanity when he receives a bizarre death threat written in Hebrew. Not knowing which of his colleagues wants to kill him, Hannan teams up with pretty young college student Ellie Fabian to attempt to unravel the mystery.

dir. Masahiro Shinoda

When a lone traveler stumbles upon a remote, drought-stricken village, he finds himself engulfed in a whirlpool of myth, mystery, and magic: in a nearby pond reside spirits who hold the fate of the town’s inhabitants, including lovers Akira and Yuri, in their hands.

Criterion Collection · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. François Truffaut

A-Tier Criterion 4K. Truffaut's final Antoine Doinel film, closing out a two-decade series about the character. Exists within the Criterion catalog for people working through the whole Doinel cycle.

Criterion Collection

dir. Bob Clark

Sherlock Holmes is drawn into the case of Jack the Ripper, who is killing prostitutes in London's East End. Assisted by Dr. Watson, and using information provided by a renowned psychic, Robert Lees, Holmes finds that the murders may have their roots in a Royal indiscretion and that a cover-up is being managed by politicians at the highest level, all of whom happen to be Masons.

dir. Sylvester Stallone

The Rocky I through IV 4K releases all hit with transfer complaints. People compared it to the Mad Max situation where the discs felt rushed. The steelbook had physical QC issues too, with visible lines on the spine. Collectors who redeemed the digital code before noticing had to navigate Best Buy's return policy. The consensus was to wait for a corrected collection.

MGM

dir. Robert Wise

When an unidentified alien destroys three powerful Klingon cruisers, Captain James T. Kirk returns to the newly transformed U.S.S. Enterprise to take command.

dir. Lucio Fulci

After an abandoned boat sails into New York harbor with a zombie aboard, a reporter teams up with the daughter of the boat's missing owner to investigate the island where he was last seen conducting research—the site of an alleged zombie outbreak.

Arrow Video · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Don Coscarelli

A teenage boy and his friends face off against a mysterious grave robber, known only as the Tall Man, who employs a lethal arsenal of unearthly weapons.

Well Go USA · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Ted Kotcheff

B-Tier Kino Lorber 4K. Ted Kotcheff's football film with Nick Nolte. No relevant collector discussion around the 4K.

Kino Lorber · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Don Siegel

C-Tier Kino Lorber 4K. Eastwood at Alcatraz. Kino got this from Paramount's catalog.

Kino Lorber · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Alan Clarke

88 Films' 4K of Alan Clarke's brutal borstal drama. People describe it as an important film they can only watch once. Some collectors sold their Indicator LE Blu-ray to fund the 4K upgrade, which says something about demand. The BFI set is worth having alongside this for the companion material that likely won't get a 4K upgrade.

88 Films · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Hayao Miyazaki

C-Tier Discotek Media Blu-ray. Miyazaki's first feature film, a Lupin III adventure. Discotek's release is well-regarded for the label, and they did a new English dub alongside the original. No 4K version exists yet, which is why it's still on Blu-ray. Discotek includes slipcovers as standard on all their releases.

Discotek Media · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Werner Herzog

D-Tier Shout Factory 4K. Herzog's 1979 Nosferatu, and the transfer drama is real. BFI's version was criticized for heavy DNR, and BFI's response was basically "that's the transfer we got." Shout Factory did their own separate master, and collectors are cautiously optimistic based on their Aguirre 4K.

Shout! Studios · 4K + Blu-ray

dir. Russ Meyer

Believe it or not, even Smalltown USA, those unfulfilled and unrelieved in the midst of plenty reside. Levonna and Lamar could have the perfect relationship, were it not for Lamar's obsession with rear entry.

dir. Grigori Kromanov

The police get a call-out to a lonely hotel in the Alps. When an officer gets to the hotel everything seems to be alright. Suddenly, an avalanche cuts them off from the rest of the world and strange things start happening.

Deaf Crocodile · Limited Edition

dir. Dusty Nelson

Some crew members of a company shooting a horror film begin to suspect that the "killings" in the movie are real, and that they are actually making a "snuff" film.

dir. Kōsei Saitō

A squadron of Japanese Self-Defense Force soldiers find themselves transported through time to their country's warring states era, when rival samurai clans were battling to become the supreme Shogun.

dir. Govindan Aravindan

A stranger who may be the trickster magician Kummatty comes to a village in Malabar, India.

dir. Terry Jones

Criterion got this to 4K after Sony's 2022 plan to upgrade the Monty Python trilogy stalled out. Collectors have been waiting years because the film is hard to find even on standard Blu-ray. The Criterion spine means proper packaging and essay extras, more than any competing release was going to offer.

Criterion Collection · 4K + Blu-ray Special Edition

dir. Ivan Reitman

Tripper is the head counselor at a budget summer camp called Camp Northstar. In truth, he's young at heart and only marginally more mature than the campers themselves. Tripper befriends Rudy, a loner camper who has trouble fitting in. As Tripper inspires his young charges to defeat rival Camp Mohawk in the annual Olympiad competition, Rudy plays matchmaker between Tripper and Roxanne, a female counselor at Northstar.

dir. Allan Arkush

A group of rock-music-loving students, with the help of the Ramones, take over their school to combat its newly installed oppressive administration.

dir. Ted Bafaloukos

Horsemouth, a drummer living in a ghetto of Kingston, plans to make money selling records. After his prized motorcycle is stolen, his plans fall through and he's forced to adapt.

dir. Denny Harris

Scotty moves into Mrs. Engels' seaside mansion where three other college students are boarding. Mrs. Engels prefers to stay in her room in the attic, but her son Mason helps the students get settled. Soon one of the students is killed. The policemen on the case begin uncovering the Engels family secret as the remaining students become endangered

dir. David Lowell Rich

Aviation disaster-prone Joe Patroni must contend with nuclear missiles, the French Air Force and the threat of the plane splitting in two over the Alps.

dir. Sergio Martino

Tourists on a tropical island anger an island god, who turns himself into a giant alligator and stalks them.

dir. Tōru Murakawa

A seemingly run-of-the-mill corporate salaryman leads a double life as a vicious criminal by night. In a delicious scheme of payback, he seeks to dominate the corporation that employs him by day.

dir. Michele Lupo

The town of Newnan are seeing little green men everywhere. The military have arrived and are on the lookout for UFOs. Everyone's high strung and Sheriff Hall (Bud Spencer) is left to deal with the aftermaths of the hysteria. On his way home from patrol he happens upon a little boy claiming to be an alien by the name of H7-25. At first the sheriff doesn't believe the boy, but with the mounting evidence, even he must eventually concede. Soon the military is after Sheriff Hall and H7-25, and it is up to the sheriff to keep the boy safe and beat up large swaths of soldiers so H7-25 can go home.

High Fliers · 4K Ultra HD

dir. Douglas Hickox

Severin Films announced a Collector's Edition 4K with three SKUs, including a deluxe limited edition and a UHD + 2xBD combi pack. Reception has been enthusiastic across the board, with multiple collectors calling it a must-buy and comparing it favourably to the original Zulu.

Severin Films · 4K Ultra HD