Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews

A few more noteworthy titles just slid down the chimney, past our deadline for the Entertainment Holiday Gift Guide in the pages of the magazine but a dazzling menagerie nonetheless, and deserving of our consideration, so we hereby present an additional mini-sackful of eminently giftable Blu-rays.

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Titanic Limited Edition Collector’s Set (Paramount)
Making its 4K debut on the occasion of the movie’s 25th anniversary, James Cameron’s blockbuster historical drama Titanic docks in the fanciest of limited edition sets with an elegance befitting the grand ship.

A bevy of collector’s items are nestled within the big slab, starting with a lovely “making of” coffeetable book; then a schematic print highlighting memorable scenes across the boat; prop reproductions of a boarding pass, a launch viewing ticket, menus, and character correspondence; and sheet music for Celine Dion’s Oscar-winning “My Heart Will Go On.”

The film presentation itself is first-class in all the expected ways, with remixed Dolby Atmos audio and magnificent native 4K video enhanced by Dolby Vision high dynamic range, along with three commentary tracks and a bonus disc of new and old extras.

The Mandalorian The Complete First and Second Seasons 4K (Walt Disney)
They said not to expect physical editions of original Disney+ content, yet here we are! Released in separate but equally handsome steelbook sets, the first two seasons of the streamer’s runaway hit have become a beloved expansion of the Star Wars saga.

Sure, the show provided oodles of backstory on those mysterious citizens of Mandalore, but is there any doubt that its breakout star was Grogu/The Child/“Baby Yoda”? It’s a winning sci-fi spin on Lone Wolf and Cub with lots of new adventures and surprises, leading to one of the most buzzed-about moments in all of fandom in this batch’s final act.

Production values are extraordinarily high and the eight episodes in each season are spread across two (100GB!) discs per set, in HDR and Dolby Atmos. Featurettes detail the thoughtful design work, an exploration continued in the three art cards inside each steelbook, and the cover artwork is pretty gorge as well.

The Equalizer 3-Movie Collection 4K (Sony)
Based upon the ‘80s TV show (which would later enjoy its own small-screen reboot), 2014’s The Equalizer introduces us to McCall (Denzel Washington), one of the all-time great cinema badasses, an unsung hero of the oppressed, a knight without armor in a too-often cruel new world. With experience, skillz and mad reflexes, he singlehandedly takes down the Russian mob before he goes toe-to-toe with the internet's daddy and then reunites with his protectee from Man on Fire, all grown up.

Denzel is a star without equal while trilogy director Antoine Fuqua knows how to shoot action and how to use a camera, working with three different cinematographers and all of them yielding outstanding IMAX Enhanced 4K presentations, with DTS:X audio for Equalizer 2 and 3.

Digital copies are included, no HD Blu-rays but plenty of bonus content, although all of it is provided digitally rather than on the discs themselves.

The Hunger Games Franchise Exclusive SteelBook Collection 4K (Lionsgate)
With the prequel hitting theaters for the holidays, Lionsgate is revisiting the four hit movies based on three bestselling books that educated us on The Hunger Games, a scathing social commentary full of action and drama served up by Jennifer Lawrence and an increasingly all-star cast. They've been available in different configurations before but I'm pretty sure this is my favorite, a slim steelbook--ideal for crowded shelves like mine--containing the movies on Ultra HD disc (most in native 4K) with rockin’ Dolby Atmos, plus 1080p Blu-rays and single-vendor digital copy codes for all on 4K.

Only available at Walmart, this set is actually quite reasonably priced for four movies: The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay - Part 1 and Mockingjay - Part 2, plus copious extras across the series.

Star Trek The Picard Legacy Collection Blu-ray (Paramount)
With the NextGen crew finally being beamed off to pasture, the time was right for this comprehensive set that includes all seven seasons of the now-classic Star Trek: The Next Generation (does anyone else remember what a big deal it was when they upgraded the special effects for HD?), all four NextGen feature films (Generations, First Contact, Nemesis and Insurrection), and now the complete three-season run of Paramount+’s Picard. In short, it’s every series and movie captained by Jean-Luc (Patrick Stewart) in one beautiful command-red presentation box.

To catch you up, the first two seasons of Picard work pretty well on their own, but it’s all been leading to the epic third and final year, giving us the reunion we all dreamed of (plus sweet cameos) and the most satisfying conclusion we could ask for. This hefty non-Borg cube is an individually numbered limited edition, 54-discs total with more than 30 hours of bonus.

But it’s many gifts in one, including a set of his five rank insignia as magnetic badges, four “Chateau Picard” coasters, an exclusive updated version of The Wisdom of Picard in hardcover, and a fancy deck of custom playing cards for our off-duty hours.