Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews

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Venom: The Last Dance 4K (Sony)

As a lifelong Spider-Man fan, I was never overly enthused about turning his rogues' gallery into a parade of big-screen anti-heroes, and while I suppose Kraven was the last nail in that coffin, at least Venom had a good cinematic run. The wildly popular symbiote is an alien lifeform bonded to human journalist Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy), this time on the run from the law and from a dangerous new extraterrestrial whose dark designs could spell disaster for us all. "The Last Dance" sounds like not only the end of the trilogy but the end of this entire embodiment of the character, but get back to me after you've watched the post-credit scene. CGI is extensive and the quality can vary, but the Dolby Atmos audio is boisterous and every decibel worthy of a Marvel-adjacent movie. A series of brief featurettes and deleted scenes comprise the extras. The wraparound rendering of gooey, battle-ready Venom on a fiery background is radically different from the standard 4K cover art and is bound to turn some heads.

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Suzume Blu-ray (Crunchyroll)

Coming off back-to-back anime masterpieces with 2016's Your Name. and 2019's Weathering with You, Makoto Shinkai tenders this offbeat fantasy about young Suzume who, on a journey with a mysterious stranger, is on a quest to close a series of magical doors across Japan, lest the power of time itself wreak havoc. Crunchyroll released the extras-loaded three-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo pack (don't be fooled by that photo) as a Walmart-exclusive SteelBook, the mind-bending artwork from the movie emblazoned front and back although the front cover here looks a lot like that on the standard edition.

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SPY × FAMILY CODE: White Blu-ray (Crunchyroll)

Tatsuya Endo's best-selling manga that turned into a TV series is now a movie, Spy × Family CODE: White. The premise is irresistible, as a career secret agent takes a wife and adopts a daughter as part of his cover, but both of his accomplices are more than they seem. Even the "family" dog is a precog. Plenty of action and comedy ensue, as in this adventure from 2023, where they need to go above and beyond to win a cooking competition in order to avoid reassignment, but it all goes sideways. Candy-colored key artwork atop a White background is countered by a simple logo around the rear for another Walmart-exclusive SteelBook.

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Dark Crystal 4K / Labyrinth 4K (both Shout Studios)

For the generations of fans who have grown up appreciating Jim Henson's lavishly produced, creature-filled fantasy adventures, these two Walmart exclusives just might deserve a place on your shelf. Both SteelBooks celebrate; inside and out, even the disc art; the inspired design work of Brian Froud, who gave Dark Crystal's world of Thra and Labyrinth's land of Moraine and their many and varied inhabitants their distinctly wondrous personality. In addition to a vast array of legacy supplements--plus new content!--the movies look and sound fantastic, in Dolby Atmos audio teamed with native 4K and Dolby Vision, making the most of the elaborate practical effects and shadowy photography.

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Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury Season 1 and Season 2 Blu-ray (Crunchyroll Store Exclusives)

The Witch from Mercury is a fresh take on the five-decade-spanning Gundam mythos with a more modern, welcoming vibe. Across these two separate sets of two discs each are 25 total episodes, representing the entirety of the series, the most recent entry in the franchise and yet this is a standalone spin-off that we can just jump right into without doing any "homework." The advanced mecha suits are back but are the source of more controversy and conflict as tensions are building between the "Spacians" and the "Earthians," largely due to the economic divide and corporate domination. It's a big, emotional story covering many years, encompassing politics and more than a bit of sexism. Released in 2022-23, the series boasts sophisticated animation that blends the clean lines of the mechanical marvels with the softer nuances of the human characters, and it all reproduces magnificently in 1080p. Both seasons are only available in SteelBooks (the cover art is downright mesmerizing), both exclusive to the Crunchyroll Store.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury Season 1 Blu-ray SteelBook

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury Season 2 Blu-ray SteelBook

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Attack on Titan Seasons 1, 2 and 3 (Crunchyroll)

You've been warned: This is some dark stuff. Giant, naked, human-eating "Titans" are on the loose, with citizens taking refuge within walled strongholds, with no guarantees of survival. Where did these gruesome monsters come from? How can they be stopped? And who among the resistance can be trusted? Gripping on many levels and uniquely disturbing in the underlying drama as well as the imagery, Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin) is one of the most impactful anime of the past 15 years. Beyond the distinctive, coordinated SteelBook cases, these three individual sets offer audio commentaries on select episodes, creator interviews, featurettes and more.

(Note: An extra-long Season Four brought the series to its conclusion, but it hasn't been released in a SteelBook… yet.)

Attack on Titan Season 1 Blu-ray SteelBook

Attack on Titan Season 2 Blu-ray SteelBook

Attack on Titan Season 3 Blu-ray SteelBook

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Tombstone 4K (Disney)

In the faraway days of 1993, the western was largely a lost art. Along came Tombstone (directed by George P. Cosmatos but allegedly directed by star Kurt Russell in actual fact), a retelling of the fabled gunfight at the O.K. Corral and so much more through a thoroughly modern lens. The villains are hissable, the heroes are bigger than life and every scene fairly oozes testosterone. The recently deceased Val Kilmer is the standout in a stacked cast as a slowly dying Doc Holliday, devoted comrade to legendary lawman Wyatt Earp.

Love for this film has only grown over the past three decades, and Disney has made a lot of Tombstone fans (this one included) extremely happy by purveying this new 4K with Dolby Vision, looking better than it ever has. The remastered HD Blu-ray inside this macho SteelBook also contains a subset of old bonus features, notably a three-part "making of" and some storyboards.

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Akira 4K (Crunchyroll)

It's no exaggeration to say that this R-rated adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo's manga changed people's perceptions of what an animated feature film could be The gorgeous artwork is often animated at a breathtaking 24 frames per second rather than the typical 12 and the sound design is spectacular (lossless 5.1 available here in Japanese and English), in service of an epic tale of a super-powered teenager poised to unleash devastation on post-apocalyptic Tokyo. Essentially a snazzy repackage of the previous Funimation two-disc set, the native 4K presentation with HDR10 here boasts explosive color and contrast, and the extras on the HD Blu-ray plater are copious and engaging.

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Mufasa: The Lion King 4K / Moana 2 4K (both Disney)

Disney racked up a pair of megahits last year, one a sequel and the other a live-action prequel, both born of animated blockbusters. Songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda left behind the South Pacific for the savannah, but newcomers to the fun and colorful Moanaverse Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear--and the returning Opetaia Foaʻi--brought a bag full of fresh beats, highlighted by "Get Lost," sung by Awhimai Fraser as the villainous Matangi. Writing a new song score for a spinoff from the beloved Lion King is a daunting assignment, but Mr. Miranda's recognizably Hamiltonian compositions for Mufasa help tell the story of Simba's dad with his usual panache. Both the photo-realistic Mufasa and fully animated Moana 2 are reference-quality in their Dolby Vision picture and Dolby Atmos audio.

As with other recent Disney releases, the 4K disc editions are only available as SteelBooks, each bundled with an HD Blu-ray and digital copy code. Mufasa is adorned with dramatic portraits of lion and cub for hero and villain, front and back, while Moana and Maui character art is balanced by a tattoo-style image on the reverse. No commentaries, but the 1080p platters for each serve up deleted scenes and some solid featurettes.

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Basic Instinct 4K / The King of New York 4K (both Lionsgate Limited Exclusives)

The vaults have opened for two more '90s crime tomes, both making their U.S. 4K debut (restored in Dolby Vision), both in steel and both exclusively from Lionsgate Limited. I was lucky enough to catch both of these at the cinema, but that was 30+ years ago and so the refreshed color and clarity in the home theater overtakes my faded memories of these two. Paul Verhoeven's quintessential erotic escapade has often been copied but never equaled, even by its anticlimactic sequel. Sharon Stone's star turn as a did-she-or-didn't-she femme fatale still holds up, here in its unrated version only, with distinct "original theatrical stereo" LPCM and updated DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mixes.

A remarkable amount of bonus content is included on the Basic Instinct UHD disc, including three commentaries from two different eras. The movie Blu-ray has still more, spilling onto a second HD platter, some of the extras resurrected from the original theatrical press kit, some from VHS and some from the Pioneer Special Editions laserdisc, while some are brand-new.

I wouldn't call Abel Ferrara's 1990 King of New York "slick," I'm reluctant to use the term "gritty," but I will say it's raw, shot on location for a modest budget. Violent but ultimately bittersweet, it's the tale of a drug kingpin who, upon his release from prison, seeks to regain his criminal empire by any means necessary, facing cops who will do whatever it takes to stop him. The cast is headlined by an electric Christopher Walken, backed by a pre-NYPD Blue David Caruso, a pre-Blade Wesley Snipes, a pre-Matrix "Larry" Fishburne and a pre-Pulp Fiction Paul Calderon, who returns along with Walken for a new on-camera interview. Kudos to Lionsgate Limited for creating their own unique bonus content to live alongside the piles of vintage loot for a more obscure title such as this.

Packaging is once again top-notch, with new wordless front-and-back SteelBook cover art by Tula Lotay (Instinct) and Vance Kelly (King), surrounded by substantial protective plastic slipcovers.

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Summer Wars 4K (GKIDS/Shout Studios)

One of the things I love about anime is the way it explores stories a bit different from what American audiences might be used to. Such is the case with 2009's Summer Wars, a potentially goofy rom-com--our hero pretends to be his crush's fiancé to fool her family--that quickly morphs a wild techno thriller when a rogue A.I. begins to unleash all manner of mayhem in the real world. The visual splendor is palpable, more so for the contrast between the verdant rural setting and the wild virtual world, each uniquely colorful. There are interviews with the original Japanese-speaking cast (we can also choose an English dub, both in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1) and one with Oscar-nominated director Mamoru Hosoda (Mirai). The 4K is available exclusively as a limited edition SteelBook from Amazon, enveloped in eye-catching new artwork.

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The Last of Us The Complete First Season 4K (HBO/Warner)

Rather than merely keeping just the name and basic premise and jettisoning what made the videogame a hit, as too many adaptations do, The Last of Us' success lies in great storytelling that is at once uncannily true to the videogame source material and also engaging and smart and tailored for mass audiences, with wonderfully realized characters. Yes, there are plenty of mutated mushroom zombies which makes for some great action and suspense, but it all works because we care about the people: the last of us who have managed to hang onto our humanity in the face of possible extinction. Every aspect of the screen-filling Dolby Vision image is spot-on, from close-ups to wide shots to effects, and similarly the Dolby Atmos track is as good as it gets. (They even brought back the original composer from the game.) There are "Inside the Episode" vignettes for each installment and many more featurettes, some made for this four-disc set, repackaged from the 2023 release with creepy-AF, newly created artwork.

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Gandhi 4K / Stripes 4K (both Sony)

Were Sony's big boxed Columbia Classics Collection Volumes 1 and 2 a little too rich for your blood? Or maybe you didn't want to shell out for all six movies when you were only looking for a few of them? Well, your patience has been rewarded, as Sony seems to be working their way through these titles and dropping them as singles. 1981's Stripes and 1982's Gandhi have joined that list, going solo in steel cases, and the high dynamic range for both has been upgraded from HDR10 to Dolby Vision. That means the legendary Bill Butler's photography (albeit largely of Bill Murray and Harold Ramis) and the Oscar-winning vistas of Richard Attenborough's period magnum opus are now looking punchier than ever.

Nothing new, extras-wise, but Gandhi is actually a four-disc set: At three-hours-plus, the movie was smartly split across two 66GB UHD platters with no supplements, further assuring a high bitrate. Two HD Blu-rays carry the movie and the wealth of legacy bonus content, most of it in SD. Both the theatrical and extended cuts of Stripes are presented in 4K, while the locked-and-loaded HD Blu-ray is highlighted by a massive array of deleted and extended scenes as well as the 1983 ABC TV cut. Stripes' cover is a riff on the original movie poster with a spiffy metallic sheen on the text, while Gandhi flaunts new artwork by Paul Shipper that harkens back the painted one-sheets of yore.

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Dragon Ball Super The Complete Series - Limited Edition Blu-ray (Crunchyroll)

Originally airing 2015-18, the kid-friendly Super (Doragon Bōru Sūpā) is the fourth anime in the long-running Dragon Ball franchise, adapted from the manga of the same name. Still following the adventures of hero Son Goku and his mates, with a lot of superhuman martial arts training and many subsequent battles against otherworldly nasties, the fate of Earth often hanging in the balance. The action is intense and plentiful and the animation is truly dynamic, making for a heck of a ride across these ten seasons/131 episodes, filling 20 Blu-ray discs elegantly compiled in ten SteelBook cases, each color-coded and adorned with an individual character portrait. In-hand, this thing is an absolute beast, bigger even than my Game of Thrones 4K SteelBook set, so you'll want to clear some space and show it pff. Crunchyroll tenders Dragon Ball Super in a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix of the English dub, plus the original Japanese in 2.0, with optional English subtitles. The colorful video is a screen-filling 1.78:1. Included is an extensive collection of various creator interviews on a range of topics plus the opening and closing songs presented without art-obscuring text.

Of course, we wouldn't be here were it not for:

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Dragon Ball Z The Complete Series Blu-ray (Crunchyroll)

Although not a SteelBook, this 36-disc monolith (episodes "001" through 291, nine seasons in individual cases) set the stage for that later Super. In a real sense, this is where Goku and Dragon Ball in general "grew up," not only coming of age but establishing the tone and the level of action that would help to define the franchise moving forward. Z has no shortage of spectacular fights with insane power-ups, its own compelling story, memorable characters and a lot of heart.