Owning movies is getting so complicated. It used to be we just reviewed the top format that was out, whether it was DVD or then Blu-ray.
Blu-ray is still the ideal, but digital offers immediacy, portability and sometimes different options for quality. They’ve become a vital part of our movie archiving options, so we’re incorporating them more and more into CraveOnline’s home video coverage. This month we even reviewed the digital release of the Star Wars films, and digital also proved to be the best format for one of April’s best home video releases. Oscar contenders, classic catalog titles and new releases made April an embarrassment of riches so we had to expand to a Top 12, and really 13 for the digital release included up top.
The 12 Best Blu-rays (and 1 Digital Release) of April 2015:
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
The 12 Best Blu-rays (and 1 Digital Release) of April 2015
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Digital Bonus: Mommy
Xavier Dolan’s acclaimed Cannes winner did not get a blu-ray release, for some reason. The DVD looks fine, actually surprisingly clear for standard definition. The main image of the movie is the 1:1 frame which confines the picture to barely half your TV. That’s stark at any resolution, but digital is available in HD so you can give that thin image just that extra pop. With your eye concentrated firmly on the center of the screen, it’s worth making that image as vibrant as possible. However, be sure to go straight to buying the digital. The digital copy that comes with the DVD is still only standard, as I learned the hard way.
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12. Taken 3
Taken 3 (I prefer the spelling Tak3n as on the box) is less of a Taken movie and more like all the movies Liam Neeson made after Taken, but it has so much crazy action it’s still fun. The Blu-ray is consistent with the previous films, meaning it has that gritty, sweaty look, like every frame is sticky. The quick cutting is headache inducing, even on smaller screens, so high definition detail doesn’t soften that any, but when the film lingers on its subjects, it looks pretty good.
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11. Paddington
The live-action adaptation of the children’s book franchise comes to Blu-ray with bright, storybook colors. Red, yellow and blue are indeed the primary colors, if you’ll recall the jingle, “Reeeeeed, yeeeellow and bluuuuuuuue.” Occasionally they combine to make green. I’m not going to say the CGI bear is 100% convincing. The animation still looks like animation, but it is great animation, fully articulate and emotive in high definition. Your kids probably won’t even care. They’ll just try to touch the TV and put fingerprint smudges all over your screen.
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10. Eddie and the Cruisers Double Feature
This double Blu-ray release was the perfect opportunity to fill in some gaps in my ‘80s cult hits filmography. I actually found the original a tad dull and the music wasn’t that great. I got a kick out of the sequel more though. Its existence is a spoiler for the first movie, but we’re 26 years on now. Eddie (Michael Pare) has been living in hiding and tries to come back in the ‘80s rock scene, with mullets and power chords galore. Perhaps I’m much more tolerant of fake ‘80s music than fake classic rock. Both films look good on Blu-ray, clear with visible film grain, but much higher quality than anyone watching on VHS in the ‘80s might have ever imagined.
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9. A Most Violent Year
This acclaimed film has an odd florescent hue to the cinematography. Considering the movie is so much about mood and atmosphere, that dictates a lot of the feeling. The greenish tint doesn’t hinder the film’s sharpness or detail you’ll see in the streets of New York, and slush tracks in the wintery city streets. It’s a high quality new release Blu-ray that makes the aesthetic decisions of director J.C. Chandor and cinematographer Bradford Young all the more noticeable.
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8. Toxic Avenger Part II and Class of Nuke ‘Em High 2 (Tie)
These may be some of Troma’s underrated sequels. Back in the ‘80s and ‘90s indie filmmakers like Troma still shot on film like the big boys, back when they also used to shoot on film. Seeing these pristine HD transfers illustrates how much production value Troma actually put on screen. What was occurring on screen may have been grotesque and ridiculous, but it looked the same as the contemporary films of the era. And it shows that 25-year-old film CAN be mastered well on digital formats. Troma also loads both Blu-rays with extras, including a look at the new Return to Nuke ‘Em High saga.
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7. Cooley High
This classic comes to Blu-ray in a beautiful transfer, after the opening credits that is. The opening titles sport some very authentic dirt and scratches, as this portion of the original negative must have been run through several times over in early days of optical printing. There’s no fixing multiple generations of damage, but I like that authentic history. The rest of the film is clean and vibrant, with that authentic film grain all visible but showing off the ‘60s colors and detail of Chicago in the ‘70s when and where the period piece was filmed. No bonus features, but the movie in high definition is enough.
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6. Everly
Joe Lynch’s bullet ballet comes to life with all the flying debris and blood spurting in high definition, although it is a little soft focus. Since it all takes place in one room, you have time to notice all the detail, like the texture on the sofa. Lynch’s compositions are worth admiring in HD too. For example, the elevator down the hall playing a pivotal role in many sequences, the burning embers floating in the air, Salma Hayek walking through the sprinkler and all the fighting framed at left or right of screen. When I reviewed Everly at Fantastic Fest, I thought they never said her name. Turns out they say it 12 times in the film. I’ve heard of festival goggles, but those must be festival earmuffs.
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5. Singles
Cameron Crowe’s second film as writer/director looks great on Blu-ray. The unique tint of the film and the grain itself seem to embody the Seattle setting in this case, making it look wet and lived in, but still sharp. The real treat is a collection of deleted scenes that has been unearthed, most notably a Bill Pullman subplot. Pullman only shot two additional scenes, it’s mostly Bridget Fonda talking about having a relationship with him, but it does answer some questions I had as a teenager in 1992. It makes Pullman’s character less sympathetic, but man, the costumes he wears in one scene make it a shame his devoted work was buried for 23 years. Warner Home Video also released two other music-based comedies on Blu-ray, Empire Records and Detroit Rock City, with each probably looking better than they did in theaters. We’ll never know for sure, no one ever saw them in theaters.
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4. Inherent Vice
As one of the directors keeping 35mm film alive, Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film looks distinctly filmy. In addition to ‘70s dress and classic L.A. locations, it looks like cinematographer Robert Elswit must have used some ‘70s filters too to complete the look. You see the grain, and those skin tones that are distinctly of the period, but not in fact how real humans look. Here’s another interesting digital comparison for you: if you claim the digital copy that comes with the Blu-ray, the HD digital version looks more like I expected the Blu-ray to look. You still see the film grain, but it’s much more smoothed over and color corrected to look more like a modern movie. Both versions still look great, so it’s purely personal preference. I guess with the Blu-ray you have access to both.
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3. Class of 1984
Aside from one shot with three blue scratch lines down the right side, this is an immaculate transfer of the cult classic, but that’s not even the reason to get this Blu-ray. That reason is the extended interview with star Perry King in the bonus features. King speaks frankly about the grind of being a working actor, including an anecdote in the unemployment line, and all of his controversial films like Mandingo, Lipstick and Andy Warhol’s Bad. He doesn’t even get to Class of 1984 until 41 minutes into a 45 minute interview, but that’s okay. He’s also well represented in the other “making of” features, and director Mark Lester has got some tidbits to add to those too.
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2. The Gambler
For a movie set primarily in dark gambling halls or bars and sterile college lecture halls, The Gambler is a damn handsome Blu-ray. The sharpness is what sets it apart. In those dark and dingy settings, the shadows really distinguish the foreground figures in the light. Being a new release transferred at premium HD quality, The Gambler exemplifies the quality Blu-ray can achieve. Bright colors in the spoils of the gambler’s winnings (the shiny cars being repossessed by creditors) and strong figures dominating the sharp composition, The Gambler Blu-ray looks as slick as the hustlers it portrays.
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1. The Babadook
I still think the theme song for The Babadook should be “Babadook dook dook, dook of Earl, dook dook, dook of Earl, dook dook...” and I think Howard Stern should totally appropriate it for his prank calls. (Baba Booey Babadook Baba Booey!) But I’m using humor to mask my terror. The Blu-ray of the new horror classic is creeptastically clear. While most of the film is in a dark shadowy house, high definition allows all the detail to remain clear. The greatest thing: Essie Davis’s face. She is so expressive, the Blu-ray clarity really lets you see everything she conveys in her face. Of course she gets rather beat up by the end and all the blood and bruises only punctuate her expressive face. It’s cool to see Jennifer Kent’s short film, Monster, in lower grade grainy black and white. It is like an underground bootleg with the elements that became The Babadook in nine minute form.
