The 9 best Blu-rays and 4K UHD releases of March 2023

The month of March has many great movies that are getting great transfers to Blu-ray or 4K UHD. One of my top 10 films — a pop-rock musical set in an alternate-reality New York — drops in the middle of the month, and is bookended by fantastic retro horror, a rarely printed John Woo film, a ’90s time capsule, and a Hitchcockian cult classic from the 2000s.

We curate a monthly list to assist you in finding your next favourite discs. We haven’t had the opportunity to try these discs just yet, but if you want the formal thumbs up, no worries — in the coming months we will begin our rolling list of the best Blu-rays and 4K UHD discs of the year. But each of these releases has potential and comes from a label we’ve enjoyed in the past.

This is the most anticipated disc in March 2023

Universal Pictures

Streets of Fire (4K UHD + Blu-ray) — March 14, 2023

Walter Hill’s lost masterpiece Streets of Fire doesn’t feel quite so lost these days. Thanks to a couple of limited Blu-ray releases, more regular appearances at repertory movie theaters, and a skyrocketing reputation on Letterboxd, the ’80s pop-rock musical has received the full cult-classic status it’s long deserved.

Diane Lane is seen belting out songs with Willem Dafoe and Willem Dafoe, in what I would describe as rockabilly-leather kink. But the reason to watch this film over and over and over is the first guitar-shredding 10 minutes — and the last. Hill can convert your living space into the most comfortable seat in the house by shooting concerts just like any other music documentaryarian.

Shout Select includes this disc. TwoFeatures-length documentary and other retro features, such as music videos or on-air promotions.

For March 2023, the biggest Blu-ray and UHD 4K UHD release

Lionsgate image

John Wick 1-3 Stash Book Collection — Feb. 28, 2023

The John Wick movies are an absolute blast, and I can’t wait for for the fourth one later in March. Until then, we have this awesome new steelbook set to tide us over, in a “stash book” box that is a replica of Wick’s own from John Wick Chapter 3 – Parabellum. This book is a huge Russian tome with religious icons on the cover, and just a handful of pages inside. Once you flip through enough of them, you’ll find three steelbooks hidden inside, along with a pair of photographs of John’s lost loved ones.

It includes the three movies as well as behind-the scene footage. There are also deleted scenes and an audio commentary provided by Keanu and Chad Stahelski. —Pete Volk

The House That Screamed (Blu-ray) — March 7, 2023

I hadn’t heard of this film before popping it into my Blu-ray player; now I’m a convert. What looks like a tawdry schoolgirls-in-trouble thriller is actually a surprisingly restrained blend of Hitchcockian psychosexual mystery and gothic horror.

Director Narciso Ibáñez Serrador creates a 19th-century French boarding school that feels like the most beautiful and cozy prison. All doors and windows remain locked. The headmistress’s girls serve as enforcers and spies. It is also a problem that the men visiting the grounds on occasion have questionable motives. Girls start to disappear.

Phenomena (4K UHD + Blu-ray) — March 14, 2023

Dario Argento’s proto-slasher has a surprising amount in common with The House That ScreamedThe European all girl boarding school. Unnerving local men. And the little girl, who appears to be aware that everything is about to turn very, very wrong. The similarities are striking, but so is the difference. Jennifer Connelly portrays the daughter of an actor who is internationally known for her role. She befriends a super-intelligent monkey and communicates via telepathic communication with a large cloud of flying insects.

The special edition contains three different cuts. It is recommended that you start with the Italian version, which is the longest. The shortest cut, the Creepers cut, removes so much of the film that ironically you’d have to have seen other versions for it to make an ounce of sense.

DreamWorks Pictures

The Prince of Egypt (4K UHD + Blu-ray + Digital Copy) — March 14, 2023

In 2018, Brenda Chapman was our director. The Prince of Egypt’s 20th anniversary. “We were trying to make films that weren’t feeling like they were just for children,” said Chapman. “We wanted to make films that everyone would go see. It was important to prove that we could make animation dramas. This is not something parents can drop their children off at, or use as babysitters. We wanted to do something that reached more adults.”

DreamWorks Animation has created a musical adaptation of Book of Exodus that is beautiful and unexpected. The movie runs for 99 minutes. This 4K version will hopefully give the film the audio and visual fidelity that it needs.

This set features a making of, some featurettes and Chapman’s commentary as director.

Image Credit: Criterion Collection

Last chance for Chivalry (Blu-ray) — March 14, 2023

John Woo has finally returned to Criterion Collection. However, not with the films fans might expect. Criterion DVDs of Woo’s iconic pairing, Hard BoilAnd The KillerFor years,. Rather than move them to modern formats, Criterion has produced a surprise 2K digital restoration of Woo’s period film Last chance for Chivalry. The drama precedes Woo’s gun-heavy action films, eschewing them for swords, and has been difficult to watch in the U.S. — let alone at high resolution.

Criterion includes an interview with Woo as well new English subtitles.

DreamWorks Pictures

Red Eye (4K UHD + Blu-ray + Digital Copy) — March 21, 2023

Director Wes Craven made a short detour to thrillers after launching Nightmare on Elm Street, and Scream. Red Eye. Cillian Murphy, a man who was flying cross-country, kidnaps Rachel McAdams and threatens to kill her father Brian Cox. Only way out is political assassination.

The two-disc set includes new commentary from the film’s editor, Patrick Lussier; a couple of new featurettes; a making-of; a gag reel; and an old commentary from the late Wes Craven himself.

Party Girl (Blu-ray) — March 28, 2023

I was the PA for a cancelled sitcom, my first job after college. Every day, I took the subway to the office in Queens, packed the snack room for the writers, and cleaned up after Parker Posey’s small but digestively active dog. It was hard to take at first. It is so dehumanizing. It was dehumanizing. But I learned something. It was a privilege. It was a privilege to see Parker Posey’s work behind the scenes as well as in front of the camera. She is every bit as charming and fascinating as each of her characters, dear reader. A few years later, she let me live in an apartment in my neighborhood. She and I ate breakfast at the same restaurant every day. She left her purse there three times and I returned it to her, and every time, she went, “Oh, thank you! How’d I forget That?”

Why did I run into Parker Posey so much? Lower Manhattan is governed by cosmic laws. That is, at least in part, what this film is about.

Anyway, Party Girl is the ultimate Parker Posey movie, and it is in the running for the most ’90s movie committed to celluloid. It’s like For GirlsGen X through my lens. It is a beautiful film and I am thrilled to have it on Blu-ray. Finally, you can see its stunning costumes in HD.

Violent Streets: The Umberto Lenzi/Tomas Milian Collection (Blu-ray) — March 28, 2023

I have never seen a crime movie more unapologetically brutal and nasty than Umberto Lenzi’s It’s almost human. While genre films usually focus on detectives, Lenzi places the vast majority of his film under the watchful eye of Giulio Sacci (played here by Tomas Milian). Sacchi is a poor petty criminal, so Lenzi decides to skip straight to the crime boss. Turns out that’s not so difficult for a soulless killer with no sense of shame. Milian’s take on Sacchi is terrifying, echoing Pinkie in Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock, and seemingly set the groundwork visually and stylistically for De Niro’s Travis Bickle in Taxi driverThe film was released two years later than the original.

Violent streets contain It’s almost humanThis includes four more collaborations between actor and director, as well as commentaries by a pair, nearly a dozen interviews, some soundtrack CDs, plus a couple of commentaryaries. It’s an excellent entry into the Poliziotteschi/Euro crime subgenre. Be prepared for shock.