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

In 2023, we will be diving into the physical media world for our first full year. If you’re a regular reader, you’ve probably already read our monthly lists curating the most promising new Blu-rays and 4K UHD discs. We build those collections from exciting scheduled new releases, often giving a heads-up before we’ve had a chance to see them for ourselves.

This list is different — and more prestigious. We’ve compiled the top discs from the past year. We’ve tried them. They are great. They are wonderful. That’s it! We don’t set any additional boundaries to our curation. We have something for everyone, no matter if you are looking for a collection of challenging art house films or an eerie midnight horror flick.

The following recommendations have been listed in reverse chronological order of these disc releases, so you’ll always see the newest entries up top. List will be updated regularly throughout the year. In December, we’ll announce our favourite disc from 2023.

Comment with your favourite new CDs!

Best Blu-ray and Ultra HD releases in 2023

Superman Collection (4K UHD + Blu-ray + Digital) – May 9

The next Superman movie won’t hit theaters until mid-2025 at the soonest. If you’re craving some blue-spandex-and-red-cape heroics, this collection is your best bet. Christopher Reeve’s entire era is included in this collection. Superman 4. Along with the alternate Richard Donner Cut of Superman 2.

This set includes Superman in a variety. Fans of the movies will enjoy the commentary tracks, making-of-TV specials, deleted scenes and behind-thescenes featurettes. Warner Bros. also bundled in episodes from the Fleischer Studios classic Superman series for those who love all things Superman. Superman cartoons.

I hadn’t seen the films until this release, and they’re a delight — and a refreshing alternative to the current trend of self-aware superhero fare. Plus, they’re stacked with some top-tier talent of their time, including Gene Hackman, Ned Beatty, Marlon Brando, and Margot Kidder.

Police Story 3: The Supercop (4K UHD + Blu-ray) – April 25

When a few friends recently visited, I grabbed this disc off the shelf and promised to show them one of the most dangerous stunts they’d ever see on film. The Police Story 3.It’s a fantastic movie. We decided not to skip any scenes and watched the entire movie.

Every few minutes, they’d ask if this was the wildly dangerous stunt I’d mentioned. Michelle Yeoh jumped a motorbike on a moving rail? Nope. Jackie Chan hanging from a rope attached to an helicopter? Not that one.

The most stomach-wrenching stunt for me is near the end. Yeoh gets thrown from the top of a truck onto the windscreen of a convertible speeding by. Yeoh did the stunt more than once, almost falling under the car’s wheels and off of the roof on both takes.

Let me make it clear, I’m thrilled that filmmaking is moving away from the idea of actors risking their lives to get one amazing shot. Yeoh’s most recent hit — The World at One Time — shows a good action movie can be made in humane fashion. This amazing stunt work has a place in my heart, but I have ambivalent feelings about it.

Watching with newcomer friends, I realized this film doesn’t have one of the most jaw-dropping stunts in history. Many. Yeoh and Chan are two of the few remaining great film artists of a style of cinema that we may never again see. It’s a blessing that we have this stunning 4k restoration to look back upon, as both Yeoh and Chan would live long, prosperous, and safe careers.

Image: Amazon Studios

Small Axe (Blu-ray) – April 25

In a calendar month, one of the most talented directors in our time released five movies. It’s almost impossible to believe that anyone saw these films. You can blame the pandemic (the films premiered in the fall of 2020) or the distribution and marketing of streaming cinema (they launched on Prime Video), but blame doesn’t solve the problem.

The collection is a good effort. Small AxeSteve McQueen’s latest short films, which are between 1 and 2 hours long, blur the distinctions between anthology television and art-house cinema. The result echoes McQueen’s history with visual art, nodding at every page of his portfolio, from his Turner Prize-winning art to the Academy Award-winning The 12 Years A Slave to the “should have won every award” heist thriller Widows.

McQueen’s films span a wide range of subjects, but what connects them is a historian-like approach to filmmaking, emphasizing veracity and the elevation of underheard voices. Small AxeThis focus is perhaps the culmination. All five films capture the lives of West Indian immigrants in London from the ’60s to the ’80s. These films include small dramas about domestic life and romances as well as interrogations by police and prison.

It is best to use the Criterion collection, as the images are as high-quality as those of any Criterion release. The set also includes some extras that seem like they were always meant for the anthology, including a recorded conversation between McQueen’s and Paul Gilroy’s professor, as well as the complete three-part documentary. UprisingMcQueen released a film with James Rogan a year later. Small AxeDocumenting the New Cross fire of 1981.

McQueen’s work is audacious, smart, and important — which can sound difficult and intimidating. But here’s the good news: Small AxeIt is very entertaining. It is extremely entertaining. You don’t have to watch the films in any order, so if you’re feeling overwhelmed, start with Lovers Rock.

Image: Severin

Umberto Lenzi/Tomas Milian: Violent streets (Blu-ray) – March 28

Violent streets is the most challenging pick on our list, but depending on your stomach for gore, it’s also one of the most rewarding. Tomas Milian, the Spaghetti Western actor and Umberto Lenz from Italy collaborated on five terrifying crime films in the 1970s. The subgenre, dubbed poliziotteschi, now serves as a time capsule from Italy’s turbulent decade. But for the average English-speaking movie fan, where do you even start with a genre you’ve never even heard of, from a sociopolitical moment that wasn’t taught in your history class?

History — from the mouths of those involved — is the strength of Severin’s Blu-ray collections. Its team not only offers the most beautiful, uncensored version of each film but also the college equivalent in bonus features. The audio commentary of the screenwriters and critics is included with each film, as are interviews with Lenzi Milan and Lenzi.

I first dove into The Almost Human, one of the best-known films in the collection, has tried its English version. The film played out like an uncomfortably violent grindhouse bobble. Then, I switched over to the original sound and listened through all the featurettes. And I felt like I’d learned about an entire other world and moment — while enjoying a wonderfully sweaty crime lord performance that would make Al Pacino blush.

You’ve found your next set if you like to use film as an instrument for understanding the world.

The House That Screamed (Blu-ray) – March 7

The House That Screamed It is referred to as Suspiria Meets Psycho. The trouble with a pitch like this is the film in question can’t possibly live up to the comparison. Technically, that’s true here. No, The House That Screamed isn’t as good as two of the best horror movies ever made. The movie isn’t as good as two of the best horror movies ever made, but it comes close.

For film dorks like myself, its status as “Spain’s first major horror production” and its early place on the timeline of giallo, slasher, and gothic cinematic horror make it a must-watch. For everyone else, there’s the tawdry (but rarely leering) story of a murderer skulking the woods of an all-women boarding school.

This set contains both the Uncut Version, entitled The Finishing School… and the shorter 11-minute version in America. The longer version allows the characters to breathe, and thrills to boil. Included are a number of interviews from the past and a commentary written by Anna Bogutskaya, a critic.

Best Buy

John Wick 1-3 Stash Book Collection (4K UHD + Blu-ray) – Feb. 28

One of the great modern action franchises just got a celebrated fourth entry, and Lionsgate released this fantastic “stash book” box set that is a replica of Wick’s own stash box from Chapter 3 – Parabellum. Under a book containing Russian folk tales, designed as a Russian tome with religious icons on its cover, three film cases have been hidden. This set contains all three films as well behind-the scenes footage, deleted scene, audio commentary by Keanu and Chad Stahelski, plus behind-thescenes material. The only drawback is it doesn’t include Chap. 4! —Pete Volk

United Artists

Road House (Blu-ray + 4K UHD) – 31 Jan.

Patrick Swayze rips out a dude’s throat and then roundhouse kicks him into a lake. That’s it. That’s the pitch.

Vinegar Syndrome’s colossal celebration of this modern masterpiece includes a commentary track with the director, another with Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier, many brand new interviews with on- and off-screen talent, an hourlong documentary, multiple featurettes, a 40-page book, and of course the brand-new 4K scan of the original 35mm camera negative.