criterionforum.org

The Evil Dead (Sony)

Confirmed to be a port of Sony's international 4K, encode different to Lionsgate's. Audio in the correct pitch and a cross-selection of archive extras where the Lionsgate had only one audio commentary. High Def reviewer thought the 2.0 was a mixdown of the 5.1 track.

Edit 6/29/26: this steelbook comes with exclusive Dolby Vision

nicolas wrote: Wed Jun 24, 2026 9:52 pm Rocco and His Brothers (BFI) - my impressions and caps

Will wait to see how this look on my tv when I get home from overseas but the grading in those caps looks really disappointing! I think most of these after the fact HDR applications to native 4k SDR masters, especially for black and white films, are taking the wrong approach.

I've felt the same for a while. Especially UK labels like BFI, Eureka and Arrow seem to add HDR whenever possible. I have to assume they do this for marketing reasons in the first place but even then they'd be able to place the SDR master in a HDR container as-is if they really wanted to make sure the presentation retains its original image characteristics.

Well wasn’t BFI’s Seventh Seal UHD basically just SDR in a HDR container?

Halloween 1-5 Collection (Imprint)

Elephant Man CC vs Studio Canal caps

Both discs look great in the caps and some people are going to prefer Criterion's SDR grade. I remember not missing the HDR/DV grade at all while watching their beautiful I Know Where I'm Going! 4K.

I think we've trended towards Criterion for most B&W 4Ks that end up SDR for them but HDR from the UK label. definitely seems to be fairly consistent at this point. I know I've been happy with the Criterion Wages of Fear and Seven Samurai, but still often end up picking up the UK editions for unique extras...

It is worth noting that Criterion's Elephant Man UHD restores a fade that is missing from the StudioCanal release.

I have no issues with Curzon's Jean Vigo set remaining SDR; it looks fabulous regardless, and I'm not at all convinced that HDR would have added very much.

nicolas wrote: Mon Jun 22, 2026 12:45 pm Marty Supreme (Metropolitan) tenia's review. Added to the international list

It'll be fully updated in a few minutes.

Note however that because doing comparative UHD caps is a nightmare and that we're under a heatwave in France meaning it's now 85°F in my office, I took a shortcut and chose to go ahead even if the BD caps is one set and the UHD caps another one. It's so much easier to first do the UHD caps and then try to match the BD caps, but the other way around is way more time consuming.

No problem at all and I fully understand re. the heat. It’s just as hot over here in Germany but it seems like next week it’ll finally cool down a bit.

Several months late (my entry, not the review): Classe Tous Risques (Criterion)
Chris' review

Wake in Fright is a tie between Umbrella and Arrow, OP updated.

it's it's the exact same video encode, I think Michael B also confirmed that previously.

Arrow confirmed it. Literally the same .m2ts file.

Memento (Selecta Visión) - my review and caps added to the international list. Very much worth it for fans of the film who want the best presentation of the film and don't mind forced subtitles.

How come they of all territories manage to premiere it on 4K? I thought what delays the Australian release is the wait for Nolan to approve the transfer--doesn't the Spanish release need that?

It’s possible that the Spanish release doesn’t use the 4K master Umbrella made. As I mentioned in my review, it’s not a new scan of the IP but work was done to make it look much better than on the 2011 disc. Who commissioned that is anyone’s good guess but it’s certainly possible that the Spanish label did it. Of course, another possibility is that this is indeed the new 4K master Umbrella have been working on and the production company / distributor (Newmarket Films) already made it available for licensing.

Svet's not gonna be happy about The Crying Game:

BFI:


Criterion:


Don't know the film well enough to remark on which is 'correct'.

Neil Jordan is such an overwhelming stylist throughout his career (In Dreams some years later is chock-full of crazy color filters) that the Criterion seems more like him, but I can only offer a hunch.

From the release's details: "Supervised and approved by director Neil Jordan, this new 4K restoration was created from the 35mm original camera negative. A 35mm print provided by the Academy Film Archive was used as a color reference."

The mentioning of a reference print is immediately promising and reassuring that we're now getting an accurate presentation of the film with its stylization preserved.

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (Criterion) - caps
The Elephant Man (Criterion) - caps

nicolas wrote: Thu Jul 02, 2026 6:30 pmAlice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (Criterion) - caps

Gorgeous! Third cap looks like a Stephen Shore photo (but grainier).

Oedipax wrote: Thu Jul 02, 2026 6:52 pm Gorgeous! Third cap looks like a Stephen Shore photo (but grainier).

Exactly. And some of the others (2nd, 8th) feel Egglestony, no?

Strange. I've seen this movie many times and had never made those connections ... maybe because of some pretty strong differences in the color saturation and grading between the versions (prints and discs) I've encountered and these caps.

nicolas wrote: Thu Jul 02, 2026 6:30 pm The mentioning of a reference print is immediately promising and reassuring that we're now getting an accurate presentation of the film with its stylization preserved.

Not so sure, Nicolas. This Siskel & Ebert clip seems to indicate to me that maybe the color timing is revisionist.

And FWIW, this chaps my ass much less than I know it does others'. So I am not put off entirely from picking up the disc. But I will say - whew, that is a lot of green. Looks like The Matrix Revolutions. Knew right away that Eyes Wide Shut's excellent UHD restoration looked a whole hell of a lot like a 35mm print of the film, but I'd need to hear from somebody who's seen The Crying Game on film before I am willing to concede that this is a huge change from how it looked in theaters.