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High-Def Watch’s Top 10 4K discs of 2025 is coming soon! What will make the cut?
Sound off with your picks! THE LIST, in alphabetical order, features the very best in 4K viewing from a physical disc. The criteria required the source to be mastered in 4K or higher and nothing less. No upconversion from 2K to 4K on this list. Continuing from last year, most of the top 4K discs were originally captured on 35mm film stock. When we post the final list, over 100 HDR screenshots will be included with mini-reviews of the Top 10 picks.

High-Def Watch Staff
Jan 61 min read


Forty years down the road, ‘Pee-wee’s Big Adventure’ is still fun-fun-fun
4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / HDR SCREENSHOTS In what director Tim Burton, who made his feature debut with “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure,” calls the sports sequence, our hero leaves a posse of racers in his dust. (Click an image to scroll the larger versions) 4K screenshots courtesy of The Criterion Collection/Warner Bros. - Click the jacket for an Amazon purchase “PEE-WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE: THE CRITERION COLLECTION”
4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray, 1985, PG for rude humor
Best extra: The 2005

Craig Shapiro
Jan 57 min read


Sixty-five years on, the power and poetry of ‘Eyes Without a Face’ are undeniable
4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / SDR SCREENSHOTS Her face horribly disfigured in a car accident caused by her father, Christiane (Edith Scob) must wear a mask as he tries to perfect a transplant.
(Click an image to scroll the larger versions) 4K screenshots courtesy of The Criterion Collection via Filmmaker Mode - Click for Amazon purchase “EYES WITHOUT A FACE: THE CRITERION COLLECTION”
4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray, 1960, unrated, graphic surgery, violence
Best extra: “The Unreal Real

Craig Shapiro
Oct 29, 20255 min read


Making a list? Add Akira Kurosawa’s masterful ‘High and Low’ to it
4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / SDR SCREENSHOTS Toshiro Mifune, left, is King Gondo, a shoe company executive whose son is apparently kidnapped and...

Craig Shapiro
Sep 29, 20256 min read


Criterion’s 4K UHD “Barry Lyndon” highlights Oscar-winning art direction, costumes, cinematography and music
4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / HDR SCREENSHOTS During the 1970s, Ryan O’Neal had become one of Hollywood ’ s biggest stars. He plays a poor...

Peggy Earle
Jul 31, 20256 min read


A film noir landmark, Criterion’s ‘The Big Heat’ grabs you and never lets go
4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / HDR SCREENSHOTS Glenn Ford, right, plays Homicide Sgt. Dave Bannion, whose investigation of a policeman’s suicide...

Craig Shapiro
Jul 24, 20255 min read


Criterion gives Terry Gilliam’s masterful ‘Brazil’ a stellar 4K UHD face lift
4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / HDR SCREENSHOTS (1) Jonathan Pryce, left, plays Sam Lowry, an ordinary guy content with his humdrum job in the...

Craig Shapiro
Jul 7, 20255 min read


Criterion’s 4K UHD presentation of Michael Mann’s groundbreaking ‘Thief’ is a must
4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / HDR SCREENSHOTS James Caan gives the finest performance of his career as Frank, a highly skilled, independent...

Craig Shapiro
Mar 19, 20255 min read


Revenge Western “Winchester ’73” finally gets 4K upgrade
4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / SDR SCREENSHOTS James Stewart stars as marksman Lin McAdam, and Millard Mitchell plays his riding partner, Frankie...

Bill Kelley III
Jan 31, 20256 min read


The annual Top 10 4K UHDs of 2024
TRUE 4K MASTERING / HDR SCREENSHOTS THE LIST of movies is the very best in 4K viewing from a physical disc. The criteria required...

Bill Kelley III
Jan 17, 202520 min read


Criterion delivers again with 4K UHD remaster of Howard Hawks’ influential ‘Scarface’
4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / SDR SCREENSHOTS (1) The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Most of the violence in “Scarface” in the shadows or...

Craig Shapiro
Jan 3, 20255 min read


Alain Delon hits “Le Samouraï” with killer style
4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / HDR SCREENSHOTS French actor Alain Delon plays cool contract killer Jef Costello, who’s been rounded up as a suspect...

Bill Kelley III
Oct 3, 20245 min read


Criterion covers all the bases with Sam Peckinpah’s ‘Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid’
4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / HDR SCREENSHOTS James Coburn is Pat Garrett, the outlaw-turned-sheriff hired by New Mexico cattle barons to hunt...

Craig Shapiro
Aug 19, 20246 min read


Acclaimed courtroom drama “Anatomy of a Fall” gets the Criterion treatment
BLU-RAY REVIEW / 1080p SCREENSHOTS Sandra Voyter (Sandra Hüller) and her attorney friend Maître Vincent Renzi (Swann Artaud) determine...

Peggy Earle
Jun 10, 20245 min read


Criterion hits the bull’s eye with Raoul Walsh’s ‘The Roaring Twenties’
4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / HDR SCREENSHOTS In one of his finest performances, James Cagney, left, plays Eddie Bartlett, a Prohibition...

Craig Shapiro
Apr 5, 20245 min read


Top 10 and a couple more: 4K UHDs of 2023
TRUE 4K MASTERING / HDR SCREENSHOTS THE LIST of movies is the very best in 4K viewing from a physical disc or streaming. The criteria...

High-Def Watch Staff
Jan 11, 202416 min read


Visually stunning “Days of Heaven” on 4K from Criterion
4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / HDR FRAME SHOTS Richard Gere and Brooke Adams play soulmates and brother (Bill) and sister (Abby) in Terrence...

Bill Kelley III
Dec 8, 20234 min read


Behind the veil with “The Others” – The Criterion Collection
4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / SDR FRAME SHOTS Nicole Kidman stars as Grace Stewart, a devout Roman Catholic mother, who lives with her two young...

Peggy Earle
Nov 6, 20236 min read


Orson Welles makes it personal in Kafka’s classic “The Trial”
4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / SDR FRAME SHOTS Anthony Perkins stars as Josef K. a young bureaucrat, arrested for an unnamed crime. He appears in...

Peggy Earle
Oct 4, 20235 min read


Criterion goes 3-for-3 with Terry Gilliam’s marvelous, magical ‘Time Bandits’
4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / HDR FRAME SHOTS A history buff of the first order, 11-year-old Kevin (Craig Warnock, third from the left) joins the...

Craig Shapiro
Jul 26, 20235 min read
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