Rockers Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

Rockers Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 5, 2026

MVD Visual's MVD Rewind imprint has offered fans a variety of cult items over the past several years that may have been standard fare in VHS stores of yore, hence some of the intentional cheekiness of the imprint's very name, as well as both the packaging and even the masthead when the disc boots included with these releases. In this particular case, MVD is kind of "rewinding" itself, since the parent company put this film out on 1080 Blu-ray way back in 2009 (see below for a link to my review of that edition). This time, however, rewinding may in fact be more than simply someone "being kind", providing fans 4K and 1080 formats culled from the original camera negative, with two lossless audio options on the 4K UHD disc (the original 1080 release had only Dolby Digital audio, kind of oddly given the film's musical imprimatur), and new or at least newly released supplements (the old 1080 release from MVD Visual was a bare bones affair). This new 1080 standalone release commendably repeats the lossless surround track of the 4K edition, but includes a lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono track for its other option.

As mentioned above, Rockers had a 1080 release courtesy of MVD Visual in 2009, and my Rockers Blu-ray review offers plot information and my reaction to the technical presentation.

Rockers Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Rockers is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Visual's MVD Rewind imprint with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. The back cover offers a minimal "brand new 2025 4K high definition restoration from the original 35mm camera negative" as its sole technical piece of information. The new 1080 presentation is noticeably darker than the old MVD 1080 release, which can admittedly look a bit brightened now with a bit of hindsight, though that said, I'm frankly not sure the darkness of this version consistently redounds to the presentation's benefit. While the darkness does kind of inevitably lead to at least the perception of a more vividly suffused palette, fine detail on many faces (including focal character "Horsemouth") tends to get swallowed up in anything wider than a close-up. This is especially evident in some even relatively brightly lit sequences, like the music store vignette. The nighttime material probably offers the same lack of fine detail, though with the lack of lighting playing into things. There's also some slight damage which has made it through the restoration gauntlet, as well as some very minimal passing noisiness especially toward the edges of the frame (see the left side of screenshot 8 for one example). On the plus side, as alluded to above, the palette positively bursts with energy a lot of the time, and some of the brightly colored outfits in particular pop with considerable power. Greens, reds and blues are all pretty resplendent throughout. Grain can be quite heavy, and is somewhat variable even within certain outdoor scenes in particular, but overall resolves organically.

Rockers Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 4K release from MVD offers DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 Mono options, while this 1080 disc offers the same lossless surround track but substitutes a Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono track as the other option (the menu incorrectly states it's a stereo track). I frankly am kind of reversing my opinion voiced in my older review by saying this time out in terms of the overall film experience I actually preferred the mono track even given its lossy codec, as it offers the already somewhat hard to understand Jamaican patois at least relatively more forward, making it at least audible if not always comprehensible. Some of the spoken material tends to get drowned out in the surround track when music is playing, but that probably only helps to point out that the surround track here significantly ups the vibrancy of the music. That may make the surround track preferable for those who already know the basic plot and don't need to pay attention to the dialogue. The mono track does offer a bit of high end hiss that isn't really that evident in the surround track. Optional English subtitles are available and are probably recommended one way or the other for this film.

Rockers Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Jah No Dead: The Making of Rockers (HD; 1:59:37) is a really exhaustive retrospective featuring first rate interviews with a glut of people associated with the project and some other talking heads.


• Interview with Ted Bafaloukos (SD; 22:45) is an archival piece with the film's writer and director.


• Interview with Patrick Hulsey (SD; 5:12) is an archival piece featuring Hulsey in 2001.


• Poster Gallery (SD; 1:44) includes audio from the original radio ads for the film.


• Select Scenes Commentary (SD; 16:28) features Ted Bafaloukos and is partially a PiP featurette. MVD actually sent out a clarification email that early in the production of this release they thought there was an existing feature length audio commentary, which turned out not to be the case, so this first printing has some incorrect information on the bonus items listings which will be corrected if this goes on to subsequent printings.


• Waiting for the Bus Music Video (SD; 2:50)


• WEA Rockers Music Video (SD; 4:10)


• Theatrical Trailer (SD; 2:13)

MVD sent their 4K UHD release (which includes a 1080 disc) for purposes of this standalone 1080 review. I'm frankly not sure whether this release offers the same "4K LaserVision" poster as the 4K release, a reversible sleeve, or a slipcover.

Rockers Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I closed my 2009 review of MVD's first 1080 release of this film with the statement that it deserved to be more widely known and seen than it has been, and kind of sadly perhaps that is probably still the case. MVD's new 1080 release offers a really lustrous palette, though I recommend those interested to compare screenshots in this review and the Rockers 4K Blu-ray review with those from the old 1080 review to see how they feel about this release's darker look. The lossless surround audio is a definite plus here, as are the very enjoyable supplements. With a few niggling caveats noted, Highly recommended.