Blu-ray.com Reviewers: The Best of 2017

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Blu-ray.com Reviewers: The Best of 2017

Posted December 20, 2017 12:32 AM by Webmaster

The Blu-ray.com reviewers and contributors have once again come together to compile individual lists of their favorite releases of the year. 2017 was an impressive year in many ways, with titles as diverse as they've ever been. From modern Oscar winners to restored catalog classics, little-known independent films, animated treasures, dazzling 4K UHD releases, and addicting TV shows, our staff members found a bit of everything to celebrate.

Click on any one of the following quick links to jump to the corresponding list. Keep in mind that reviewers and contributors weren't limited to titles they personally reviewed, weren't required to consider overall review scores, and weren't asked to focus on mainstream or best-selling releases.



Jeffrey Kauffman: Best Blu-ray Releases


It's been another banner year for home theater aficionados, including the more abundant availability of 4K UHD product. As I've done in years past, I've assembled my list only from releases I've personally reviewed, and I've tried to offer a few "unusual" titles for those who may be looking for some unexpected gift ideas. And so, in no particular order:


    1. Reissues & Remasters: I'm cheating big time with my first selection, because as I looked over all of the films I reviewed in 2017, I realized how many great titles had been re-released with new transfers or restorations. Among these worthy efforts are a bunch of releases by Arrow (Cinema Paradiso, Donnie Darko, The Man Who Fell to Earth, Re-Animator, The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, A Fish Called Wanda), all of which bettered sometimes pretty substandard previous releases.


    2. Lost Horizon: Frank Capra's idealistic masterpiece continues to be a work in progress, as evidenced by this release's "new, improved" finding of a few more seconds of footage. Sony's restoration makes the best of a potentially troublesome situation with regard to inadequate elements for the entire film.


    3. Big Little Lies: This wonderfully entertaining if also occasionally pretty disturbing miniseries may help you to feel better about how the rich and privileged people in Monterey live (and/or die). Top notch performances by a fantastic cast including Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Shailene Woodley make this one of the best television productions of the year.


    4. Logan: Hugh Jackman's supposed last "at bat" as this character is unavoidably elegiac, but the film is both exciting and moving and sends Wolverine off in high style.


    5. Tanna: This beautifully shot and performed love story takes place in Vanuatu, and is both charming and emotionally resonant in its depiction of tribal life largely unaffected by the vagaries of the 21st century.


    6. He Walked By Night (Special Edition): ClassicFlix is a newer label proving how to do lesser known titles right, and this riveting quasi-noir is one of their best releases in terms of both content and presentation.


    7. American Gods: Season 1: This is a show not for the prim or squeamish, but for those who can go with the flow with some pretty salacious material, and occasional bouts of horrifying violence, there's some really fascinating content at hands as the Old Gods of yore battle the New Gods of contemporary culture.


    8. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency: The video presentation of this release is a little odd looking (different from how I remember the broadcast version), but for anyone who loves Douglas Adams and time travel stories, there's a lot to love in this completely bizarre adaptation of Adams' novels.


    9. The Big Sick: I'll be very surprised if Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon don't wrangle a Best Original Screenplay nod when the Academy Award nominations are announced next year. This charming story of supposedly culturally inappropriate love and (subsequent) life threatening disease is both funny and moving in equal measure.


    10. Planet of the Apes Series on 4K UHD: It's a rare reboot that can match the original, and an even rarer franchise that tends to get better as it goes along, but this latest iteration of the venerable Planet of the Apes saga does all that and more, with generally excellent 4K UHD presentations across the board.




Josh Katz: Best Blu-ray Releases


It's hard to be a fan of physical media. And not just for the obvious financial reasons: buying movies – like, actual physical discs – means curating space, and that takes time. It means making choices, and a choice spent here means one fewer choice elsewhere. And increasingly, it seems to mean ignoring the great technological tides. Having your movies in the cloud is so easy; with 4K/UHD streams and the rising preponderance of digital supplements (MoviesAnywhere provides far more audio commentaries than you might expect), the old excuse of "Film School on a reel/tape/disc" holds less and less weight. Sure, you're up the creek if the grid finally melts down, but any fans of Mad Max will tell you that in that case, we'll have far greater problems than an inability to stream episodes of Justified on the reg.

And yet.

Like vinyls or hardbacked books, a Blu-ray collection makes a statement that is, in its own way, quietly political. It said, "These matter. These have weight. Pay attention." Art isn't just an ephemeral concept; it's a series of presences, whether we're talking canvas and paint or plastic and metal. It's talented craftspeople and cinematographers. It's lenses and painted backdrops. It's keyboard strokes and algorithmic codes. Every Blu-ray you have honors those presences with one of its own.

So here's to libraries, and to shelving units, and leather-bound folders. Here's to the spaces they create, and the worlds that exist within.

In no particular order…
    1. Barry Lyndon: Limiting the number of Criterion entries on a Best-Of list always feels like a fruitless enterprise; no one treats film history and preservation with the same degree of reverence. Note their upgraded version of Stanley Kubrick's 1975 masterpiece Barry Lyndon. Yes, we get Criterion's predictably excellent bonus supplements, but you also get the sense that Criterion licensed this title to right a great wrong. Warner's previous Blu-ray edition was at best adequate and at worst disrespectful - it cropped Kubrick and DP John Alcott's beautiful compositions to a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. Criterion has opened up the image to 1.66:1, and the difference is revelatory. Not only does the film more closely resemble some great, lost William Hogarth painting come to glorious life, but it also further exposes these characters to Kubrick's pitiless eye. We could be observing these foolish humans under an electron microscope, and I'm sure Kubrick would have it no other way.


    2. His Girl Friday: Here's the thing about Criterion: they're a quality and quantity kinda operation. We get both on their wonderful His Girl Friday disc. Howard Hawks's 1940 screwball comedy might be the best example of its genre; almost eighty years later, there's never been a film quite like it, a whiplash-fast romantic farce that's cynical as hell and boldly pushes a proto-feminist agenda. Cary Grant is sublime as the sleaziest newspaper editor you'd ever hope to meet, and Rosalind Russell matches him step for step as his ex-wife who knows he's dirty and still can't help loving him. Of all the films in Hawks's oeuvre, only Only Angels Have Wings matches it. What makes His Girl Friday doubly impressive is that it's also the greatest remake ever made. See, Hawks reworked Lewis Milestone's 1931 dramedy The Front Page, and before I start debating the relative merits of each feature, I'll acknowledge that Criterion has essentially made such an argument irrelevant. The distributor has given The Front Page a full 4K restoration and more bonus features than your average Warner new release and included it alongside His Girl Friday. You don't have to choose, not really - Criterion wants you to have both.


    3. Ali: This deeply imperfect biopic captivates me in ways that few films have. For all its flaws - and Ali is arguably the most uneven movie on this list - the film maintains a certain allure in terms of how it chafes against so many biopic clichés that would constrain it. Director Michael Mann works like an impressionistic painter, giving us snatches of famous faces and incidents and using them to define the character of his title character (Will Smith, both charming and opaque), who exists in the middle like a negative space. It's a handheld epic, one that speaks in whispers and glances, yet as formally intriguing as that creative choice is, Ali remains fundamentally inert, its disdain for formula also compromising any potential for forward momentum. I think Mann can't quite let this one go - hence why the Blu-ray is so essential. It marks Mann's third significant Ali re-edit in sixteen years. If the 2001 theatrical version plays like a sorta-traditional sports picture, the 2004 director's cut adds a whole slew of social and political details about the 1960s, details that this "Commemorative Edition" emphasizes even further by eliding more of the straight boxing content. None of the three versions works all that well, and perhaps only a miniseries would have satisfied Mann's idiosyncratic whims. But Ali's story is so fascinating (and the time period so rich) that you understand Mann's obsession. Some things are just bigger than we mortals. Muhammad Ali certainly qualifies.


    4. Logan: If this violent superhero drama - presumably the last go-round for both Hugh Jackman's Wolverine and Patrick Stewart's Professor X - isn't the best comic-book movie of 2017 (my heart belongs to the effortlessly goofy Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2), then it's certainly the most important one, in terms of its potential impact on the medium. More than any of its graphic brutality (not that it matters, but this is not a movie for kids), Logan earns its darkness honestly. Director James Mangold respects the decay that his characters experience, whether he's lingering on Professor X's trembling dementia or the way that Wolverine's claws hurt him more and more every time they tear through his knuckles. Forget the bombastic misery of something like Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - Logan gives me hope that more filmmakers will adopt this kind of intimate, humane approach to our most beloved superheroes. The Blu-ray only reinforces this feeling. Mangold has included a gorgeous monochrome copy of the film that, if anything, is even more psychologically wrenching. It takes away everything we expect from these people, and that includes the color.


    5. Close Encounters of the Third Kind: I'm still not sold on 4K. Sure, the format opens up every immaculately rendered CGI epic from the last four years, but what's the purpose of the extra resolution on, say, lo-fi vintage content? However, Sony's Close Encounters restoration makes me optimistic for the format's future. Given the vastly disparate technical elements that impacted the film's production (I don't envy anyone who had to cobble together the work of seven different cinematographers as they juggled numerous reshoots, tons of challenging location footage, and costly practical effects), this sci-fi epic sometimes looks ragged on even the best 35mm projection, yet the 4K scan is a revelation. It hits the perfect balance between offering fine detail and honoring Steven Spielberg's fine-grained aesthetic. We feel like we're looking at a minutes-old print from 1977. Ultimately, though, these issues don't matter, and for the best of reasons: you're too busy marveling at the scope and intensity that Spielberg has wrought. I have to imagine for him, you could offer no finer compliment.


    6. Unforgiven: So it goes with Unforgiven, which is the second great 4K release of 2017. Tonally and stylistically, the film couldn't be more dissimilar from Close Encounters; director Clint Eastwood presents a lean, spare vision of the Old West that's most powerful when it's completely still. I'll never forget Eastwood's almost-whispered "It's a hell of a thing, killing a man" speech, or the way that Gene Hackman keeps mounting the tension as he talks to Saul Rubinek with little more than a too-big smile and his steadily narrowing eyes. Somehow, though, a film like Unforgiven legitimizes the possibilities of 4K better than a (brilliantly designed) effects show like Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The transfer respects Unforgiven's modest, rough-hewn nature, and so it becomes even more absorbing.


    7. 20th Century Women: Forget La La Land or Moonlight; this eccentric dramedy was the best film of 2016. For one, it's a hangout movie without peer. In telling the story of a Santa Barbara mother (Annette Bening, who'll never give a better performance) trying to connect with her teenage son (Lucas Jade Zumann), filmmaker Mike Mills gives us the freedom to drift in and around their orbit, whether we're spending time with Bening and Zumann or their many house guests: Greta Gerwig's spirited photographer, Elle Fanning's not-as-wise-as-she-thinks teenager, and Billy Crudup's sublimely decent handyman. Factor in the beautifully curated soundtrack (love the needle drops from the Talking Heads, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Suicide), and 20th Century Women starts feeling less like a movie and more like the chillest houseparty you'd ever hope to attend. This is an achingly lovely, wise movie about parents and children, about past and present, and you owe it to yourself to catch it on Blu-ray.


    8. Into the Night: Or, When A Fanboy's Dreams Come True. Regardless of what you think about him as a person (and here is neither the time nor the time to wade into past controversies), you can't deny director John Landis' impact on big-screen comedies. Yet as iconic as films like The Blues Brothers, Animal House, Trading Places, and The Kentucky Fried Movie are, I've always held a soft spot for this criminally underloved 1985 romp, which follows Jeff Goldblum's insomniac on a long, strange journey as he helps protect Michelle Pfeiffer's damsel-in-distress from a fleet of L.A. weirdoes. Outside of The Hateful Eight, Into the Night might be the tensest hang-out movie I've ever seen, and I certainly can't blame audiences for abandoning the picture back in '85, so jarringly does it transition from goofy comedy to shocking violence. Credit to Landis, though - he gives the film the texture of an ambient nightmare (tonally, Into the Night takes its cues from B.B. King's awesome title track), so if you're willing to get on its wavelength, you can glide along on the mayhem. I've never been able to shake Into the Night (I kinda sorta maybe embarrassed myself a little bit when I pressed Landis about an Into the Night Blu-ray during a Three Amigos-centric interview), but when you're repping the best "hipster-noir-screwball-conspiracy thrille[r]...of its kind," attention must be paid. Here's to Shout Factory for noticing.


    9. The Lost City of Z: By relegating AWARDS SEASON! to the fall, we risk losing track of whatever cinematic greatness that appeared pre-October. It happened with Zodiac back in 2007, and it's happening to The Lost City of Z now. Despite its March release, I've yet to see a more gripping and emotionally resonant picture. For director James Gray (The Immigrant, Two Lovers), this adventure represents some kind of high-water mark: its thrilling action and terrifying stakes (The Lost City of Z is easily Gray's most accessible picture) never come at the expense of Gray's characteristically nuanced eye for psychology and human behavior. To him, British explorer Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam, giving a revelatory performance) represents both extremes of human ambition. Yes, Fawcett pushed for authentic discovery at a time when his country still wanted to colonize every non-white population they could find (Fawcett always maintained the primacy of every indigenous culture he encountered), but he did so at the expense of his family, his status, and his sanity, and sometimes all at once. The film's haunting final shot suggests the infectious quality of ambition – we watch it spread far past anything Fawcett could have imagined. This is a Great Film, and if we have to work a little harder to make it stand out, then so be it.


    10. Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series: Apparently, Film Twitter is all a' twitter (see what I did there?) over a bunch of best-of lists qualifying this third Twin Peaks season as a movie (albeit an eighteen-hour-one) instead of as a TV show. To that, I say a) of course it's a TV show, and no amount of highfalutin' pretentions can change that fact, and b) it's still as arresting a media creation as I've seen all year. There is no middle ground with this one. You will either adore how David Lynch and Mark Frost have reconceived their cult TV hit, or you will loathe the series' willful disregard for convention in all its forms, but you'll know you've had an Experience either way. I fall squarely in the second camp. Lynch is so disinterested in ingratiating himself with audiences that the show simultaneously functions as an uncut slab of his subconscious (2006's Inland Empire now strikes me as far more accessible) as well as an act of grand trolling - he gives us characters and scenarios we think we know, only to subvert them to his own dark ends every time. This new Twin Peaks is a Showtime-financed art installation; it's an abstract horror show; it's the greatest possible venue for the glory that is Kyle MacLachlan. It's a singular, tortured masterwork.




Kenneth Brown: Best Blu-ray Releases


2017 wasn't a landmark year in film. There was a long string of good movies, but great films? Few and far between. Even so, there were enough strong Blu-ray and 4K UHD releases to once again make paring things down to a neat-n-tidy "Top Ten" quite difficult. I cheated as usual, finding ways to highlight nearly 40 titles, although I'm very satisfied with my primary selection of top titles. Two things you won't find on my list(s) that might leave you grumbling? First up, Logan. Apparently I'm the only one on the planet who did not enjoy what everyone else is calling a game-changing genre masterpiece. It had the right elements, it did. A comic-inspired No Country for Old Men? Sign me up. But after the Wolvie-led road crew leaves Vegas, the execution was lacking. Bomb drop: the third act has far more in common with *gasp* Wolverine: Origins than the film everyone else apparently watched. Must just be me. Send angry e-mails and PM's to, erm, Jeffrey Kauffman. You also won't find Wonder Woman on my lists, comic-movie junkie though I remain. I enjoyed it. I didn't love it. A tired all-too-literal opening sequence, modern day book ends, and a final villain tussle that amounted to a videogame cutscene (with a wholly unnecessary, nonsensical sacrifice from one of our heroes) dropped it out of the running. Again, maybe just me.

But enough backdoor apologies to comicbook super-fans. On with the lists. My primary Top Ten is ranked in a somewhat particular order, starting with my favorite film of the year. The additional titles and TV titles that follow my primary Top Ten are in alphabetical order:


    1. Get Out: Far and away my favorite film of the year. Jordan Peele's social thriller is an embarrassment of cross-genre riches. Frightening, funny and oh so timely, it's a topical horror masterpiece that, yes, just might be a timeless classic. Touching on issues of race in our modern political and cultural climate, Get Out subverts every subversion and delivers something truly original. Top it off with twists you won't see coming and some of the sharpest writing of any film this year and you have a must-see nail-biter worthy of a rare Oscar honor: a Best Picture nom for a horror movie. Both the Blu-ray and 4K UHD releases are excellent as well, with first-rate AV. Be sure to check out Peele's engaging and enlightening audio commentary to enrich your enjoyment of the film's themes and to discover all its classic-cinema easter eggs and more subtle references.


    2. Dunkirk: Though its three-timeline structure may add a hitch to first viewings for some (and perhaps prove a bit unnecessary), Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk captures the intensity, tension and suspense of war. You won't find a more unnerving sequence in 2017 than the one in which helpless soldiers huddle within the belly of a beached boat, hidden, as unsuspecting Germans fire on the hull for target practice. Restrained performances and minimalistic storytelling only enhance the proceedings, along with Van Hoytema's dazzling cinematography and Hans Zimmer's unsettling, ear-rattling score. The 4K UHD release might just boast the best video presentation of the year too, and the standard Blu-ray's no slouch either. Factor in incredible audio and a fine selection of supplements and you have one of the go-to, must-own releases of the year.


    3. La La Land: Say what you will, shrug your shoulders or rant to the heavens if you must, no release in 2017 tapped into all my feels like Damien Chazelle's Best Picture winner runner-up. No, Gosling didn't save jazz. (God bless SNL.) He and Emma Stone did win the affection of millions, though, and for good reason. Light and airy, yet simultaneously dark and heartbreaking, La La Land sang and danced its way into my heart with its snarky tit-for-tat build-up, charmingly unkempt vocals, and cynical romantic leanings. By film's end, you'll either be left shaking your proverbial fist (as did my less than pleased wife) or applauding Chazelle's unflinching resolve to present an honest relationship honestly. Dive into the special features for further revelations, including a look at Gosling learning piano specifically for the film.


    4. Star Wars: Rogue One: Shhh. Shhh. It'll be okay. You can still hate it if you want. But some of us? Some of us love Rogue One. Disney can give me as much Star Wars as they want, especially if they're going to take the time to do something different now and again. Complaints about the down-and-gritty guerilla war-outing have been overblown -- there's actually a great deal of character development with the leads, the Dirty Dozen-style suicide mission resonates, the CG characters aren't as offensive as critics insist, and OT plot hole fillers are a joy -- and that big scene with Darth Vader makes up for any sins you can manage to point to. This is how you do a Star Wars prequel and still retain the surprise of who will or won't survive, and how close a call the Rebels will have. Now if it only had a proper opening crawl...


    5. Arrival: For your fix in pure, meticulously conceived, high concept science fiction, look no further than Denis Villeneuve's quiet, thought-provoking alien invasion flick. From the outset, the eerily stoic spacecraft that arrive on Earth suggest this won't be your average sci-fi romp, and the lack of genre tropes (there isn't an overly aggressive military response, terrestrial war, or explosive climax) proves as refreshing as the screenplay is restrained. An excellent string of performances only elevate the film (courtesy of heavy lifters Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner), as does Villeneuve's flair for visual storytelling and remarkable imagery. The 4K release is an upscale, unfortunately, but don't let that stop you from enjoying the heights of a still-strong AV presentation.


    6. Spider-Man: Homecoming: Yet another Spidey reboot? Brace for mediocrity in 5... 4... wait, Homecoming sticks the landing? And then some. One of the best Phase Three MCU movies to date boasts lightning quick delivery from a terrifically assembled cast, some of the biggest and most satisfying comicbook laughs of the year, a memorable villain with a killer reveal waiting in the wings, near-seamless (and less distracting) connections to the rest of the Marvel film universe, and a ton of clever surprises. The sheer joy present on screen is infectious, minor characters are given wonderful moments in the spotlight, and a bright-eyed Tom Holland handily carves his initials into the world of the Avengers. The only downside? I had to choose between Homecoming and Doctor Strange, another fantastic MCU entry that, let's be honest, could have been a mess.


    7. Shot Caller: Writer/director Ric Roman Waugh's crime drama took me by complete surprise. In fact, if it weren't for a high user-review rating on Amazon, I might have overlooked it entirely. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau leads a strong cast (that includes Lake Bell and Jon Bernthal) in a nonlinear story about an average family man's descent into criminality. Sent to prison after a car accident leaves him charged with vehicular manslaughter, Coster-Waldau's Harlon (renamed "Money" by his institutionalized brethren) watches somewhat helplessly, somewhat dismissively as his sentence slowly expands due to various misdeeds, eventually to 17 long years. He loses his wife, his son and possibly even his soul. But it's the discovery of what transforms Harlon into Money that drives the story, as does the question of whether he'll ever find redemption.


    8. The Red Turtle: Michael Dudok de Wit's restrained, beautifully animated tale of survival may not be a full-fledged Studio Ghibli production (Wild Bunch co-produced), but it bears the heart and soul of one. It's also an unintended referendum of sorts on the flashpan CG spectacle that sometimes is modern animation. The Red Turtle will not only make you long for the days of hand-drawn artistry, it serves as a reminder that simplicity, form and nuance still matter and that animation isn't just for the kiddies. There's a sobering power and haunting realism in every frame and a startlingly human story at the center of what could have been a more traditional fantasy outing. Sony's Blu-ray release is stunning. There's even a solid set of special features for those eager to dig deeper into the film.


    9. Score: A Film Music Documentary: After a whiplash overview of the history of film scoring, Score settles into a well-balanced groove, tapping into decades of nostalgia and unforgettable movie themes to explore an under-seen, underappreciated corner of cinema. Iconic scores and legendary composers are at the forefront, but few stones are left unturned (even if they're sometimes turned over in too-quick succession). There's also a good deal of attention paid to the manner in which a good score functions within a film, the surprising turn-around times for even the best scores, and the differences in approach from composer to composer. My only real complaint is that Score is only 93 minutes. I'll take an in-depth multi-episode documentary series please...


    10. 4K Catalog Titles: Following Jeff and cheating with one of my entries! I was initially very, very skeptical of 4K UHD, convinced it would be a passing fad doomed to fade away. (Ahem, 3D.) This year, though, made me a believer. And it wasn't thanks to new theatrical releases hitting 4K Blu-ray, jaw-dropping as many a title may look. No, it was the wealth of painstakingly remastered catalog titles released in 2017 that blew me away. Several even made my wife a 4K convert. In no particular order: Unforgiven, Leon: The Professional, Blade Runner, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, A Few Good Men, E.T., 3:10 to Yuma, Dredd, Dracula, Ex Machina, the Harry Potter Collection, and the much-anticipated Christopher Nolan Collection.


    11+... I already cheated a bit with 4K catalog, so I may as well squeeze in a second tier of top titles. For the curious or the unsatisfied, let's call this The Next Ten:

    And because I can't stop, a list of my top television titles of the year. The TV Ten:





Martin Liebman: Best Blu-ray Releases


One unfortunate drawback of being a full-time Blu-ray disc reviewer is that there just aren't enough hours in the day to enjoy all that many releases outside the demanding schedule of the weekly review grind. As such, it's particularly challenging to personally keep up with the best of the releases handled by Blu-ray.com's entire review team, so with that in mind, the following "Top Ten" list for 2017 consists mainly of discs I've been privileged to review and spend the proper amount of time with to adequately and, hopefully correctly, judge. Needless to say, and as there always are, there are more than ten deserving releases even amongst this rather limited subset of 2017-released candidates, and narrowing the field down from an initial list of candidates compiled throughout the year proved no easy task.


    1. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story: Rogue One may not be a bastion of creative storytelling or thematic resonance, but it balances that difficult line between freshness and working around a known outcome; building up and concentrating on the how rather than the why. The movie is ridiculously entertaining and engaging, even if it's just a linear tale of action and espionage. It also more than makes up for its shortcomings with a remarkably well-versed recreation of the Star Wars universe, a particular challenge given its close proximity to A New Hope, easily the most recognizable and well-known in the franchise. The film's Blu-ray release is top-notch. AV is pristine and an entire second disc's worth of bonus content make this a must-own.


    2. Paterson: Just as Paterson's main character is a poet, so too is the film a form a cinematic poetry; an absolutely engrossing, impeccably crafted masterpiece of visual simplicity and contextual complexity, one of the most honest works of art the medium has produced in some time. Adam Driver is magnificent, one of the finest performances of the past few years across the cinema landscape. Universal's Blu-ray boasts excellent video and audio. No extras are included, but the film seems best left to speak for itself.


    3. The Walking Dead: The Complete Seventh Season: Even after seven seasons, The Walking Dead's magnetic intensity remains. Season seven focuses on two of the most well-rounded characters the show has seen yet in Negan and King Ezekiel, bedrocks of the season but, more, examples of the show's contrasting depictions of humanity in long-term crisis. It's ever-violent, one of the goriest seasons to be sure, beginning with one of the most intense hours of television one is ever going to find, and remaining briskly paced and intoxicating for the duration. The Walking Dead: The Complete Seventh Season's Blu-ray, now released through Lionsgate, is again excellent. Quality video, excellent lossless audio, and a well-rounded assortment of extras make this another must-own set.


    4. Brigsby Bear: Based on a story written by Kyle Mooney (who also stars in the lead role), Director Dave McCary's Brigsby Bear tells an honest, touching, and simple story of one's transitional place in the world and using his past and passions as a propellant to lead him into the next phase of his life. It's a quintessential uplifting, feel-good sort of story that, to use another overused but here spot-on advertising line, will move audiences to stand up and cheer. This is one of the best under-the-radar movies in some time.


    5. Sleight: Sleight certainly doesn't define "movie magic" in the traditional sense, but there's no mistaking its excellence in telling the story of a quasi-magician who uses his mechanical know-how to escape a dangerous, hopeless life. The film, from Director J.D. Dillard, escapes the death knells of genre repetition and partial unoriginality with well-defined characters, a novel approach to the story that puts a quasi-superhero spin on it, and world-class pacing. The film is a pleasure to watch, far better than many larger films with infinitely bigger budgets thanks to passionate filmmaking, smart writing, and crafty ingenuity, a welcome escape from the cookie-cutter crowd pleasers that infest today's multiplexes.


    6. Stranger Things: Season 1: Stranger Things is a modern classic, a quintessential retro show, an homage to so much moviemaking magic, a perfect assemblage of the best parts of so many concepts. A great score, exceptionally conceived characters, wonderful acting, plenty of intrigue, lighting-quick pacing, balanced scares, infectious humor...the show has it all. Season one runs a tidy eight episodes and its Blu-ray (featureless though it may be) boasts tip-top video and audio and awesome packaging. Prepare for shock and amazement and satisfaction and unadulterated childlike enthusiasm.


    7. Arrival: Director Denis Villeneuve's Arrival is a terrific film. It's smart. It doesn't engage in needless characterization, it doesn't bank on the sensation, it doesn't expend energy not required of it. It's sophisticated but accessible, a deep thinking man's film that opens itself up to a variety of interpretations, challenges, and has the potential to resonate with audiences who give it serious thought. It's more stable than Interstellar, more grounded than Contact. It certainly approaches Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and perhaps considering its greater focus and sense of purpose, maybe it is the better film. There's no right or wrong answer, but the movie certainly makes for a terrific watch and represents a breath of fresh air in a stuffy landscape of repurposed and largely mindless cinema.


    8. Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie: Captain Underpants is a blast. The humor is infectious, the story is silly, the voice actors are wonderful, and stale humor is brought to life thanks to the characters' lovable enthusiasm for it. And that's not even touching on the superhero stuff, the wonderful Superman-inspired origins story the boys create, and all of Underpants' comical antics, whether on his own or as the boys must snap him back into hero mode every time he gets wet. The movie just never relents. It's a joy and one of the year's best little surprises. Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie's Blu-ray release also features A-grade video and audio.


    9. Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series: Was it worth the wait? Absolutely. This new 18-episode continuation of the classic 1990s television show is not for newcomers but rather the seasoned fan who has been waiting decades for the return to the outlandish, curious, kooky, and carefully and loving constructed world of Twin Peaks. Much has changed, much remains the same. The show requires dedication, patience, and perhaps more than anything else a firm understanding by way of recent viewing of the original material. It's well worth it; this is sprawling, engaging excellence on both ends, the beginning probably more accessible and enjoyable than this end but... it's all one heck of an amazing ride. Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series comes to Blu-ray via an eight-disc set that boasts wonderful picture and sound qualities and a monumental collection of extras.


    10. Born in China: No matter where and no matter when, life and the basics of how it's lived is a common, uniting theme throughout the world and amongst its many species. It's a simplistic truism, but rarely has it been made more lovingly clear than in Born in China, a fun and touching documentary. Amidst a parade of cute and cuddly animals and fun hi-jinx is a tender tale that reminds audiences that man and animal share so much in common, not only the planet on which they live but the heart and base emotions that define who they are. It's gentle but meaningful family entertainment and a welcome reprieve from today's dour headlines and vacuous cinema, a reminder of what's good, but also true, about the world and the life cycle that really puts many things in a different perspective.


    11+... And because there were too many other good releases this year, below is a list of honorable mentions; other titles that made the short list but couldn't crack my top ten:




    Finally, a top five list of the 4K UHD Blu-ray releases I've personally reviewed this year:





Dr. Stephen Larson: Best Blu-ray Releases


The following are ten 2017 releases (most of which I personally reviewed) that I felt deserved a spotlight:


    1. Dunkirk: Nolan erects a colossal WWII epic that beyond its grand scale, concentrates on the heroism of a small group. This is an ultra-visceral experience supplemented by a precise and clockwork score by Hans Zimmer. The lossless audio on the BD and 4K showcase the thunderous ruptures of the movie's piercing sound design.


    2. Get Out: Peele's revisionist take on the horror thriller also has a lot to say about race in some of the most subliminal ways.


    3. The Light Between Oceans: Cianfrance's sweeping romance is made on the scale of a David Lean period film and boasts heart-wrenching performances from Fassbender and Vikander.


    4. The Lost City of Z: James Gray is one of America's best directors and this archaeological expedition is the latest exemple of his still-expanding repertoire.


    5. Misery: One of my favorite psychological thrillers has received a very fine 4K scan and a pair of new interviews.


    6. Poltergeist II: The Other Side: This highly enjoyable sequel to a classic ghost story is packed with bountiful extras.


    7. Robocop 2: One of the very best sequels in any movie franchise receives the deluxe upgrade it so long deserved.


    8. Three O'Clock High: A bonafide eighties classic is ripe for rediscovery in this superb Collector's Edition.


    9. Trespass: One of Walter Hill's most underrated films gets an upgrade in this action-packed release.


    10. Your Name: One of the most visually striking anime titles I've seen is given a gorgeous transfer along with some nice extras.




Dr. Svet Atanasov: Best North American Blu-ray Releases


This year I was once again impressed with the variety of excellent releases the independent labels produced. I could not see everything I wanted to see because there were so many of them in different markets, but I really like the trend -- excellent restorations of minor classics, favorite genre films and even important documentary films are revealed every month and are later on released on Blu-ray. From North America:


    1. 100 Years of Olympic Films 1912-2012 (Criterion): When in 2013 Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman arrived on the market I thought that it would remain the most ambitious Blu-ray project ever undertaken. It was just one of those dream releases that even many Zatoichi fans did not think could materialize – but it did, and what a special treat it turned out to be. Well, for approximately a month now I have been going through Criterion's 100 Years of Olympic Films 1912-2012 32-disc box set and I have to say that it is an even more ambitious project. The wealth of content that was gathered for it is beyond overwhelming.


    2. Stalker (Criterion): Another dream release. For years film lovers have been hoping to get a proper home video release of Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker and earlier this year the folks at Criterion delivered big time. This film is a timeless masterpiece and there is no doubt in my mind that this very beautiful release will end up being one of the high-definition format's greatest gifts to film lovers.


    3. Letter from an Unknown Woman: Signature Edition (Olive Films): I placed Olive Films' first release of Max Ophuls' Letter From an Unknown Woman on my yearly list back in 2012, and this year I have chosen the label's new Signature Edition of this incredible film. The new 4K restoration that was used to source the release is everything that a long-time admirer of the film could have hoped for. Brilliant presentation and release. Thank you yet again, Olive Films.


    4. The Violent Years (AGFA): Bad girls, worse script, and a hailstorm of bullets. What's not to like? As far as American trash cinema is concerned, it just does not get any better. This is classic Ed Wood material of the highest caliber. And, the folks at AGFA produced a real stunner. Their release is sourced from an immaculate 4K restoration that makes viewing Violent Years a very special experience. Absolutely fantastic release.


    5. Liquid Sky & My Chauffeur (Vinegar Syndrome): If a year or two ago it might have only looked like Vinegar Syndrome is likely to emerge as a serious boutique label, now it should be painfully obvious that it is actually one of the very best to ever operate in North America. The people that run this label have a crystal clear understanding of what high-quality means and even more importantly what collectors expect when they decide to invest in a Blu-ray release. No other label delivers fantastic releases of B-films as consistently as Vinegar Syndrome does.

    This year I am going to mention two releases that I like a lot because one of them had only a limited run – which is a practice that I don't like – though there is a standard re-release coming up early next year. The first is Slava Tsukerman's retro mind-bender Liquid Sky, which was recently restored and looks stunning on Blu-ray.

    The second is David Beaird's My Chauffeur, a perfect independent low-budget comedy produced by Crown International Pictures, which was also recently restored and looks immaculate on Blu-ray. Keep up the good work, Vinegar Syndrome.


    6. Rat Fink (Retromedia): Here's yet another dream release. It is a small miracle that Rat Fink reemerged after more than fifty years of being a 'lost film'. I think that it is every bit as daring, authentic and unapologetic, and ultimately even better than the various nouvelle vague films that were produced in France during the 1960s. Frankly, with a few lucky breaks Schuyler Haydn could have been as big of a star as James Dean was. Rat Fink was remastered from the only surviving elements for this release.


    7. The Killer is Loose (ClassicFlix): A cracking film noir from the great director Budd Boetticher, which I have been hoping to upgrade for a long time. The release comes from newcomer ClassicFlix -- though the folks that run the label are anything but newcomers -- which has been working hard to either remaster or restore some absolutely incredible films. Look up the upcoming releases of Anthony Mann's Raw Deal and Henry Kesler's 5 Steps to Danger.


    8. Bad Day at Black Rock (Warner Bros.): Here's a great example of the type of quality films that Hollywood forgot how to make. Of course it's got some real stars, too. The folks at Warner Archive remastered Bad Day at Black Rock and the end result is great. One of the year's best releases.


    9. The Big Knife (Arrow): Odd but true. This very nice release of Robert Aldrich's The Big Knife turned out to be one of the most relevant releases this year. See the film to find out why. Classic.


    10. The Lure (Criterion): When Agnieszka Smoczynska mentions in one of the documentaries that are included on this release that the two sirens in The Lure essentially represent her generation, the thirty-somethings, which experienced the ugliness and absurdity of communism as well as the unbearable frustration and anger that were inseparable parts of it, I know exactly what she means. Her brilliant directorial debut is a reminder of that almost surreal reality of extreme contrasts that Poland was forced to endure while being part of the now defunct Soviet Bloc, and in a way a very unique warning not to forget it. Of course, it is also one utterly wild and entertaining film that has introduced to the world a young director with an incredible imagination and style.


    10+ Wagon Tracks (Olive Films): I am breaking the rules, but I absolutely have to sneak in this release on my list. Releases such as Wagon Tracks are the reason why I like Olive Films' catalog so much. The film, which is approximately 100 years old, is an absolute treasure that offers a fascinating glimpse at a remarkable period of America's history. Please consider adding it to your collections.