The Physical Media High Council Awards

The Thing 1982

Chris's conversion disc: the John Carpenter 4K where you can see individual grains of snow.

2001: A Space Odyssey 1968

A 'Papa Movie Night' pick that played like gangbusters for Tim's 13-year-olds.

The Conversation 1974

The $80 StudioCanal 4K with a cassette of the score. Sean's line in the sand on gouging, though everyone bought it anyway.

Escape from New York 1981

The handmade New York skyline that somehow looks better, not worse, in 4K.

Weapons 2025

Tracy's solo matinee, and the episode's running 'better than Weapons' punchline.

Star Wars 1977

The original 1977 cut you can't buy on disc; the new CGI 'sucks.'

Fight Club 1999

The 4K reportedly delayed because Fincher won't sign off on it.

Se7en 1995

Fincher dusting Kevin Spacey's glasses lenses: 'maniac shit.'

Children of Men 2006

The blood-on-the-lens oner nobody wants digitally cleaned up.

The Silence of the Lambs 1991

The out-of-focus Jodie Foster shots that remind you a human made it.

The Manchurian Candidate 1962

Out-of-focus Sinatra shots kept as a happy accident.

Killers of the Flower Moon 2023

Tracked down on the Italian 4K.

The Killer 2023

The Netflix-licensing question mark on ever owning it.

Rescue Dawn 2006

The Herzog kick with his wife that started Sean on box sets.

Little Dieter Needs to Fly 1997

The Herzog doc behind Rescue Dawn, one of his best.

Stroszek 1977

The White Diamond 2004

The French Connection 1971

The original that spawned the whole Polizia genre. Friedkin knew all about it.

Public Enemies 2009

Blackhat 2015

The Michael Mann role Tracy turned down; looks prescient now.

Kind Hearts and Coronets 1949

Tracy's 'just give in' parable: he's bought it seven times up the format ladder.

Sorcerer 1977

The Criterion 4K Sean pre-ordered instantly, twice by accident.

Barquero 1970

The not-great Lee Van Cleef western Tracy won't be upgrading.

Lifeguard 1976

Fun City Editions; Sam Elliott has maybe never looked better.

Possession 1981

Umbrella 4K; Isabelle Adjani going all the way, now riding a Jenna Ortega bump.

Wake in Fright 1971

Umbrella 4K; source of Tim's 'we're gonna go Yabba' inside joke.

City on Fire 1987

Shout's Hong Kong Classics debut; young Chow Yun-fat, and a bigger influence on Reservoir Dogs than you knew.

Taking Off 1971

Carlotta's French disc of Milos Forman's first American film; Buck Henry's hilarious in it.

The Third Man 1949

The case that plays the zither theme when you open it.

The Servant 1963

StudioCanal 4K of the Losey/Dirk Bogarde film, startling to look at.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly 1966

Arrow 4K; Eastwood always sells the format.

Duck, You Sucker 1971

The Leone still stranded on Blu-ray while the rest get upgraded.

Once Upon a Time in the West 1968

I Never Sang for My Father 1970

The centerpiece of Imprint's Hackman Film Focus set; not otherwise available in the US.

Bite the Bullet 1975

The Domino Principle 1977

March or Die 1977

Cruising 1980

Arrow 4K of the Pacino film, Tracy's giveaway to Chris.

My Neighbor Totoro 1988

Shout steelbook; Tim's case for discs that look beautiful on the shelf.

Porco Rosso 1992

The Castle of Cagliostro 1979

The lone Miyazaki steelbook out of print (the Lupin the Third one).

Sympathy for the Underdog 1971

Radiance; the Fukasaku Yakuza film Chris thinks may be a new all-timer for him.

Choice of Arms 1981

The Depardieu/Montand highlight of Radiance's Alain Corneau hard-boiled set.

Cotton Comes to Harlem 1970

Ossie Davis's directorial debut and the blueprint for Shout's blaxploitation sets.

Coffy 1973

Sheba, Baby 1975

Friday Foster 1975

Foxy Brown 1974

Slaughter 1972

Slaughter's Big Rip-Off 1973

Hell Up in Harlem 1973

Black Caesar 1973

Across 110th Street 1972

Truck Turner 1974

Sean's favorite in the set: Isaac Hayes, directed by the late Jonathan Kaplan, in 4K.

Dirty Harry 1971

Never looked better, if not quite reference quality.

The Outlaw Josey Wales 1976

Reference-quality 4K steelbook.

Pale Rider 1985

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World 2003

No Country for Old Men 2007

Inside Llewyn Davis 2013

Double Indemnity 1944

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood 2019

Wrath of Man 2021

Chris's 'LA no more canon': deliberately slow Guy Ritchie, and he loves it.

The Covenant 2023

Narc 2002

Yourself and Yours 2016

The Last Stop in Yuma County 2023

The Jim Cummings diner-invasion crime picture.

Happiness 1998

Wanda 1970

An Unmarried Woman 1978

Lilies of the Field 1963

Kino; the only Blu-ray of it, and Tracy once played the lead in a whitewashed stage version.

King Kong 1976

The Jessica Lange 4K Sean claims as a giveaway.

Kingdom of Heaven 2005

Chris blind-bought the director's-cut steelbook; one of his favorites of the century.

Barry Lyndon 1975

A big Criterion 4K upgrade.

This Is Spinal Tap 1984

Sean broke the embargo on the new Criterion, timed to the sequel.

Pee-wee's Big Adventure 1985

Just announced for the Criterion Collection.

The Graduate 1967

One of the few Mike Nichols films with a nice edition.

Carnal Knowledge 1971

The Mike Nichols outlier that got two editions, Indicator and Criterion, worth double-dipping.

Choose Me 1984

Alan Rudolph, finally on Criterion.

Remember My Name 1978

The Geraldine Chaplin film Sean revisited, a bracing rediscovery.

Cemetery Man 1994

The Severin disc Chris finally caved and bought.

The Adventures of Robin Hood 1938

The most famous of the Warner Archive Errol Flynn / Curtiz six-film set.

The Sea Hawk 1940

Objective, Burma! 1945

Adventures of Don Juan 1948

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House 1948

Tracy's example of the old face-on-the-cover DVD multipacks.

Witness 1985

Tracy's spare 4K, gifted on air: 'can I get a witness?'

Diary of a Chambermaid 1964

Kino; the only Blu-ray of the Buñuel, left out of both the Criterion and Radiance box sets.

Clean and Sober 1988

Warner Archive, no frills; the sober film Tracy says gets it right, and a great Keaton performance.

The Searchers 1956

Warner Archive pivoting to 4K.

High Society 1956

Coneheads 1993

A Kino Lorber 4K Tracy has 'no shame' about buying on sale.

The Warriors 1979

Chris needs the 4K, not the comic-book director's cut that ruins the movie.

Night Moves 1975

The Criterion of the Arthur Penn/Hackman film, watched on a Tuesday-night Hackman run.

Match Point 2005

Found on YesAsia; nobody's putting the Woody Allen film out otherwise.

Vixen! 1968

Severin's Russ Meyer 4K; Erica Gavin, and Kerry's verdict: 'that's an aesthetic.'

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia 1974

New Shout Select 4K of the much-purchased Peckinpah.

Last Year at Marienbad 1961

Kino 4K, reference quality.

Hiroshima mon amour 1959

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage 1970

The CCC-produced Argento that anchors the lineage from Edgar Wallace krimi to giallo to the slasher.

Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS 1975

The grindhouse pre-order Chris is a little embarrassed to own.

Let's Scare Jessica to Death 1971

Vinegar Syndrome; an under-recognized key to American horror.

Bang the Drum Slowly 1973

Vinegar Syndrome's Cinematograph disc; early De Niro, and for Tracy the best baseball movie ever made.

Gushing Prayer 1971

The bracing Masao Adachi film Terror Vision mailed Sean unprompted.

End of the Line 2007

Terror Vision's Canadian subway-cult horror.

To Live and Die in L.A. 1985

Arrow UK; William Petersen's break, and a stack of stolen-footage stories.

Page Eight 2011

First of David Hare's Worricker spy trilogy with Bill Nighy, off streaming, worth owning.

Turks & Caicos 2014

Salting the Battlefield 2014