I stopped buying blurays in general a few years ago, except for the rare release that has specific nostalgia for me, like the most recent Project A-ko re-release, for example. Recently though I've been looking, and if the sale is right, buying certain 4K blurays again (I've bought 2, lol. 1917 and I got Battle Angel Alita real cheap), even before this whole Sony digital debacle, though I've been thinking about it more now specifically because of this.
Anyway, there are films that are perfect for showing off that new TV many have purchased over this holiday, or through a previous sale (right before the Super Bowl is when you will find the absolute best deals historically), and I'm curious if anyone has a go to film to test, or show off, that nice new screen?
Of the films I already own, I think the top 2 for me are, Mad Max Fury Road, and Pacific Rim. Regardless of how you feel about these movies (they're both fucking fantastic!), they absolutely pop with color contrast, and detail that really shows off what an OLED or nice screen with a ton of local dimming zones can do. I realized that I haven't watched Pacific Rim in years, specifically since upgrading my TV, and now after rewatching...wow! I remember when it came out (specifically the 4k bluray) people were saying how great it looks on screens that can hit at least 1000 nit peak brightness, which is considered the base for proper HDR utilization, and a lot of TVs can do this now.
Long story short, it looks fucking outstanding! It's a dark film, but any tech on screen is nothing but crazy neon digital future tech stuff that just looks ridiculously good, and is almost eye piercing with its brightness.
Once again, is there a go to (the original Avatar was probably the best standard Bluray back before 4K and Oled became more standard, imo. At least on my previous TV) that you'd say is a great "show off" movie to...well, show off what your screen can do? I know there's a bunch I haven't seen.
in reply to @Streetmagik's post:
Those would literally be my top 2 answers! Fury Road and Pacific Rim look excellent.
Couple other highlights for me would be The Thing and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
The Thing! It's absolutely an amazing film. Is the 4k really better? I don't own it, so I'm thinking about it regardless, ha.
Now I'm thinking about my second favorite film of all time (Robocop is no.1 for me), Big Trouble in Little China, because of Kurt Russell. I have the old DVD, but I'm absolutely going to look for those 2!
Thanks!
Frankly, I've only ever seen The Thing in 4k! I had never seen it, but I picked up the 4k Blu ray on a sale a year or two ago. Watched it. Loved it. But, I can't say how it compares to other formats.
Semi-related but it makes me incredibly happy to read that people are still watching The Thing for the first time and enjoying it, even ~4 decades from its release. Carpenter is the best.
(More related: I own The Thing on standard Blu-ray and it seemed like a good conversion but I'm not an expert on these things. I also own zero 4K BDs so I have no comparison point there 😅)
Planes Trains is a good 4k get if you want to show off over an hour of never-before-seen deleted scenes
It's honestly been forever since I've seen it. I should at least give it another watch. I was a Steve Martin fan as a kid.
Thor Ragnarok was the movie that made me get a blu ray player. It was insane just how compressed the DVD looked by comparison. Ive heard that Rocky Horror Picture Show really pops on blu ray though, so probably that.
Yeah, Thor Ragnarok, similar to Guardians of the Galaxy 2, pops with all the neon colors. I have those 2, though funny I haven't seen the newest Thor film.
Dunkirk, Tenet, Interstellar, Dark knight rises. When those Imax scenes hit and fill the whole screen. Especially the first two.
Blade runner 2049, the Shining, 2001 Space odyssey, willy wonka the og version, Jaws, The thing,
Tim Burton Batman, but maybe because thats what I grew up with.
I dunno about 4k since I still have to make the jump (my tv was and old model even when I bought it back in 2015), but I remember when a friend was showing me the then new OLED technology with a bluray, I think the movie was "the neon demon", there's a scene where the screen goes black and poof!the tv disappeared in the darkened room, no backlight, no slightly-grey-black, just blackness. I'm still impressed to this day.
Never heard of it, but I know what you mean. Because an oled can have perfect blacks it doesn't need to have as high of a peak brightness to show off. That's what I meant about Pacific Rim, parts of the screen can be completely dark while other parts are popping off with neon lights without bleeding or banding. It's pretty, ha ha.
Taxi Driver's 4K release is extremely good, very good treatment of the film grain.
Make sure it's the actual 4K release, not the 'Mastered in 4K' thing
Yeah, some films have multiple editions and it can be hard to tell what the actual differences are sometimes. I'll look into it though.