The 9 best new Blu-rays this month

April is filled with great movies, new and old, coming to Blu-ray and 4K UHD. A five-film anthology from one of the greatest living directors hits physical media for the first time, a number of Star Trek movies are getting the 4K treatment, and Michelle Yeoh’s most dangerous stunt can now be admired in the knowledge that she survives, makes many more great movies and wins an Oscar.

Here’s how our monthly Blu-ray and 4K curation works: In an effort to help you find your next favorite discs, we’re compiling a list of our most anticipated releases each month. We haven’t had the opportunity to try these discs yet, but if you want the formal thumbs up, don’t worry – in the coming months we’ll be starting our ongoing list of the best Blu-rays and 4K UHD discs of the year . But each of these releases has potential and comes from a label we’ve enjoyed in the past.

Our most anticipated April 2023 Blu-ray

Small axe (Blu-ray) – April 25

I’m convinced that Steve McQueen (the living director, not the deceased actor) would be a household name if it weren’t for horrific studio marketing decisions. A true multihyphenate, McQueen won the Turner Prize and worked as an official war artist in Iraq for making his first feature film. That movie, from 2008 Hungry, premiered at Cannes and won McQueen the Caméra d’Or – making him the first British director to do so. He followed with Shame And 12 years slavethe latter won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

McQueen’s work only got better, but his films, paradoxically, became more commercial and less visible. widows is one of the best thrillers of the past decade, co-written by Missing girl writer Gillian Flynn, and features an absolutely bonkers ensemble cast of mega-celebrities: Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Colin Farrell, Brian Tyree Henry, Daniel Kaluuya… The list goes on. But the trailers were terrible, and after a mediocre box office, it almost seemed to be abandoned by the distributor.

Small axe is McQueen’s most ambitious project to date. In 2020, the director collaborated with BBC and Amazon Studios to create an anthology of five films about the experience of West Indian life in London from the 1960s through the 1980s. It’s romantic and thrilling and inspiring and heartbreaking and fun and maddening and an incomparable clash of feelings that’s only possible within its epic 405-minute runtime. I’m having trouble describing it. Unfortunately, so did Amazon when it debuted on the company’s streaming service.

Happy, now is your chance to enjoy this underrated masterpiece. Speaking of underrated masterpieces on Amazon that deserve the physical media treatment, how do we convince Criterion to do this The Underground Railway next one?

The Criterion Edition of Small axe features new 2K masters, new conversations between McQueen and writer Paul Gilroy, a three-part documentary about the 1981 New Cross house fire, and more.

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The major Blu-ray and 4K releases from April 2023

Image: Paramount

flash dance (4K UHD + Blu-ray + Digital) – April 11

Adrian Lyne is best known for his famous (and infamous) sexual thrillers, such as 9½ weeks, Fatal attractionAnd Infidelity. But his first studio film may be the funniest and most joyfully sexy.

To celebrate its 40th anniversary, Paramount made a donation flash dance the 4K treatment. If you haven’t seen it Flash danceIf you’ve already seen at least one of the countless parodies of the most iconic series. An 18-year-old woman divides her time as a welder by day and as an exotic dancer by night. She has one dream: to go to a dance conservatory. The melodramatic story would stumble if Jennifer Beals wasn’t incredibly cool.

The two-disc set contains a handful of featurettes about Lyne, the flash dance aesthetic, and how the film inspired a cultural moment.

Midnight run (4K UHD + Blu-ray) – April 4

A bounty hunter, played by Robert De Niro, must lug a mob-bound accountant across the country in five days, avoiding being stopped by assassins and the FBI along the way. The premise is deceptively simple. When Midnight run premiered in 1988, a number of critics placed the action comedy as a derivative genre. It was the misstep in director Martin Brest’s hot streak sandwiched between ultra-hit Beverly Hills agent and Oscar winner Fragrance of a woman.

Midnight run has benefited from decades of distance from its contemporaries, which it towers above. Robert De Niro gives 110% to one of his silliest roles and the late Charles Grodin stands as a surprisingly confident counterpoint to his sassy scene partner – despite looking like a dad who lost his luggage on his way to a corporate retreat.

With an abundance of top-notch action sequences and some truly beautiful framing of American landscapes, the film should benefit from the UHD upgrade. The 4K Blu-ray from the trusty Shout Select label contains six interviews, including conversations with De Niro and Grodin, along with a vintage making-of featurette.

Cowboy Bebop 25th anniversary (4K UHD + Blu-ray) – April 4

Limited edition

Special edition

Cowboy Bebop experienced a minor cultural revival a few years ago when Netflix remade the iconic anime series as a live-action season of streaming TV. But reviews were, to be generous, mixed, the show was ignored and the conversation spread Cowboy Bebop erupted. Hopefully the 25th anniversary will remind longtime fans just how special this western space really is. And for newcomers, good news: the show holds up amazingly well. Unlike so many influential media outlets, which can feel overly familiar after decades of rip-off, Cowboy Bebop remains as fresh and daring as 25 years ago.

Crunchyroll’s releases come in two flavors: limited and special editions. Both contain all 26 episodes, plus hours of commentary, interviews and featurettes. The limited edition includes a metal box with interchangeable cover art and a “never-before-seen 25th anniversary video”.

Wings of Disaster: The Birdemic Trilogy (Blu-ray) – April 4

That Birdemic: shock and terror surviving the obscurity of so many low-budget horror movies was a stroke of luck. That writer and director James Nguyen was able to turn the cult status of the first film into a legitimate trilogy is a miracle. And that said trilogy would warrant a gorgeous box set with about 13 hours of special features – that defies the power of words.

In addition to last month’s release of violent streets, an incomparable collection of Italian crime films, makes Severin’s Wings of Disaster collection one of the best labels in physical media. The work is thorough and without irony, giving TLC to works that would otherwise be ignored or thrown onto the market with little care.

Star Trek: The Next Generation 4K Movie Collection – April 4

Many of the classic Star Trek movies are already available in 4K, but this is the first time that ’90s kids will have the satisfaction of seeing their age get the UHD upgrade: Star Trek: Generations, Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: RebellionAnd Star Trek: Nemesis.

The collection contains a wealth of bonus features, including commentaries, roundtables, featurettes, and a mini-documentary about industrial light and magic. Personally, I’m extremely excited to watch text commentary from Michael and Denise Okuda.

The bullet train (Blu ray) – April 24

This one is a bit tricky. No, it’s not the Brad Pitt movie. And no, it won’t work on a Region-A Blu-ray player. But if you have the ability to watch Region-B Blu-rays (or have access to a universal Blu-ray player), it should be high on your to-buy list.

Outstanding British label Eureka brings to Blu-ray a 2K restoration of the hard-to-find 1975 action film. Though you’ve probably never heard of this Bullet trainyou almost certainly saw the movie that inspired it: Speed. A bad guy plants a bomb on a train that will explode if the train drops below 50 miles per hour. It’s up to a train conductor, played by the legendary Sonny Chiba, to save the day.

The release includes both the original Japanese and alternate dubbed international versions, new audio commentary, a bundle of interviews and more. Without the limitations of Region-B, this would be my top pick of the month. As it is, it’s a very good reason to find out how to watch Blu-rays from around the world.

If you are a hardcore 4K and Blu-ray person, this universal player splits the difference between cheap players and the ultra-expensive (diminishing returns) options.

Police Story 3: Super Cop (4K UHD + Blu-ray) – April 25

If you’ve only heard one thing about it super cop, it’s probably Quentin Tarantino’s quote. said the director super cop has filmed “the biggest stunts in any movie, and that includes Buster Keaton.” And he’s right! But the quote doesn’t reflect how hard this movie is going.

Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh almost died jumping from the roof of a speeding truck onto the windshield of a convertible. The danger was not falling off the car (which Yeoh did) but the two cars that nearly ran her over. She performed the stunt multiple times, even after co-star Jackie Chan felt she was trying enough and should move on.

Yeoh has made so many great action movies that it’s hard to recommend just one. super cop is as good as any place to start. Yeoh and Chan team up to beat the snot at a bunch of bad guys and give them everything they’ve got – literally.

The murder office (Blu-ray) – April 27

I had never heard of it Murder Bureau before reading about this release. Now I can’t wait to see it. Here’s The Elevator Pitch: A comedic caper set against World War I shot in Technicolor by Geoffrey Unsworth, who had served as director of photography on 2001: A space odyssey. Seriously, just watch the original trailer.

How did I miss this? I think the Arrow label knows this is the question, since the disc contains a featurette listed as “Right Film, Wrong Time, a 30-minute appreciation by critic, broadcaster, and cultural historian Matthew Sweet.”