New to Blu: June 14 – 20

The top-selling disc in the US, X-Men instalment Logan, makes its mark here on 4K-UHD and Blu-ray the same week two popular franchises are dusted off for 4K-UHD.

“I gave top marks to Logan‘s 1080p Blu-ray presentation, and that excellence is continued and arguably magnified in the 4K UHD version,” Blu-ray.com said.

“Perhaps because this was finished at a 4K DI, there’s a quite noticeable uptick in fine detail levels throughout both the standard theatrical release and the (in my not so humble opinion) kind of needless black and white Logan Noir version.”

“The native 4K resolution really makes a difference,” concurred The Digital Bits.

“Even shot through anamorphic lenses, the image is crisp and loaded with detail fine detail and texturing, plus the shallower anamorphic depth of field – not to mention the way the light interacts with the glass – renders a lovely cinematic image.”

“Colours look marvellous and the black levels in the film are inky and consistent throughout, providing quality contrast,” DVD Talk said of the “fantastic” Blu-ray transfer.

“Shadow delineation is good and the image is devoid of haloing or smoothing.”

Also new on 4K-UHD are Split, which was released last month on Blu-ray (and surprisingly doesn’t appear to be getting a US release on 4K-UHD), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and the Despicable Me duo (which are the first movies to come out on disc with a Dolby Vision viewing option).

“Playback of these discs on a Dolby Vision-capable 4K Blu-ray player such as the Oppo 203 reveals a level of picture quality beauty in the already colourful digital graphics of Despicable Me 1 and 2 that really outshines HDR10 on every level,” 4K.com said.

“Colours look incredibly rich with lots of fine shading detail which previously wouldn’t even be visible and tones of shadowing in both colours and all contrast variations of both movies are remarkably fine.”

Rejuvenated for Blu-ray are The Jerk (“pretty fuzzy and ill defined”), Idle Hands (“a stellar transfer of the film and presented well by Umbrella Entertainment”) and the 40th anniversary edition of Smokey and the Bandit (“quite satisfactory and is definitely the only release of the movie worth owning”).

Going direct to disc are: End of a Gun (“perfectly serviceable for what it is”), Rings (“top-notch new release presentation”), Mythica: The Iron Crown and Railroad Tigers.