2024: Your Personal Year In Review For Bd/UHD

[Mose Harper]

With only a couple weeks of releases left, I think it's been enough time to take stock of the year's output.
As opposed to the usual Ten Best List, I'm curious to see how the year broke down in different categories for you.
I'm am looking more for lists rather than essays. But the lists are your own personal criteria, and feel free to come up with multiple lists.
And if you do want to provide annotations to specific titles or the lists in general, all the better.

And since there are still at least a few big titles left to dribble out, feel free to allow for revisions.

I'll use the second post to provide my lists and a practical example of what I'm looking for. Feel free to use or depart from any of those categories for your own lists.

[Mose Harper]

Favorite Releases Purchased in 2024- New or Catalog



Favorite Upgrades Purchased in 2024





Best New Discoveries Made In 2024

• Radiance - I purchased my first title from this label in '23, but didn't watch it till this year. Owning to the availability of the label's titles in the Target sales, I ended up going almost all in on the catalog in short order. I've only made my way through a few but so far haven't been disappointed by any, and have been overall much impressed with the selection, curation, and presentation of every one. They definitely have my attention going forward.

• Nowhere In Africa (Kino) - This release came out some years ago and was sitting on my shelf for many of them. I bought this hoping it would slake my yearning for a release of Chocolat. With the release of that finally imminent this past spring, I finally decided to watch this. While on the surface they mine some similar territory (Africa seen through the eyes of a colonialist authority's child) they deviate in some substantial ways as well.
Being able to watch Chocolat again via better media, was a bittersweet experience. At this point, NiA, while more conventional (sentimental) in a lot of ways, couldn't help but feel like a deeper experience all around.

• Claudine (Criterion) - Never heard of it until Criterion released it. Being a fan of Carroll, Jones, and small 70's character based dramas I was willing to give it a shot. It was honestly better than I hoped it would be. Watching it, the word that kept coming to mind was "raw". The reviewer here picked up on that too. Performances across the board were excellent, especially from the child actors, all of whom came across as natural. Particular kudos to Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs who fully sells a frequently abrasive character fully relatable on multiple levels.

Most Disappointing Purchase(s)

Maybe not disappointing so much as frustrating- Arrow's Coffin Joe set at the beginning of the year. I'm still hounding them to replace the one disc with the sub issue.
I'll be firing off another email tomorrow.





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[Driver78]

I don't keep track of what I purchase throughout the year so for me it wouldn't be an easy task to come up with a list or overview. Such a list would have to be created from memory and that gets less reliable the older I get What I can offer in lieu of a list is my thoughts on individual labels and how they fared overall.

Shout! Studios. Good start to the year with Funeral Home, an independent one-off by all accounts so perhaps it shouldn't count, but Cliff and Jeff's departures I felt left a void at the company which perhaps lead to a change of strategy from whomever is running that dept. now. Far too many upgrades of modern films, and re-releases in general. They've let a lot of good titles go to other labels - something some folks may consider a good thing - but to me it signals a loss of interest on their part. If a label loses interest in the sort of movies you enjoy, that's like a kiss of death. Bottom line: 4K is a fantastic format so I welcome the upgrades but there needs to be a balance.

Kino Lorber. If I were to a do a count by label of how many titles I own, Kino would likely come out on top. I have almost an entire shelf dedicated to Kino titles which includes most of their imprints plus titles like The Passage and Avalanche, which were actually licensed by Scorpion or other labels but distributed by Kino. Lots of great titles and I love the artwork that they use for the slipcovers. The only thing I would change is their early announcement strategy. Don't announce anything until it's nearly ready to go. I hate waiting months for something I want to drop and not knowing when it'll happen.

Arrow Video. The first half of 2024 was uneventful for me when it concerns Arrow. I've always loved them for their top notch A/V presentations throughout the years but the 4K format has deepened my love of cinema and Arrow has been one of the top labels, if not the top, behind that this second half. I'm excited about their Warner deal and hope to see more contemporary films like Demolition Man and The Cell get the Arrow treatment. I just watched DM and the PQ blew me away. A lot of people have praised Warner for their Blu-ray work the last 10 years or so but the truth is, Arrow has been sort of revealing how mediocre many of those old Warner Blu-rays really were. The studio just didn't put too much effort into many of those titles in those early years and that is being rectified now by Arrow and, to some extent, Shout via licensing. I now would rather Arrow release major studio films over the studios themselves.

Vinegar Syndrome. What can I say? If you enjoy cheezy B movies then VS are the label for you. Q3 at the label has been great as far as title selection but I do think they need to refine and tweak their 4Ks just a little. To be completely honest, I haven't been too impressed by their UHD discs overall. They push reds too much and some of the films they choose for 4K treatment just don't look very good on the format. They also seem to be shying away from B titles and favoring "prestige" studio stuff, which in and of itself isn't a bad thing (see above), but, again, there needs to be a balance. Overall, their discs are fairly high quality and the packaging is fun and creative - something many collectors including myself really appreciate.

Severin. They're a bit hit or miss for me as far as title selection but their discs are high quality for the most part. I don't care too much for folk horror or filmmakers like Jess Franco, Russ Meyer or Al Adamson but I do enjoy Italian B movies and they serve those up on a fairly regular basis. Their box sets are out of this world.

I rarely buy major studio titles anymore so I won't bother listing pros and cons but I were to pick a favorite major releasing their own titles, that would be Columbia/Sony. Their 4Ks are consistently high quality. Their only negative is their general lack of lesser films and deeper catalog on 4K or even Blu-ray.

Other boutiques boutiques I regularly buy from and am generally happy with are Blue Underground, Grindhouse Releasing and Dark Force.

[DR Herbert West]

[CinemaScope]

Oh dear, I haven’t bought many releases at all this year. Three that come immediately to mind:

Paint Your Wagon 4K from Kino, it looks great & wipes the floor with the old DVD.
The Music Lovers from BFI, hoping for some more Ken Russell next year.
Northwest Passage Warner Archive, brilliant, I never thought we’d get this one.

[Deadend45]

I was more impressed by EU/UK label releases then label USA releases this year.

[Deadend45]

I am a bit confused, is this thread about purchases in 2024 or 2024 releases? Shout's Coma came out mid-2023.

[Guydowood]

I think we had a great year with plenty of solid releases from boutique labels and the majors. However I was curious is to how much did I invest in my physical media collection in 2024. My wife would be rolling her eyes knowing this total amount spent:

$5,123.54

The Breakdown:

Amazon - $2267.21
Kino Lorber - $431.43
Orbit DVD - $810.18
Shout Factory - $622.84
Target.com - $572.26
Vinegar Syndrome - $249.46
Walmart.com - $170.18

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by Deadend45

I am a bit confused, is this thread about purchases in 2024 or 2024 releases? Shout's Coma came out mid-2023.

No, purchases are here: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=369319

[Deadend45]

How about best upscales released in 2024? heh

[Mose Harper]

Originally Posted by Deadend45

I am a bit confused, is this thread about purchases in 2024 or 2024 releases? Shout's Coma came out mid-2023.

It's the discs you saw and bought, or films/stars/genres etc you discovered via disc, in 2024- whether they were released this year or not.
If something disc related made a strong impression on you one way or another, in 2024, I'm interested to hear about it.
That's why I labeled it "your personal year in review"

Like many here I have a huge unwatched pile. Some of my favorite HT experiences this year were finally getting around to seeing discs bought in years past.


And feel free to come up with categories that are not the usual. Deadend45 joked about upscales.
"Best upscales of 2024" is as valid a category as any- if that's trend that stood out to you.



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[Stringer-Bell]

Originally Posted by Guydowood

I think we had a great year with plenty of solid releases from boutique labels and the majors. However I was curious is to how much did I invest in my physical media collection in 2024. My wife would be rolling her eyes knowing this total amount spent:

$5,123.54

The Breakdown:

Amazon - $2267.21
Kino Lorber - $431.43
Orbit DVD - $810.18
Shout Factory - $622.84
Target.com - $572.26
Vinegar Syndrome - $249.46
Walmart.com - $170.18

I'm actually afraid to do this but I think its a good idea to keep things in perspective.

[JupiterMission]

Movie-watching time has become sadly scarce for me this year, so I haven't come close to watching everything I've purchased (especially from the Kino sales) and wouldn't be able to rank top releases or anything. However, 2024 was a really crazy year in terms of "most wanted" movies finally coming out. Trick or Treat, Little Darlings, The Keep, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, The Abyss, and True Lies were all titles people had either waited for for years or had simply given up on waiting for assuming music rights issues would never be solved. Pretty cool to think they're all finally out for people to own again, in some cases for the first time since VHS. I'm sure there are several I'm forgetting or don't even realize were rare too. Makes me optimistic about the hobby!

[Deadend45]

Originally Posted by Mose Harper

It's the discs you saw and bought in 2024- whether they were released this year or not.
If they made a strong impression on you one way or another, in 2024, I'm interested to hear about it.

Oh strong impression this year would be:
Cleopatra(1934)
Universal Horror Collection Vol 1
Universal Frankenstein Legacy Collection (the other Legacies had much weaker sequels)
Road to Wellville
Witches of Eastwick
Thing from Another World.

Viewed this year cause I finally got them at cheap price.

[Jobla]

Some of my favorite 2024 Blu-ray releases:

Split Image (Kino)
The Playgirls and the Vampire (Vinegar Syndrome)
The Abyss (20th Century Studios)
Black Sunday (1960) (Leone Italian Blu-ray)
The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackals (Severin)
Door to Door Maniac/Right Hand of the Devil (Film Masters)
Burn Witch Burn (Kino)
Joyride (1976, Cinematographe)
Revenge of the Dead (Gold Ninja)
Shotgun Wedding (contained in Hard Wood set from Severin)
Hollywood 90028 (Grindhouse Releasing)

and still upcoming:

Hatari! (Kino)
Who Killed Teddy Bear (Cinematographe)
Love Goddesses of Blood Island (AGFA/SWV)

[Sugar Bear]

[Mose Harper]

^ I threw in Heartbreakers with my VS order. I'm not a fan of 80's era anything, but I like Laure and Coyote and stories about the lives of artists. For less than $10 I'm willing to finally give it a shot.
Last Movie has been in my unwatched pile since Indicator first released their LE. It will probably still be a while yet before I get to it.

Originally Posted by Guydowood

I think we had a great year with plenty of solid releases from boutique labels and the majors. However I was curious is to how much did I invest in my physical media collection in 2024. My wife would be rolling her eyes knowing this total amount spent:

$5,123.54

So many of my most wanteds were already released in the last few years. Back in January I thought this year was going to be a cake walk. Instead it turned out to be one of the most expensive of the last five or six years. I don't think I spent as much as Guydowood, but it was frighteningly a lot closer than I ever would have imagined back in January.