Indholdsfortegnelse for Autumn 2021 i Home Cinema Choice

In a move that will appeal to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X owners, both Denon and Marantz have launched HDMI switchers that will allow users of the company's 8K and 4K/120-capable AV receivers to connect more than one next-gen source at a time. Although the Sound United brands were quick out of the gate with 8K-ready AV receivers, the models launched last year were somewhat hampered by only offering one HDMI input with support for 8K and – more importantly – 4K/120Hz passthrough. At the time, we were told this was a limitation of the HDMI boards available. Skip ahead 18 months and things have changed. The new Denon AVS-3 and Marantz VS3003 are compact, slim-line boxes featuring a trio of HDMI inputs that support 8K and 4K/120Hz source…

Spin-off speed bump The release of Furiosa – George Miller’s prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road [pictured] – has been delayed by a year from June 2023 to May 2024. Expected to be Australia’s biggest ever film shoot, Furiosa stars Anna Taylor-Joy as a younger version of the character previously played by Charlize Theron. Mr. loses Mrs. Phoebe Waller-Bridge has departed Amazon’s smallscreen reboot of the 2005 Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie action thriller Mr & Mrs Smith. Waller-Bridge’s Solo: A Star Wars Story cast-mate Donald Glover remains attached to the show in the other lead role. Three's a crowd Tracy Morgan has signed up to star alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito in the Twins sequel, Triplets. Eddie Murphy was originally set to play the role of the long-lost…

A fresh arrival to Panasonic's 4K TV lineup, the affordable JX600 comes in 43in and 50in flavours, priced £450 and £550 respectively. Some features found further up the Panasonic ladder are therefore missing, including HDR10+ playback, local dimming of the TVs' LED backlights, and the My Home Screen UI. Buyers still get a solid feature set, however, with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos joining Alexa and Google Assistant support, Netflix and Prime Video apps, and a dedicated Game Mode. www.panasonic.co.uk…

Zombieland: Double Tap’s US 4K Blu-ray release is one of a relatively small group of ‘IMAX Enhanced’ titles, and therefore benefits from IMAX’s proprietary Digital Media Remastering technology. This, says IMAX, 'accurately reduces noise and grain under the filmmaker’s guidance to best optimise the content for a much higher quality, higher-brightness 4K HDR display format’. And it translates here to an absolutely reference-grade picture. Detail levels are incredible. The image looks immaculately pure and clear (despite, apparently, being derived from a 2K digital intermediate), to the extent that’s almost disturbing when you’re looking at a horde of zombies charging towards you. And this pixel panache is matched by bright, punchy HDR and a hefty colour gamut. The latter is announced with a bang during the opening sequence where our heroes…

The Founder Series is the first new range of speakers released by Canadian corp Paradigm since founder Scott Bagby returned in 2019 – which explains the name. Bagby, who launched the brand in 1982, sold his majority stake in 2005 and left in 2009, but has now reacquired full ownership of Paradigm and sister brand Anthem. And he's back with a bang. The Founder Series currently comprises six models, and all are designed to bring high-end performance (some more high-end than others) and a touch of luxury to hi-fi and home cinema systems. They draw on innovations from Paradigm’s award-winning – and ultra-expensive – Persona range [HCC #305], but add a host of new technologies when it comes to driver design and cabinet construction. So this new series, which ranges…

Should I obey my TV's demands? Hi. Last night my Philips OLED935 TV claimed it had to go into standby to refresh the OLED panel. Is this a regular thing – and if so how regular? And how long can you put off doing it for before you risk doing your telly a mischief? I thought it had a lock screen to prevent this, and we put the TV on standby every night. You didn't get this stuff with CRT TVs! Matt Norman Mark Craven replies: I've personally never experienced an OLED TV asking to be put into standby, although I am aware that it's when they are in standby that a panel refresh process takes place to counter any potential screen burn damage. This is separate to the screen-saver…

1. Go big. Set your camera to take images at the largest possible size, and at the highest resolution. Don't worry about cropping or resizing – we will make them print-ready. 2. Get in focus. Make sure your photos are as sharp and clear as possible. If you have one, use a tripod, or place your camera on a flat, steady surface and take pictures on a delay. The sharper they are, the bigger we can print them. 3. Let some light in. While we tend to watch movies in the dark, our cinema systems look their best when they are lit. If you can shoot with natural daylight, do so. If your room doesn't get a lot of light (a garage conversion, for instance) then switch on whatever lights…

Elysian Film Group → Region B BD £20 After more than 30 years of hand-drawn work, Studio Ghibli takes its first plunge into the world of fully CG-animated movies with Earwig and the Witch, and the result is even worse than we feared, using unexpectedly cheaplooking CG animation to tell a story that comes across like a third-rate knock-off of the studio’s best work. On a positive note, this Blu-ray’s Full HD encode is technically sound and the DTS-HD MA 5.1 Japanese and English soundtracks are full of life. Extras include PiP storyboards for the full film, plus interviews and trailers.…

THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT ‘The Court accepts the existence of God every time a witness swears to tell the truth. I think it’s about time they accept the existence of the Devil.’ Inspired by the 1981 murder trial of Arne Johnson – the first US court case to use a claim of demonic possession to argue the defendant’s innocence – this latest film about ‘paranormal investigators’ Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) is in no doubt that Johnson (Ruairi O’Connor) is indeed under the influence of demonic forces. But rather than live up to the potentially hilarious notion of the Warrens heading to Court to prove the existence of Satan, it merely uses the case as the pretext for a battle between the…

Indicator → Region B BD £50 Even more of a mixed bag than its predecessors, this boxset doesn’t get off to the best start with lacklustre G-Men thrillers Walk a Crooked Mile (1948) and Walk East on Beacon (1952). Thankfully, Pushover (1954), A Bullet is Waiting (1954) and Chicago Syndicate (1955) set things back in the right direction before the set reaches its apex with the excellent The Brothers Rico (1957). As usual, the quality of Indicator's Blu-ray presentations is excellent. Extras include commentaries, booklets and yet more Three Stooges shorts.…

Acorn Media → Region B BD £16 There’s a whiff of Guillermo Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth to Issa López’s horror set amongst children left orphaned by the Mexican drug war. Mixing grim realism and eerie fairy tale fantasy to devastating effect, Tigers Are Not Afraid arrives on Blu-ray with a clean 2.39:1-framed Full HD presentation of the film’s digital photography, partnered by a sprightly Spanish-language DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack (plus a DTS-HD MA 2.0 English dub). Extras include a chat track, Making of… doc, interview, deleted scenes and more.…

Funimation → Ultra HD Blu-ray & Region BBD → £40 Keep your Michael Bay blockbusters – for real fans, this 1986 animated feature is the only Transformers movie that matters. Boasting a great voice cast, fab soundtrack and a willingness to kill off all your favourite ‘bots, it's an action-packed ‘toon that still gets the blood pumping. Some will question the decision to frame this 4K do-over at 1.78:1, but visually it's leaps and bounds above all previous releases. A bonus BD includes a 1.37:1 presentation of the film, plus numerous extras.…

John Archer: The experienced TV tester cut his teeth as an early HCC staffer Jon Thompson: Film producer and post-production expert delves into Hollywood and AV Steve May: HCC’s former Ed. is one of the UK’s most respected AV journos Anton van Beek: Our avid movie watcher and disc collector cut his teeth on Total DVD Richard Stevenson: Former Editor of the UK CE trade journal ERT Ed Selley: Audiophile Ed mixes his home cinema passion with a love of vinyl Steve Withers: Movie fan, display calibrator and object-based audio obsessive…

Mitchell & Brown's latest arrival – the 32FHD1811DSM – is a 32in, Full HD model designed to bring a suite of smart features to a second room setup. Priced £350 and with the UK company's seven-year warranty, this directlit LED smallscreen packs a Freeview HD tuner and Freeview Play integration, an app hub including Prime Video, Netflix, YouTube and Now TV, and Amazon Alexa support. Among the connections is a headphone jack for private listening. www.mitchellandbrown.co.uk…

Monster Hunter (4K BD) Now available in the UK, director Paul W.S. Anderson’s actionpacked videogame adaptation serves up an AV feast on 4K Blu. Promising Young Woman (BD) If last issue’s revenge movie roundup left you hankering for more, this audacious 2021 thriller is a must-watch. Ghost in the Shell (4K BD) Restored 4K Dolby Vision visuals and remixed Atmos audio breathe fresh life into the 1995 anime smash. Duel to the Death (BD) Ching Siu-tung’s swordplay classic cuts a spectacular figure on BD thanks to a new restoration. Paranormal Activity (BD) Found-footage chiller returns to Blu-ray with extras including the original ending and a chat track.…

TV brand Toshiba is continuing to target budget buyers, launching a new 4K 65in model priced just £380. The UK31 is its flagship set with Alexa Built-In, and described as the heart of the modern smart home. In addition to hands-free operation and Alexa chat, the TV provides Freeview Play catch-up, plus Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube, Britbox and Twitch app integration. Dolby Vision HDR, HDR10, and Dolby Atmos are also on the spec sheet. Image fettling is handled by a new version of Toshiba’s TRU Picture Engine, offering TRU Micro Dimming of the LED-lit LCD panel and TRU Flow motion compensation technology, plus 'powerful' upscaling for non-4K content. www.toshiba-tv.com…

DC Extended Universe movie The Suicide Squad – a sequel to 2016's very similarly titled Suicide Squad – will be bringing its R-rated comic action to 4K Blu-ray and Blu-ray on November 8. As well as a commentary track from director James 'Guardians of the Galaxy' Gunn, Warner Bros. lays on a slate of extras including deleted/extended scenes, a trio of spoof trailers, four scene breakdowns and numerous featurettes. Both 1080p and 4K platters will pack the film's Dolby Atmos audio track.…

Korean brand HiFi Rose, which entered the UK market this year with a range of media players, has expanded its product line with a CD player/ripper. Designed to partner its network audio hardware, the slim, slot-loading metalchassis RSA780 (£350) outputs over USB Type-B and offers two user modes – Isolation is designed for optimal playback, courtesy of noise minimisation technology, while Normal Mode is for use with a PC. Playback control is managed through the Rose app. eng.hifirose.com…

This movie is sonically and visually stunning, making it an ideal disc for showing off your AV system to your mates. Pick any scene at random and they’ll be impressed, but there are three specific sequences that demonstrate all the strengths of native 4K, HDR and Dolby Atmos. Round one of the pugilistic pair’s grudge match (00:38:00) sees Godzilla attack a convoy of ships. As a barrage of missiles fly overhead and explode all around, Godzilla smashes into the ships and tears them apart. Kong then jumps onto the flight deck of an aircraft carrier (as you do) before they wrestle and tumble into the water. In an attempt to stun Godzilla, depth charges are dropped (always a surround sound winner), which then detonate like a sonic tsunami. This scene…

This recreation of the battle that turned the course of World War II in the Pacific is exacting in its historical accuracy, which is surprising given it was directed by Roland Emmerich, the man who previously gave us the preposterous disaster movie 2012. It also delivers one of the most overwhelmingly immersive Dolby Atmos experiences ever created. The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor (00:10:00) kicks things off with a four-minute triumph of audio design. As the raid commences, Japanese Zeroes scream through the sky above and down towards the defenceless ships below, barrelling between them and strafing the soundstage with machine-gun fire. Anti-aircraft guns deliver a chest-thumping kick as they pepper the sky with retaliatory flak, and when the USS Arizona is hit by a bomb, and literally blown in…

Following rave reviews in HCC for its VW590ES, VW790ES and VW890ES native 4K projectors, Sony will be hoping for a clean sweep with the final model from the range, the VPL-VW290ES. At £5,500, this is comfortably (by £1,500) the cheapest of its current 4K quartet, raising questions of whether it can still have what it takes to deliver the benefits of Sony’s ground-breaking Dynamic HDR Enhancer technology. Dynamic HDR Enhancer is an image processing system that’s able to optimise the contrast of any given HDR shot by, essentially, making the dark bits look darker while the bright bits look lighter. This sounds simple enough until you realise that unlike TVs, a projector doesn’t have any sort of local dimming system to work with; just a single lamp, an iris and…

Back when HCC was fresh of face, Star Wars was a trilogy and the Marvel Cinematic Universe had peaked at Howard the Duck, the very thought of a 48in TV would have blown my mind. A 36in set was typically as large as you could get back then, and even that would have required a van full of mates just to get it out of the box. An ultra-thin 48-incher would have been the screen of dreams, home cinema nirvana. How things change. This bijou beauty is notable now because it’s so small, positively dwarfed by its 55in and 65in OLED stablemates. Of course, while relatively diminutive, it still comes with a significant price ticket, marginally more expensive than rival 48in models from Sony and LG. The JZ980 may be…

IF YOU’VE EVER wanted a pop-up home cinema, maybe for a kids' party or al fresco cocktail evening – or perhaps you want one to stow in your luggage and take on a holiday staycation – BenQ’s portable GV30 could be the answer. With a built-in mustard-coloured carry handle, and smart carry case, this compact LED model offers everything you need for instant entertainment out and about. A 720p beamer, it has an integrated Google Android OS, 16W audio system and 2.5-hour battery life when it’s away from the wall. And its design is striking. The GV30's all-white circular chassis is distinguished by grilles left and right, with top-mounted controls for volume, Bluetooth and power. One grille disguises the sound system, the other opens to reveal a cavity for the…

The Howling: 4K UHD Collector’s Edition Studiocanal is celebrating the 40th anniversary of Joe Dante’s horror classic The Howling with a fresh 4K restoration that will be available to own on 4K UHD Collector’s Edition, 4K UHD Steelbook, Blu-ray and DVD from October 25. In addition to the newly restored film, the 4K UHD Collector’s Edition includes a new featurette about Dante’s career, plus archival extras, a booklet, a poster and art cards, and we have three copies to be won! Question: The Howling scriptwriter John Sayles also wrote which other Joe Dante cult favourite? Answer: A) Piranha B) The Explorers C) The 'burbs Invasion of the Body Snatchers An enduring masterpiece of suspense and paranoia, director Don Siegel’s landmark 1956 sciencefiction-horror hit Invasion of the Body Snatchers makes its UK Blu-ray debut on October…

Lionsgate → Region B BD £20 Based on a true story, this spy thriller casts Benedict Cumberbatch as a mild-mannered British businessman recruited by MI6 and the CIA at the height of the Cold War to smuggle leaked state secrets out of the USSR. This intriguing but low-key drama boasts a deliberately bland aesthetic (especially in the Russian sequences) that can give the 2.40:1 encode a slightly soft appearance, even though close-ups reveal plenty of detail. A director’s commentary and half-hour Making of… are also included.…

COLUMBIA CLASSICS 4K ULTRA HD COLLECTION: VOLUME 2 Another year, another collection of six classic movies from the Columbia Pictures library making their 4K UHD debut in a lavish boxset. Whether by chance or design, the six films in this volume each represent a different decade of the studio’s output, kicking off with Otto Preminger’s Anatomy of a Murder (1959), still the gold standard for cinematic courtroom dramas. Frustratingly, for whatever reason, Sony Pictures chose not to make 4K review copies of Anatomy of a Murder available to the UK press (although given the technical merits of the other discs in this set, we have no reason to imagine it's not another triumph). Up next is Carol Reed’s 1968 musical blockbuster Oliver!. Packed with memorable characters (the exception, ironically, being…

Studiocanal → Ultra HD Blu-ray & All-region BD £30 Joseph Losey’s spellbinding and vicious 1963 study of class warfare makes an extremely welcome appearance on UHD. Newly restored in 4K from the original camera negative, The Servant is presented in both 1.66:1 and 1.75:1 aspect ratios, both featuring HDR10/Dolby Vision grades that add even more nuance and depth to the already gorgeous black-and-white photography. While the 4K platter is barebones, a Blu-ray bonus disc is stocked with archival goodies, plus a new location tour and visual essay. A booklet and art cards complete this extremely desirable set from Studiocanal.…

DEEP RED: LIMITED EDITION Returning to his apartment late one night, pianist Marcus Daly (David Hemmings) witnesses the brutal murder of his neighbour, a psychic who earlier claimed to have tapped into the thoughts of a killer in the audience during a demonstration of her abilities. Convinced that something about the crime scene doesn’t make sense, Marcus teams up with local reporter Gianna Brezzi (Daria Nicolodi) to investigate the murder, putting them both on the killer’s hit-list… Dario Argento’s 1975 movie Deep Red (aka Profondo Rosso) brought him back to the genre that he'd elevated to international prominence with his 1970 smash The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, and is arguably the greatest giallo thriller ever made. Marrying a compelling (and unusually water-tight) murder-mystery plot to some of the most…

Eureka: The Masters of Cinema Series → Region B BD → £30 Whether you take it as an allegory of the McCarthy witch-hunts, a camp classic, or simply one of the weirdest Westerns to ever come out of Hollywood, there's no doubt Nicholas Ray’s Johnny Guitar (1954) is a fabulous-looking film. Sourced from a 4K restoration, this Blu-ray further enhances that feeling, bringing even more vibrancy to the 1.37:1-framed Trucolor photography. Generous extras include a commentary, two critical appreciations, a visual essay and an intro by Martin Scorsese.…

Network → All-region BD £75 This mammoth 11-disc boxset collects all 51 episodes of the superb 1960s BBC crime series based on Georges Simenon’s Maigret stories. Taken mainly from vintage 35mm telerecordings of 405-line video (original elements no longer exist), the 1080i/50 encodes hardly scream HD, but work has been done to eliminate some source-related issues. Those same constraints do not apply to the subsequent 1969 'Play of the Month' episode, which closes the set and looks superb. Worthwhile extras include a look at the restoration process and an archival interview with Simenon.…

Technics has given its range-topping turntable a new 'minimalist' black finish. The SL1210G follows last year’s sold-out limited edition SL1210GAE. Says European product manager Frank Balzuweit: 'We realised there was high demand for a "regular" black version of this flagship.' The deck is available this month priced £3,500, and features a direct drive motor, cold-drawn magnesium tonearm and a vibrationdamped triple-layer platter – each model is balance adjusted before leaving the factory. www.technics.com…

Halloween Kills October 15: The seemingly unstoppable Michael Myers continues to slash through the population of Haddonfield on his way to catching up with Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode in this follow-up to the 2018 horror hit. Dune October 22: Can Blade Runner 2049 helmer Denis Villeneuve do what David Lynch couldn’t and translate Frank Herbert’s sprawling bestseller into a coherent film? Find out for yourself when the eagerly anticipated sci-fi epic hits cinemas. Last Night in Soho October 29: Edgar Wright’s psychological horror sees past and present clash as an aspiring fashion designer is thrown back through time to inhabit the body of a young singer in Swinging Sixties London.…

October 18 The Croods 2: The New Age Fireball XL5: The Complete Series The Forever Purge 4K Gravity 4K Gray Lady Down The Guns of Navarone 4K Inglourious Basterds 4K Ingmar Bergman: Volume II La Dolce Vita Midway [1976] Scream 4K The Seventh Seal 4K October 25 Carlito’s Way 4K The Damned [1969] Deep Red: Limited Edition 4K UHD Early Universal Vol 2 The Flag of Iron Giallo Essentials: Red Edition The Guest 4K Hatchet for the Honeymoon The Howling: 4K UHD Col. Ed. Maigret: The Complete Series Middle-earth: The Ultimate Collector’s Set 4K Old 4K The Transformers: The Movie 4K November 1 The Courier [2021] The Crown: Season Four Fantastic Mr Fox The Watch: Season One November 8 The Hills Have Eyes: Ltd Ed 4K Honest Thief The One:…

Who should be the next James Bond? Tom Hiddleston [pictured] gets my vote! I thought he was great in The Night Manager. Chris V Evans Tom Hardy, but it’ll take a lot to fill Daniel Craig's shoes. It used to be Roger Moore for me then Daniel Craig came along and made 007 a lot more gritty and realistic. Tony Mccluskey Jodie Whittaker. Kris McDermott Sam Heughan, Tom Hiddleston, Michael Fassbender… any of them would be ideal. Jon Deal No-one! It's time to end the silly franchise. Steve Old What you're watching on your home cinema… The final season of Lucifer on Netflix and an overdue rewatch of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man. Matt Greaves Midnight Mass on Netflix – it's had good reviews. Also the last two episodes of Manhunt: The…

Epson has reintroduced laser lighting to its home cinema lineup, announcing two high-performance beamers that will slot into its range above the lamp-based EH-TW9400 and EH-TW7400. The new EH-LS11000W and EH-LS12000B also debut a revised 4K image processing chip to craft an 8.3million-pixel picture in conjunction with the company's traditional 3LCD technology. Both models can also handle 4K/120Hz sources, a gaming-friendly feature backed up a claimed input lag of below 20ms. The two units are almost identical in specification, their different model number suffixes (W, B) signifying that one sports a white finish while the other is dressed in black. Additionally, however, the EH-LS12000B claims a 2,700 Lumens output versus the EH-LS11000W's 2,500. This explains the difference in pricing: £4,400 for the brighter unit, £4,100 for the EH-LS11000W. Laser refocus…

Following in the footsteps of its 2018 predecessor, director John Krasinski’s survival-horror sequel A Quiet Place Part II continues to make the most of its central conceit – our world has been overrun by vicious alien creatures that hunt by sound – by once again serving up a thrillingly immersive Dolby Atmos soundmix on its 4K UHD (and Blu-ray) platter. However, where the original film kept the monsters as (literal) noises off for a hefty chunk of its running time, this sequel has no need to play coy. Instead, it explodes out of the gates with an extended flashback to the first day of the invasion. The onscreen drama suddenly shifts from a little league baseball game to complete chaos, as alien monsters tear through the streets of smalltown USA…

Released on UHD BD as part of Universal's The Alfred Hitchcock Classics Collection last year, and more recently on a standalone 4K Blu-ray, this superb 1958 thriller from the Master of Suspense looks immaculate (and even adds a DTS:X audio remix). Particularly demo-tastic is the wide colour presentation and HDR10 grade. Thanks to his monochrome hit Psycho, it's easy to forget that Hitchcock could be innovative when it came to colour, but it's apparent right from the off in Vertigo. The film's surreal credit sequence (00:01:10) washes a close-up of Kim Novak's eyes (with tiny, bright reflections in her pupils) in a lurid red that will prove your display's ability to delineate subtle changes in hue and avoid an orangey tint. Then we get swirling patterns of magenta and cyan…

Talking Timbuktu West African multi-instrumentalist Ali Farka Toure and US blues icon Ry Cooder team up for an album of brilliantly recorded, languid jams. Things We Don't Talk About For her debut album, Swedish artist Bonander goes all in on an Atmos presentation that sends her melancholy melodies sky-high. Honky Chateau The gorgeous piano textures and deep soundstaging of Elton John's 1973 classic will put your speakers/preamp to the test. Shockwave Supernova Fret wizard Joe Satriani recorded this fast-paced 2015 long-player at Skywalker Sound, and it sounds almost cinematic. Shaping Chopin Cement your audiophile status with this new set of wonderfully recorded piano recitals by Anna Fedorova – and for extra kudos, get the DSD256 download.…

PHILIPS HAS TAKEN many of the features of its highly regarded X3 headphones and used them to develop the wireless L3. This means you get the same wonderfully light and stiff spaceframe design that suspends the enclosures, each containing a 40mm composite driver. The Bluetooth spec includes aptX HD, and you can also use the L3 via a wired connection if you wish. You’re unlikely to do this because you’ve run out of battery, however, as Philips claims 38 hours and this genuinely seems feasible. The L3 looks similar to the X3 but is a little smaller and misses out on the Kvadrat fabric finish. It’s comfortable and well made, but doesn’t fold, meaning the carry case is a bit portly. Beyond that niggle, only a slightly clunky control app…

Warner Bros. → All-region BD £20 Angelina Jolie stars as a Montana ‘smokejumper’ (a sort of skydiving firefighter) who comes to the aid of a young boy pursued by a pair of professional assassins in writer-director Taylor Sheridan's curious throwback to late 1990s Hollywood action-thrillers. The fact the film was finished as a 2K DI presumably explains why it wasn’t afforded a 4K UHD release; thankfully the 2.40:1-framed 1080p encode looks impressive enough, and is supported by similarly impactful DTS-HD HD 5.1 sonics. A 15-minute Making of… featurette is the sole extra.…

Arrow Video → Ultra HD Blu-ray (Part 1) & Region B BD (Parts 2 & 3)? £60 Overlooking the fact that this bafflingly popular killer kid franchise now runs to 11 films(!), Arrow’s new boxset limits itself to the first three: the original, deathly dull 1984 adaptation of Stephen King’s short story, 1993’s similarly bland …The Final Sacrifice, and 1995’s enjoyably stupid …Urban Harvest. Only the first has made the leap to UHD, and rather impressive it looks in 4K HDR10/Dolby Vision too; the sequels are presented on Blu-ray in various cuts. Extras are expansive and often more interesting than the films themselves.…

eOne → Region B BD £35 The long-running postapocalyptic horror series shifts to a war footing for its penultimate season as surviving communities band together to end the threat of Alpha (Samantha Morton) and her Whisperers. Continuing the upward trend begun in Season 9, this 22-episode run packs in plenty of twists – even if the return of a familiar face is spoiled by it being plastered all over the sleeve art. In AV terms this six-disc Blu-ray set is business as usual (7.1 audio, solid but not spectacular visuals), while extras are limited to three episode commentaries and an In Memoriam featurette.…

BFI → Region B BD £23 It's chocks away and all that as the six-man RAF crew of a Wellington bomber shot down over the Nazi-occupied Netherlands must find a way back to safety with the aid of Dutch locals in this morale-boosting 1942 war film from Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Restored at 2K from a 35mm fine-grain dupe positive, this BD’s black-and-white imagery is pleasingly sharp, but marred by abundant scratches. Fascinating extras include a commentary and four archival shorts from the BFI vaults.…

HITMAN'S WIFE'S BODYGUARD Still struggling to get over the events of The Hitman’s Bodyguard (2017), former bodyguard Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds) heads off to an Italian island in the hope of finding some inner peace. His tranquillity is quickly shattered, however, when Sonia Kincaid (Salma Hayek), wife of hitman Darius (Samuel L. Jackson), arrives. Soon the trio have been recruited by Interpol to help prevent a shipping magnate (Antonio Banderas) from destroying the EU’s power grid in revenge for its continuing sanctions on Greece. Where The Hitman’s Bodyguard worked thanks to the chemistry between its two leads and some laugh-out-loud gags, this smug sequel falls flat. Despite the odd chortle, Reynolds and Jackson seem to be going through the motions, leaving it up to Hayek to bring some much needed…

→ BBC iPlayer This five-part BBC Two historical drama, adapted from Ian McGuire's acclaimed 2016 novel, is perfect viewing for any who like their boxset binges bleak. A slow-paced, intensely atmospheric and frequently grim tale of hard men doing nasty things in the harsh environment of the frozen Arctic, it won't leave you smiling. At the same time, The North Water's plotting, cinematography, themes and exemplary performances prove irresistible. The year is 1859 and disgraced surgeon Patrick Sumner (Jack O'Connell) hopes to escape his past by signing up for a six-month term on the Volunteer, a whaling ship captained by Arthur Brownlee (Stephen Graham). Also lurking on deck is master harpooner and moral black hole Henry Drax (Colin Farrell). All three men have secrets which, unsurprisingly, won't stay hidden. The…