It’s time to look back on what we reviewed in 2024 when home video releases became fewer and farther between and streaming failed to fill the gap for most of the year. Here is a reminder of a few of the home video releases that we reviewed:

In January, we reviewed Shout! Factory’s mammoth multi-disc release of JFK – Collector’s Edition 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray. Oliver Stone’s 1991 film, as expected, looked and sounded better than it ever had. The definitive conspiracy theory thriller starring Kevin Costner, Sissy Spacek, Tommy Lee Jones, Joe Pesci, Gary Oldman, Kevin Bacon, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, and Donald Sutherland remains highly watchable,

In February, we reviewed Kino Lorber’s 4K upgrade of Frtiz Lang’s 1945 film noir classic, Scarlet Street starring Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, and Dan Duryea. The controversial film was not released in either New York or Los Angeles until 1946 due to problems with the censors, making it ineligible for major film awards in 1945.

We also reviewed Criterion’s Blu-ray release of Dee Rees’ 2017 film, Mudbound on home video for the first time. Nominated for four Oscars including Best Supporting Actress Mary J. Blige, the film about racial tensions in the South during and after World War II also starred Carey Mulligan, Jason Clarke, Rob Morgan, Jason Mitchell, and Garrett Hedlund.

In March, we reviewed Criterion’s newly restored All That Money Can Buy AKA The Devil and Daniel Webster. The 1941 film directed by William Dieterle won an Oscar for Bernard Herrmann’s score and a Best Actor nomination for Walter Huston as the devil. Edward Arnold was Daniel Webster and James Craig was the farmer whose soul they are fighting over.

In April, we reviewed Warner Home Video’s 4K UHD upgrade of The Departed, the 2006 film for which Martin Scorsese finally won an Oscar for Best Director. The thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, and Jack Nicolson, won a total of four Oscars out of five nominations including Best Picture.

We also reviewed Warner Archive’s long overdue Blu-ray upgrade of Fred Zinnemann’s 1959 Oscar nominee, The Nun’s Story starring Audrey Hepburn, Peter Finch, Edith Evans, and Peggy Ashcroft. Nominated for 8 Oscars including Best Picture, Director, and Actress, it inexplicably went home emptyhanded.

In May, we reviewed Kino Lorber’s 4K UHD release of Zinnemann’s 1952 classic, High Noon starring Gary Cooper in the role that won him his second Oscar. We also reviewed the 4k release of Dune: Part Two, then the year’s highest grossing film.

In June, we reviewed Paramount’s 4K UHD upgrade of Roman Polanski’s 1974 film, Chinatown, which was nominated for 12 Oscars including Best Picture, Director, Actor (Jack Nicholson), and Actress Faye Dunaway, but ended up with just one win for Robert Towne’s Original Screenplay.

In July, we reviewed Universal’s release of the upgraded 4K UHD Blu-ray of Ang Lee’s 2005 film, Brokeback Mountain which had been nominated for 8 Oscars including Best Picture, Director, Actor (Heath Ledger), Supporting Actor (Jake Gyllenhaal), and Supporting Actress (Michelle Williams), winning 4 including one for Lee. The odds-on favorite to win Best Picture, it shockingly lost to Crash, allegedly due to a homophobic campaign against the film by a handful of Hollywood insiders.

In August, we reviewed VCI Entertainment’s release of the 1930 film, The Bat Whispers shown in three versions along with a before-and-after look at the original 1926 silent version of the old mystery play and the 1959 remake starring Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead.

In September, we reviewed Criterion’s 4K upgrade of Albert Brooks’ 1996 comedy, Mother starring Brooks in a thinly disguised version of himself and Debbie Reynolds as his eccentric mother. Reynolds had been nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance and had won a Satellite award but went unrecognized by Oscar.

In October, we reviewed Warner Archive’s Blu-ray upgrade of George Stevens’ 1948 film, I Remember Mama, which had been nominated for 5 Oscars including Best Actress (Irene Dunne nominated for the fifth and final time), Supporting Actor (Oscar Homolka), and two Supporting Actresses (Barbara Bel Geddes, Ellen Corby). A subsequent TV series renamed Mama starring Peggy Wood premiered in 1949 and ran through 1957.

In November, we reviewed the 4k UHD upgrade of Olivier Stone’s Born on the Fourth of July. The 1989 film had been nominated for 8 Oscars including Best Picture, Director, and Actor (Tom Cruise). It won two for Best Director and Editing.

We intended to review the long-delayed Warner Home Video 4K UHD Blu-ray upgrade of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 classic, North by Northwest in November but had to wait until December when the release finally streeted. It was well worth the wait for the striking upgrade of the film that starred Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, and James Mason.

In December we also reviewed Warner Archive’s 4K UHD Blu-ray upgrade of John Ford’s classic 1956 western, The Searchers starring John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, and Natalie Wood and Universal’s Blu-ray release of Edward Berger’s Conclave, the Oscar 2024 hopeful starring Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and Isabella Rossellini.

A 4K UHD version of Conclave will be released in February.

Also worth mentioning are three mammoth collections from Colombia that we also reviewed.

Columbia Classics Ultra UHD Collection 4, released in February, includes 4K upgrades of His Girl Friday, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Kramer vs. Kramer, Starman, Sleepless in Seattle, and Punch-Drunk Love.
Volume 5, released in October, includes 4K upgrades of All the King’s Men, On the Waterfront, A Man for All Seasons, Tootsie, The Age of Innocence, and the 2019 version of Little Women.

The Frank Capra at Columbia Collection, released in November, features 20 films across 27 discs, some including Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Lost Horizon, You Can’t Take It with You and the previously released It Happened One Night and Mrs. Smith Goes to Washington in 4K UHD.

Happy New Year.