Hello and welcome to the July edition of the Blu-ray Bounty! This is the place where I review new 4K Blu-ray releases that will make a great addition to your (by now, hopefully) flourishing collection. This month, I’ve got five new discs to look at.
If you’re new to the Blu-ray Bounty, I’ve been looking at monthly releases since November 2024, and you can find previous editions of the Blu-ray Bounty here.
Hands down, 4K Blu-ray is the best way to experience movies at home. At TechRadar, not only do we use it to test the best TVs, best soundbars and best 4K Blu-ray players, but many of us are avid 4K Blu-ray collectors ourselves!
My setup this month consists of the LG G5, one of the best OLED TVs of 2025, along with the Panasonic DP-UB820 4K Blu-ray player (which returns after a brief hiatus last month) and the trusty Samsung HW-Q990C Dolby Atmos soundbar.
As always, I’m not reviewing the movies themselves; I am just looking at the visual and audio quality of each disc.
In last month’s Blu-ray Bounty, the June 2025 edition, I looked at Kingdom of Heaven, The Monkey and Taking of Pelham 123 (1975).
Sinners
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Sinners, starring Michael B. Jordan and Hailee Steinfeld, is the story of twin brothers Smoke and Stack Moore, who return home to Mississippi in 1932 to start fresh from a criminal life but are met by an evil force.
Sinners is visually striking, with multiple shots featuring rich black tones contrasting with the bright Mississippi sun. Textures and details are refined and crisp, and Dolby Vision HDR brings out the luscious colors throughout. Viewed on the LG G5, this movie simply looks incredible and is an excellent showpiece for an OLED TV.
Unsurprisingly, with a setting so richly ingrained with delta blues and gospel music, Sinners is an auditory feast. But it’s the scenes where the soundtrack mixes blues with hip-hop beats that are a real audio showcase. The first scene in the twins’ club is a wonderful demonstration piece, with sound effects delivered with clarity, power and pinpoint accuracy, as I found listening through the Q990C soundbar.
Dark City
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Dark City is a cult classic sci-fi noir mystery movie from director Alex Proyas (The Crow), and stars Rufus Sewell, Keifer Sutherland and Jennifer Connelly. It follows John Murdoch (Sewell), who, after waking up in a hotel with no memory, is suspected of murder and must navigate through a strange city to discover what’s going on.
Arrow Video has once again delivered an excellent restoration. Dark City looks brilliant, with the 4K upgrade giving the movie a much sharper look. Black levels are deep, taking on an inky quality, and high contrast scenes look perfectly balanced.
Dolby Atmos and DTS 5.1 HD-Master Audio soundtracks are on offer here, and both sound great. Sound placement is accurate and precise, and the soundstage is impressively wide. A foreboding rumble throughout the movie will test your system’s bass response, and the eerie, tense score is perfectly balanced with dialogue and effects.
Hans Zimmer: Live in Prague
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A change of pace for the Blu-ray Bounty sees Hans Zimmer, one of cinema’s greatest composers, play a selection of hits from his mammoth back catalogue at a live concert in Prague with a full band and orchestra. Films featured in the performance include Gladiator, Interstellar, Inception, The Lion King, The Dark Knight and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Dolby Atmos and PCM Stereo options are available, but this concert was made for Dolby Atmos. The Atmos soundtrack has stunning clarity and is mixed for a perfect balance across all channels. The bass is powerful but controlled, with tracks like Why So Serious from The Dark Knight giving subwoofers a workout. You’re So Cool from True Romance will also test your system’s higher and mid-range frequencies with its iconic xylophone intro melody.
Cornfield Chase from Interstellar creates a full 3D surround sound effect, with the twinkling keys coming from overhead to create a feeling of being in space. The now-iconic Time from Inception is a show-stopper with goosebump-inducing strings and a full field of sound. If you have a good Dolby Atmos home theater system, you’re in for a heck of a ride with this disc.
A Hard Day’s Night
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A musical-comedy film starring The Beatles, A Hard Day’s Night was a critical and commercial success and earned two Academy Award nominations. Its accompanying soundtrack spawned massive hits including A Hard Day’s Night, And I Love Her, and Can’t Buy Me Love.
There are a number of sound options available, including DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround, uncompressed stereo and uncompressed monaural soundtracks. The Beatles’ iconic hits sound great in all formats, but it’s the 5.1 DTS-HD MA mix that works best.
Listened to in 5.1 surround, songs are delivered with punch and power and have a sense of width and space that the other soundtracks don’t quite provide. The mix subtly incorporates the rear channels and subwoofer, giving the songs a more fleshed-out and dynamic quality.
Visuals are just as important on this disc, and The Criterion Collection has once again delivered a great 4K restoration, with textures gaining better definition and sharpness. A Hard Day’s Night was shot in black and white, and this 4K version demonstrates a good balance between black, white and gray tones throughout.
Black Bag
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A spy thriller starring Michael Fassbender, Cate Blanchett and Pierce Brosnan, Black Bag follows British Intelligence agent George Woodhouse (Fassbender) who must investigate a traitor within the agency, with the suspect list including his wife Kathryn (Blanchett).
Black Bag gets a solid 4K presentation with strong contrast, crisp detail and natural color reproduction. There’s no Dolby Vision HDR on this disc, but the HDR10 transfer lends an extra visual punch to the movie, which conveys a retro-1960s look.
The disc’s Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack delivers clear speech and accurate sound placement, and the minimal, 60s jazz-inspired score is nicely balanced between the 5.1 channels. This disc won’t test your home theater to its limits, but it’s nonetheless a solid effort that fans of the movie will be pleased with.
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