Blu-ray

Roger Vadim’s 1968 star vehicle for then wife Jane Fonda is an extremely odd movie. Based on a French comic book series, Barbarella wastes no time on such niceties as plot or characterisation. Instead, it’s all about a sultry babe playing dress-up and having a series of erotic encounters in outer space. It should, therefore, be absolute rubbish, but the tongue-in-cheek nature of the whole endeavour, coupled with Fonda’s brilliant central performance, lifts Barbarella to a higher plateau. Not necessarily a ‘good’ film in the traditional sense, but still a lot of fun.

Grand. Sweeping. Majestic. Epic. These are the words that have come to define David Lean's captivating 227-minute biography of the enigma that was T.E. Lawrence – a remarkable cinematic achievement of the kind we'll probably never see again. Simply unmissable.

This Blu-ray release of Roman Polanski’s latest film left me shocked. Not by its rather stage-bound story or mannered performances (it’s actually an often funny film), but by the fact that it features an MPEG-2 hi-def encode. I thought those went out of fashion around the same time as Profile 1.1 Blu-ray players. The good news is that this doesn’t seem to impact on the imagery quality to any great degree, with the 2.40:1 visuals well-defined throughout. Less impressive is the flat DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix, which is firmly anchored to the front speakers.

This supernatural series has never been afraid to court controversy with its graphic sex and violence. But that’s nothing compared to the fuss generated by the fairy-filled opening to this fourth season. This 'Marmite moment' caused some fans to claim True Blood had finally jumped the shark, but for my money it’s only a minor blip in an otherwise enjoyable saga about rogue witches and amnesiac vampires.

While Hammer only ever made one werewolf flick (1961’s The Curse of the Werewolf), it explored alternate approaches to the same concept in 1964’s The Gorgon and this 1966 movie about a woman cursed to turn into a snake-like creature. Filmed back-to-back with The Plague of the Zombies, it’s far from Hammer’s best. However, like its sibling, The Reptile is well shot and full of interesting subtexts that ensure that it's well worth a watch.

These days it seems I can’t spin up a Blu-ray without being confronted by actor Michael Fassbender. It feels like he’s been in at least half of the films released last year. But I’ll keep watching as long as he gives performances like his remarkable central turn in this riveting exploration of sex addition from acclaimed director Steve McQueen.

Now here's a strong contender for my favourite Blu-ray release of the year. Dan O'Bannon's splatterpunk zombie comedy has received a heck of a lot of play over the years in my household on first VHS and then DVD. And this sensational new hi-def release ensures that it will get plenty more in the coming years.