Hero

Studio: Disney Home Entertainment

Country of Origin: United States

Purchase: DVD Pacific

Region: A, B, C

Despite Jet Li's immense talent, Hollywood has consistently failed to provide the star a vehicle worthy of it. But in 2002, Hero became the most expensive film to come out of China. Li plays the assassin 'Nameless', whom retells a tale to the king of how he killed his foes, in the presence of his enemy; the King. By the time he is finished, the King realizes just how much danger he is in.

This is filled with amazing visual effects, including great wire work by the team that worked on The Matrix films, which holds up really well after seven years.

The Blu-ray transfer fares quite well, an obvious upgrade from the DVD, but not the best that the format can provide. Audio is also a partial upgrade; for some bizarre reason only the English dub is afforded a lossless dub and the original Mandarin audio track is presented in lossy Dolby Digital, only slightly better than the DVD. Disappointing, but this release still gets a hesitant recommendation.

The Adventures of Robin Hood

Studio: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

Country of Origin: United States

Purchase: DVDpacific.com

Region: A, B, C

The fact that after 71 years, this film is still able to be viewed is one thing; the fact that it looks so beautiful on Blu-ray is another. The classic Errol Flynn swashbuckling masterpiece has now made its way onto the format and it's a doozy. Warner has remastered the film in such a meticulously magnificent way that'll amaze even the most hardened aficionadas.

Rather than settling on just that, they've also thrown the proverbial sink in too, with hours upon hours of extra features whose bullet points take up half of the rear cover of the case. Lovers of classic Hollywood should apply and those willing to dip their toe into the genre would do well to start here. Highly recommended.

So that's a look at some of my recent recommendations. As always, my Amazon basket is virtually full, so we will be sure to do this again in the coming weeks! Until then...