Australia
Baz Luhrmann set out to pay homage to the great spectacles of cinema’s past with this Antipodean epic – and there’s no doubt that, visually, he succeeded. the sweeping plains of the Northern Territory have never looked so desolately beautiful, and rarely have so many sunsets been so gorgeously photographed. Perhaps Luhrmann was trying to prove that, after the largely indoor Moulin Rouge, he knew how to shoot the great outdoors. The plot sees English aristocrat Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) reluctantly travel to a remote cattle station in Northern Australia to search for her errant husband. In Oz, she meets The Drover (Hugh Jackman), a hardheaded, hard-knuckled cowboy who — almost despite himself — helps her in her quest to get her cattle to market after her husband is killed. The film’s story sprawls across the years, however, to take in the Japanese bombing of the port city of Darwin, Lady Ashley and The Drover’s on-off love affair, and the fate of a small “half-caste” Aboriginal boy called Nullah (charmingly played by Brandon Walters). Arguably Luhrmann’s eyes are bigger than his running time when it comes to fitting in quite so much — certainly the overly stylised opening half-hour that he needs to set things up is difficult viewing — but there are plenty of well-shot action scenes and big emotional payoffs to keep the viewer interested. And if that doesn’t work, there’s a breathtakingly gratuitous Hugh Jackman topless scene that will win over female viewers and cause a hig percentage of male viewers to join a gym at once.

		A Clockwork Orange After almost 40 years, A Clockwork Orange continues to awe and shock. Malcolm McDowell is on playful form in the commentary and many other high-definition features, while even perfectionist Kubrick would be impressed by the quality of the hi-def transfer.
		Changeling Angelina Jolie lost out come the awards season, but she’s astonishing here as the single mother whose son goes missing. While Clint Eastwood’s cinematography is subtle and unshowy, the colours of 1920s LA blend perfectly, and the extras include both star and director in hi def.
		One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest Milos Forman’s take on Ken Kesey’s counterculture classic has dated little in 35 years, a testament to Blu-ray’s power to refresh — or a poor reflection of developments in mental health care. Commentaries, deleted scenes and ‘making of’ materials are plentiful.
		Stranger Than Fiction Will Ferrell proved he’s more than just a comedian in this strange but utterly charming tale of a man who learns he’s a character in someone else’s book. The film’s sense of hyper-reality and occasional fantasy is heightened by Blu-ray’s improved picture, and extras are plentiful.
		Mamma Mia! Okay, so it’s ‘drama” only in the loosest sense, but Mamma Mia! was bigger than Titanic in the UK . What’s more, this is packed with fab BD-Live content, notably the ace My Movie Commentary, which lets you record your own video commentary to watch as a picture-in-picture track.
		A Few Good Men Jack Nicholson isn’t just shouting that Tom Cruise “can’t handle the truth” anymore; he’s shouting at you in Rob Reiner’s superior courtroom drama. As the battle of wills between Cruise’s military lawyer and Nicholson’s bombastic colonel shapes up, the film’s never looked or sounded better.
		Gandhi What more to say of Sir Richard Attenborough’s sweeping biopic of Mahatma Gandhi (played flawlessly by Sir Ben Kingsley)? The winner of eight Oscars, Attenborough famously employed over 300,000 extras for one scene — and you can very nearly make out all of them on this polished print. With the anecdote-tastic Attenborough on commentary duties to boot, this is simply essential viewing.
		Babel Alejandro González Ińárritu’s multi-strand tale of failures to communicate is a treat in high definition, with each location glorying in a distinctive colour palette and style: neon-lit Tokyo, dusty Morocco, sun-baked California. Powerful, emotional, ultimately hopeful stuff.
		There Will be Blood A commanding performance by Daniel Day-Lewis as a blackhearted oil-man towers over this tale of a capitalist who sacrifices everything for success. On Blu-ray, however, Robert Elswit’s award-winning cinematography burns equally brightly, and the score, by Jonny Greenwood, is sublime.

		Staff Pick Raging Bull Angie Errigo Martin Scorsese’s brutal drama about real-life boxing champ Jake LaMotta (Robert De Niro) is a (mostly) monochromatic masterpiece in high definition, with shockingly crisp picture and sound. Fabulous extras include talk tracks from Scorsese, editor Thelma Schoonmaker and LaMotta himself.