Blu-ray

Based on Nicholas Pileggi's best-selling nonfiction book Wiseguy, Martin Scorsese's kinetic 1990 crime epic spans three decades as it charts the rise and fall of three gangsters – Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), Jimmy 'The Gent' Conway (Robert De Niro) and Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci).

Regularly hailed as the director's best film (and one of the best films of all time), Goodfellas ranks alongside The Godfather in the pantheon of modern crime films. An electrifying mix of humour and violence, the film paints an intoxicating, exciting picture of mob life, before pulling the rug out from under your feet and showing the horrors that dominate these peoples' lives. It would be criminal if you haven't seen it.

Picture: For this second release of Goodfellas on Blu-ray, Warner Bros. has utilised a new 4K scan of the original camera negative, with colour correction and other work supervised by Scorsese. While the differences are hardly night-and-day, the resulting AVC-encoded 1.78:1 Full HD image is superior to its predecessor. Improvements can be seen in stability, colours and clarity, the latter helping to further resolve fine textures in the image.
Picture rating: 5/5

Audio: While the original 2007 Blu-ray opted for a 'lossy' Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, this new release gives the audio a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 upgrade. Considering the significant role that the sound design plays in the film (particularly Scorsese's use of music), the represents yet another tick in favour of this latest release over its predecessor.
Audio rating: 4/5

Extras: New bonus features take the form of a 36-page photo book, a 'Letter from Martin Scorsese' and a new retrospective documentary featuring interviews with those involved with making the film, as well as other Scorsese collaborators (including Harvey Keitel and Leonardo DiCaprio).

Everything from the original Blu-ray release has been carried across, too. This takes the form of two audio commentaries (the first featuring input from various members of the cast and crew, the second  recorded by the real Henry Hill and former FBI agent Edward McDonald); four additional Making of… featurettes (Getting Made, Made Men, The Workaday Gangster and Paper is Cheaper than Film); the 105-minute Public Enemies: The Golden Age of the Gangster Film documentary; four crime/gang-related archival cartoons (I Like Mountain Music, She Was an Acrobat's Daughter, Racketeer Rabbit and Bugs and Thugs); and the theatrical trailer.
Extras rating: 4/5

We say: The 4K restoration alone makes this the definitive edition of Scorsese's cinematic masterpiece

Goodfellas: 25th Anniversary, Warner Bros., All-region BD, £20 Approx
HCC VERDICT: 4.5/5