Blu-ray

Despite all of the awards heaped on it, this homage to silent cinema really isn’t the best film of the last year – it’s not even the best film I’ve seen this month. But, to give The Artist its dues, it is a funny, inventive and charming romantic-comedy-drama about the arrival of the ‘Talkies’ to Hollywood. Just don’t go expecting the most incredible movie experience of your life and you’ll be fine.

Following three years of reality-based adventures in espionage, popular British spy series The Avengers underwent a dramatic change in 1965. Thanks to an injection of cash from US broadcaster ABC, the show made the jump to film – and in the process set about transforming itself into a comic book romp that fully embraced British eccentricity.

Arriving on a wave of critical acclaim, this Australian horror movie is the sort of shot in the arm the genre has been crying out for.

The Beyond is more than just ‘yet another’ Italian splatter film. It’s the highpoint of Lucio Fulci’s career in the horror genre, a terrifying mix of mysticism and visceral horror that proves even more pessimistic than the director’s earlier City of the Living Dead. Catriona MacColl stars as the inheritor of a rundown New Orleans hotel, whose efforts at getting it up and running again are undermined by an escalating series of inexplicable and extremely violent occurrences.

The Big Four: Live From Sofia is an indispensable BD platter for thrash metal hedz, as it captures the only time these titans of the genre (Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer and Metallica) have shared the same stage. Filmed at the Sonisphere music festival in Bulgaria, and running for five hours, it’s a non-stop barrage of razor-sharp riffs, pounding kick drums and snarled vocals that’s guaranteed to leave fans grinning from ear to ear.

This 1930 tale of obsession is now mainly talked about for being the film that launched Marlene Dietrich on the path to stardom, but it remains a thrilling slice of German melodrama in its own right. Eureka's hi-def release boasts restored AVC 1.19:1 1080p presentations of the German- and English-language versions. Both display some print damage (especially the English version), but represent a huge step forward in quality from previous releases. Bonus features include a commentary, Dietrich's screen test and much more.

With the Jason Bourne situation threatening to unearth all manner of dirty secrets about the US military complex, the decision is taken to (literally) kill off another, similar, black ops program. But wouldn't you know it, one of targets survives, and now the sinister government goons have yet another rogue agent on their hands.