The Best Blu-ray Discs

Just got a Blu-ray disc player as a gift? Or know someone who actually scored a PS3 and needs some non-gaming content? Lucky for you, the number of Blu-ray discs out there is hovering around 100—surprising, considering the relative lack of actual Blu-ray devices available for sale.

I've had the chance to play around with a couple of Blu-ray disc players and a PlayStation 3 and watch plenty of HD movies over the past month or so. While I haven't watched every last release out there so far—can you blame me for not wanting to see Rumor Has It...?—I have found that some discs are better than others. Following is my short list of best Blu-ray discs I've seen so far, where the quality of the movie is at least as good as the quality of the image, sound, and/or extras.

Kingdom of Heaven—The Director's Cut: This is one of the first 50GB Blu-ray discs, and the result is an excellent image of Ridley Scott's 194-minute director's cut of this Crusades-era epic. Blacks and dark scenes are surprisingly easy to discern, details on walls and other backgrounds are vivid, and the stellar DTS HD Master Audio is accessible on certain AV receivers that can do PCM audio. I stood five feet away from the screen and still couldn't see any pixels. Unfortunately, even a three-hour-plus movie in Blu-ray is too big to include any extras.

The Devil Wears Prada: Okay, so the movie isn't so great, but Meryl Streep keeps it going. The good news is that you don't have to worry about paying 100 percent attention to the plot since this disc has some fun extras, including pop-up-video-style info bubbles with background on each piece of couture in the film, fashion history, and other assorted production notes. The image is crisp and accurately colorful.

Superman Returns: Yes, you can get this movie in digital form nearly everywhere (Xbox Video Marketplace, Wal-Mart, Comcast), but the 1080p Blu-ray (and HD-DVD) version is the best out there for clarity on the big HD screen. Plus, it's got about 15 minutes of deleted scenes in HD, as well as a hefty two-hour-plus documentary by director Bryan Singer on the making of the movie.

Black Hawk Down: Given that it's like one long first-person-shooter video game, this movie lends itself well to the high-def format, both for the excellent transfer that makes the considerable night scenes discernable and the detailed 5.1 soundtrack that delivers immersive battle-like realism. Frankly, it might be a bit gory for some at this resolution. The disc is also the first with Blu-wizard technology, which is a fancy name for the ability to program the extra features (documentaries and the like) you want into the movie.

M:I:III: Tom Cruise aside, this action-packed thriller is a fun ride and translates well to the HD screen, with explosive sound and a sharp picture. The release is broken up into two discs. In addition to the movie, the first disc features a commentary by director J. J. Abrams and Tom Cruise that's actually informative; the second disc has a series of making-of documentaries in HD.

So those are the best discs, in terms of video/audio quality, that I've seen so far. Despite some flaws, I also enjoyed the following Blu-ray discs: House of Flying Daggers (uneven transfer, but great audio and fantastic movie), Blazing Saddles (great image and fun, though non-exclusive extras like the nutty 1975 sitcom spin-off Black Bart), The Fifth Element, Aeon Flux, Click, Bubble, Talladega Nights, and Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (no need for HD on this one, but a great documentary). I hated: RV, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, XXX (sorry, Vin Diesel fans).

Related links:

Blu-ray and HD-DVD: What You Need to Know

Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD: The Hands-on Experience, Part 1

Hands-on: Blu-ray on the PlayStation 3