Techradar's '50 Blu-ray movies for every hi-def fan' list misses quite a few

Posted Friday, January 2, 2009 at 4:02 PM Central

by Tim Briscoe

British tech news site Techradar recently posted its choices for the 50 movies everyone should have on Blu-ray. Their list is a decent one but not without its faults.

Before we go off dissecting the compilation, let's share their 20 best. For the full list, hop on over to their web site.

20. TMNT
19. Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
18. Superbad
17. Cars
16. Pan's Labyrinth
15. Shoot 'Em Up
14. The Host
13. 300
12. Live Free or Die Hard
11. Casino Royale
10. Tim Burton's Corpse Bride
9. Planet Earth
8. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
7. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
6. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
5. Ratatouille
4. Blade Runner: The Final Cut
3. Hairspray
2. Spider-Man: The High Definition Trilogy
1. Iron Man

With any luck, you've just read this list and said to yourself, "Hairspray? At number three? Seriously?!"

Most people will suggest you start with Planet Earth on Blu-ray and then work through collecting your favorites. Beyond that, there are a few visual stunners that really should have been on their list.

Surprisingly, WALL-E and The Dark Knight are no where to be found in their top 50. Perhaps they haven't been released in jolly old England quite yet. That's the only worthwhile explanation for their omission.

We definitely agree that Blade Runner, 300, and Iron Man should be high on your post-Christmas Blu-ray shopping list. Really, so too should The Bourne Trilogy (granted, it doesn't come out until later this month), Black Hawk Down (mostly for the audio), The Prestige (magical for many reasons), and Across the Universe (yes, seriously), and The Fifth Element (lots of eye candy).

And if you want an obscure pick for Blu-ray, try The Fall. Back in September, we called it the reason to buy a Blu-ray player.

That is, until the original Star Wars Trilogy comes to the high definition format.