The best 4K and Blu-ray releases coming out in May 2025

New physical media must-haves include the latest from Bong Joon Ho, a Mad Max set, Blaxploitation 4Ks, and more.

By Jacob Oller  |  May 1, 2025 | 10:00am
Photo: The Criterion Collection
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The best 4K and Blu-ray releases coming out in May 2025
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The early summer brings a few new releases and a king’s bounty of film collections to home viewing. Each month The A.V. Club does our part to keep you up to date on the best of what’s coming out on Blu-ray and 4K UHD, which is especially important as streaming services become less and less reliable homes for films worth watching. May 2025’s Blu-ray and 4K releases include upgrades to Blaxploitation classics, post-apocalyptic wastelands, and musical magic. Read on and find films from Bong Joon Ho, George Miller, Charles Burnett, Jacques Demy, and more.

The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg 4K

Available May 6, 2025

The impeccably bright Jacques Demy musical is finally coming to 4K from Criterion, with a new audio restoration to boot. If ever a movie deserved to be seen at its most crisp and colorful, it would be what Demy called his “singing Matisse.” Nino Castelnuovo and Catherine Deneuve navigate the small-scale worries of everyday life while a heightened version of the world bursts and twirls all around them. The dense and truthful emotions on display only make the brilliant design hit all the harder.

Mad Max 5-Film Collection 4K

Available May 13, 2025

Though Mad Max, The Road Warrior, Beyond Thunderdome, Fury Road, and Furiosa have all independently been available in this format before (even if some have been harder to get ahold of than others), this is the first time they’ve all been packaged together to include the totality of George Miller’s increasingly wild vision of the oil-soaked hellscape awaiting humanity. This also includes the black-and-white versions of the latter two films in the franchise (which has been hard to come by in a physical edition for Furiosa), as well as another Blu-ray of special features. If you were in the market for a copy of one of the best action movies of all time, and all the movies that happen to lead up to it, now’s a great time to snag it.

Mickey 17 4K Steelbook

Available May 13, 2025

One of the upsides to Warner Bros. having very little faith in its new theatrical releases and rapidly closing their windows is that their movies head to home video very, very quickly after they come out. Bong Joon Ho’s very funny, shaggy sci-fi tale of clones and colonization, Mickey 17 is one of the more inventive films to have hit the big screen so far this year. The Steelbook includes two discs and a handful of featurettes, but the draw here is the film itself: The endearingly scattered trip to another world is worth appreciating as you compare its twinning plotline to that of another WB release from this year, Sinners.

Blaxploitation Classics Vol. One 4K

Available May 20, 2025

Shout! Factory has compiled some real heaters in this set, which includes the lean-and-mean Across 110th Street; the epic Black Caesar and its cheapie sequel Hell Up In Harlem; the Pam Grier bangers Coffy and Sheba, Baby; and a personal favorite, Isaac Hayes’ Truck Turner, which features some of the best pimp outfits committed to the Blaxploitation screen. All these films are newly restored, with plenty of special features—including a brand new documentary about the subgenre featuring tons of experts, filmmakers, and academics.

A Knight’s Tale 4K Steelbook

Available May 20, 2025

Both the theatrical and extended cuts of this medieval Heath Ledger fan-favorite are included in this new restoration, as well as new deleted scenes, featurettes, and bloopers. Filled with stadium rock soundtracking the jousting, the silly period piece is carried by its excellent cast, which features Alan Tudyk, Paul Bettany, and Rufus Sewell in scene-stealing turns.

Killer Of Sheep 4K

Available May 27, 2025

A hard-to-find touchstone of Black indie cinema, Charles Burnett’s 1977 Killer Of Sheep was one of the first 50 films added to the Library Of Congress’ National Registry back in 1990. Now its vignette-told days-in-the-life story of one Los Angeles family is entering the Criterion Collection with a new 4K restoration. Including Burnett short films, new interviews, an appreciation from Barry Jenkins, a Robert Townsend documentary, and more, this is a stacked disc for a working-class American classic.

 
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