On the Shelf: ‘One Battle After Another,’ ‘Snakes on a Plane,’ ‘Death on the Nile’ and New Criterions Highlight the 4K Physical Media Releases for the Week of January 19
Rise and shine, physical media fans! The middle of January brings home the best film of 2025 as Paul Thomas Anderson’s sprawling, modern epic One Battle After Another arrives on 4K Blu-ray. Loosely based on the novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon, One Battle follows an ex-revolutionary who is forced back into his former combative lifestyle when he and his daughter are pursued by a corrupt, dangerous military officer. But that description only scratches the surface of Anderson’s latest opus that explores the failures of our generational pasts, and how our failures become dangerous as time goes on, leaving us fighting for the things and people we care about the most, and forcing the next wave of revolutionaries to emerge to continue to fight the good fight; hopefully making more progress in the world than at the time our nation, planet, and it’s responsibilities were given to them. It’s a transcendent, timely, vital masterpiece that features stellar work from an all-star ensemble that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, and newcomer Chase Infiniti. It is the film that was referenced the most by the AwardsWatch team as their favorite film of the year, and is one of the film’s that we will remember fondly when we think back on cinema in 2025.
Over at Arrow Video, a cult classic, horror-action film gets its 4K debut with Snakes on a Plane. When a young man witnesses a brutal mob murder, it falls to FBI agent Neville Flynn to escort his charge safely from Hawaii to Los Angeles to testify. But in an act of self-preservation, the crime boss facing prison smuggles hundreds of poisonous snakes onto the commercial aircraft in a crate timed to release its deadly cargo halfway over the Pacific. Flynn, along with a frightened flight crew and passengers, must then band together in a desperate attempt to survive. Led by the legendary Samuel L. Jackson, this dumb but fun film was an early internet sensation for the iconic line that Jackson utters in the climax of the film; a line that was added to please the fans of this ridiculous ride. Inside the 4K Blu-ray is the restored film alongside archival commentaries with the film’s director, David R. Ellis and Jackson, a mini documentary about the making of the film and the history of this property, including a featurette on the online hype surrounding the movie. A B-film, camp classic from the 2000s deserves your attention on your shelves this week.
From our friends at Kino Lorber, they are releasing three Agatha Christie films on 4K, some of the best adaptations of the famous author’s work, most notably Death on the Nile. Peter Ustinov (Topkapi) makes his debut as the brilliant Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, in this lavish and star-studded event film. As Poirot enjoys a luxurious cruise down the Nile, a newlywed heiress is found murdered on board and every elegant passenger becomes a prime suspect. Bette Davis, Mia Farrow, Olivia Hussey, George Kennedy, Angela Lansbury, David Niven, Maggie Smith, Jack Warden, Jane Birkin, Lois Chiles, Jon Finch, Simon MacCorkindale, Harry Andrews, I. S. Johar and Sam Wanamaker co-star in this sumptuous murder-mystery that ranks as one of the best versions of a Christie adaptation, and gives birth to Ustinov’s version of the famous detective. This release alongside the 4K release of Evil Under the Sun and The Mirror Crack’d this week makes Kino Lorber this place to grab a nice haul of absolute bangers for murder mysteries.
Lastly, a massive week of releases from the fine folks over at the Criterion Collection as four first time releases, Captain Blood, The Dead, Caught by the Tides, and Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project, No. 5, make their way home. In Captain Blood, Oscar winning director Michael Curtiz (Casablanca), crafts a classic Hollywood swashbuckler, bringing to life the move star Errol Flynn. He brings boundless charisma to the role of an idealistic Irish physician who, declared a traitor to England and sold into slavery in the New World, takes his revenge by transforming himself into the notorious pirate Captain Blood. Backed with an all-time symphonic score, Captain Blood is a template film for many modern action films we see today. With The Dead, the legendary director John Huston adapting a masterly short story by his favorite writer, James Joyce, into a poignant reflection on the totality of life in his final film of a legendary career. It’s a nostalgic, melancholic film that is a beautiful showcase of a director reflecting on the remaining time in his life and the memories that haunt him. Caught by the Tides is the latest release of the week, as the 2024 feature from director Jia Zhang-Ke kaleidoscopic odyssey across time and space, incorporating footage captured for his previous films into an entirely original, captivating epic. It’s a brilliant love story that spans the entire millennium to the COVID-19 era, showcasing an evolving world and the two people who are just trying to navigate it; it’s brilliant. And in his fifth collection of largely unknown, international films, director Martin Scorsese brings us his latest World Cinema Project, this time featuring the undiscovered gems from around the world, including Chronicle of the Years of Fire, Yam daabo, Kummatty, and The Fall of Otrar. There is something old, something new, and plenty of discovery found within the Criterion releases this week, and all worth adding to physical media lover’s evolving collections.
Other Notable Releases for the Week of January 19, 2026 include:
Diva (1981, 4K Blu-ray, Kino Lorber)
Fackham Hall (2025, Blu-ray, Decal Releasing)
Lucifer: The Complete Series (2016-2022, Blu-ray, Warner Bros.)
Man in a Cocked Hat (1959, Blu-ray, Kino Lorber)
Roofman (2025, 4K Blu-ray, Paramount Pictures)
Shine (1996, 4K Blu-ray, MPI Media Group)
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025, 4K Blu-ray, Disney)
Wicked: For Good (2025, 4K Blu-ray, Universal)
- On the Shelf: ‘One Battle After Another,’ ‘Snakes on a Plane,’ ‘Death on the Nile’ and New Criterions Highlight the 4K Physical Media Releases for the Week of January 19 - January 19, 2026
- AwardsWatch Podcast Ep. 327 – Final Oscar Nomination Predictions for the 98th Academy Awards - January 19, 2026
- Director Watch Ep. 135 – ‘Bulworth’ (Warren Beatty, 1998) - January 16, 2026
On the Shelf: ‘One Battle After Another,’ ‘Snakes on a Plane,’ ‘Death on the Nile’ and New Criterions Highlight the 4K Physical Media Releases for the Week of January 19 
AwardsWatch Podcast Ep. 327 – Final Oscar Nomination Predictions for the 98th Academy Awards 
Online Film and Television Association (OFTA) Nominations: ‘Sinners’ Leads with 23 
‘One Battle After Another,’ ‘The Secret Agent’ Lead International Cinephile Society (ICS) Nominations