These 5 movies are so good I bought them on DVD and Blu-ray

Credit: Sydney Louw Butler / How-To Geek Published Aug 8, 2026, 8:45 AM EDT Sydney Butler is a technology writer with over 20 years of experience as a freelance PC technician and system builder and over a decade as a professional writer. He's worked for more than a decade in user education. On How-To Geek, he writes commerce content, guides, opinions, and specializes in editing hardware and cutting edge technology articles. Sydney started working as a freelance computer technician around the age of 13, before which he was in charge of running the computer center for his school. (He also ran LAN gaming tournaments when the teachers weren't looking!) His interests include VR, PC, Mac, gaming, 3D printing, consumer electronics, the web, and privacy. He holds a Master of Arts degree in Research Psychology with a minor in media and technology studies. His masters dissertation examined the potential for social media to spread misinformation. Outside of How-To Geek, he hosts the Online Tech Tips YouTube Channel, and writes for Online Tech Tips, Switching to Mac, and Helpdesk Geek. Sydney also writes for Expert Reviews UK. He also has bylines at 9to5Mac, 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, Tom's Hardware, MakeTechEasier, and Laptop Mag. Sign in to your How-To Geek account I love streaming services. I see them as an affordable way to watch movies, and when those movies rotate away, I can stream something new. More importantly, streaming services are one of the key ways I choose what DVDs and Blu-rays to buy. Just as movie rental services or cable TV have done for me in the past. If I see a movie, love it, and know that I'm going to want to watch it again and again, that's a sign I need to own a permanent copy of it. While I own hundreds of movies like this, when my editor asked me which of the movies in my disc collection stands out as being most worthy of a physical purchase, this is what came to mind. Robocop The movie so nice, I bought it twice Paul Verhoeven's ultra-violent and satirical cyberpunk masterpiece is simply one of my favorite movies of all time. Yes, I was far too young when I watched it for the first time. However, to be fair, there was also a Robocop TV cartoon and a toy line, so they knew what they were doing. It's the story of a superb cop with an iron sense of justice who is gunned down by a gang in the line of duty. A megacorporation chooses his remains as the basis for a cybernetic crime-fighting system, but despite erasing his memories, they can't suppress his spirit. You'll notice that I have two copies of this movie. One is the original theatrical cut that audiences saw in theaters, and the other is the director's cut, which was refused a rating for being too violent. As a hardcore Robocop fan, I just had to own the slightly different version of this movie, but for anyone else, the theatrical cut will do just fine. RoboCop Release Date July 17, 1987 Cast Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O'Herlihy, Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith, Miguel Ferrer, Robert DoQui, Ray Wise, Felton Perry, Paul McCrane, Jesse D. Goins, Del Zamora, Calvin Jung, Rick Lieberman, Lee de Broux, Mark Carlton, Edward Edwards, Michael Gregory, Freddie Hice, Neil Summers, Gene Wolande, Gregory Poudevigne, Charles Carroll, Kevin Page, Yolonda Williams Runtime 102 minutes Director Paul Verhoeven Writers Edward Neumeier, Michael Miner Producers Arne Schmidt Main Genre Action Terminator 2 A pity they never made any more sequels Terminator 2 is simply one of the best movies ever made—not just among sci-fi or summer blockbuster films, but across the entire history of movies. I do, however, feel that James Cameron's scrappy indie film The Terminator is a package deal here if you want a complete and coherent story. A killer robot comes back to the past to kill the mother of the leader of the human resistance, and in the second film another one comes back to try again, except this time the future leader is an annoying teenage boy. It's awesome. Terminator 2: Judgment Day Release Date July 3, 1991 Cast Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, Robert Patrick, Earl Boen, Joe Morton, S. Epatha Merkerson, Castulo Guerra, Danny Cooksey, Jenette Goldstein, Xander Berkeley, Leslie Hamilton Gearren, Ken Gibbel, Robert Winley, Pete Schrum, Shane Wilder, Michael Edwards, Jared Lounsbery, Casey Chavez, Ennalls Berl, Don Lake, Richard Vidan, Tom McDonald, Jim Palmer, Gerard 'Gus' Williams Runtime 137 minutes Director James Cameron Writers James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd, William Wisher Producers James Cameron, Van Ling Prequel(s) Terminator Sequel(s) Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Terminator Salvation, Terminator Genisys, Terminator: Dark Fate Franchise(s) Terminator Main Genre Sci-Fi Budget $94-102 Million Studio(s) Carolco Pictures, Pacific Western Productions, Lightstorm Entertainment, Le Studio Canal+ Distributor(s) Tri-Star Pictures Executive Producer(s) Gale Anne Hurd, Mario Kassar The Fifth Element Sadly, it does not come with a "bad English" track Credit: Sydney Louw Butler / How-To Geek The Fifth Element is a singular, cult-classic film that did not get the recognition it deserved on release. It's a whacky space opera that channels (or in some cases practically plagiarizes) Metal Hurlant's art and stories and particularly the artistic works of Mœbius. Director Luc Besson did a marvelous job, and the movie has aged incredibly well. I watch it at least once a year, and given that my wife has tattoos inspired by the movie, you can bet she's right there watching it with me. Cast Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm, Chris Tucker, Luke Perry, Brion James, Tommy Lister Jr., Lee Evans, Charlie Creed-Miles, Tricky, John Neville, John Bluthal, Mathieu Kassovitz, Christopher Fairbank, Kim Chan, Richard Leaf, Julie T. Wallace, Al Matthews, Maïwenn, John Bennett, Ivan Heng, Sonita Henry, Tim McMullan, Hon Ping Tang Runtime 126 minutes Director Luc Besson Writers Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen Producers Patrice Ledoux Main Genre Science Fiction Budget $90 million Studio(s) Columbia Pictures Distributor(s) Columbia Pictures Akira I like watching the bike slide in HD Credit: Sydney Louw Butler/How-To Geek I'm a hardcore anime fan, but I've largely decided to leave my anime Blu-rays out of this list; otherwise, it would just mostly be Neon Genesis Evangelion movies. That said, I have to give Akira a spot because it's an important part of film history in the East and the West. Based on the extraordinary manga by Katsuhiro Otomo, the movie is another dystopian cyberpunk masterpiece, but it was also a big part of the anime revolution in the U.S., and it is a remarkable film on a technical level. Not many anime, theatrical or not, benefit much from HD. Even though modern anime is rarely produced in 4K, I own both the DVD and BD versions of Akira, and I can honestly say it makes a huge difference. Some version of this movie should be in everyone's collection. Akira Release Date July 16, 1988 Cast Mitsuo Iwata, Nozomu Sasaki, Mami Koyama, Taro Ishida, Tesshô Genda, Mizuho Suzuki, Tatsuhiko Nakamura, Fukue Itō, Kazuhiro Shindō Runtime 124 Minutes Director Katsuhiro Otomo Writers Katsuhiro Otomo, Izô Hashimoto Budget $5.7 Million Studio(s) Tokyo Movie Shinsha Co. Ltd Distributor(s) Toho Based On Manga by Katsuhiro Otomo Streaming Service(s) Amazon Prime Video MyAnimeList Score 8.16 Hardcore Henry An experiment in first-person madness Credit: Sydney Louw Butler/How-To Geek Hardcore Henry is a Russian-American production with a very novel approach to storytelling. The entire film is shot to look like the main character's first-person perspective. It's a hard sci-fi action film with relentless pacing and amazing visual effects. It's also got a nice mind-bending plot. Why did I buy a physical copy? Well, for one thing, I almost never see this movie available to stream, at least not in my country. With it being such a niche movie already, I figure a few years down the line, this will be the only way I'll get to watch it again. Hardcore Henry Release Date April 8, 2016 Cast Oleg Poddubnyy, Haley Bennett, Darya Charusha, Danila Kozlovsky, Tim Roth, Svetlana Ustinova, Sharlto Copley, Andrei Dementiev Runtime 96 Mins Director Ilya Naishuller Writers Will Stewart, Ilya Naishuller Main Genre Action Why don't you buy the 4K UHD versions? Although I have a 4K BD player, I don't actually own any 4K Blu-rays at the moment, though that might change. In most cases, I don't feel compelled to buy the 4K versions of movies I already own in HD. I think the benefits are marginal, and if the film was not originally mastered for HDR I also don't really feel a need to watch it with what amounts to an HDR filter. Many of the movies I like have problematic 4K editions, where AI upscaling has been used to negative effect, or film grain has been scrubbed. The most egregious problems are alterations to color grading, at least in my opinion. But for older movies there's a tendency for the 4K version to look smooth and surreal, which I don't like, and the 1080p version is already more detailed than I needed the movie to be or than the filmmakers intended it to be seen in.