Natural Born Killers (1994)
Crime, Thriller, Drama • 1h 58m
Director: Oliver Stone
Cast: Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Robert Downey Jr., Tommy Lee Jones, Tom Sizemore, Rodney Dangerfield, Edie McClurg, Jared Harris, Russell Means, Maria Pitillo, Sean Stone, Everett Quinton, O-Lan Jones, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Steven Wright, Lanny Flaherty, Richard Lineback, Kirk Baltz, Ed White, Terrylene, Josh Richman, Melinda Renna, Dale Dye, Edward Conna, Evan Handler, Matthew Faber, Jamie Harrold, Saemi Nakamura, Keiko Seiko, Salvator Xuereb, Natalie Karp, Emmanuel Xuereb, Balthazar Getty, Phil Neilson, Red West, Jeremiah Bitsui, Lorraine Farris, Glen Chin, Peter Crombie, John M. Watson Sr., Joe Grifasi, Douglas Crosby, Carl Ciarfalio, Marshall Bell, Jim Carrane, Robert Swan, Louis Lombardi, Paul Dillon, David Pasquesi, James Gammon, Arliss Howard, Mark Harmon, Cory Everson, Corinna Laszlo, Robert Jordan
Best English-friendly & video release · updated 1 year ago
UHD tiers
Overview
Two victims of traumatized childhoods become lovers and serial murderers irresponsibly glorified by the mass media.
Director: Oliver Stone
Theatrical Cut 4K Blu-ray in August
Director's Cut: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
Theatrical Cut: Shout! Factory Blu-ray (included with collector's edition)
Theatrical Cut: The Shout UHD DTS-HD 2.0
Theatrical Cut: The Shout UHD DTS-HD 2.0 seems to be the same mix overall as the 1992 laserdisc PCM 2.0 but its not a straight port. Even though there are some minor differences, it does not seem to be a downmix of the 5.1. It could possibly be a new mastering. It has just a tiny bit more dynamic range than the laserdisc, but the laserdisc has a bit more presence in the lower and midrange frequencies.
Director: Oliver Stone
Sources: hometheaterforum.com (opens in a new tab) · x.com (opens in a new tab)
A improved Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray teased by Oliver Stone
Better than 2022 Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray due to poor encode and heavy DNR (review)
Director: Oliver Stone
2025 Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
Atmos remix: 2025 Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
Original 5.1 surround mix: 2007 Paramount Blu-ray (lossy AC-3 640k)
The original mix has better dynamics range. The 5.1 tracks on the SF release are downmixes.
Target exclusive 3 disc DVD have extras omitted from the Shout! Factory release
Director: Oliver Stone
Sources: lddb.com (opens in a new tab)
Twilight Time Blu-ray or MGM NTSC DVD for the original mono mix
Shout! Factory 4K only has a stereo downmix (which sounds muffled, as do the surround tracks)
Twilight Time Blu-ray has the mono track with seemingly the best fidelity, but its dynamic range has been heavily compressed
MoC UK Blu-ray has a proper dynamics and good fidelity, but bizzarely, everything is repeated after a few miliseconds, rendering echoey and metallic
MGM NTSC DVD has been denoised and has had a strong EQ applied and sounds muffled as a result, but it retains proper dynamics
Koch Media DE BD had poor dynamics and wrong pitch
Perhaps the digital JP LD would be better.
Director: Oliver Stone
Director: Oliver Stone
Director's Cut: WB Director's Cut DVD
Final Cut: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
Director: John Woo
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
review: Disk Kino
Both have better encoding than Disk Kino, some shots are better on Shout! Factory, others on Arrow
Shout Factory still has the best video while Arrow did a questionable regrade. Arrow definitely has less grain in most shots, has a worse encode and is cm v2.9 compared to Shout’s cm v4.0.
Shout! Factory/Arrow 4K Blu-ray has the original mono
Director: Gus Van Sant
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Shout! Factory and Carlotta use the same scan https://slow.pics/c/Wcn5YFlw, the Carlotta has two extra bonus features
Director: Michael Mann
Director: John Carpenter
Sources: blog.sporv.com (opens in a new tab)
1997? Signature Collection LD
Good: 2017 Arrow and 2016 Shout! Factory Blu-ray have the original audio options.
the only track on Universal 4K, which is in DTS:X, has a mixing error of around 6dB too low on side channels, otherwise very similar to other 5.1 mixes.
Director: Henry Selick
2D Version: Laika/Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
3D Version: 2011 3D Blu-ray
Sources: caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)
2D Version: Laika/Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
3D Version: 2011 3D Blu-ray caps
Director: Tsui Hark
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray or Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray or Australia Imprint 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
There is a newer 4K restoration by L’Immagine Ritrovata, which should be of better scan quality. The 4K restoration used on all current 4K disc releases stems from a low-quality Cintel scanner. The newer restoration has yet to be released on home video.
Director: David Lynch
Censored US version: Shout! Factory or Twilight Time Blu-ray
Uncensored version: old DVD
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
2026 Criterion 4K Blu-ray, confirmed to be uncut
More Crime on Blu-ray
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Both come from a 4K scan of a 35mm film out which was made from the original 2K DI but the Lionsgate release has visible dust and damage marks while the Universal release is cleaned up more thoroughly. Both releases suffer from DNR which seems to have been baked into the DI. The colour grade is basically the same for both releases but the Lionsgate has Dolby Vision whereas the Universal is HDR10 only. The compression on the Lionsgate UHD base layer is apparently fine so the FEL doesn't make much of a difference.
The Lionsgate UHD has Dolby Atmos whereas the Universal UHD has DTS:X. Kick-ass was originally released with a 5.1 track which may be on the Universal Blu-ray.
The Lionsgate UHD is on a BD-100, the Universal UHD is on a BD-66.
The Universal UHD has no extras.
Director: Joel Coen
Director's Cut: Disappointing UK StudioCanal/US Criterion 4K Blu-ray
Theatrical Cut: LaserDisc or 2001 UK Universal DVD
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?p=21782879#post21782879 - comparison. StudioCanal is a massive improvement to the Criterion but still flawed in some areas (chroma noise)
Director: Iain Softley
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Both 88 Films and Germany Capelight are superior to the Shout! Factory in HDR10 but their FEL layer may even things out. Objectively, the Capelight looks best as they avoided the chroma blocking that’s visible in 88’s disc but they in turn included an Atmos mix. I have the Shout! Factory, love how it looks and the 4K transfer is spectacular. https://slow.pics/c/vPmFQSAH
Shout! Factory has the exclusive The Beauty of the Baud and the You Can't Stop Us All featurettes.
TV series
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative for all episodes
Director: Lloyd Bacon
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Ralph Bakshi
Director: Roman Polanski
Director: Alan Clarke
Video format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
The 88 Films 4K Blu-ray is disappointing. Indicator Blu-ray > 88 Films Blu-ray. From nicolas:
Fine master, solid HDR but very poorly encoded with strong blocking artifacts in normal areas and clipped highlights that bring Criterion’s Walkabout to mind. Their Blu-ray is slightly better overall but then again still not as good as FiM’s encode for Indicator.
Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Eureka UK are considering doing a 4K and actively exploring the possibility: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=24363810&postcount=264
Wonderful underlying remaster by Criterion and Resillion, but NexSpec encode has clipped highlights with the occasional blockiness. The Criterion Blu-Ray, sourced from their 4K remaster, ironically makes for a more consistent and overall pleasing experience.
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