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Jackie Brown (1997)
Jackie Brown (1997) poster

Jackie Brown (1997)

Crime, Drama, Thriller • 2h 34m

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Best English-friendly & video release

 · updated 1 year ago

UHD tiers

Excellent
Lionsgate

Overview

Jackie Brown is a flight attendant who gets caught in the middle of smuggling cash into the country for her gunrunner boss. When the cops try to use Jackie to get to her boss, she hatches a plan — with help from a bail bondsman — to keep the money for herself.

Release details

Length
154 mins
Type
Movie

More from Quentin Tarantino

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Director: Quentin Tarantino

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

International Cut: Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray

Japan Cut: Japan DVD

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Upscaled from the 2K DI. Caps are here. While not as dramatic an upgrade as Jackie Brown, color reproduction and especially the reveal of additional highlight information that were completely blown-out on the old master make this a great upgrade regardless. See Uma Thurman’s face in the above cap. Japan Cut: Japan DVD

Additional Info:

Japan DVD has more extras compared to the HD/UHD releases

Director: Quentin Tarantino

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray

Director: Quentin Tarantino

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

International Cut: Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray

Japan Cut: Japan DVD

Upcoming Release:

Whole Bloody Affair 4K Blu-ray upcoming in July, but only has 1 bonus feature and cuts out the rest of the extras

Additional Info:

Japan DVD has more extras compared to the HD/UHD releases

Director: Quentin Tarantino

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

2025 Taiwan Deltamac 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

> US Paramount 4K Blu-ray (Taiwan 4K Blu-ray is not low passed as the US 4K Blu-ray and has better grain and fine detail retention)

Best Audio:

Matrixed Dolby Stereo: 1995 Miramax LaserDisc 2.0

Original 5.1 Discrete Mix: 2012 Japan Warner Bros Blu-ray, 1996 Criterion LaserDisc, 2002 2-Disc Collector’s Edition DVD

5.1 DTS Mix: 1997 Miramax LaserDisc, 2002 2-Disc Collector’s Edition DVD

Director: Quentin Tarantino

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly:

International Cut: Arrow 4K Blu-ray Germany Cut: Germany Universal 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

International Cut: Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

International Cut: Arrow 4K Blu-ray > Universal 4K Blu-ray Germany Cut: Germany Universal 4K Blu-ray

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Best English-Friendly & Video:

US Anchor Bay Blu-ray

Video Notes:

> International Sony Blu-ray

Additional Info:

Best Buy, Target, and Walmart exclusive editions all have a exclusive extra each.

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Anchor Bay Blu-ray

Director: Quentin Tarantino

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Germany StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray

Director: Quentin Tarantino

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Sony 4K Blu-ray

More from Lionsgate

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Director: Barry Jenkins

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Lionsgate 4k

Upcoming Release:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray announced by director Barry Jenkins

Director: Damien Chazelle

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Excellent
Upcoming Release:

US Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray re-release announced with Dolby Vision, a new exclusive bonus, and the previously retailer pre-order bonus-exclusive/Hong Kong-exclusive bonus interviews in HD

Video Notes:

Italy Eagle Pictures has DV, better encode, and no brightness shifts compared to Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray for the original Dolby Atmos mix

Additional Info:

Hong Kong Panorama 4K Blu-ray has two interviews available in HD that are SD everywhere else and only included as retailer-exclusive pre-order bonus DVDs with the US Blu-ray

Director: Werner Herzog

Best English-Friendly & Video:

2015 UK Lionsgate Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Criterion Blu-ray scheduled for Dec 2026 release

Director: Paul King

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

StudioCanal UK 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

StudioCanal UK 4K Blu-ray minimal picture upgrade (2K upscale)

Audio Notes:

StudioCanal UK 4K Blu-ray has good new Atmos mix

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Universal 4K Blu-ray or Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

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.

Best Audio:

Universal Blu-ray?

Audio Notes:

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.

Additional Info:

The Lionsgate UHD is on a BD-100, the Universal UHD is on a BD-66.

The Universal UHD has no extras.

Director: Alexandre Aja

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

US Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

US Lionsgate Limited, France ESC, or Germany Plaion 4K Blu-ray?

Video Notes:

Germany Plaion is reportedly better than UK Second Sight.

Not sure about the US Lionsgate or France ESC.

Director: Ryuhei Kitamura

Best English-Friendly:

Theatrical Cut: Austria NSM Blu-ray
Director's Cut: US Lionsgate Blu-ray

Best Video:

Theatrical Cut: Austria NSM Blu-ray
Director's Cut: France Metropolitan Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Metropolitan got better picture (higher bitrate + better grain + more detail) than Lionsgate

Best Audio:

Director's Cut: US Lionsgate Blu-ray

Director: Roman Polanski

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray see caps. Much better contrast and grain exposure but the grade is a bit questionable as it skews heavily towards magenta in some caps and the encode looks low-pass filtered.

Lionsgate and the upcoming Imprint have the same discs.

Best Audio:

Atmos Remix: Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray
Original 5.1: Imprint Australia Blu-ray or StudioCanal Germany/France Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray encoded the "Original 5.1" as lossy Dolby Digital, which is very different from the AC3 on the original DVD.  This new "Original 5.1" may in fact be a downmix of the Atmos track.  FWIW, the original DVD AC3 still sounds very good.

Director: Jamie Babbit

4K · Worse Than BD
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Lionsgate Blu-ray

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray is a disaster. The compression on the base layer is horrid, and the oversized 18 Mbps FEL barely helps.

Best Audio:

Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray includes original matrixed Dolby Stereo mix, albeit lossy, and a 5.1 surround upmix. The stereo track on previous BD and DVD releases is also lossy and sounds about the same.

Director: James Cameron

4K · Worse Than BD
Best English-Friendly & Video:

2015 Lionsgate Blu-ray 

Sources: fanrestore.com (opens in a new tab) · originaltrilogy.com (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:
  • 2015 Lionsgate Blu-ray (but it's missing the extra scenes in the Ultimate Edition)

  • 2017 StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray and subsequent 4K Blu-rays are notorius for being heavily denoised and smoothened. Alternatively, 35mm scans for the theatrical cut is also available.

  • For the Ultimate Edition with the T-1000 searching John's room and the happy future ending, the 2009 Skynet Blu-ray, which is the older pre-2017 transfer, but has DNR.

Best Audio:
  • Original Kodak/ORC CDS mix:  Japan Pioneer DVD in DTS/ac3 5.1

  • Original Dolby Stereo SR: USA Widescreen LaserDisc and others.

Audio Notes:

Differences of mixes on various releases: see thread and more info here.

Additional Info:

2017 Blu-ray (which has the DNRed transfer), the 2009 Skynet Edition Blu-ray, and the 2000 Ultimate Edition DVD have exclusive extras. The 2003 Extreme Edition DVD has some exclusive easter eggs.

More Crime on Blu-ray

Director: Brian De Palma

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

1993 Universal LaserDisc

Additional Info:

Carlito’s Way was released theatrically in both Dolby Stereo and DTS. The 2.0 on the Arrow UHD is the original stereo mix, unknown if the 5.1 mix on the  Arrow disc is the original DTS mix.

Director: Toshiharu Ikeda

Best English-Friendly:

UK Third Window Blu-ray and US Error 4444 Blu-ray

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

FRA Carlotta Blu-ray

Video Notes:

caps; UK and US Blu-rays share the encode

Director: Arthur Penn

Best English-Friendly & Video:

WB Blu-ray

Video Notes:

4K transfer

Director: Stanley Kubrick

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Included in the Complete Kubrick box set with FiM encode of the same master from the WB release without the filtering Comparison between the Criterion and WB.

Best Audio:

5.1: WB 4K Blu-ray, a remix but has higher fidelity

Mono: Criterion 4K Blu-ray (restored for the box set)

Director: Michael Mann

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · thedigitalbits.com (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray is encoded by FiM and is better than Criterion, see caps https://slow.pics/c/Z2RRQAAT

Criterion 4K Blu-ray vs Blu-ray: caps colors are more different and nuanced than anticipated even in the SDR-converted caps and the usual gain in highlight detail is also apparent. Encode looks excellent except for the brightest areas as usual.

Best Audio:

5.1/5.0 mix (essentially a 4-track mix in 5.1 and 5.0 containers respectively)-Arrow/Criterion 4K Blu-ray. Only imperceptible differences in bit-depth: 20 vs 24. 

2.0 mix- Arrow 4K Blu-ray (original stereo)

Additional Info:

Arrow and Criterion 4K Blu-rays have differing extras 

Criterion has FEL Dolby Vision, Arrow has MEL

Arrow Limited Edition includes the Theatrical Cut Blu-ray from an older HD master, most likely from a 2K scan of an interpositive.

Director: Nicolas Winding Refn

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly:

US Magnolia BD

Audio Notes:

UK Entertainment One release contains directors commentary track

Director: Joel Coen

4K · Disappointing
Best English-Friendly & Video:

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)

Video Notes:

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

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Capelight Germany 4K Blu-ray

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

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

Best Audio:

88 Films 4K Blu-ray

Additional Info:

Shout! Factory has the exclusive The Beauty of the Baud and the You Can't Stop Us All featurettes.

Director: John Woo

Best English-Friendly & Video:

US Shout! Factory or UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray?

Director: Tsui Hark

Best English-Friendly & Video:

US Shout! Factory or UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray?

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Researched and maintained by

vanshady

· last reviewed 1 year ago

Every recommendation follows the same method — how these calls are made.