Collateral (2004)
Drama, Crime, Thriller • 2h
Director: Michael Mann
Cast: Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith, Mark Ruffalo, Peter Berg, Javier Bardem, Bruce McGill, Klea Scott, Barry Shabaka Henley, Irma P. Hall, Richard T. Jones, Jamie McBride, Troy Blendell, Emilio Rivera, Bodhi Elfman, Debi Mazar, Ken Waters, Charlie E. Schmidt, Michael Bentt, Ian Hannin, Robert Deamer, David Mersault, Anthony Ochoa, Omar Orozco, Cosme Urquiola, Edgar Sánchez, Thomas Rosales Jr., Inmo Yuon, Wade Williams, Paul Adelstein, Jessica Ferrarone, Howard Bachrach, Chic Daniel, Corinne Chooey, JoNell Kennedy, Steven Kozlowski, Roger Stoneburner, Rodney Sandberg, George Petrina, Donald Dean, Elliott Newman, Trevor Ware, Bobby English, Auggie Cavanagh, Ronald Muldrow, Peter McKernan Jr., Ivor Shier, Daniel Luján, Eddie Diaz, Joey Burns, John Convertino, Josh Cruze, Martin Flores, Larry G. Goldman, Maurilio Pineda, Dan Sistos, Jacob Valenzuela, Luis Villegas, Yussi Wenger, Jason Statham, Angelo Tiffe, Ismeal Vidrio, Ron Eckert, Manuel Urrego, Jessie Bernard, Luis Moncada, Dyna Teal, Sandi Schroeder, Michael-John Wolfe, Addie Yungmee, J.D. McElroy, Megan Hiratzka, Kate Gopacco, Christy Yi, Lisa Marie Basada, Wilson Wong, Mark Stainbrook, Brandon Molale, Marianne M. Arreaga, Spike Silver, Ben Mihm, Niles Roth, Michael Waxman, Linda Asuma, Conor Dean Smith, Gino Montesinos, Paul Aulicino, Andy Cheng, D-Teflon, Danny Del Toro, Michael Dotson, Melissa Gomez, Jerald Garner, Cameron Lee, Annabella Gutman, Masami Okada, Tony Sagastizado I, Mark Kubr, Gary Rodriguez, Henry T. Yamada, Tara Erickson, Esther K. Chae
Best English-friendly & video release · updated 9 months ago
Paramount/Plaion Spain/Italy 4K Blu-ray has better encoding than the US 4K Blu-ray.
UHD tiers
better encoding than US disc
Overview
Cab driver Max picks up a man who offers him $600 to drive him around. But the promise of easy money sours when Max realizes his fare is an assassin.
Director: Michael Mann
Director: Michael Mann
Theatrical Cut: Old Warner Bros DVD or fan restoration
Sources: fanrestore.com (opens in a new tab)
Theatrical Cut: Old Warner Bros DVD or fan restoration
Revised Cut: 2012 Japan Blu-ray for less revisionist colors, 2022 Disney 4K Blu-ray is controversially regraded and too dark overall.
Director: Michael Mann
Netherlands Remain in Light or UK Universal 4K Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Netherlands Remain in Light or UK Universal 4K Blu-ray, See caps: Ferrari (2023) | Slowpoke Pics
Netherlands Remain in Light
All three discs come from the same master and share the same Dolby Vision grade, with identical dynamic metadata and CMv4.0 on all three. The Eagle Pictures disc is the only Profile 7 FEL, the Remain in Light and Universal UK discs are both MEL. On paper that gives the Italian finer coding precision, but it doesn't buy anything on this film, the grain is heavy enough to hide base layer quantisation on its own and none of the three discs bands. It also costs something, the Eagle Pictures encode noticeably smooths grain in flatter, low contrast areas, so a fair bit of fine texture that both other discs keep is simply gone. Edges and overall definition are fine, but the Dutch and UK discs clearly hold the film's texture better and are the ones to get. Between those two it's very close, with the Dutch keeping slightly more grain across most of the scenes checked. Worth noting as well, the Dutch and UK discs have their title cards in English while the Italian keeps them in Italian.
Caps comp: Ferrari (2023) | Slowpoke Pics
Director: Michael Mann
Theatrical/Director's Cut: Shout! Factory Blu-ray
Hybrid Theatrical Cut: Anchor Bay "Theatrical" DVD
Final Cut: upcoming UK StudioCanal Final Cut 4K Blu-ray
UK StudioCanal Final Cut 4K Blu-ray
Director: Michael Mann
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · thedigitalbits.com (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Arrow 4K Blu-ray is encoded by FiM encode 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.
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)
Director: Michael Mann
Theatrical: Universum Film Germany Blu-ray 2004 Director's Cut: Sony Director's Cut DVD 2017 Director's Cut: Sony Blu-ray
Director: Michael Mann
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Imprint 4K Blu-ray is slightly better than the Vinegar Syndrome 4K Blu-ray see caps https://slow.pics/c/E1WBYjTH
See also this Vinegar Syndrome 4K Blu-ray vs Blu-ray caps https://slow.pics/c/OzvKrEEl
Imprint 4K Blu-ray has the same audio as Vinegar Syndrome
Director: Michael Mann
Director: Tony Scott
The 70mm 6-track mix has a higher bitrate on the Paramount 1998 DVD, but is more limited than on the THX LaserDisc The Paramount 1998 DVD also has open matte versions in fullscreen 1.33:1 and widescreen 2.00:1 instead of the theatrical aspect ratio of 2.39:1, but the 2.00:1 widescreen presentation is non-anamorphic. The THX LaserDisc is available in both fullscreen 1.33:1 and widescreen 2.00:1 variants.
Director: Terrence Malick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Lovely underlying remaster by Criterion and Resillion but encode is sadly low-pass filtered by Pixelogic, and even then, the encode is still less than ideal. Still easily obliterates any prior disc release, but certainly wouldn't hurt to have a UK or German label take a crack at this same master.
Director: Peter Faiman
Australia Cut: Australia Fox DVD
International Cut: Paramount Blu-ray
Encore Cut: Germany Winkler Film 4K Blu-ray, censored but good encoding
Sources: movie-censorship.com (opens in a new tab)
US Paramount 4K Blu-ray, is the International US Cut and not the Encore Cut
Australia Cut: Laserdisc
The film exists in three versions:
- the original Australian cut (~104 minutes at 24fps/~100 minutes at 25fps);
- the American/international version (~98 minutes at 24fps/~94 minutes at 25fps) trimming some exposition in the Outback first half of the film and some shorter extensions of a few seconds in the New York section, altering some of the dialogue – including censoring a "fuck" to "screw" – but featuring one additional dialogue extension not in the Australian version (a comparison of the two cuts can be found at Movie Censorship);
- the Australian Encore Cut (~95 minutes at 24fps/~91 minutes at 25fps) which uses the international version source so it already has those alterations but also removes approximately three minutes consisting of parts of two scenes featuring Mick grabbing the crotch of a cross-dressing prostitute and a later sequence when he does the same thing at a party to a woman with a deep voice (a comparison of the international version and the Encore Cut can be found at Movie Censorship).
3D version: Paramount 3D Blu-ray
Paramount 4K Blu-ray on October 26 2026
Director: Billy Wilder
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Paramount 4K Blu-ray. See caps
HDR/grading: nice, but some blown out
Encoding: inconsistent, smeared motion
DNR: inconsistent, frozen
Old Paramount Blu-ray is arguably a solid alternative choice
Paramount 4K Blu-ray mono
Paramount 4K Blu-ray mono is different version of the Blu-ray mono from the same old 2000 DVD transfer.
The 5.1 remix on the 4K Blu-ray is an appalling remix done by going wild with artificially generated stems from Park Road Post who were given the surviving mono to separate. The experience is jarring and fidelity to original mix in terms of level balance, directionality and impact is nonexistent. Not only does this sound painfully weird, but the Paramount mixers then did whatever they wanted in terms of LFE, sound pans and effect changes.
The original mono mix was not restored and still needs it badly. The 4K master is filled with frozen grain examples coming and going plus some HDR issues in addition to the usual Paramount problems. It is simultaneously better and worse than the Blu-ray master.
Director: Robert Altman
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Criterion 4K Blu-ray scheduled for Dec 2026 release
Director: Richard Linklater
Sources: caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)
Original AR: Paramount 4K Blu-ray
IMAX AR: Paramount 3D Blu-ray
More Drama on Blu-ray
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
BD LPCM 5.1
The DTS-HD on the UHD has been dynamically compressed, has had its center channel boosted, and surrounds lowered (typical modern nearfield mix for soundbars). Very different from the BD and DVD tracks. The BD LPCM is basically just a lossless version of the DTS and AC3 from the original DVD (the AC3 actually being the superior mix on that particular release).
Directors: Emeric Pressburger & Michael Powell
Imprint 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · filmalert101.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
FiM encode and none of the low-pass filtering present on the Criterion 4K, resulting in more detail and better handling of highlights on Imprint
Review, comparisons
All HD and 4K sources use the same 2009 restoration. Criterion's master (also used by Imprint) is a bit more rolled off, though the difference is minor.
Director: Lloyd Bacon
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Preston Sturges
No information on French Elephant Films Blu-ray
Director: Ralph Bakshi
Director: Martin Scorsese
Other releases have horrendous DNR
Edit history
Every recommendation follows the same method — how these calls are made.