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S.W.A.T. (2003)
S.W.A.T. (2003) poster

S.W.A.T. (2003)

Action, Thriller, Crime • 1h 57m

Director: Clark Johnson

Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell, Michelle Rodriguez, LL Cool J, Josh Charles, Jeremy Renner, Brian Van Holt, Olivier Martinez, Domenick Lombardozzi, Reg E. Cathey, Larry Poindexter, Page Kennedy, James DuMont, Denis Arndt, Lindsey Ginter, Octavia Spencer, Noel Gugliemi, Clark Johnson, Matt Gerald, Ken Davitian, Tricia Kelly, Ashley Scott, Benjamin King, Alex Trebek, Reed Diamond, Neal H. Moritz, Max Thayer, Jeff Wincott, Marcio Rosario, Jay Montalvo, Michael Papajohn, Sergio Kato, Gregory Sporleder, Esther K. Chae, Bruce Gray, Lucinda Jenney, E. Roger Mitchell, Jay Acovone, Mario Aguilar Jr., J. Grant Albrecht, Peter Allas, Frankie J. Allison, Nathan Andrews, Sara Arrington, Michael Baker, Dianne Barone, Tody Bernard, Melanie Kim Blank, Joe Bucaro III, Andi Chapman, Gregory Crane, Brad Crosby, Tommy De La Cruz, Bruce Dent, Martin Dorsla, Jamal Duff, Jessica Winther, Colin Egglesfield, Steve Forrest, Kenneth Franklin, Maria Galvez, Garry Guerrier, Willie Gault, Sheri Goldner, Michael Gregory, Michael Guarnera, Steven Hack, Krista Hartling, Daniel Ichikawa, Dale W. Jones, Bishop Don Magic Juan, Joseph Kung, Brendan Wayne, Sergio Lambert, Jenya Lano, Brian Leckner, Iris Little Thomas, Ricki Lopez, Elio Lupi, Alexander Lyras, Larry McCormick, Devika Parikh, Rod Perry, Audra Platz, Stephen Ramsey, Ken Rudulph, Heather Salmon, Ben Siegler, Richard Steinmetz, David St. James, Arlow Stewart, Shannon Sturges, Rod Tate, Atticus Todd, Andy Umberger, Nick Vachon, Jamison Yang, Bridget Powers, Michael S. Garcia, Eric Strickland

UK 88 Films Blu-ray

Best English-friendly & video release · updated 6 months ago

Overview

Hondo Harrelson recruits Jim Street to join an elite unit of the Los Angeles Police Department. Together they seek out more members, including tough Deke Kay and single mom Chris Sanchez. The team's first big assignment is to escort crime boss Alex Montel to prison. It seems routine, but when Montel offers a huge reward to anyone who can break him free, criminals of various stripes step up for the prize.

Release details

Length
117 mins
Type
Movie
Alternative Titles
SWAT, S W A T

More from 88 Films

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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: Mark Pellington

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

UK 88 Films 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

88 Films is FiM encoded

Germany Filmjuwelen 4K Blu-ray is disappointing with AI upscaling

Director: Michael Mann

Best English-Friendly:

88 Films UK Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray  in December

Best Video:

88 Films UK Blu-ray for both cuts 

Best Audio:

88 Films Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

88 Films Blu-ray is missing Michael Mann commentary for the DC found on other BDs

Director: James Wong

Best English-Friendly & Video:

UK 88 Films Blu-ray

Additional Info:

Commentary: 88 Films is at a very low volume level. The other BDs like the Sony do not have this problem.

Director: Gary Goddard

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

US Toy Robot 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

UK 88 Films 4K Blu-ray in November encoded by FiM

Director: Deran Sarafian

4K · Disappointing
Best English-Friendly & Video:

MVD 4K Blu-ray

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

Upcoming Release:

88 Films Blu-ray in November

Video Notes:

MVD 4K Blu-ray beautiful remaster but with frame rate skips (encoding error)

Directors: Brian Taylor & Mark Neveldine

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

UK 88 Films 4K Blu-ray in November

Director: Bernardo Bertolucci

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

88 Films 4K Blu-ray 

Video Notes:

> Vinegar Syndrome

Best Audio:

2011 MGM Blu-ray/1998 MGM DVD

Additional Info:

88 Films and Vinegar Syndrome have different extras

Director: Lam Nai-choi

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

UK 88 Films 4K Blu-ray

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

Video Notes:

UK 88 Films 4K Blu-ray See caps


DE Nameless 4K Blu-ray is an extremely poor AI upscale. See caps

Best Audio:

UK 88 Films Blu-ray

Director: Charles Band

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

Full Moon Features Blu-ray or 88 Films Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Full Moon Features Blu-ray or 88 Films Blu-ray is better than 4K Blu-ray, which is poorly encoded

More Action on Blu-ray

Director: Doug Liman

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

US Cut: Universal HD-DVD

International Cut: International Universal Blu-ray but slightly filtered and DNR'd

Video Notes:

The Universal Blu-ray is slightly filtered and DNR'd compared to the HD-DVD, and the Universal 4K Blu-ray, on top of being upscaled, adds additional DNR and is softer than both previous HD releases.

Best Audio:

Universal Blu-ray DTS-HD 5.1

Additional Info:

Versions:
- The International version contains a short additional scene (part of the "Farmhouse" extended scene from the special features). See additional detail below.
- The US version does not contain this scene during the film. Director Doug Liman confirms in his audio commentary that the scene was cut from the original US theatrical release "for time".
- "The Explosive Extended Edition" found on some DVD releases is not an alternate cut of the film, simply an access mode that plays "The Bookend Scenes" features via non-seamless branching.

Deck the Halls scene:
The U.S. release is 118:17 while the European/Australian/Japanese releases are 118:36. There is no difference between the two running times from the start, but at 81:21, the U.S. version cuts from a kitchen scene of Marie and Eamon washing dishes, to a scene of Eamon bringing blankets to Jason and Marie. On the European/Australian releases, at the same point, there is a scene of Jason, Marie, Eamon and his children eating dinner while "Deck the Halls" plays in the background. There is no dialogue, the characters just each exchange uncomfortable glances. The scene goes to 81:40, then picks up the same scene of Eamon bringing blankets. This scene is included as an extra ("Farmhouse" extended scene) albeit sans the holiday themed music. Many thanks to Rewind user Mark Bowen for comparing these releases and letting us know the difference.

Director: Tony Scott

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

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Director: Fred Dekker

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

UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

> US Kino Lorber

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: Steve De Jarnatt

Best English-Friendly & Video:

2024 Kino Lorber Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

UK Transmission 4K Blu-ray in January 2027

Best Audio:

Either the 2015 Kino Lorber Blu-ray or the Arrow Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

The 2024 Kino Lorber Blu-ray is botched.

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.

Directors: Irving Pichel & Ernest B. Schoedsack

Best English-Friendly & Video:

UK MoC Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

MoC Blu-ray offers both restored and an unrestored tracks

Director: Simon Wincer

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

Kino Lorber Blu-ray

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

Video Notes:

4K is defective with color space issues and poor encoding, UHD replacement disc is also defective with worse encode. The UHD has visible artifacts from the bad encoding. The HDR is overdone and the Paramount 4K master has grain management.
The new Kino Blu-ray has none of the UHD's problems and is superior to the UHD in every way though it still uses the same Paramount master.

Best Audio:

DVD 5.1 or LaserDisc 5.1 AC3, LD PCM 2.0 for the matrix stereo version. The LD and DVD seem to be the theatrical audio mix untouched with plenty of low end. This low end like a number of 90's Paramount titles was mixed out or tamed on subsequent releases. 

Additional Info:

The Lionsgate BD and Paramount BD share the same lackluster HD master with DNR and image distortion. The Lionsgate is much better encoded but has a 7.1 remix which messed up the original mix design by lessening all the great Foley work in favor of the score. The Paramount BD had a 5.1 lossless version of the original mix but it's a new version where the bass has been tamed so the track has lost its punch. The Kino Lorber UHD and Blu-ray recycle this same lesser 5.1 mastering. The original mix can still be heard on LD and DVD. The 2.0 stereo on the Kino is matrixed but also does not sound as good as the 2.0 matrix audio on DVD or LD.
Kino has a replacement program for the defective UHD to fix the color space issue. The new disc is not marked, has a worse encode AND DOES NOT FIX THE COLOR SPACE! Thus it is a worse defective disc version of the original defective disc.
The Billy Zane interview on the Kino BD has technical issues in the editing and clip quality used.

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

tyyuxJojoTheMovieOtter

· last reviewed 6 months ago

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