Southern Comfort (1981)

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

There's nothing much high about the definition of southern comfort - not on the UK BD, anyway - so I wouldn't get your hopes up.

All that I'm really expecting is "better than my old DVD", given the track record of Shout Factory/Scream Factory for these sort of movies. That's not a complaint on their track record, though. The type of movies that they are bringing to life on Blu-ray are movies that I'm just glad someone cares enough about to resurrect in the format, and I like the way that Shout Factory/Scream Factory presents them.

In the case of Southern Comfort, especially, "better than DVD" is just fine. I've seen this movie about 50 times, and that's not an exaggeration. I know it as a pretty drab-looking flick that will never be lit up with colors unless someone pulls a really bad revisionist transfer on it.

[Geoff D]

Your last sentence sums it up perfectly. I'll still be getting it, just don't expect anything special in terms of AV quality.

[Geoff D]

Ooh, I'll have to dig out my UK disc and give it a quick comparison. Looks good though, the colour certainly seems to have a bit more life to it than Second Sight's transfer.

[Geoff D]

Here we go then, a quick and dirty comparison of the two. They're both jpegs so don't take the poor compression of the UK one as gospel, although the png isn't too far off.

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/82173

Well, I dunno about the US colour having more life, but it's certainly different.

[Geoff D]

Here's another one, now that really does look a bit livelier, especially the greens of the uniform and the trees.

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/82178

[EddieLarkin]

Thank you Shout for not using the absolutely dire transfer that Second Sight did.

[JMK]

Southern Comfort Blu-ray Review

[redrunner97]

Does this have aslip?

[icy hot]

Originally Posted by redrunner97

Does this have aslip?

My preorder from Family Video arrived and it did not have a slip.

[The Prowler]

Does it have reversible cover art?

[icy hot]

Originally Posted by The Prowler

Does it have reversible cover art?

It does indeed.

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by icy hot

My preorder from Family Video arrived and it did not have a slip.

Only the Collector's Editions come with slips.

[Mr.Dig]

I have the Second Sight release,but the Shout Factory release looks better and I need to have the best possible release of this fantastic movie!

[GxyExpress999]

From blowitoutahere.com

[redrunner97]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

Only the Collector's Editions come with slips.

Umm... No. This is not a Scream Factory release. Shout Factory blu-rays oten have random slipcovers. Regardless of any banner they fall under.

[SeanJoyce]

Having recently revisited Hard Times via Eureka's magnificent Blu-ray release and with Shout's Streets of Fire and Trespass upgrades on the way, I decided to revisit this action/horror gem with a few beers.

Still Walter Hill's (my favorite director) masterpiece, IMO, and the Blu-ray looks terrific. It just doesn't get any better than late 70s/early 80s Hill.

[MassiveMovieBuff]

Is this OOP? Its only available from third party sellers on amazon.

[rocknblues81]

Originally Posted by MassiveMovieBuff

Is this OOP? Its only available from third party sellers on amazon.

No, it's done that several times over the last month or so.

It comes in stock for a short while and then it ends up back to being only sold by third part sellers. Perhaps Amazon only keeps a low stock of this item for some reason.

*edit*

It is in stock again:

https://www.amazon.com/Southern-Comf...=ATVPDKIKX0DER

[C.mcbraggins]

IMO, the Second Sight UK Blu is a smeary DNR'd mess with brightened revisionist color timing. The SF Blu (while having some compression issues) sports a more film like transfer with some debris here and there.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by C.mcbraggins

IMO, the Second Sight UK Blu is a smeary DNR'd mess with brightened revisionist color timing. The SF Blu (while having some compression issues) sports a more film like transfer with some debris here and there.

Have you seen both for yourself? I'd say that the Second Sight is most definitely an older transfer with that kind of orangey-tinted colour timing but it's nothing like a "smeary DNR'd mess" and I like the 1.85 framing. The Shout's colour is better but yeah, the compression isn't great and I don't like the crop to 1.78. It's only slight but to my eyes it makes a difference in some shots.