Southpaw 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Southpaw 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 16, 2025

Southpaw's title may frankly have made a bit more sense when lefty Eminem was attached to the film as star (he ended up providing music only in addition to a producing credit). While not an official left hander courtesy of tweaked casting choices, Billy Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal) sports a tattoo in Roman numerals which some have mistakenly assumed identified the character's own birthday, when it's actually an homage to Billy's daughter Leila (Oona Laurence). In that regard, some inquiring minds, or at least this inquiring mind, may wonder what Billy's birthday might be (at least according to the original formulation of the character and the actor intended to play the role) and if a rather personal database turns out to be salient, I'll go on record as suggesting it might be October 6 (the joking reasons are disclosed in my final comments, below). Birthdays aside, Southpaw is another offering from Lionsgate that they're bringing out in 4K and in SteelBook packaging, albeit this time in partnership with Amazon instead of their own etailer Lionsgate Limited.

A bit like the recently reviewed Battle Royale 4K, which Lionsgate is in fact offering through Lionsgate Limited, Southpaw got its initial 1080 release years ago courtesy of Starz / Anchor Bay. Martin Liebman's Southpaw Blu-ray review has plot information, a list of supplements and Marty's reaction to the technical presentation. As I am repeatedly on record as saying, different reviewers means different opinions and I'm evidently not quite the fan of the overall film as Marty was.

Southpaw 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Southpaw is presented in 4K UHD courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an HEVC / H.265 encoded 2160p transfer in 2.39:1. The film was captured with a variety of cameras and had a 2K DI according to the IMDb. Marty was quite pleased with the now fairly old 1080 release of the film, but this 4K version shows some nice if subtle upticks in fine detail and (probably more noticeably) some lustrous highlights courtesy of the HDR / Dolby Vision grades. The HDR is immediately noticeable in the Madison Square Garden opening, where both reds and blues have considerable pop that is even more impressive than in the great looking 1080 presentation. Blues in particular throughout the presentation have a wider range of hues in this version, albeit sometimes consigned to backgrounds. I wouldn't argue that the HDR grades significantly improve shadow detail, and a few of the darkest scenes in the film still have slight deficits in visibility. Detail levels are typically excellent, to the point that some of the gruesome injuries Billy endures are positively gut wrenching at times to see. Digital grain is definitely present, but isn't especially overpowering, which in my estimation is a good thing. As can be seen by comparing screenshots, even the 1080 disc in this release sports more vivid suffusion and a slightly warmer color timing than the old 1080 release.

Southpaw 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Marty was similarly enthusiastic about the old 1080 disc's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, but Lionsgate has once again gone back to the drawing board and provided a really impressively immersive Dolby Atmos track that makes the most of some of the arena settings of fights in particular. The surround activity in the big set pieces of the film offers at times cascading waves of crowd noises, interspersed with very smartly directional sound effects as fists meet flesh. Even some of the quieter moments, like some of the moving material between Billy and his daughter, have nice placement of ambient environmental effects in the side and rear channels. Eminem's contributions as well as James Horner's underscoring also are nicely spacious. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.

Southpaw 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Southpaw: Inside the Ring (HD; 21:29)


• Q & A with Jake Gyllenhaal, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, Rachel McAdams and More (HD; 18:55)


• Extended Training Montage (HD; 4:02)


• Deleted Scenes (HD; 20:46)


• Theatrical Trailer (HD; 2:25)

This Amazon exclusive features a SteelBook offering an image of a badly battered Billy in the ring on the front, with the rest of the ring and a fan holding a placard proclaiming "Hope" on the back. The interior panels have an illustration of the disturbing scene of Billy with a gun on the bed. The kind of funny thing about the mylar O ring offered is that it almost makes Billy look like a character from another recent Lionsgate SteelBook release (offered through Lionsgate Limited), Dogma 4K, with a surrounding image of a stained glass window providing Billy with veritable angel's wings. A digital copy is also included.

Southpaw 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If Southpaw lost a little bit of its title meaning with the casting of Gyllenhaal as Billy, there's still an emphasis on the so-called "southpaw stance" in the film which inevitably will bring to mind left handedness for some. In that regard, there have been a veritable glut of relatives on both sides of my family who were born on October 6 and who are left handed, including me. That led to a silly joke my family would spring on people we'd meet who shared that birthday, and who we would of course then ask if they were left handed. Statistics being what they are, they almost uniformly said "no", which then gave us the perfect opportunity to respond, "Sorry, that's incorrect", typically to general befuddlement as my family members broke into giggles. I probably wouldn't deign to spring that kind of joke on someone with Billy's pugilistic abilities, especially since the recast film really doesn't tend to emphasize the "outsider" quality many of us lefties frequently feel, but family jokes aside the story still has a good deal of emotional power despite a story arc that is frankly pretty cliché ridden. Technical merits are solid and Lionsgate has ported over all of the pre-existing supplements. Evocative SteelBook design should make this release appealing to packaging aficionados. Recommended.