Hi myscamore,
The latest filter I am using is the "Too Much Too Soon" 'Reduce Flicker' filter for Final Cut Pro. Here is a brief description of the filter from the authors website:
Reduce Flicker
Same as Blend Fields, but only blends where there's interlace artifacts. Useful for removing flicker in text and still images while preserving as much sharpness as possible.
Blend Fields
This does the exact same thing as the famous "double deinterlace filmlook method," but it renders *a lot* faster.
As I have previously mentioned I am doing all this work on my iMac so avisynth is not an option for me.
EDIT: I seem to remember reading somewhere that the picture in this release was always a bit on the soft side, although to my eye it looks just as sharp and clear as my '97 SE LDs. Either way I have no plans to mess with the sharpness levels beyond fixing the jaggies as best I can.
As far as colour goes these stills are not representative of the film as a whole which to my eye looks again just as good as my '97 SE LDs (quality not actual colours) and a big improvement on the GOUT! Therefore I have no plans to mess with the colours.