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updated: 11/1/06
My
Two Cents
(Archived Posts 10/17/06 - 9/21/06)
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10/17/06
Sorry for the delay in getting those reviews posted. I'm working to
wrap them up now, both yesterday's and today's. In the meantime, we've
got some interesting DVD release news to report for you.
First, 20th Century Fox has just announced the DVD release of The
Chairman, The Quiller Memorandum
and The Ultimate Flint Collection
(including Our Man Flint and In
Like Flint) on 11/7. Following on 11/21 is How
I Met Your Mother: Season 1. Bones:
Season 1 is due on 11/28. Stacked:
The Complete Series has been slated for 12/12 release. And
finally, Haven is now set for
release on 12/26.
By way of update, Fox and MGM have also confirmed the release of MGM's
recently-delayed A Fish Called Wanda:
Collector's Edition on 11/21. That's official. You'll find
the new cover art below.
Fox has also confirmed their next batch of Blu-ray Disc releases. They
include From Hell (12/5 - 50GB,
with BD-Java enhancements and AVC/MPEG-4 compression), Flight
of the Phoenix and Rising Sun
(also 12/5 - Rising Sun with AVC),
The Devil Wears Prada (day and
date on 12/12 - with director and crew commentary, pop-up trivia and 15
deleted scenes) and Transporter 2
(12/26).
Also today, Warner Bros. has just announced the DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-ray
Disc release of M. Night Shyamalan's Lady in
the Water on 12/19. The DVD will be available in both full
frame and anamorphic widescreen versions (SRP $28.98 each), with Dolby
Digital 5.1 EX audio. The HD-DVD (SRP $39.99, therefore likely a combo
format release) will feature Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and Dolby Digital Plus 5.1
audio. The Blu-ray Disc (SRP $34.99) will feature Dolby Digital 5.1 EX
audio. No word on extras has yet been released.
Note that we've updated the
High-Def
Release List with all the relevant new announcements.
Warner has also announced the 11/14 release of the 2-disc The
Green Mile: Special Edition (SRP $20.97). The disc will
include the 6-part Miracles and Mystery:
Creating The Green Mile, a new interview with star Tom Hanks,
audio commentary by writer/director Frank Darabont, additional scenes,
makeup and screen tests, and the Walking the
Mile: The Making of the Green Mile documentary (from the
original DVD release). We believe the film will be released in the new
high-def formats as well, but there's no official announcement yet.
Here's the cover art for Warner's Lady in
the Water, MGM's A Fish Called
Wanda: Collector's Edition, and Fox's The
Simpsons: The Complete Ninth Season (12/19) and Haven
on DVD, along with Warner's Superman: The
Movie HD-DVD and Superman Returns
Blu-ray Disc (both 11/28)...
   
  
Oh, by the way... if you've noticed that things seem a little more
crowded here in the States than usual, it's because the population just
passed 300 million this morning. So you know... next time you're taking
a piss, guys, watch where you wave it. It's gonna be like that
overcrowded planet in the old Star Trek
episode pretty soon.
Back later. Stay tuned...
10/16/06
Morning everyone! I'll be back with some new DVD reviews later, but
before we get to that I wanted to jump in here with the day's early
news.
I'm pleased today to report one of the best things I've heard in a
while: Classic Media has announced that they'll be releasing The
Complete Harveytoons Collection on 11/7. That's right, I said
THE COMPLETE. This 4 disc set (double-sided DVD-18s), will include ALL
312 classic Harveytoons shorts with digitally remastered picture and
sound. Anyone else, like me, old enough to know and love these shorts?
Yeah, we're talking Casper the Friendly Ghost. We're talking Richie
Rich. We're talking Wendy and Herman and Katnip, Hot Stuff, Baby Huey,
Little Audrey and The Modern Madcaps. The set will SRP for just $39.98,
and it comes in collectible packaging with an original Casper comic
printed inside. Very cool news indeed. Here's a look at the cover art...
  
Also pictured are Fox's Charlie Chan: Volume
2 box set (12/15) and Universal's DVD/HD-DVD Combo release of
Miami Vice (12/5)...
Meanwhile, Paramount has revealed the DVD release of World
Trade Center on 12/12 (as expected). No other details are yet
available, but we expect both DVD and high-def format versions to be
available. We'll post more as it comes in.
Sony has set Magma: Volcanic Disaster
for release on 12/26.
Anchor Bay Entertainment will bow the vampire film Slayer
on 11/21 (SRP $19.98). Look for anamorphic widescreen video, audio
commentary by writer/director Kevin VanHook and star Casper Van Dien, a
photo and concept art gallery and the film's script via DVD-ROM.
Also today, BCI is also promoting a number of new terror releases just
in time for Halloween, including Crypt of
Terror: Land of the Minotaur/Terror, Starlite
Drive-In Theater: The Madmen of Mandoras (aka They Saved Hitler's
Brain)/The Devil's Hand, MPD:
Psycho, The Tomie Collection
and Don't Answer the Phone! All
are available now, and we'll be giving away copies of all these titles
very soon.
20th Century Fox has also set The Simpsons:
The Complete Ninth Season for release on 12/19.
Finally, this morning, there's an interesting article in
The
Talk of the Town column at The New Yorker that's well
worth a read. I think the writer has a pretty solid grasp of the current
situation with HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc. Thanks to Bits
reader Jack K. for sending the link.
Back with reviews later, so stay tuned...
10/13/06
So... you want some cool news to make the end of your week a happy one?
This should do nicely then: Universal has just officially announced the
DVD release of Saturday Night Live 1975-1976:
The Complete First Season for 12/5! The 8-disc set (SRP
$69.98) will include all 24 90-minute episodes complete with their
original hosts and all the original musical guests. You also get a
32-page book of liner notes and rare case photos. I'll tell you, we were
wondering if this would EVER happen. How cool will it be to be able to
go back and enjoy vintage SNL just
as it was originally broadcast? Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase,
Gilda Radner, Garrett Morris, Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman. Can you
imagine? Frickin' awesome, man. AWESOME!
Universal's also announced the standard DVD release of Altered
for 12/19. Not as cool as SNL, I
know, but what the hell? SNL's
coming, for Pete's sake!
A couple other quick standard DVD announcements today... Warner has set
Dallas: The Complete Sixth Season
for release on 2/6/07, with Ballykissangel:
The Complete Series 5 following on 2/13 (for the BBC). And
for you animated superhero fans, Teen Titans:
Trouble in Tokyo is due on 2/6 as well.
Of course, we have a quick bit of high-def news today as well... We've
learned that Image Entertainment will release a number of those
Discovery Channel titles on both HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc soon, based on
the announcement
made
public earlier this week. Tentative titles and dates include the
following (we suspect they're subject to change):
HD-DVD - Discovery
Atlas: China Revealed (11/21), Discovery
Atlas: Australia Revealed (1/16), Discovery
Atlas: Italy Revealed (1/16)
Blu-ray Disc - Discovery
Atlas: China Revealed (11/21), Discovery
Atlas: Australia Revealed (1/16), Discovery
Atlas: Brazil Revealed (1/16)
One more bit of high-def news today...
Home
Media Retailing is reporting this morning that according to
data from research firm Nielsen (released by the North American HD-DVD
Promotional Group), HD-DVD software has so far outsold Blu-ray Disc
software by a factor of 3 to 1. Although to be sure, that's not exactly
a fair comparison, given how much later Blu-ray Disc launched and how
few titles have been available thus far. I had to smile at this quote
from Fox's Steve Feldstein in the piece: "Congratulations
to the HD DVD team - they outsold Blu-ray when we didn't have any
product in the market." I can SO hear him saying that too.
Anyway, the fact is, he's right. The Blu-ray Disc camp is only NOW
seriously ramping up their software releases. Personally, I think the
real test will happen early next year, after the holidays... by which
time both camps will have issued a number of big A-list software titles,
players from multiple manufacturers will be available for both formats,
and both the Blu-ray-ready PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 HD-DVD add-on will
be available. That's when we'll really finally be able to compare the
best of what these two formats have to offer, and when a comparison of
sales figures will actually be meaningful.
Speaking of the high-def capable videogame systems,
another
report from market research firm Interpret would seem to indicate
that the game industry will be the main early driver of sales of these
formats, rather than home theater or film enthusiasts. Not sure if I
agree, but it's interesting. The question remains in my mind: How many
people are going to buy these videogame systems and actually watch
movies on them? I'm not sure that number will be terrible large.
By the way, sorry for the lack of a post yesterday. We've been
investigating some interesting rumors we've heard this week. We're also
working on a TON of new DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc reviews - something
we've had precious little time for these last few months. Watch for a
bunch of great reviews to be posted every day next week. We're working
hard to try to ramp our review coverage back up to speed over the next
few months, so thanks for your patience.
Now then... we're going to leave you today with a look at the cover art
for Universal's Saturday Night Live
1975-1976: The Complete First Season on DVD, as well as
Warner's HD-DVD releases of Excalibur
and V for Vendetta (both due
10/30):
  
Don't forget the new ep of Battlestar
tonight on SciFi. Have a great weekend and we'll see you Monday. As
always... stay tuned!
10/11/06
One last quick update for today... we have word from Warner on the
audio specs for the studio's newly-announced high-definition discs (due
10/30). They are as follows:
HD-DVD - Excalibur
(Dolby Digital Plus 2.0 - English, Dolby Digital Plus 1.0 - French &
Latin Spanish), Under Siege (Dolby
Digital 5.1 - English & French, Dolby 2.0 Surround - Latin Spanish),
V for Vendetta (Dolby TrueHD 5.1 -
English, Dolby Digital 5.1 - English & French)
Blu-ray Disc - The
Phantom of the Opera (Dolby Digital 5.1 - English &
French), The Searchers (Dolby
Digital 1.0 Mono - English, French & Latin Spanish), Under
Siege (Dolby Digital 5.1 - English & French, Dolby 2.0
Surround - Latin Spanish), Unforgiven
(Dolby Digital 5.1 - English, Dolby 2.0 Surround - French & Latin
Spanish)
Back tomorrow. Stay tuned...
(LATE UPDATE - 10/11/06 -
2 PM PDT)
Just another quick update... Warner Bros. has also today officially
announced the standard DVD release of Richard Linklater's A
Scanner Darkly. The disc will street on 12/19 (SRP $27.95),
and will include anamorphic widescreen video, audio commentary by
Linklater, star Keanu Reeves, producer Tommy Pallotta, author Jonathan
Lethem and Isa Hackett Dick (daughter of author Philip K. Dick, upon
whose novel the film was based), 2 behind-the-scenes documentaries (One
Summer in Austin: The Story of Filming A Scanner Darkly and
The Weight of the Line: Animation Tales)
and the film's theatrical trailer.
The following is Rumor Mill-worthy,
but our industry sources are telling us to expect MGM's Material
Girls (distributed by Fox) on 12/12, Buena Vista's Invincible
and Step Up on 12/19, and
DreamWorks' The Last Kiss
(distributed by Paramount) on 12/26.
Here's cover art for A Scanner Darkly
along with the BBC's Doctor Who: The Complete
Series Two (1/16/07) and Universal's Casino
on HD-DVD (12/19)...
  
Stay tuned...
(EARLY UPDATE - 10/11/06
- NOON PDT)
Okay... we've got some big Warner news for you today. First up the
standard DVD news. Warner has announced that it will be releasing a Robert
Mitchum: The Signature Collection box set on 1/23/07 (SRP
$59.92). The 6-disc set will include Angel
Face, The Good Guys & the Bad
Guys, Home from the Hill,
Macao, The
Sundowners and The Yakuza.
All will be available separately that day as well for SRP $19.97 each.
Also newly announced for DVD release by Warner are Clash
(11/14), Sparkle (1/9/07), The
Snow Queen (for the BBC - also 1/9/07), The
Queen's Sister (BBC - 1/16/07), NBA
Chicago Bulls 1991 Champions: Learning to Fly (1/23/07) and
Ballykissangel: The Complete Series 5
(BBC - 2/13/07).
Meanwhile, Warner has also just announced the release of 7 new
high-definition titles. Coming on 10/31 from the studio are V
for Vendetta, John Boorman's Excalibur
and Under Siege on HD-DVD format.
Under Siege will also be released
on Blu-ray Disc format that day, along with The
Phantom of the Opera, The
Searchers and Unforgiven
(all of which are already available on HD-DVD, but are new to Blu-ray
Disc). All of these discs will carry an SRP of $28.99, and will include
all of the standard DVD features. V for
Vendetta will also include a new In-Movie Experience (IME),
featuring something called Director's
Notebook: Reimagining a Cult Classic for the 21st Century.
We've inquired as to the audio formats and will post the details here as
soon as we have them. For the record, the Blu-ray Disc releases of The
Searchers and Unforgiven
will both be on 50GB dual-layered media (BD-50). As you'd expect, we've
updated the
High-Def
Release List accordingly.
One other bit of high-def information... we've learned from our
industry sources that Paramount is planning to release Oliver Stone's
World Trade Center on both the
HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc formats, day and date with standard DVD in
December. The Blu-ray release is expected to be a BD-50. Consider this
Rumor Mill-worthy until the title
is officially announced. [Editor's Note: This has
been tentatively confirmed by
Home
Media Retailing.]
Finally today, a lot of you have been wondering what's up with Fox's
X-Men: The Last Stand DVD. Some
readers have reported that select copies of the DVD were released with
22 deleted scenes, while others have only 10. We've checked with our
industry sources and have learned this is true. However, we've also
learned that the number of discs that were released with the larger
number of deleted scenes is very, very small - so little in fact that
they all sold out early on the first day. We don't know why they were
pulled, and speculation runs from a problem with clearance issues on the
deleted material to the possibility of Fox releasing an even more
elaborate special edition in 2007. Either way, there was no way to tell
which disc you were getting based on the packaging. The main thing to
know, is that if you've already purchased a copy and have been thinking
of returning it hoping to get one of the copies with 22 deleted scenes,
don't bother. Those discs are LONG gone at your local retailer. In
fact, if you purchased your DVD on the first day but haven't opened it
yet, that's your best bet short of eBay for getting the version with
more deleted scenes. Also, as far as Wal-Mart's bonus disc - the
packaging claims the bonus disc inside will include a pair of making-of
featurettes, and then when you open it, you get a featurette on the
history of the X-Men comic book.
The packaging was simply mislabeled. You're getting exactly what you're
supposed to be getting. We hope this information at least helps ease
your minds a bit.
Stay tuned...
10/10/06
Just a quick announcement update... first the high-def stuff. Universal
has announced the HD-DVD release of Casino
and The Scorpion King on 12/19.
Casino will carry an SRP of
$29.98. The Scorpion King will be
an DVD/HD-DVD Combo disc and thus carry a slightly higher SRP of $34.98.
And in the standard DVD realm today, Paramount has set Two-A-Days:
Hoover High - The Complete First Season for release on 12/26.
In other news around the Net, we're hearing reports that Best Buy
stores that feature Magnolia Home Theater sections are going to start
showcasing both HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc more equally as we move into the
holiday season. Drop us a
line if you happen to see this first hand when you're out
shopping.
Elsewhere around the Net, industry analysis firm Forrester Research is
still predicting Blu-ray Disc to win the high-def format war, according
to this
story at Video Business, though both formats are expected
to have difficulty making in-roads with most consumers. Whichever format
you prefer, our guess here at The Bits
is that, best case, the high-def formats (either or both) will very
likely remain enthusiast niche formats only, with standard DVD remaining
the primary choice for the vast majority of consumers, for at least the
next 10 years or so. And somewhere in there, broadband downloading to
set-top TiVo-like boxes will start to grab a growing percentage of the
overall market share.
Meanwhile,
Warner
Home Video has halved its sales projections for consumer spending
on both the HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc formats, due to the shortage of
available hardware. For various reasons, manufactures that had been
expected to ship players in the 2nd and 3rd quarters of this year (like
Pioneer, Sony, Philips and Panasonic) have pushed back their ship dates
into the 4th quarter.
And finally today,
Image
Entertainment has just signed an exclusive distribution deal with
Discovery Communications, which will include DVD, HD-DVD and
Blu-ray Disc content. The first title to ship under this deal will be
Discovery Atlas: China Revealed on
all three formats in December.
Stay tuned...
10/9/06
Afternoon, folks! Hope you had a great weekend.
We've got a couple of new DVD release announcements to report today, as
we start the new week. First, Sony has announced that The
Celestine Prophecy, Dreamland
and Married... with Children: The Complete
Sixth Season will street on 12/19. We also expect All
the King's Men to be announced for release on that day. Sony
has added Wah-Wah to its 11/21
slate, and Battle of the Brave to
its 11/7 release line-up as well.
Meanwhile, Universal has announced the DVD release of Accepted
on 11/14. The title will be available in both full frame and anamorphic
widescreen (SRP $29.98 each). A DVD/HD-DVD Combo disc will also be
released that same day (SRP $39.98).
Paramount has set SpongeBob SquarePants:
Season 4, Volume 2 for release on 1/9/07. Go
Diego Go!: The Great Jaguar Rescue will follow on 1/16. The
studio has also announced the release of We
Were Soldiers on Blu-ray Disc on 1/12, with The
Manchurian Candidate following on the format on 1/23. Both
high-def titles are already available on HD-DVD.
Shout! Factory will be releasing The Best of
the Electric Company: Volume 2 on 11/14 (SRP $39.98). The
4-disc set includes 20 more classic episodes, new cast interviews, a
1975 documentary, Bill Cosby's appearance on The
Dick Cavett Show and more.
And Magnolia Home Entertainment has announced that it will release
Steven Soderbergh's Bubble, Enron:
The Smartest Guys in the Room, The
War Within, Bikini Destinations:
Triple Fantasy, HDNet World Report
Special: Shuttle Discovery's Historic Mission and One
Last Thing... on Blu-ray Disc format tomorrow (10/10).
We've updated the
High-Def
Release List with all of today's high-def news accordingly,
and we've updated our Amazon purchase links on the list as well to
include the latest HD titles now available for pre-order. Ordering from
our links supports our work here at The Bits,
so we appreciate it.
Elsewhere around the website today, we've updated a number of the DVD
format stats we track (above),
including the
CEA
DVD Player Sales numbers.
Finally today, we've got a little new cover artwork for you. Here's a
look at Warner's HD-DVD release of Superman
II: The Richard Donner Cut (11/28), Sony's Talladega
Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby - Unrated and Uncut Blu-ray
Disc (12/12) and HBO's standard DVD release of When
the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (12/19)...
  
Back tomorrow. Stay tuned...
10/6/06
Well... another week bites the dust, and just in time for the weekend
too. Love how that works out, don't you? We've got some interesting news
to report today, as usual. First up though, I want to thank everyone out
there who's sent in comments about my appearance on
Attack
of the Show on Wednesday (see
video below). Seems like I represented well, and it seems like a
lot of you agree with me that DVD's got plenty of life left in it. In
fact, more than 80% of you seem to agree based on The
Loop poll question that was asked during the show. Anyway,
it's always fun peeking on the folks at AOTS,
so my thanks to everyone up there on the staff. Thanks also to Chris
Gore, who's always good company and conversation.
Speaking of Chris, he sent me a link to
this
funny video on YouTube last night, and I think it's well worth
sharing with all of you guys. Imagine what it might have been like if
George Lucas had made the Lord of the Rings
films instead of Peter Jackson. I absolutely love how they animated Rick
McCallum's hair. Funny stuff.
And speaking of George Lucas, the old Jedi Master made some pretty
interesting statements
in
yesterday issue of Variety about the future of the film
industry. Specifically, he thinks that big-budget filmmaking is going
the way of the dodo bird and the dinosaur. The article is well worth a
read.
Something else I wanted to point out to you today... Todd and I first
saw this at Comic-Con back in July and it absolutely blew us away. Now
it's online for all of you to see, and I think it might get yer blood
pumping a little... the
trailer for Warner's The 300, directed by Zack Snyder and
based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller. The film hits theaters on
3/9/07, and you can bet your asteroids that we'll be in line for the
first showing.
Okay... a couple last general things, and then we'll get to the disc
news: This week marked the debut of the new season of South
Park, and if you haven't seen the first episode (which
premiered on Wednesday) make sure to catch a rerun on Comedy Central
sometime this week. It's well worth watching, especially for you gamers
out there. Also, and even more importantly, tonight is the third season
premiere for Sci-Fi's Battlestar Galactica.
The first two episodes of the new season are being shown tonight
back-to-back, starting at 9PM (Pacific). Tune in our you'll be missing
out in THE best show on television, bar none. Just trust us on this.
Okay... we've gotten an official update from Warner that both Superman:
The Movie and Superman II: The
Richard Donner Cut will be released on 11/28 in high-def, on
both HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc formats. Superman:
The Movie will be the 2000 expanded edition, and the high-def
discs will include audio commentary by director Richard Donner and
writer Tom Mankiewicz, additional footage, 2 featurettes (Taking
Flight: The Development of Superman and Making
Superman: Filming the Legend), the music-only track and
theatrical trailers. In other words, it will NOT include all the
standard def bonus material that's on the new 4-disc set. Superman
II: The Richard Donner Cut, however, will include all the DVD
extras (specifically an all-new introduction by Donner, audio commentary
by Donner and Mankiewicz, the Superman II:
Restoring the Vision featurette and deleted scenes).
According to Warner's press release, all versions will SRP for $28.99.
We're told the other films will likely follow in the high-def formats at
some point in the future.
I have to say, we're a little bummed that all of the extras from Superman:
The Movie aren't going to be included, and we're bummed that
the new Superman II: Special Edition
isn't coming out in high-def on 11/28 either. Specifically, we're
disappointed that the Fleischer animated Superman
episodes aren't going to be available in high-def, because you just know
they'd look amazing. Having seen The
Adventures of Robin Hood on HD-DVD, which includes classic
Looney Tunes shorts in 1080p
quality... well, let me tell you, I haven't been that surprised and
excited in a while as I was when I saw those on the disc. The quality
and resolution is so good, you can see little bits of dust floating
across the glass on the animation stand. No kidding. I REALLY hope
Warner releases the Fleischer Superman
shorts in high-def, even if just as a stand-alone release. And you know
that SOMEONE at Warner is already thinking about a future high-def
release of the Looney Tunes
collections. By the way, watch for a review of The
Adventures of Robin Hood HD-DVD soon, along with Warner's
Batman Begins, which I just got my
hands on yesterday. Rest assured, it looks and sounds every bit as good
as you'd expect.
In other hi-def news today,
as we
first posted yesterday, Sony has officially announced that Click
will be their first 50GB Blu-ray Disc release next week, on 10/10. Black
Hawk Down (on 11/14) and Talladega
Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (on 12/12) will also be
50GB dual-layered titles. As we expected, Click
will include ALL the DVD bonus content in full 1080p high-definition.
Black Hawk Down will include
Blu-Wizard, which according to Sony is "a
unique playlist technology which lets consumers customize the way they
watch special features." The disc will include all of the
audio commentaries that were on the 3-disc DVD version, along with the
complete The Essence of Combat: Making Black
Hawk Down documentary in standard definition (as it was
originally shot). Talladega Nights
will feature the unrated edition of the film and all of the DVD extras
in high-definition (except the Sirius, Daytona 500, Nextel Cup and
NASCAR TV spots). We've updated the
High-Def
Release List accordingly.
Now then... in standard DVD news from Warner, the studio has announced
that they'll release Beerfest on
DVD on 12/5 in both R and Unrated versions (SRP $28.98 each). Extras
will include 2 audio commentaries, deleted scenes, a featurette, an
interview with "The Frog Fluffer", the animated history of
beer, the theatrical trailer and more.
HBO has set Martin: The Complete First
Season for release on 1/2/07, with Extras:
The Complete First Season following on 1/9 and Journalist
in the Jihadi: The Murder of Daniel Pearl due on 1/30.
Meanwhile, Paramount has set It's Black
Entertainment for 1/9/07 release, with both Cavedweller
and Safe House due to street on
1/19.
Finally today, Universal has announced that they'll debut American
Pie Presents: The Naked Mile on 12/19 in 3 versions - full
frame R-rated, full frame Unrated and anamorphic widescreen Unrated (SRP
$29.98 each).
Don't forget to check out Barrie Maxwell's latest
Classic
Coming Attractions column, which we posted yesterday. Barrie's
work here at The Bits is always
high quality and well worth a read. His latest column features lots of
great classic film DVD reviews and the latest announcements as well.
Don't miss it.
Okay, that's the news and I... am... outta here!
Hope you all have a great weekend and we'll see you back here on
Monday. Stay tuned...
(LATE UPDATE - 10/5/06 - 5:30 PM PDT)
We're back as promised to post our own Barrie Maxwell's latest edition
of
Classic
Coming Attractions. This time around, Barrie reviews 29 films
on 15 DVD releases, and runs down all the latest classic film release
announcements as usual. Don't miss it!
Back tomorrow. Stay tuned...
(EARLY UPDATE - 10/5/06
- 1:30 PM PDT)
Afternoon, folks! I know a lot of you have been waiting patiently for
Barrie's new Classic Coming Attractions
column. Never fear, it's coming later today. We've just been a little
busy around here, what with all the phone calls and e-mails.
The reason for this is that some interesting news is about to break
tomorrow, specifically Sony's OFFICIAL announcement of their first three
50GB Blu-ray Disc titles. And you might be surprised as to how soon
you'll be able to get your hands on one. Read today's
Rumor
Mill post for the details from our industry sources.
In other news today, it seems that there's some confusion over Fox's
X-Men: The Last Stand DVD release.
According to reports from readers, it seems that some copies of the DVD
include 10 deleted scenes, while others have 22. In addition, copies of
the DVD purchased at Wal-Mart include a bonus disc. The disc was
supposed to include behind-the-scenes content on the making of the film
(Fox Movie Channel: Casting Sessions
and Life After Film School, as it
says on the back of the packaging), but instead it includes a 68-minute
featurette on the history of the X-Men
comic book (X-Men Revealed). We'll
try to sort out the confusion and post an update on this in the next day
or two.
In other news today, we now know what films will be included in
Universal's Romantic Favorites Collection
(due 1/9/2007, SRP $29.98) - About a Boy,
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason,
Love Actually and Notting
Hill. That's not a bad price if you're interested in those
films and don't already have them. Less than $8 a film.
You Lord of the Rings fans will
be happy to learn that Reprise Records/WEA and New Line Records will be
releasing
The
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - The Complete Recordings on
11/7 (SRP $75.98). The 4-disc set will include 3 CDs containing the
film's complete soundtrack, along with a DVD-Audio disc of the same
music in 48kHz/24-bit PPCM DVD-Audio quality (5.1 and 2.0), as well as
48kHz/16-bit Dolby Digital (5.1 and 2.0) quality. You'll also get a
booklet with extensive liner notes. This is the follow-up release to
least year's similar box set of the complete soundtrack to The
Fellowship of the Ring.
Finally, those of you who missed Chris Gore and I debating the future
of DVD on Attack of the Show
yesterday can watch the video clip of The
Loop segment by clicking on the image below. Chris and I
always have fun talking about this stuff, and host Kevin Pereira is
great at keeping the discussion moving, so it turned out well I think.
Bottom line... those of you who haven't jumped on the high-def bandwagon
yet should feel no guilt about sticking with standard DVD for now, until
this format war is over or until downloading really takes off. Good old
DVD is going to be the main event in the home video realm for at least
another good 10 years or so. 'Nuff said. Enjoy the clip.
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