DVDs I bought or received in the month of August August 31, 2006
Posted by Michael Mackenzie in : Technobabble, Movie Watching, Telly Tat , add a comment- The Amicus Collection (R2 UK, SD DVD)
- Casualty: Series 3 (R2 UK, SD DVD)
- The Fifth Element: Superbit (R1 USA, SD DVD)
- Hannibal: Superbit (R2 UK, SD DVD)
- The Idiots (R1 Canada, SD DVD)
- The Norman Warren Collection (R2 UK, SD DVD)
- Sleepy Hollow (R0 USA, HD DVD)
- Spooks: Season 4 (R2 UK, SD DVD)
- Strictly Ballroom (R1 USA, SD DVD)
- The Tigon Collection (R2 UK, SD DVD)
- Unleashed (R0 USA, HD DVD)
RIP Ed Benedict
Posted by Michael Mackenzie in : Miscellaneous, Movie Watching, Telly Tat , add a commentEd Benedict, one of the greatest layout artists who ever lived, died last Monday at the age of 94. Go and read John Kricfalusi’s excellent post on him and marvel at samples of his phenomenal work.
Tom Cruise’s latest tomfoolery
Posted by Michael Mackenzie in : Miscellaneous , add a commentYou know the phrase “You can’t polish a turd”? Well, it looks as if it has just been rendered redundant.
Home Alone SE in time for Christmas
Posted by Michael Mackenzie in : Technobabble, Movie Watching , add a commentSource: DVD Times
Home Alone, probably my favourite Christmas movie ever, currently only available in a hideously poor quality bare-bones release, is to get the full-blown special edition treatment in time for Christmas. Hitting shelves on November 21st, this so-called “Family Fun Edition” will feature:
- 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
- English DD5.1 Surround
- French & Spanish Dolby Surround
- English & Spanish subtitles
- Audio Commentary by Director Chris Colombus and Macaulay Culkin
- 1990 Press Featurette
- The Making Of Home Alone
- Mac Cam: Behind The Scenes With Macaulay Culkin
- How To Burglar Proof Your Home: The Stunts Of Home Alone
- Home Alone Around The World
- Where’s The Buzz Now?
- Angels With Filthy Souls
- Deleted Scenes/Alternate Takes:
– The Silent Treatment (0:43)
– Buzz Off
– Frank’s Yank
– Undercover Crook
– Criminal Decency
– Hungry Alone
– Final Judgement
– Close Encounters Of The Marley Kind
– Hello…Goodbye!
– Do You Speak French?
– A Very Harry Christmas
– Marv’s Christmas Coffee
– Sleepless In Paris
– A Savvy Shopper
– Christmas Is About…
- Blooper Reel
- Trailers
- Set-Top games: Battle Plan, Trivia Game, & Head Count
Needless to say, I’m there.
DVD updates August 30, 2006
Posted by Michael Mackenzie in : Technobabble, Movie Watching, Telly Tat , 2 commentsJust got time to swing by for a few DVD-related updates. Generally speaking I’m considerably less enthusiastic about standard definition DVDs nowadays, given the monumental leap in quality that HD DVD constitutes, but a couple of titles have recently been announced that I’ll definitely be buying. The first is Asterix and the Vikings, which is getting a release in France on October 25th from M6 Vidéo. I’ve no idea whether or not this will include the original English-language audio or just the French dub, but either way I’m very anxious to pick it up. The second is Operation Crossbow, one of my favourite WW2 movies, which I’ve been hoping would get a DVD release for ages. It’s coming out in the US from Warner on December 19th, just in time for Christmas, and is part of a scheme launched by Warner earlier this year to allow fans to choose which catalogue titles would be released. I voted for Operation Crossbow, and I’m exceedingly glad that it was selected for release.
I also bolstered my DVD collection with a free copy of Lars von Trier’s The Idiots (R1 Canada). Thanks, Noel!
Oh, and the DVD release of Garth Marenghi’s DarkPlace has been delayed. Again. The speculated release date this time ranges from January 29th 2007 to March 26th 2007. What are Channel 4 playing at? This is beyond a joke.
Samsung Blu-ray player can’t play dual-layer discs August 25, 2006
Posted by Michael Mackenzie in : Technobabble , add a commentSource: AV Science Forum, quoting The Digital Bits
And get this: Sony STILL can’t get their 50GB dual-layered Blu-ray Discs to work right on the existing and prototype players. The current Samsung player, as shipped, will not play them. How do you like them apples? Ouch.
I’m not going to say much, just chortle a little. Looks like Sony’s hopes for Blu-ray are dissipating in a puff of smoke almost as quickly as their famous batteries.
Irritating packaging redux
Posted by Michael Mackenzie in : Miscellaneous, Telly Tat , 1 comment so far
Look: it’s the packaging for my review copy of Spooks: Season 4 (R2 UK). Seems pleasant enough once you figure out that yes, the overly tight plastic sleeve does slide off. Until, that is, you try to figure out how to access anything other than the first disc:
What the hell is this? I mean, seriously, who in their right mind thought that this would be a good idea. To access the final disc, you have to fold the entire package out, quadrupling the amount of space it takes up. Seasons 2 and 3 at least had the right idea, where the individual disc trays operated like pages of a book. But this? Who gets paid to design these?
And the award for most irritating packaging of the year goes to… August 24, 2006
Posted by Michael Mackenzie in : Miscellaneous, Movie Watching , add a comment
My three British horror bonanzas arrived from Play.com this morning. I’ve made a decision not to watch them until the final draft of my dissertation is in the can and I’ve shifted through the pile of purchases, trades and loans sitting on my desk (I’m making Black Sunday and Hatchet for the Honeymoon a priority, Lee!), but that didn’t stop me from unwrapping the cellophane and taking a look at the contents.
Part of what motivated me to crack these open was the rather unsettling rattling sound coming from inside both The Tigon Collection and The Norman Warren Collection. Assuming that it would be a simple case of a disc having come loose from its spindle, I set to work on Tigon and soon had it open.
Bad move. The manner in which the packaging for these sets has been designed is difficult to describe if you haven’t actually seen it for yourself. Each set comes in a coffin-shaped box, which opens out like a book. There are then five separate “sleeves” inside, each with a disc attached to a spindle. Or that’s the theory. When I popped open The Tigon Collection four of the six discs flew across the room in all directions, while a fifth was wedged firmly inside the box, distinctly not attached to its spindle.
Rinse and repeat. The Norman Warren Collection was similarly affected, with only The Amicus Collection getting off relatively lightly, with two discs loose, but no flying tricks.
Look, I appreciate the effort that must go into designing these ornate custom boxes, and I can name a number of examples that have been both aesthetically pleasing and under-friendly. The French Ultimate Edition of Danny the Dog, for instance, or the Walt Disney Treasures limited edition tins. Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection is also very nice, as is the oversized Hong Kong limited edition of House of Flying Daggers. But, all too often, when someone gets it into their head to do something different, the results end up being clumsy in the extreme. These Anchor Bay boxes are worse than the British Buffy book-style cases (now out of print), which held each disc inside a cardboard “page” sleeve, and more often than not would scratch them during the process of removing them. I have to ask: is there something so wrong with a standard amaray case? By all means go for something unique if you can pull it off, but if you’re going to frustrate the viewer in the process, and even potentially damage the contents of the package, then why bother?
Aieee!!!11~ Buying too much! August 22, 2006
Posted by Michael Mackenzie in : Movie Watching , add a commentI’ve pre-ordered three upcoming HD DVD releases: Red Dragon is released on September 12th, followed by Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and the unrated director’s cut of Land of the Dead on September 19th (the latter is a double-sided HD DVD/SD DVD combo). All three are Universal releases, so I’m expecting top-notch transfers. In the case of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, it will be nice to finally see a watchable version, given how bad Criterion and Universal’s standard definition releases look.
It recently occurred to me that I’ve seen very little of the horror output of the fair shores of Great Britain, the country in which I happen to live. Generally speaking, I don’t think much of British films (there’s only so many depressing trudges through the lives of gifted working class northern boys and their unemployed alcoholic fathers I can take), but I’ve tended to look more favourably on the horror output I’ve seen. Therefore, taking advantage of the unusually good prices at Play.com, I’ve ordered three of Anchor Bay’s British horror box sets: The Tigon Collection, The Norman Warren Collection and The Amicus Collection, which apparently constitute some of the absolute best and worst of the industry in the 1960s and 70s. Of course, I probably won’t have much chance to watch them as I try to scrape together the final draft of my dissertation, but they’ll make a most pleasant treat once I’m finished.
I really need to get round to putting some of my older DVDs up on eBay soon, so I can recoup the costs.
Unleashed comparison update August 21, 2006
Posted by Michael Mackenzie in : Technobabble, Movie Watching , add a commentMy DVD Image Comparison of Unleashed has been updated to include the standard definition side of the HD DVD/DVD combo release. Obviously, it would have been nice to have included the HD version in the comparison just to show how much of a gargantuan leap it constitutes in terms of detail and clarity, but that’s impossible at the moment, since I don’t have a PC-based HD DVD drive or the appropriate software, so you’ll just have to make do with plain old standard def.
Anyway, enjoy!
Ten films most recently watched August 20, 2006
Posted by Michael Mackenzie in : Movie Watching , add a commentFrenzy (Alfred Hitchcock, 1972) 9/10, on DVD
Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze, 1999) 9/10, on FilmFour
Unleashed (Louis Leterrier, 2005) 8/10, on HD DVD
Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (Elio Petri, 1970) 8/10, on DVD
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (Simon West, 2001) 6/10, on HD DVD
Sleepy Hollow (Tim Burton, 1999) 8/10, on HD DVD
My Neighbour Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki, 1988) 9/10, on FilmFour
The Hole (Nick Hamm, 2001) 5/10, on FilmFour
Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro (Hayao Miyazaki, 1979) 6/10, on FilmFour
Torso (Sergio Martino, 1973) 5/10, on DVD