We mentioned it was a virtual certainty three weeks ago, but Universal Home Video has officially announced that the Jurassic Park trilogy will be released on Blu-ray on October 25. Pre-orders on not yet open but expect that to soon follow.
Again, this is only the trilogy and you will not be able to buy the films individually at first, a disappointment for those not made of money or those with an understandable disdain for the two sequels. (more…)
Yep, Universal Pictures has announced that the Coen brothers‘ slacker classic
will debut on the high-def format as of August 16 of this year.
The bundle is probably a better deal at only five bucks more for both movies.
Toshiba, the chief backer of HD DVD, the loser in the high-def disc format wars, has announced what it calls a “reverse class-action” suit against every household that failed purchase an HD DVD player since the format launched in 2006. The lawsuit charges that, by failing to support HD DVD, their non-customers “handed the format war to Blu-ray on a silver platter and deprived future customer of their right to make a choice.” (more…)
This is cool news for film fans. The Criterion Collection has announced the upcoming release of Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1985 Best Picture winner, The Last Emperor for next February. This epic film has been missing-in-action on DVD for quite some time, so this good news.
On the heels of the Blade Runner announcement this week, Sony is scheduled to announce a new DVD edition of Steven Spielberg‘s 1977 classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind, set to be released on November 13. What makes this edition worth buying is the inclusion of all three versions of the film, including the first video release of the 1977 theatrical cut since a very rare Critereon Collection laserdisc back in the nineties. It will also include the 1980 Special Edition and the 1998 DVD cut (which is just the Special Edition minus the useless final scene inside the alien mothership, plus a couple shots restored from the theatrical cut).
This collection will also be released on Blu-Ray disc, making it the first high-definition release of any Steven Spielberg movie. I guess that means if you’re a Spielberg fan and on the fence in the high-def format war, it’s time to swallow the “Blu” pill.
The long-awaited “Final Cut” of Ridley Scott‘s landmark science-fiction cult classic Blade Runner has been officially annouced. It will have a brief theatrical run in New York and Los Angeles beginning on October 5, 2007. The DVD will be released in two, four and five-disc sets on December 18th.
The four-disc set will include all four officially released cuts of the film, including the 1982 U.S. theatrical version, the original international version and the 1992 “Director’s Cut.” The five-disc box set will come in a briefcase like the one carried by Harrison Ford in the movie and a model “spinner” (the flying cars seen in the film). The fifth disc will contain a rare “workprint” cut of Blade Runner. For this privilege, you will have to shell out about $80.
I will make every effort to attend one of the theatrical showings of the Final Cut and have a review for you. If you want to read more, you can read the official announcment on The Digital Bits.
This is not a review, but a note that Warner Brothers have announced a new special-edition of DVD of The Jazz Singer, the first feature-length film with synchronized sound. File this one under “It’s about damned time,” because this film has been MIA on Region 1 DVD for the entire decade that the format has been available.
On the recent update to the AFI 100 Years, 100 Movies list, The Jazz Singer completely dropped off the list. In addition, The African Queen, another classic criminally neglected by the DVD market, dropped 48 spots to number 65. One can only suspect that one reason for these films falling off the list was their absence from the home video market. In other words, “Out of sight, out of mind.”
Of course, this release comes a couple of years too late to keep The Jazz Singer on the AFI List. Fortunately, I don’t care much about those lists.
Hopefully, we can get The African Queen to be released on some format, maybe HD DVD or Blu-Ray, before too long. Other than the original theatrical editions of the first Star Wars trilogy, this about the last great film that we can’t watch at home.
Bloggers! Prepare for glory! Bad movies may blot out the sun, but we will review them in the shade!
The twenty-second installment of Carnival of Cinema is almost a theme episode, as quite a lot of you appear to have seen a little romantic comedy known as 300.
But before we start to spill Persian blood, we’ll take our non-300 reviews first.
After all the Star Wars-related doom and gloom, I’m happy to report there is also good news on the DVD horizon.
The 1982 Ridley Scott cult classic, Blade Runner, was one of the first films released on DVD in 1997. The presentation was, to put it mildly, not up to current standards. Shockingly, there has not been an updated DVD release since, so the only version available had, quite frankly, a very sub-standard picture. Also, the only version of the film available was 1992 so-called “director’s cut,” which really wasn’t a director’s cut at all. There was supposed to be an ultimate, true director’s cut several years ago, but that managed to get held up in legal limbo due to the fact that the legal owner of the film, producer Jerry Perenchio, and director Ridley Scott hated each other’s guts.
Happily, Warner Brothers has managed to cut through the ill-will and legal bullshit and get the ball rolling.
