DISC JUST IN for 7/14/09

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Here’s a look at the latest DVD and Blu-ray Disc releases:

BLU-RAY MOVIES:
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon / Curse of the
Golden Flower / House of Flying Daggers (Sony)
The Edge of Love (Image)
Explicit Ills (Peace Arch)
For All Mankind (Criterion)
I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (Sony)
The Haunting in Connecticut (Lionsgate)
The Towering Inferno (Fox)

DVD MOVIES:
Beach Kings (MGM)
The Butcher (Vivendi)
The Color of Magic (RHI)
The Edge of Love (Image)
Explicit Ills (Peace Arch)
For All Mankind (Criterion)
Grey Gardens (HBO)
The Haunting in Connecticut (Lionsgate)
Horsemen (Lionsgate)
Journey to the Moon (Mill Creek)
REC (Sony)
Van Wilder: Freshman Year (Paramount)

TV-on-DISC:
American Gladiators: The Battle Begins (Shout!)
Bewitched: Season 8 (Sony)
ER: Season 11 (Warner)
G.I. Joe: Season 1.1 (Shout! Factory)
Leverage: Season 1 (Paramount)
Mad Men: Season 2 (BD) (Lionsgate)
Peyton Place: Part Two (Shout! Factory)
The State: Complete Series (MTV/Paramount)
wild Pacific (BD) (BBC/Warner)

HIGHLIGHTS:

Crouching Tiger – This one’s a bittersweet story. The good news: Ang Lee’s masterful Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is finally available on Blu-ray and it looks fantastic. The bad news: you have to buy this three-movie box set to get it. Packaged with two previously-available titles: Curse of the Golden Flower and House of Flying Daggers, one has to wonder what Sony was thinking here.  Hopefully Crouching Tiger will be made available separately and soon but until then, this set is only recommended for wire-fu fans who don’t already own Golden Flower and Flying Daggers.

Edge of Love – Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller star in a tangled web of love and infidelity. This period piece, set in the 1940′s, may not have the most likeable characters, but I certainly do like the lush and stylish look Directory John Maybury and his crew were able to give the film.

I Still Know – The Ghost Whisperer (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Donny Crane (Freddie Prinze Jr.) are back! And the crazy hook man, well, he still knows a thing or two about what happened two summers ago. How the first I Know inspired not one but two sequels is beyond me, but I suppose it boils down to different strokes for different folks. Sony’s Blu-ray doesn’t look or sound particularly noteworthy, but some of the exterior facial close-ups do exhude impressive fine detail and natural skin tones. Blacks don’t fare as well, saddled by insufficient depth and detail. Rent first.

Haunting in CT - And the award for Freakiest Cover Art of the Year goes to… Being both a parent and resident of The Nutmeg State, I was only able to give this one a cursory look before switching to something with a dance soundtrack and talking penguins. Lionsgate’s Blu-ray gives the "inspired by a true story" Haunting a handsome 1080p presentation with natural colors and a respectable film grain veneer. Extras include a lengthy documentary presented in HD plus a Digital Copy on Disc Two.

Towering Inferno – The makers of modern disaster movies (The Day After Tomorrow leaps to mind) could learn a thing or two from watching The Towering Inferno. You can have all the ILM-created "money shots" and CGI wolves you want but if you don’t have interesting, likeable characters that you care about, the whole enterprise becomes a waste of time. Fox’s Towering Inferno is one of the greats and they just don’t make them like this anymore. And good luck topping the cast: Paul Newman, Faye Dunaway, Steve McQueen, Fred Astaire, William Holden and Richard Chamberlain, to name a few. (O.J.’s in it too, but we won’t go there.) Fans will thrill over Fox’s new Blu-ray which boasts a high-rise full of bonus material including commentaries, extended and deleted scenes, an alternate opening, storyboard comparisons and making-of featurettes.

Greg’s Pick of the Week:

For All Mankind (Blu-ray)
Criterion Collection | Not Rated | 80 mins | $39.98

Required viewing for anyone who’s ever dreamed of being an astronaut or held even a passing interest in space exploration, Al Reinert’s For All Mankind perfectly captures the magic and wonder of NASA’s history-making Apollo missions. From its first frames – President Kennedy’s stirring "We choose to go to the moon…" speech – For All Mankind is entirely comprised of actual voice recordings and original video which work together to create a unique and involving documentary about one of mankind’s finest achievements.

Previously available on DVD, Criterion ups the ante with this stellar new Blu-ray edition. In addition to a new high definition transfer and new DTS-HD soundtrack, you get a load of wonderfully-executed bonus material, including a new making-of documentary featuring interviews with Director Al Reinert, astronaut Alan Bean and NASA archive specialists. If you don’t already own this title on DVD, Criterion’s new Blu-ray edition is a Must Own. Highly recommended.

EVALUATION SYSTEM:
Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 1080 projector
Carada Masquerade screen system (92")
Panasonic DMP-BD35 Blu-ray Disc player
Oppo DV-983H DVD player
Onkyo TX-SR805 A/V receiver
Noble Fidelity L-55 LCRS speakers
Datacolor SpyderTV PRO 2007 video calibration
Monster Power HTS5100 power center
BetterCables interconnects
UltraLink speaker wire