Sign up for the FREE Tell Membership and receive benefits that include the digital edition of Tell Magazine sent straight to your inbox, product giveaways, coupons and much more!
Sign up for the FREE Tell Membership and receive benefits that include the digital edition of Tell Magazine sent straight to your inbox, product giveaways, coupons and much more!
Boy, did the fates conspire against me this week! Whether it was my total lack of free time, several screeners arriving late or not at all, basement sump pump headaches – you name it, this week had it. As a result, I have to be brief today – which is unfortunate because a TON of great stuff hit stores on Tuesday. Don’t believe me? Have a look:
NEW BLU
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) (Image)
The Austin Powers Collection (New Line)
Casablanca: Ultimate Collector’s Edition (Warner)
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (Disney)
The Contract (First Look)
Day of the Dead (2007) (First Look)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (Fox)
La Femme Nikita (Sony)
Home Alone (Fox)
Immortal (First Look)
Jingle All the Way (Fox)
The Longshots (Genius/Weinstein)
The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (Sony)
The Shawshank Redemption (Warner)
Stranger Than Fiction: Special Edition (Sony)
Step Brothers (Sony)
Wanted (Universal)
Where the #$&% is Santa? (Warner)
The X-Files: Fight the Future (Fox)
The X-Files: I Want to Believe (Fox)
DVD
Casablanca: Ultimate Collector’s Edition (Warner)
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (Disney)
The Day the Earth Stood Still: SE (Fox)
Fly Me to the Moon 3D (Summit)
Frost/Nixon: The Original Watergate Interviews (Liberation)
The Longshots (Genius/Weinstein)
Step Brothers (Sony)
Wanted (Universal)
Where the #$&% is Santa? (Warner)
White Dog (Criterion)
The X-Files: I Want to Believe (Fox)
TV-on-DVD
Cannon: Season 1, Vol.2 (Paramount)
Hey There, it’s Yogi Bear (Warner)
Jake & the Fatman: Season 1, Vol.2 (Paramount)
Law & Order: Season 6 (Universal)
Metalocalypse: Season 2 (Turner)
Mythbusters: Big Blasts Collection (Discovery)
Perry Mason: Season 3, Vol.2 (Paramount)
SNL: Season 4 (Universal)
See? I wasn’t kidding! And now, the highlight reel:
Assault on Precinct 13 – John Carpenter’s 1976 original finally comes to Blu-ray! Never mind that Ethan Hawke remake, this is the real deal. Unfortunately, I’m still working on getting a copy.
Austin Powers – Forget The Love Guru, forget The Cat in the Hat. Watch the original Austin Powers and remember why Mike Myers deserves the benefit of the doubt. This is a great three-movie box set from Warner/New Line and these bright, colorful films look superb on Blu-ray!
Prince Caspian – The second film in the Narnia series is even better than the first with wonderful big screen FX and improved acting across the board from the Pevensie children. And like the first film, Disney delivers a spectacular-looking Blu-ray edition featuring a very cool Blu-ray exclusive extra entitled “Creating the Castle Raid.” This interactive multimedia tour of one of the film’s major action sequences is well executed and a lot of fun to explore.
The Contract – John Cusack? Morgan Freeman as an assassin? In high def? Yes, please!
The Day the Earth Stood Still – Kudos to Fox for bringing this sci-fi classic to Blu-ray but I have to yet to receive this, so I can’t comment firsthand. Fingers are crossed!
La Femme Nikita – Sony brings one of Luc Besson’s finest hours to Blu-ray and it looks solid but not “wow.” Picture detail has definitely received a boost over my standard DVD.
Home Alone – I haven’t seen this in years and I’m not ashamed to admit I’m eagerly looking forward to revisiting this one in high def within the next two weeks.
The Longshots – Haven’t watched this one yet, but Ice Cube is an underrated actor and this family-friendly football flick looks like it might be a great fit for his talents.
The Shawshank Redemption – Warner Bros. has done another first rate job bringing this cinema classic to Blu-ray. From its elegant hard book packaging to a stellar and finely-detailed 1080p image, this one is a must own for fans. And how could anyone NOT love this movie?
Step Brothers – Sadly, this one was a major disappointment for me. I love these two actors and this premise was great but somehow Step Brothers felt like a major missed opportunity.
Stranger Than Fiction – Here is the Will Ferrell I want to see more of. This one’s a bizarre double dip from Sony as this was already on Blu-ray and there’s not much new here. Read my review of the original Blu-ray here
Wanted – A lot of people loved Wanted, but it didn’t thrill me quite as much as I was hoping it would. Don’t get me wrong, there is some insane and crazy action to be had here, but I just never found myself caring a whit whether James McAvoy’s cubicle dweller-turned-assassin lived or died. And binary code buried in a big sweater? Really? Universal’s Blu-ray edition looks and sounds fantastic though with an absolutely blistering DTS-HD soundtrack. Definitely worth at least a rental on its technical merits alone.
X-Files – The two X-Files films come to Blu-ray and I seriously hope they arrive soon because I’m itching to see I Want to Believe. I want to believe it’s good, truly I do. Reviews were predominantly blah, but I’m one of the few who enjoyed Fight the Future, so I have hope. On another note, I Want to Believe marks Fox’s first foray into BD Live as the disc sports the studio’s first web-based bonus material.
Greg’s Pick of the Week
Casablanca: Ultimate Collector’s Edition (Blu-ray)
Warner Home Video | 102 minutes | Not Rated | $64.98
Last but certainly not least we have Warner’s Casablana. Arguably the greatest film of all time, Warner Bros. has compiled an embarrassment of riches for this “Ultimate Collector’s Edition” Blu-ray Disc. Fans will enjoying poring over a leather passport cover and luggage tag, a wonderful set of poster reproduction cards, internal studio telegrams and a splendid documentary entitled “Jack L. Warner: The Last Mogul.” The latter is over an hour and half in length and offers a comprehensive and fascinating look at the studio’s early days. Oh, and did I mention the film? As it did on its previous HD DVD incarnation, Casablanca looks and sounds ridiculously good in high definition. Color-packed new releases such as Wall-E and Iron Man may get all the attention, but this set is proof positive that Blu-ray is the best thing to happen to the movie business in years.
EVALUATION SYSTEM
Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 1080 projector
Philips BDP7200 Blu-ray Disc Player
Oppo DV-983H DVD player
Onkyo TX-SR805 A/V receiver
Definitive Technology ProCinema 1000 speakers
Datacolor SpyderTV PRO 2007 video calibration
Monster Power HTS5100 power center
BetterCables interconnects
UltraLink speaker wire
Related Posts