News and Opinions

Lions Gate Home Entertainment will release the “based on true events” thriller Open Water on December 28th. This disc will be presented in an anamorphic widescreen transfer, along with both English Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 6.1 audio tracks. Extras will include a two audio commentaries (the first with Director Chris Kentis and Producer Laura Lau; the second with stars Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis), an “Indie Essentials” filmmaker guide to marketing a movie, & a “On The High Seas: Making Open Water” featurett…
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Fox will finally release the complete fifth season of The Simpsons on December 21st. Each episode will be presented in 1.33:1 fullscreen transfers, along with English Dolby Digital 5.1 and both Spanish and French Dolby Digital 2.0 audio tracks. Extras will include a commentary tracks on 6 episodes (by Matt Groening and his associates), animatics and storyboards with illustrated commentary, commercials, Tree House of Horror Sketches and deleted scenes. If more extras are announced, we will let you know.

In the firm’s latest reversal, Sony has abandoned anti-copying technology on CD’s. The corporate claim is that the anti-piracy message has been communicated, and such measures are not really necessary. Now – consider also that Sony recently announced that it will allow the playback of native MP3 in its digital music players, and a somewhat different message is communicated: Sony figures they can make more money selling music and hardware that allows consumers the freedom to do with their media as they please. Too bad it…
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On January 4th, New Line will release separate Rated and Unrated editions of Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. Both releases will feature a 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer along with an English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track. Extras will include two audio commentaries (teh first with director Danny Leiner and actors John Cho and Kal Penn, the second with writers Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg), deleted scenes, “Back Seat” Interviews, an “Art of the Fart” sound documentary, Cast & Crew: Drive-Thru Bites,…
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DreamWorks will release the Tom Cruise / Jamie Foxx thriller Collateral on December 14th. This 2-disc set will be presented in a 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, along with English DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1, & Dolby Digital 2.0 audio tracks. The “extras” information is a little sketchy at this time, but we do know that this disc will include at least three featurettes (“City Of Night: The Making of Collateral”, “Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx Rehearse” & “Visual FX: MTA Train”), as well as deleted scenes and t…
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A new technology capable of storing the equivalent of 100 DVDs on a single DVD-size disc has been unveiled by researchers from London’s Imperial College.

Read more on CNet News.

Columbia-Tristar will release Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid, the sequel to the atrocious J-Lo film Anaconda, on December 7th. This disc will be presented in an anamorphic widescreen transfer, along with an English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track. Extras will include a “Creating Anacondas” featurette, as well as a collection of deleted scenes, and trailers.
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Buena Vista Home Entertainment will release the complete first season of the Tim Allen hit show Home Improvement on November 23rd. All 24 first season episodes will be spread over 3-discs, and will be presented in 1.33:1 fullscreen along with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track. Extras will include audio commentaries from the show’s creators on all the episodes, as well as a “Loose Screws“ featurette.

Yup, the A-Team is being made into a movie, and thus will eventually be a DVD. In the meantime, I’m sure you can expect all sorts of SE/CE/??? DVD releases of the original series, and plenty of hype. Looks like for the movie the surviving original cast (Mr. T, etc. – Hanninbal died a few years back) will be resticted to cameos. The setting will be modern day with the A-Team perhaps hailing from the Persian Gulf instead of Vietnam.

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New Line will finally release the much anticipated Extended Edition of the final chapter of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy on December 14th. This 4-disc set will include approx. fifty-minutes of additional footage, along with cast and crew audio commentaries and multiple behind the scenes documentaries and featurettes. A collector’s giftset will also be made available on the 14th that will include a Sideshow/Weta statue of Minas Tirith and a Howard Shore Creating the Lord of the Rings Symphony DVD.

MGM Home Entertainment will release the special edition of David Lynch’s Wild At Heart on December 7th. This disc will be presented in a new digitally remastered anamorphic widescreen transfer, along with a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track. Extras will include a new thirty-minute making of documentary, an original promo featurette, interviews with the cast and the crew, sixty-five animated behind-the-scenes photos (set to music), a “Specific Spontaneity: Focus on David Lynch”, a David Lynch “On the DVD” feature, as well as…
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Miramax Home Entertainment will release the Jet Li film Hero on November 30th. This disc will be presented in a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, along with both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 6.1 audio tracks (in both Chinese (with English subtitles) and dubbed English versions) Extras will include of a ‘Hero Defined’ making-of featurette, four storyboard sequences, and an interview with Quentin Tarantino.

Fox Home Entertainment will release the director’s cut of Daredevil (starring Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner and Colin Farrell) on November 30th. This 124-minute version (22 minutes longer then the theatrical cut) will be presented in a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, along with English DTS 5.1 & Dolby Digital 5.1 as well as Spanish & French Dolby Digital 2.0 audio tracks. The only extras that will be included are a new audio commentary (by director Mark Steven Johnson and Avi Arad) and a “Making of the Director’s …
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Warner Home Video will release the Ultimate Oliver Stone Collection on October 19th. This 14-disc set will include the films in the original set (Wall Street, Talk Radio, Natural Born Killers, Born on the Fourth of July, The Doors, JFK: Director’s Cut, Heaven and Earth, Nixon, U-Turn, Any Given Sunday: Director’s Cut and a documentary entitled Oliver Stone’s America), the DVD debuts of Looking for Fidel and Persona Non Grata, as well as the MGM special editions of Platoon and Salvador. There will also be a bonus disc co…
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Miramax Home Entertainment will release the Collector’s Edition of the highly popular comedy Bridget Jones’s Diary (starring Renée Zellweger & Hugh Grant) on December 9th. This disc will be presented in a 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, along with and English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track. Extras will the original audio commentary (with Director Sharon Maguire), deleted scenes, four featurettes (“The Bridget Jones Phenomenon”, “Today’s Single Woman”, “Portrait of the Makeup Artist” & “Making of”), complete Bridge…
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Warner Home Video will release the Wolfgang Petersen’s blockbuster Troy (starring Brad Pitt, Eric Bana and Orlando Bloom) in separate 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen and 1.33:1 fullscreen versions on January 4th. This 2-disc set will feature both English and French Dolby Digital 5.1 audio tracks, along with three featurettes (“In the Thick of the Battle”, “From Ruins to Reality” & “Troy: An Effects Odyssey”), a photo gallery, the theatrical trailer & Easter eggs.
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Columbia Tristar will release Spider-Man 2 in FIVE separate versions on November 30th. You will be able to choose from a standard two-disc set (in widescreen and full screen editions), a Superbit edition (no extras, but with a DTS track), a double-pack containing the first and second films, and a limited edition giftset. The giftset will include the two-disc edition along with a new miniature reproduction of The Amazing Spider-Man #50 comic book, five postcards, & a twenty-five page artists’ works portfolio inspired …
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Universal Home Video will release The Chronicles of Riddick (starring Vin Diesel) in separate Rated and Unrated Director’s Cut (10 minutes longer) versions on November 16th. Each disc will be presented in 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen transfers along with English, French, & Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 audio tracks. Extras will include “Riddick Insider Facts on Demand” during the film, a 360 degree location feature entitled “Riddick’s Worlds”, a complete level from the new “Riddick Escape from Butcher Bay” X-Box game, an in…
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Warner will release the second volume of the Looney Tunes: Golden Collection on November 2nd. This four-disc set will include around sixty shorts presented in 1:33:1 full frame along with English Dolby Digital Mono audio tracks. Extras will include audio commentaries (on over thirty of the cartoons), nine Behind-the-Tunes featurettes, two documentaries, a 50th-Anniversary Bugs Bunny Tribute Show, the “Adventures of the Road Runner” 1962 TV Pilot, a “From The Vaults Bonus Cartoon Rareties” feature, a New 2004 Short (enti…
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Columbia Tristar will release the director’s cut of Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy on October 19th. This 3-disc set, running 20 minutes longer then the original cut, will include all of the extras found in the original two-disc set (with the exception of a newly recorded audio commentary). Disc 3 will feature over 3 hours of new extras including a Comic Con 2002 Panel Discussion (with Guillermo del Toro, Ron Perlman and Mike Mignola), a Mike Mignola Artwork Gallery (with Commentary) and many more extras (TBA). Also availa…
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