Discussing the old school DVD’s that still sound and look great in the era of Blu-Ray and HD-DVD technology.

Mr. And Mrs. Smith will likely be remembered more for being the film that put Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie on the road to saving the world, one Cambodian child at a time, than being an enjoyable action-comedy film. Though despite all the media buzz over the film prior to its release, it actually turned out to be a financial and critical success, unlike Gigli, a film tha...

Power, Madden and a little Butterfly - Welcome to the series rehash with no new features and year old rosters known as Dare to Play the Game.

Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. I'm your host that has no real stories to tell. My birthday came and went. I got some cool presents (Fry's GC, Messiah (NEX), Target GC, EB Games GC, etc) but nothing too crazy. I actually haven't spent any of my gc's yet. I'm being pretty particular and know exactly what I'm af...

Synopsis

Imagine my surprise that there was a miniseries made about the threat of bioterror, and that this cloak and dagger miniseries (that aired at some time on network TV) sported two Oscar winners, neither of them men! Anjelica Huston (Prizzi’s Honor) and Mira Sorvino (Mighty Aphrodite) are part of a wide ranging series that is set over several continents, and explores the possibility of a bio-terror attack in the US.

Based on the book by Robert Ludlum, the man responsible for t...

It’s always interesting when works of art (books, plays, films, etc…) are updated from their native settings. Baz Lurhman’s Romeo + Juliet took the Bard’s most famous play and set it in modern day California, making it fresh again. Francis Ford Coppola set Conrad’s Heart of Darkness during the Vietnam War, making Apocalypse Now one of the most revered and realistic films of that era. There are several more examples in this trend that deserve to be mentioned, but I must fast-forward to the film a...

Synopsis

Arriving late one night at a village near Canterbury are an English sergeant (Dennis Price), and American one (Sgt. John Sweet) and a landgirl (Sheila Sim). As they leave the train station, Sim is set upon by a mysterious figure who dumps glue all over her hair. The trio become amateur detectives, determined to unmask the “glue man” and their suspicion first falls on Eric Porter, the local magistrate who is consumed by an enormous love for the countryside.

The film was made in 1944...

Synopsis

In the mid 90's, poachers are decimating the antelope population in the pristine lands of Kekexili. The locals have organized themselves to fight back, and now one of their patrolmen has been murdered by the poachers. Ga Yu, a journalist from Beijing, arrives to cover the story. Initially rejected by the leader of the mountain patrol, Ga Yu is taken in by the group when he suggests his coverage might help turn the area into a wilderness preserve. A long, grueling, dangerous manhunt ensues.>

Hello, I'm your fill-in host for the week, mister Kedrix (your game columnist). Yes I'm back again, after I swore I wouldn't be. Call it an obligaton, call it a true pain in the... Anyhow, in this edition of the New Release Tuesday blog, we get a good look into this weeks top releases. Some good Criterion choices and some good HD/Blu-Ray for a change. Well,on to the lists…

Top Film Releases

Kicking and Screaming and Seduced and Abandoned,...

Burned out actor Howard Spense (Sam Shepard) has a mid-life crisis, rides off the set of his latest western, and visits his mother (Eva Marie Saint), whom he has not seen in over 30 years. Mother Spense informs Howard that he has a son named Earl, (Gabriel Mann) living in Butte, Montana from a fling he had with Doreen (Jessica Lange), while he was there shooting on location 20 years ago. Upon arriving in Butte (he gravitates there more than actually arriving), Howard also meets Sky (Sarah Polley), a mysterious woman ...

Steve Martin plays a wacky TV weatherman, who develops a close friendship with an electronic freeway sign in the sleeper hit comedy L.A. Story. I found the critically acclaimed film to lack hilarity, but it does get marks for inventiveness. Martin is enjoyable in most anything he's in, even if the material is not-so-great. L.A. Story is one such example of an actor rising above said material. Most of the over-the-top silliness misses the mark, and Marilu Henner has little more to do than play the cliche...

Highly Defined

How long until Madden comes out?

Just the usual news and notes from me, but in mildly disappointing news, RoboCop, and Black Hawk Down, 2 Blu-Ray titles that would have made the race a little more interesting, were pulled or bumped from the released calendar until who knows when (presumably until the whole MGM/Sony distribution issue can be hashed out).

Meanwhile in terms of other release news, while Blu-Ray owners can’t wait for the previously released Warne...