Tag Archives: dvd

I’ve Made The Jump To Blu Ray

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Months ago I swore my allegiance to the Sony backed Blu Ray when it was announced that the epic Lord of the Rings Trilogy would be exclusive to the format. This among other maneuvering ended up being the death knell for HD DVD.

My wife and I decided that instead of fancy wedding day gifts to each other we’d save the money and purchase an HDTV (she’s a good wife). We settled on a 46″ Samsung LCD TV (whose picture is absolutely flawless, BTW). As it turns out, I was able to justify the purchase of a PS3 being that is in fact the most cost effective Blu Ray player out on the market today … right?

Now with a DVD collection burgeoning at 200+, there is no way in hell that I can afford or justify double (and in some instances triple) dipping to upgrade everything. I made a deal with her, I’ll keep the Blu Ray to my nerd-like movies … and any double dips would be kept to an extreme minimum.

I timed my embrace of Blu Ray to the re-release of Transformers, which despite the gaping plot holes and the terrible acting on behalf of Megan Fox … it is absolutely stunning in HD. In theaters, Transformers was just so massive that the effects felt jumbled and fuzzy. On my setup there is just so much detail that I haven’t seen in my 6 theater viewings and dozens of standard DVD sessions with the same movie.

Sorry I got off on a tangent there, but my emphasis cannot be greater in how much I am enjoying my new set up. If you can afford it make the jump, it’ll be the standard for at least the next 5-7 years … I hope.

Denver Almost Made Me Shart

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One of my autonomous, robotic Inter web functions is to check out Hercules’ HercVault each week over at AICN. He catalogs and updates a ridiculously long list of DVD releases (with the obligatory Amazon links of course). Denver the Last Dinosaur NOW ON DVD!While perusing it today I came across something that almost made me shart …

Denver the Last Dinosaur on DVD. What is even more shocking is that the second volume was released this week. Apparently the first volume was released directly to consumers via the distributor’s website.

Silly me, I was running out to grab up Transformers on Blu-Ray and I had no idea one of the most coked-up animation concepts of the 80s was sitting on store shelves. I love seeing these old cartoons on DVD, but how much of a fanbase can there actually be? Next thing you know we’ll be seeing a street date for Widget the World Watcher … now that show realllly stunk.

LoTR Exclusive to Blu Ray? My Decision Has Been Made

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I’ve been trying to wrap my head around the hi-def DVD format war between HD-DVD & Blu Ray that has been going on for the better part of 2 years. I’m not one that is known to be an early adopter of new technologies, I sit out the rush and wait for the bugs to be worked out. As a movie lover, it’s been increasingly difficult to say which camp that I will eventually swear my allegiance to.

Last Fall it looked as though I’d hitch my wagon to HD-DVD being that Paramount was exclusive, with Transformers being available only to that format. Again, I’m in no position to make the jump to the next-gen, but in the last week several other studios have announced that they are going exclusively with Blu-Ray most notably Warner Bros. & New Line.

LoTR Is Exclusive to Blu Ray

Why is this news important? Because The Lord of the Rings Trilogy is a New Line property and will be Blu-Ray only. Two years ago I was talking to my brother and dad (both ardent LoTR fans) and said that I’ll go with whomever gets LoTR. It appears that my decision has been made for me, so hopefully by the end of the year I’ll be enjoying Frodo & Samwise Gamgee in glorious hi-definition. It you’re so inclined, Gizmodo has some stunning standard-def to Blu Ray screens from LoTR and you’ll be amazed at the quality and detail that can be seen.

BSG Season 3 is (Finally) on Its Way

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I’ve been (rather impatiently) waiting for Battlestar Galactica Season 3 to make its way to DVD for quite some time now. I’m not entirely sure what the hold up was, rumor has it that it had something to do with including the “Occupation” webisodes on the discs. There were conflicts about online content well before the writer’s strike. In my Interweb surfing earlier today, SyFy Portal was reporting that BSG Season 3 has a solid street date of March 25, 2008 (just in time for my birthday).

Battlestar Galactica Season 3 on DVD March 25th

All 20 episodes will be featured along with 15 additional hours of bonus material that has your traditional deleted scenes as well as all of executive producer Ronald D. Moore’s podcasts and other featurettes. The set also contains a special DVD version of the episode “Unfinished Business,” that has an additional 25 minutes added to the episode.

Great news for me as I will finally be able to free up some space on my TiVo, which has been on there for nearly a year at this point. Season 3 was met with criticism by fans for several reasons, chief among them being that all too short stint on New Caprica as well as the seemingly random one-off episodes that didn’t gel with the tone of the season (or series for that matter). I feel that a so-so episode of Battlestar Galactica is better than anything else that’s on TV.

Do yourself a favor and grab up Seasons 1, 2 & BSG:Razor in anticipation of this momentous occasion. And because I love it so much, The Adama Maneuver.

I Told You There Was A Guy Stealing My Netflix

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In Ur Mailbox Stealin' Ur MoviesLast December I wrote about how I believed that someone was stealing my Netflix. I still firmly believe that someone was hijacking my DVDs from the Post Office. There is no other feasible or rational explanation why they went missing for 10 days after being put in the mailbox . Fortunately none of my Netflix have disappeared since then, so I didn’t have to go all Dwight Schrute on their asses.

Well, apparently a truck driver was arrested in Newtown on April 27th and charged with mail theft. According to the great Bucks County Courier Times:

A Montgomery County man allegedly took checks, gift cards and Netflix movies from mail he was hired to transport from the Newtown area to King of Prussia, according to authorities.

James Kenneth Horning Jr., 47, of Whitemarsh, was charged with theft, receiving stolen property and tampering with public records or information early Thursday morning, police said. At the time of the alleged thefts Horning was a driver for Henning Trucking Company, a subcontractor used to transport mail to a distribution center in Upper Merion, Montgomery County, police said.

At the time of his arrest, Horning had 165 Netflix DVDs worth approximately $1650. I bet that he was the reason my shit went missing. Not only that, but this guy was a horrible human being.

He told investigators he would sift through the mail looking for colored envelopes which were more likely to contain gift cards or money for birthdays, anniversaries and other occasions …

I can only hope that I am called as a character witness at his trial. For I am an expert in the DVD field.

Flash Gordon, Savior of My DVD Collection

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On previous occasions I have made reference to my 80s Movie Trifecta of Awesomeness which includes: Transformers: The Movie, Big Trouble in Little China, and Flash Gordon. To this day they remain among my all time favorites. All but Flash Gordon is in my DVD collection, due to the fact that it is out of print. It was released in 1997 by a company called Image Entertainment for a short window as DVD players were becoming more ubiquitous. Ten years later, that very DVD is highly sought by individuals like myself … and fetches a steep price on eBay and Amazon. I do have a “copy” of Flash Gordon, I was able to find a DVD-rip online and very quickly obtained it. It was to much disdain that in 2005 a special edition DVD was released in Europe. Being that I did not have a region-free DVD player I couldn’t partake in the Flash Gordon experience in anamorphic widescreen.

Flash Gordon: Saviour of the Universe Edition DVDLast week I was digging around Amazon when I saw a listing for a Flash Gordon DVD in August. Shocked beyond belief I dug deeper to corroborate this news. Unlike some people, I don’t believe everything I read on the Internet … (like Harry & Co. who creamed over those “Joker” pics). Well, Cinematical confirmed what I saw and announced that a Flash Gordon: Saviour of the Universe Edition will be in stores August 7th, 2007.

DVD Active has the beautiful cover art, done by none other than Alex Ross himself who is a huge Flash Gordon fanboy.

Universal Home Video has announced a special edition of the Mike Hodges directed Flash Gordon which stars Melody Anderson, Timothy Dalton, and Sam J. Jones. The “Saviour of the Universe Edition” will be available to own from the 7th August, and should retail at around $26.98. The film itself will be presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, along with an English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround track.

2007 is the year of Flash: the action figure line, a new SciFi series, and a new DVD … I can hardly contain the fanboy within.

DVD Review: Venture Bros. Season Two

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Venture Bros. Season 2 DVDThe Venture Bros. is by far my favorite show on Adult Swim. Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer have created a show that is by far too brilliant for its own good. The titular (and somewhat dim-witted) characters, Hank & Dean Venture are the sons (err … clones) of famed super-scientist Dr. Thaddeus Venture. Joined by uber-bodyguard Brock Samson (whom I cited earlier as one of my favorite fictional characters of all time), they find themselves at the mercy of a sordid rogues gallery, most notable featuring The Monarch … a guy who dresses as a butterfly and has a giant flying cocoon as a base.

Venture Bros. is just wrong on so many levels … but it works. In Season Two we find out that Dr. Venture’s “sons” are actually clones from his nail clippings, and that Hank & Dean have been cloned 14 times. We also saw The Monarch broke out of prison with the help of a homosexual ape. The sexual dynamo that is Dr. Girlfriend left Phantom Limb to return to The Monarch, and in response the Phantom Limb launched a full scale attack on The Monarch without the consent of the Guild of Calamatous Intent. Whew ….

Oh and we had a visit from the Galactic Inquistor.

IGNORE ME!!!!

Venture Bros. IMHO is the best animated program on TV right now. It’s by far more intelligent than anything Seth McFarlane and his Manatees are pumping out … and the Simpsons for that matter. This show is truly beyond description, as it does not fall into any pre-existing archetypes. Who else has David Bowie and Iggy Pop squaring off in a duel that rivals Anakin & Obi Wan during the season finale? EXACTLY. Do yourself a favor and head over to your favorite consumer electronics store or add both seasons to your Netflix queue.

Simply put, Venture Bros. is the BALLZ.

I Love DVD Commentaries

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I am an avid DVD collector as some of you might be aware. My collection is Sci Fi heavy to be sure, with Farscape, Firefly, and all of the Star Trek films. I also have a good bit of movies I grew up on like The Goonies, Weird Science, and Space Camp. There have been a fair share of impulse buys and double-dips, but hey that’s what I enjoy about it.

About 6 months ago, I was sitting at around 190 before some I gave some away and lost track of loaners. There are some that I am more proud of than others, like my Big Trouble In Little China 2-Disc (which is no longer in print) & Le Pacte des Loups (The Brotherhood of the Wolf) which as an added bonus, has a very naked, very hot Monica Bellucci.

I have others that I picked up in bargain bins of which I am ashamed of … like Navy Seals. There are some that I am still tracking down like the 1997 release of Flash Gordon and the 2001 release of GI Joe: The Movie. eBay is the dagger though, with both DVDs commanding huge bids due to their rarity.

Over at Cinematical, Scott Weinberg wrote up a list of his Favorite Director commentaries, which began me on this little diatribe. He lists some of his favorites as the Carpenter/Russell commentaries on BTiLC, Escape from New York, and The Thing as well as anything Kevin Smith does. I have to agree with him on most points

Some of my personal favorites:

Some releases that I am looking forward to picking up in the near future: Solarbabies, Casino Royale, Justice League Unlimited: Season Two, Batman Beyond: Season Three and Payback: Straight Up.

// damn, I’m a nerd

Best Battlestar Galactica Week Ever

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For a Battlestar Galactica fanboy this has been a good week. First, there is rumblings of a direct-to-DVD feature, then we get confirmation of a 4th Season for the greatest show on TV.

What could make this week any better? Tricia Helfer will be on the cover of the February 2007 issue of Playboy. Typically I don’t approve of Canadians, but in the case of Tricia Helfer I will make an exception. She’s the hottest robot on TV (with Bender of Futurama a close second). Hit up Google Image Search and you can find a plethora of quasi nude, semi-nude, and nude pictures of Tricia during her earlier stints as a Victoria’s Secret model. Not that I’ve looked before.

Tricia Helfer Is TEH Hottest - Maxim April 2006