Blu-ray News and Deals

[JoeinAR 1,949]

Ooh! The covers are up on Amazon. No release date or price yet though. Joey, is 10-19-10 the release date of the next movie?

no it's a near Thanksgiving release. It kicks off the Christmas movie season. Oh I see JB posted the dates.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

The HP fans are pissed because these aren't extended versions of the movies.

[Wojo 2,453]

The extended versions only seem to be being played on cable TV.

[Jay 37,294]

The point is that the first two Ultimate Editions WERE the extended cuts

[Charlie Brigden 7]

There are longer versions of these movies? Man, those must be snoozefests.

[Quintus 5,399]

Harry Potter extended versions?!

[Jay 37,294]

Yes, they've been around for quite some time now

They run on ABC Family HD all the time

[Wojo 2,453]

I have only ever seen the extended versions of the first three movies.

Let me rephrase that. I have only ever seen the first three movies in their extended forms taped to VHS, never on DVD or theatrically.

[Jay 37,294]

I downloaded fan edits of the first 4 movies, where for each they inserted all the deleted scenes found on the dvds. In all cases they improved the films. I dunno if there's any good deleted scenes for 5 & 6 or not.

[ChuckM 1]

I'm finally getting on the Blu-ray bandwagon. My plan was to get a Blu-ray drive with my new laptop, but I ended up buying a drive separately and installing it myself. After re-selling the DVD-RW drive that came with the computer, I should be able to pull off the Blu-ray upgrade for only about $40.

Right now, though, I have a Blu-ray drive installed and no Blu-rays to play. So far, I've ordered The Dark Knight. Hopefully it will arrive soon. I'm thinking I may go for Pirates of the Caribbean next, or maybe I am Legend.

[Quintus 5,399]

The Dark Knight is an excellent choice for your first Blu-ray movie: the image is astounding, probably the best I've seen of the medium, anyway.

[ChuckM 1]

That's what I've heard. I figure that for now I'll concentrate on acquiring the titles that most fully utilize Blu-ray's potential.

[Wojo 2,453]

I downloaded fan edits of the first 4 movies, where for each they inserted all the deleted scenes found on the dvds. In all cases they improved the films. I dunno if there's any good deleted scenes for 5 & 6 or not.

I've seen one good deleted scene for 5, where Trelawney comes up with the prophecy about the grave danger Umbridge is in.

Or at least, YouTube said it was a deleted scene. It's been a long while since I saw the film, and I just got through that part of the audio book so I'm not sure.

[Charlie Brigden 7]

HOLY FUCKING SHIT

[Marian Schedenig 8,174]

The Dark Knight is an excellent choice for your first Blu-ray movie: the image is astounding, probably the best I've seen of the medium, anyway.

I read that it's full of IMAX aspect ratio changing fuckups. Is that incorrect?

[Charlie Brigden 7]

The Dark Knight is an excellent choice for your first Blu-ray movie: the image is astounding, probably the best I've seen of the medium, anyway.

I read that it's full of IMAX aspect ratio changing fuckups. Is that incorrect?

The aspect ratio does change, but it's intentional and surprisingly subtle.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

The IMAX scenes of Dark Knight look best. You can tell which sequences. I thought that overall the bulk of the film looked pretty standard for a modern film on Blu-ray. If you really want to see something special on BD, get The Searchers. It's dirt cheap now and in my opinion the BEST overall video transfer I've ever seen. It's wonderfully restored and presented from the VistaVision elements in that marvelous technicolor of the era that, for whatever reason, I absolutely prefer to today's films. Not to mention that like every shot of that film is a masterpiece. It's unbelievable to gaze upon those iconic Monument Valley vistas in hi-def. I mean, I'd seen the movie loads of times before on TV and DVD, including the ultimate edition that was apparently the same source for the BD transfer. It's like an entirely different experience. This isn't just the fanboy in me, either. I just scanned reviews of that disc and it seems to be universally agreed it's amazing.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

HOLY FUCKING SHIT

Calm down it's just Alien

With that being said, I'll probably get this.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

I only really want the original movie, maybe the second. Can't wait for the individual releases.

[ChuckM 1]

Hmm, wasn't expecting this problem. Apparently neither VLC, nor Media Player Classic, nor Windows Media Player will play Blu-rays yet. In fact, I can't find any free software that does. What program do you all use?

[Marian Schedenig 8,174]

Hmm, wasn't expecting this problem. Apparently neither VLC, nor Media Player Classic, nor Windows Media Player will play Blu-rays yet. In fact, I can't find any free software that does. What program do you all use?

Blu-ray DRM is much more severe than DVD protection. As far as I know, the only free ways so far to play BDs are ripping the movie to your hard drive (using a key specific to your movie found on the internet), decrypting it, and then playing the resulting file (with VLC, mplayer and the likes).

Which is why I'm stuck with a region-free standalone player instead of being able to watch movies via my PC.

[ChuckM 1]

I would think that if you could enter a key to rip it, you should be able to enter the key to play it.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

I only really want the original movie, maybe the second. Can't wait for the individual releases.

I only want the first two as well, but if Amazon has some gold box deals including this, I'll snatch it up.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

HOLY FUCKING SHIT

OH BABY!!!

[Marian Schedenig 8,174]

I would think that if you could enter a key to rip it, you should be able to enter the key to play it.

There will be, sooner or later. I think the ffmpeg guys are working on something. But at the moment, as far as I know, there is no unlicensed decoder capable of working live on the data stream.

I still feel bad about buying movies on Blu-ray.

[ChuckM 1]

I guess the best route for now then would be to jump around the various 30-day trial programs, and hope ffmpeg comes through with something before they all expire.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

This is officially one of the most exciting days in the history of HD news reporting. The Criterion Collection has announced no fewer than five films for release on Blu-ray in October. On October 12, it will release The Magician(Ansiktet; Ingmar Bergman, 1958) and The Darjeeling Limited (Wes Anderson, 2007); a week later, the anxiously-awaited Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai; Akira Kurosawa, 1954); and finally, on October 26, the label will release House (Hausu; Nobuhijo Obayashi, 1977) and Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957).

Special features include:

The Darjeeling Limited

• Anderson's short film Hotel Chevalier (part one of The Darjeeling Limited), starring Natalie Portman, with commentary by Anderson
• Audio commentary featuring Anderson and cowriters Jason Schwartzman and Roman Coppola
• Behind-the-scenes documentary by Barry Braverman
• Anderson and filmmaker James Ivory discussing the film's music
• Anderson's American Express commercial
• On-set footage shot by Coppola and actor Waris Ahluwalia
• Audition footage, deleted and alternate scenes, and stills galleries
• Original theatrical trailer
• A booklet featuring an essay by critic Richard Brody and original illustrations by Eric Anderson

House

• Constructing a House, a new video piece featuring interviews with director Nobuhiko Obayashi, story scenarist and daughter of the director Chigumi Obayashi, and screenwriter Chiho Katsura
• Emotion, a 1966 experimental film by Obayashi
• New video appreciation by director Ti West (House of the Devil)
• Theatrical trailer
• An essay by Chuck Stephens

The Magician

• New visual essay by Bergman scholar Peter Cowie
• Brief 1967 video interview with director Ingmar Bergman about the film
• Rare English-language audio interview with Bergman, conducted by filmmakers Olivier Assayas and Stig Björkman
• A booklet featuring an essay by critic Geoff Andrew, a reprinted essay by Assayas, and an excerpt from Bergman's autobiography Images: My Life in Film

Paths of Glory

• New audio commentary by critic Gary Giddins
• Television interview from 1979 with star Kirk Douglas
• New video interviews with Kubrick's longtime executive producer Jan Harlan, Paths of Glory producer James B. Harris, and actress Christiane Kubrick
• Excerpt from a French television program about real-life World War I executions similar to the events dramatized in Paths of Glory
• Theatrical trailer
• An essay by Kubrick scholar James Naremore

Seven Samurai

• Two audio commentaries:
  • Film scholars David Desser, Joan Mellen, Stephen Prince, Tony Rayns, and Donald Richie
  • Japanese film expert Michael Jeck

  [*]A 50-minute documentary on the making of Seven Samurai, part of the Toho Masterworks seriesAkira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create[*]My Life in Cinema, a two-hour video conversation between Akira Kurosawa and Nagisa Oshima produced by the Directors Guild of Japan[*]Seven Samurai: Origins and Influences, a new documentary looking at the samurai traditions and films that impacted Kurosawa's masterpiece[*]Theatrical trailers and teaser[*]Gallery of rare posters and behind-the scenes and production stills[*]A booklet featuring essays by Peter Cowie, Philip Kemp, Peggy Chiao, Alain Silver, Kenneth Turan, Stuart Galbraith, Arthur Penn, and Sidney Lumet and an interview with Toshiro Mifune[*]

I will definitely be picking up The Darjeeling Limited, Seven Samurai, and Paths Of Glory. Also, the special edition of Grindhouse was finally announced for October as well.

Also also... I don't think it was mentioned here but I read awhile back that A.I. is coming to Blu.

[Quintus 5,399]

HOLY FUCKING SHIT

OH BABY!!!

What am I missing?

[Charlie Brigden 7]

HOLY FUCKING SHIT

OH BABY!!!

What am I missing?

All four have isolated scores, but Alien and Aliens have two isolated score tracks - intended score and final score, apparently.

[Quintus 5,399]

Woah!

[King Mark 3,625]

I know blu Ray is 1080p but my TV is 720p . Is 720 p also a "native" resolution on Blu Ray or would the player do no better than an upconverted DVD? (would I be getting native 720p, 1080p downconverted to 720p or 480p upconverted to 720 )

[Quintus 5,399]

If you worried about it just go into your players settings and force it to play everything at 720p. Your tv will automatically downscale everything to that anyway though.

[King Mark 3,625]

Never mind..got my answer. Blu Ray plays at 720p. So getting a 1080p TV is not an absolute necessity for now

[Quintus 5,399]

My Blu-rays play at 1080p... The Dark Knight for eg. Only games run at 720p. But yeah, if you mean are your movies being automatically played at your tv's native resolution, then yes, they most likely are. The default setting usually takes care of it. If you were able to display at 1080p but for some reason you were only getting 720p then trust me - you would notice.

[Marian Schedenig 8,174]

Never mind..got my answer. Blu Ray plays at 720p. So getting a 1080p TV is not an absolute necessity for now

Most Blu-rays are 1080p, but the player is usually capable of downconverting to 720p.

I'm still waiting for the 1080p projectors to get cheaper.

[ChuckM 1]

I'm still waiting for the 1080p projectors to get cheaper.

A friend of mine has one. I haven't had a chance to get over to his house and see it yet, but he says it's pretty awesome.

[Marian Schedenig 8,174]

Has to be. 720p is pretty nice, but Lost on my 24" TFT at 1080p (before I connected the PS3 to the projector) looked like analogue photos at times.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

My TV is has a resolution of 768, so I just output the player at 1080p, and it still looks good.

[Charlie Brigden 7]

The full alien specs, new/cool stuff emboldened:

New content includes original screen tests of Sigourney Weaver prior to filming the original Alien, unseen deleted scenes, and the previously unseen original cut of "Wreckage and Rage: The Making of Alien3," and the "MU-TH-UR Mode," an interactive feature enabling easy access to all content on the discs.

The 6-disc set will contain the four films with 1080p video, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtracks, and full contents are as follows:

Disc One: Alien - 1979 Theatrical Version; 2003 Director's Cut with Ridley Scott Introduction; Audio commentary with Director Ridley Scott, writer Dan O'Bannon, executive producer Ronald Shusett, editor Terry Rawlings, and actors Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton and John Hurt; Audio commentary with Ridley Scott (on theatrical cut only); Final theatrical isolated score by Jerry Goldsmith; Composer's original isolated score by Jerry Goldsmith; Deleted and extended scenes; and MU-TH-UR Mode interactive experience with Weyland-Yutani Datastream.

Disc Two: Aliens - 1986 Theatrical Version; 1991 Special Edition with James Cameron introduction; Audio commentary by director James Cameron, producer Gale Anne Hurd, alien effects creator Stan Winston, visual effects supervisors Robert Skotak and Dennis Skotak, miniature effects supervisor Pat McClung, and actors Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, Jenette Goldstein, Carrie Henn and Christopher Henn; Final theatrical isolated score by James Horner; Composer's original isolated score by James Horner; Deleted and extended scenes; and MU-TH-UR Mode interactive experience with Weyland-Yutani Datastream.

Disc Three: Alien3 - 1992 Theatrical Version; 2003 Special Edition (Restored Workprint Version); Audio commentary by cinematographer Alex Thomson, B.S.C., editor Terry Rawlings, alien effects designers Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr., visual effects producer Richard Edlund, A.S.C., and actors Paul McGann and Lance Henriksen; Final theatrical isolated score by Elliot Goldenthal; Deleted and extended scenes; and MU-TH-UR Mode interactive experience with Weyland-Yutani Datastream.

Disc Four: Alien Resurrection - 1997 Theatrical Version; 2003 Special Edition with Jean-Pierre Jeunet introduction; Audio commentary by director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, editor Herve Schneid, A.C.E., alien effects creators Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr., visual effects supervisor Pitof, conceptual artist Sylvain Despretz, and actors Ron Perlman, Dominique Pinon and Leland Orser; Final theatrical isolated score by John Frizzell; Deleted and extended scenes; and MU-TH-UR Mode Interactive Experience with Weyland-Yutani Datastream.

Disc Five: Making the Anthology - The Beast Within: Making Alien, Superior Firepower: Making Aliens, Wreckage and Rage: Making Alien3, One Step Beyond: Making Alien Resurrection.

Disc Six: The Anthology Archives - Pre-production, production, post-production, and aftermath featurettes, concept art, screen tests, photo galleries, and more for all four films.

Also, rumour has it that the set will also premiere the legendary Burke cocoon deleted scene.

[JoeinAR 1,949]

Not rumor CB, it's going to be on there.

[Jay 37,294]

The Burke cocoon scene was not on the old anthology set? I've had that deleted scene on VHS for like 10 years

[pixie_twinkle 48]

The HP fans are pissed because these aren't extended versions of the movies.

Actually I'm pretty pissed too. I was really looking forward to these and now I don't think I'll bother. The standard Blu Rays of these films are a lot cheaper, and apparently contain exactly the same version of the movie. What a really stupid wasted opportunity. Ultimate Editions indeed!

[Jay 37,294]

Well, the first 2 Ultimate Editions are the extended cuts

I don't get why 3 and 4 aren't.

[Charlie Brigden 7]

The Burke cocoon scene was not on the old anthology set? I've had that deleted scene on VHS for like 10 years

The scene where Dallas is cocooned from Alien is on the anthology. The scene where Ripley finds a cocooned Burke in Aliens has, as far as I'm aware, never publically been seen.

[Jay 37,294]

Oh oh oh, gotcha now. My bad.

Yea no James Cameron dvd has had a deleted scenes section, right?

The scenes are either re-integrated into the film or not seen at all. Kinda like LOTR.

[Charlie Brigden 7]

Oh oh oh, gotcha now. My bad.

Yea no James Cameron dvd has had a deleted scenes section, right?

The scenes are either re-integrated into the film or not seen at all. Kinda like LOTR.

Mostly, however the DVD of The Terminator has about eight or nine deleted scenes. I'm not sure if the (terrible) alternate ending on T2 can be viewed on its own though.

[Jay 37,294]

On the laserdisc the T-1000 finger scene and the alternate ending were available as bonus features; On the DVD, they are integrated into the movie in a "hidden 3rd version" feature

I forgot about Terminator, good call.

Man, I STILL CANNOT BELIEVE that The Abyss and True Lies are only available on DVD in non-anamorphic format. You'd think with Fox owning them, they would have been re-issued around the time Avatar was in theaters or coming to DVD. Baffling.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

On the laserdisc the T-1000 finger scene and the alternate ending were available as bonus features; On the DVD, they are integrated into the movie in a "hidden 3rd version" feature

I forgot about Terminator, good call.

Man, I STILL CANNOT BELIEVE that The Abyss and True Lies are only available on DVD in non-anamorphic format. You'd think with Fox owning them, they would have been re-issued around the time Avatar was in theaters or coming to DVD. Baffling.

True Lies has always been anamorphic in Region 4.

[Jay 37,294]

Damn you!

[pixie_twinkle 48]

Well, the first 2 Ultimate Editions are the extended cuts

I don't get why 3 and 4 aren't.

Neither do I. I bought the first two UEs specifically for the extended cuts, and I think they both work beautifully. I was really excited to see what the 3rd and 4th films would look like with extra footage worked into them. Also, I was looking forward to getting the complete set of UEs in those big boxes. Somehow that would have worked. As it is, I'm just going to end up with big boxes for the films they decide to extend, and regular releases of the others. What a mess that lot will look like on the shelf...