Guest TSMAdmin Report post Posted February 8, 2003 I’m afraid this is going to be a short one again, but don’t worry, I have a VERY good reason: I’VE BEEN WORKING ON A WORLD EXCLUSIVE. That’s right, an absolute TheSmartMarks EXCLUSIVE. I’ve been talking with some very important people in this particular field, and I’ve made a deal that’s very, VERY exciting, and hopefully, this is just the start of exciting developments for the site. What is it exactly? Honestly, I can’t tell you right now, but let’s just say that if you can identify the two things that I mark out for the most in this world, you can probably work it out. All I can say is, PLEASE come back to the site on Thursday for the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT some of you will probably feel let down, others of you definitely won’t, but that’s what these things are all about. I’ve also been busy at work on a new DVD review which should be up over the weekend, and I’ll finally be writing another ET CETERA, since I’ve been ignoring that column for far too long now. Mind you, with wrestling the way it is right now, can you blame me? I’ve been more caught up with writing poetry as of late, which is either totally gay or totally cool depending on your own perspective. The best fucking thing about it is sitting in my creative writing class with this stupid fucking Jewish woman who doesn’t understand shit, and see her trying to make out all these references to giving head and S&M and shit disguised in metaphors about mountains. The next best thing is slipping in subtle Conan quotes (which isn’t very fucking easy to do) as little in-jokes to my buddy in class, and having everybody just being totally fucking bewildered by them. So, seeing as how I’m trying to excuse myself from writing too much, let’s HIT THE CONTENT~! NOT ANOTHER TEEN DVD You know, I’ve never actually sat through an episode of Dawson’s Creek. All I know about it is that the chick is RED FUCKING HOT and there’s some guy called James Van Der Beek who seems to be the BUTT of a lot of Kevin Smith humour. Actually, from what I’ve heard, there isn’t a whole lot more to the show than that. Nonetheless, millions of people love it, so it’s on its way to DVD on April 1st (ha!). The three-disc set will include each and every episode from the first series, in grin-and-bear-it fullscreen and what-can-you-do Dolby surround. You can also expect an audio commentary by Kevin Williamson and Paul Stupin (two names that mean absolutely nothing to me), the retrospective ‘Dawson’s Creek: From Day One’, and a “Season One Time Capsule”. From running times of the extras, to whether the commentary is for every episode, there’s a lot that isn’t clear about the DVDs, although being as it’s released on April Fool’s Day, you’ll be lucky if you wander into the store and find it there at all. ICED OUT, HOMIE The 101 Dalmations 2 DVD (hey wait, wasn’t it called 102 Dalmations?) contains a trailer for the Platinum release of one of Disney’s genuinely magical films, The Lion King. There’s precious little information on the set right now, but we do know that it will street in October, it’ll contain an all-new musical number, and it’ll probably suffer from the same sloppy transfer as the previous Platinum, Beauty and the Beast. Oh, and it’ll be loaded with a ridiculous amount of extras. Start saving now. HARRY TOSSER Sorry to any non-Anglicans who don’t get that tag. Yes, the Chamber of Secrets has an official release date, and it’s April 11th. You’ll have the choice of both full and widescreen editions, should you feel the compulsion to lose half the picture. It will again be a two-discer with a fair amount of extras, including 19 deleted scenes, interviews with the cast, J.K. Rowling, the screenwriter, and the obligatory DVD-ROM crap. Hopefully, the disc won’t be quite so abysmally designed as last time, because if it is, it pretty much renders all the deleted scenes utterly worthless. The new book is on its way in a couple of months too, if that’s your bag. Something cool for anyone who might care, my grandfather used to be a senior member of the UK’s Deaf-Blind Association, and he’s currently translating the current books into braille for a little boy that lives near him. That’s just fucking cool. Thanks to The Digital Bits for the knowledge. GOLDFISH SHOALS NIBBLING AT MY TOES Fans of the cult comedy Red Dwarf (the funny British one with the guy out of Blade 2, not the American schlock with Teri Farrell) will be happy to know that series 2 is due to street on February 10th in Region 2 (exactly 15 years after the show’s first BBC transmission) for an easy £20 (about US$32 the exchange rate is a little higher than usual). The extras are once again pretty awesome, with a cast commentary, deleted scenes, “smeg ups”, an interview with Doug Naylor, ‘Red Dwarf “A-Z Documentary’, ‘Alternate Personalities’ featurette, ‘Tongue Tied Uncut’, isolated music cues (on a sitcom? Interesting), ‘Talking Book Chapters’ (?!?), a photo gallery, weblinks, an original trailer, and Easter Eggs. A big thank you to the DVD Times for bringing darkness into light. IF ANYONE CAN, CAMERON CAN Well, well, well. The Region 1 VS Region 2 controversy continues. Yes, no sooner have the final specs for the R2 release of James Cameron’s Dark Angel been announced that the R1 specs come along and cause trouble. You see, the Region 2 release will feature anamorphic widescreen transfers while the R1 will be fullscreen. But that doesn’t actually make the decision any easier, because the R2 only has a selection of interviews, while the R1 will feature commentary tracks on four episodes ('Dark Angel', 'Rising', 'And I Am A Camera', '…And Jesus Brought A Casserole'), four featurettes, audition tapes, a gag reel and a trailer for the videogame. Of course, even though it’s allegedly a Jim Cameron series, there’s nothing from him thanks to his Spielberg-esque ignorance of the format. The R1 set streets May 20th for $60, and it’ll probably be a little more costly than importing the R2 version, so it really all depends on how deep your widescreen convictions REALLY are. To be honest, there are worse things you can do than start a grassroots petition campaign to get the studio to adopt anamorphic for subsequent releases of the show, since that’s what we did in the UK and successfully turned things around with the R2 releases of Buffy and Angel. If you’re a fan of the show, I strongly suggest heading over to the DVD Times and looking up the Dark Angel news story, because there’s some useful info in the comments section about the different releases. Thanks again to the Times. So that’s me done. Join us on Thursday for the BIG EXCLUSIVE ANNOUNCEMENT that will surely rock the internet world to its very core. Well, maybe. Take care, and don’t forget: LOOK AT THAT FUCKER~! FUCKING MICHAEL BOLTON~! Jay Spree Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
