Belated MonDVDay News Update

[Guest TSMAdmin]

In the player: ECW Extreme Evolution

 

On the box: Something about kilts...

 

Heavy Rotation: Romeo + Juliet OST

 

 

 

 

 

Hello hello hello, what have we here? Another late news update? Very suspicious, sir perhaps you should accompany me down to the station.

 

 

 

Yeah I know, I’m about as reliable as a UN resolution, but what can you do. I had a BIGASS piece of coursework to hand in yesterday, and it took all the strength I had to muscle myself away from TimeSplitters 2, let alone getting down to actually working. But I’m pleased to say I handed it in on time, and all should be relatively funky.

 

 

 

Speaking of TimeSplitters, that game is the fucking bomb… except for the bugs. I’m playing the GameCube version, and I know that both it and the Xbox release are just riddled with fucking bugs. The one that’s pissing me off the most is what I call the American Airlines Bug; it seems to happen on Robot Factory or The Scrapyard when you’re using power weapons like the minigun, RCP (or whatever they’ve called it in this game) and the plasma rifle. After a couple of minutes, a faint whistling/whirring/rumbling airplane engine sound can be heard screeching out of the speakers. As you continue, the sound just gets louder, and louder, AND LOUDER, until it drowns out just about everything except very large explosions. I’ve even had it creep into the Robot Factory mission in story mode, although it did go away after a while. It’s too bad, because the game kicks the nads off GoldenEye, Perfect Dark AND Halo (no idea about PC shooters, but who cares about them anyway).

 

 

 

Hey, it’s Hallowe’en. If I had my makeup here, I’d get my Crow getup and go hang around on rooftops all night. But since I haven’t, I’ll just spend the night blowing shit away with a minigun. It’s always fun to see what everyone comes up with for a costume last year, my neighbour went out in full Johnny Depp Fear & Loathing getup, and no-one had a fucking clue who he was. I offered him my Game of Death suit for this year, but he’s about a foot shorter than me, so it would probably look pretty silly. Not nearly as silly as what he settled on in the end, though:

 

 

 

 

 

What a fag. Speaking of which, I wonder what Scotsman’s going to dress up as. It’s going to be pretty hard making a costume of that bar in Bali.

 

 

 

 

No “What’s Hot” form me this week, since I’ve already missed Tuesday by a mile. Go check out C.H.U.D.’s roundup on the boards if you really don’t know what’s out, but here’s a little hint: FRIDAY.

 

 

 

 

Okay, let’s not bullshit any further. ON WITH THE… oh what’s the use.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STAR TREK V: NOT QUITE AS CRAP EDITION

 

 

 

 

Well, I can’t say I’m all that familiar with it, but Trek V seems to be universally regarded as an assfest. Wait, is that the one where Kirk falls off a mountan and Spock uses his rocket boots to catch him or some shit? Cause if it is, that’s one lame fucking movie.

 

 

 

 

Anyway, according to various stories floating around the net, ol’ Billy Shatner is pretty keen on a new Director’s Cut of the film to tidy up… um, everything. I’d say that filming new footage with the cast is a long shot, given that DeForest Kelly is dead and everyone else looks like shit (well, even more than they did when the film was originally made). Instead, the work will probably go on redoing a lot of the special effects, particularly in the film’s finale (forgive my vagueness, but I really don’t remember it), which suffered due to the film’s dramatic budget cut.

 

 

 

 

Paramount is said to be more than interested, given the success of their other Director’s Cuts of Trek films. Certainly, given that this is one of the least popular Treks, they’re gonna have to do something pretty spectacular with the disc to make it worth buying. Should be interesting.

 

 

 

 

Thanks to the DVD Times for the wisdom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HONG KONG LEGENDS

 

 

 

 

Uber DVD house HKL have shaken up their fourth quarter release schedule a little.

 

 

 

 

November 11th will now see the release of the Once Upon A Time In China Trilogy Boxset, which will be the first HKL boxset to be available at retail outlets. The three films are the same as their standalone releases, but if you don’t already own them this is a nice way to pick up all three in a nice set for only £30 (about US$45). Every film includes a commentary by DVD god Bey Logan, trailers, biographies, and still galleries, and interviews specific to each film, including Jet Li, Donnie Yen, John Wakefield and Tsui Hark. In addition, the films are all anamorphic, with 5.1 Cantonese and English language tracks and the usual HKL standard of subtitles.

 

 

 

 

Two Jackie Chan movies have also been bumped slightly, The Young Master will now street on December 27th, while Project A Part 2 will hit stores on January 6th (likely to cash in on the theatrical release of The Tuxedo).

 

 

 

Dragon From Russia, Bichunmoo and Crime Story are all announced for 2003, but sadly the Platinum Edition of Way of The Dragon (Return of The Dragon in the US) looks like it has been cancelled after all. Shame, but it’s not like the regular release isn’t totally loaded anyway.

 

 

 

 

Thanks to the Times, where you also can check out reviews of each of the OUATIC DVDs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MORE HONG KONG MADNESS

 

 

 

 

If you’re a hardcore John Woo fan, chances are the first Woo film you saw was either Hard Boiled or A Better Tomorrow. Until now, Hard Boiled was the only one to get a decent DVD treatment, in the form of the spectacular Criterion Collection release. However, ABT is now due for a Special Edition of its own. Will it measure up to its better loved, bigger brother?

 

 

 

 

Sadly, it doesn’t look like it will. MIA’s two-disc A Better Tomorrow Special Edition will be released through its Hong Kong Classics label (itself, like Tokyo Bullets, a lacklustre popinjay of Hong Kong Legends) on December 27th for a hearty £20 (US$30).

 

 

 

 

The disc features an anamorphic transfer taken from a digitally remastered version of the original Cantonese print, and will also feature the English language version of the film. Now, it would be natural to assume that this English version will be achieved via an alternate language track, but since this is a two-discer and the extra features look especially sparse, I’d hazard a guess that one disc contains the Cantonese version, and the other the English one, in order to pad out the set.

 

 

 

 

The extras include interviews with John Woo, Chow Yun Fat and Ti Lung, a featurette, trailers, artwork and stills galleries and biographies. Now that, to me, really doesn’t look like a whole second disc worth of stuff, unless the interviews and the featurette are nearly an hour each. I would gladly give it all up for a Bey Logan commentary, but alas, HKL don’t have the rights. Yet.

 

 

 

 

Thanks again to the DVD Times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

X-MEN (SE)X-CHANGE

 

 

 

 

A little snippet on X-Men 1.5, as the extras have been changed a little.

 

 

 

 

Disc one now includes an “enhanced viewing mode”, which sounds suspiciously like another extended branching/white rabbit feature that was met with universal scorn on the first X-Men disc. In any case, it will provide access to six deleted scenes (no doubt the same as on the original disc) and 17 featurettes. No word on whether the Bryan Singer commentary will extend to these deleted scenes, though that would make sense if each scene has the standard optional director’s commentary.

 

 

 

 

Disc two is still stacked with featurettes, and although I don’t have the original specs to hand, I’m fairly sure they’ve changed a little weren’t there six featurettes to begin with? Well, whatever they were, they are now:

 

 

 

The Uncanny Suspects (casting featurette)

 

X-Factor: The Look of The X-Men (costume featurette)

 

The Special Effects of the X-Men

 

 

Reflection of The X-Men

 

 

 

 

There will now also be footage from the Ellis Island premiere, as well as some multi-angle features. Well, if the commentary is good, the set will be worth getting, but I’m not 100% convinced about the other stuff.

 

 

 

 

Thanks to the Digital Bits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SOLID SNAKE: ESCAPE FROM SHIT DVDS

 

 

 

 

Here’s a nice little snippet for you fans of John Carpenter/Kurt Russell campfest Escape From New York.

 

 

 

 

A reader over at The Digital Bits attended a screening of The Thing in New York where John Boy himself was present for a Q&A. Straight from the horse’s mouth, the MGM Special Edition of EFNY is set for a January release, and will include 10 minutes cut from the theatrical release, detailing a robbery and subsequent arrest of Snake. Snippets of the scene were shown in the New Line laserdisc release with optional commentary, but this will be the first time the whole thing is available in its entirety.

 

 

 

 

Sounds cool to me. But there’s still an off chance that MGM might dick Carpenter on the disc and not include everything they told him, so be prepared to be disappointed until it’s officially confirmed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that, alas, is that.

 

 

 

 

I’m about halfway through a wrestling review, and as you will see when I get round to posting it, movie reviews from yours truly are on temporary hiatus.

 

 

 

 

Everything should be back to normal next week, so all things being equal, I’ll see you again on Monday. And remember,kids, if you see this man, shoot to kill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

YOU RAT SOUP EATING HONKY MOTHER FUCKER~!

 

 

 

 

Peace.

 

Jay