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TuesDVDay News Update

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Guest TSMAdmin

In The Player: Tokyo Raiders

 

On The Box: Police, Camera, Action

 

 

 

 

 

Yo yo yo.

 

 

 

Apologies for the late update, but I was absolutely FUCKED after work last night. Jesus, I’ve been living with my girlfriend, and last night I DIDN’T EVEN HAVE THE ENERGY FOR SEX. A man without the strength to lie back and get head is in no condition to write a column.

 

 

 

In other, non sex-related news, my Panasonic Q arrived today, so I’m afraid I’m going to do a patented JAY SPREE HALF-ASSED UPDATE. I wrote about half of this at work today, and the other half… well, the machines hooked up, and all I’ve got to do is push on. Suffice it to say, I’ll be doing that sooner than later, so some portions of the update may suffer. I might do a write-up of the machine, if that’s any consolation.

 

 

 

 

I finally eBayed myself a Videobus lead and some software, so with any luck that should be here by the weekend and I can set about taking grabs for all my DVD reviews and even shock horror maybe writing a couple of new ones. I’ve toyed with the idea of doing videogame reviews too, but seeing as I’m already working my tits off all week, that might be pushing it a little. We’ll see how things look come October (when I go back to Uni and HOPEFULLY get a little more free time, for those of you who haven’t been paying attention).

 

 

 

 

Anyway, there’s sexy consumer equipment with my name on it, so ON WITH THE CONTENT~!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WHAT’S HOT THIS WEEK?

 

 

 

 

Aiiiiieeeeee. As Paul Daniels used to say quite unbeknownst to the American readership here “not a lot”.

 

 

 

 

Seriously, there’s screw all new worth picking up. There’s probably the most re-releases I’ve EVER seen released in one week, and there’s some half-decent stuff there. But generally, I try to rate each week based on new discs that are being released, and sadly, this week comes up pretty short.

 

 

 

 

The Alec Guinness Collection might be worth picking up for hardcore movie fans, although it does run seventy bucks and I’m not entirely sure what’s in it. Maybe Peter Cushing’s Revenge of Frankenstein? Birthday Girl is the decidedly average Nicole Kidman flick, although it IS a Nicole Kidman flick, which means that you can get your freak on when there’s no-one around. If that’s your thing, that is. And then there’s Showtime. Ahem. Well, if you REALLY want to buy it, fair enough, but you’d be better off giving that fifteen bucks to some homeless guy. Or using it to BUY STUFF~! for Scotsman.

 

 

 

 

Apart from those, there’s really nothing else that eye-catching aside from re-releases. Con Air, Coyote Ugly, Crimson Tide, Darkman, a bunch of Elvis films, and about five Children of The Corn “films”. Having said that, the Collector’s Series releases of all three Crow movies is out again, as is (somewhat bafflingly) the original, cruddy, barebones release of the films. The Scream Collection is similarly re-released, as are both Scary Movies. And if anyone’s looking at picking up the Sound of Music DVD, be warned it’s only a single disc edition, not the loaded two-discer that would be a much wiser purchase.

 

 

 

 

Daddy of The Week: Well, it’s a tough one this week. On one hand, there’s Black Beach Spring Bling 2002, which sounds like an everyday hip-hop beach party that a bunch of white executives tried to come up with a “funky” title to, or Kelly Osbourne’s DVD single of Papa Don’t Preach, which… well, it’s just offensive on so many levels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HDVDVD

 

 

 

 

Or HD-DVD, as it’s actually called. Hell, my acronyms are better. Like, when the InVasion was going on, I said the the Alliance should be called ECWCW. And then they should have just merged the whole lot and called it the ECWCWWF. And then if they made Rob Van Dam the new owner, they could’ve called it the RVDCWC… okay, maybe I got a little carried away.

 

 

 

 

Anyway, High Definition DVD is becoming more and more a reality. Y’see, it’s amazing how quickly consumer electronics giants can move if they really want to (i.e. if there’s a buck to be made). Everyone used to say “Naw, that’s crazy DVD’ll never overtake VHS. It’ll be YEARS before that happens, and the format won’t be arounf then.” Then they used to say “Naw, DVD-recorders won’t be around. It’ll take YEARS before that happens, and the format will be dead already.” Well, look who’s luaghing no, eh? EH? That’s right assholes, ME, I’M LAUGHING, and you’re all eating crumbly little piles of crapcakes and feeling sorry for yourselves.

 

 

 

 

Aaaaanyway. The major studios met a week ago and began the first real talks about the new format, and a possible timscale for its implementation. According to The Digital Bits, there are two “camps” one geared towards the existing red laser technology, spearheaded by Warner Brothers (and their huge investment in it), and the other looking to develop the high-capacity Blu-Ray (oh no, not that again) discs and lasers.

 

 

 

 

Basically, most tech heads are firm supporters of the Blu-Ray technology. I’ve written bits and pieces about it here in the past, but basically they’re super-duper-mega-shit-eating-Special-Edition-what-the-hell-ever DVDs with a huge capacity and even huger potential. The audiovisual quality is better than that of D-VHS, which really is all that needs to be said. The problem most people see with the new red laser approach is that it would likely reduce said quality quite substantially. The idea is to use sophisticated MPEG-4 compression (and possibly Microsoft’s Corona compression scheme) to, as TheBits put it, essentially “squeeze high definition video onto, basically, existing DVD discs”. Which, um, doesn’t sound all that great. On the plus side, this technology could conceivably be on the market by late 2003, with possibilities (which I really don’t think you should bother counting on) of compatibility with existing machines.

 

 

 

 

The moral of the story here is Blu-Ray = Good, more compression = Crap.

 

 

 

 

Simple really.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DA LYNCH MOB

 

 

 

 

Interesting, this.

 

 

 

 

Over at the DVD Times, while discussing the upcoming UK Region 2 release of Mulholland Drive, it was revealed that a French version of the DVD is in the works, and (as seems to be usual for French releases of quirky films) is going to be a two-disc Special Edition a far cry from the barebones disc the Brits and Yanks have to put up with.

 

 

 

 

The French set, due to drop on September 4th, will include a making of (“Silence on Tourne”), David Lynch’s ten “keys” to understanding the film, interviews with Marie Sweeney and Angelo Badalamenti, the Cannes 2001 Press Conference, an on-set documentary made by French magazine Inrockuptibles, and a number of Easter Eggs. “Option Chapitrage Aléatoire” sounds like it might be something vaguely interesting (something to do with the chapters, like the R1 Easter Egg?) but I couldn’t be arsed to run it through FreeTranslation. But you could, if you wanted to.

 

 

 

 

The French disc comes without the DTS track of the R1 release, but I feel it’s a fair trade off for all those extras. Except the language thing might be (and usually is) a bit of a stickler the original audio track is usually included (which, in this case, would be in English), but the audio for most of the special features is likely to be French (like it was for the spectacular, French-only releases of Brotherhood of The Wolf and Crying Freeman). Shit, if only I’d paid attention to Madame Hartry and Monsieur Coles all those years instead of painting people’s jackets with white out and looking up the French word for penis. Oh well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OH MY GOD, THEY KILLED PAUL REISER!

 

 

 

 

If only.

 

 

 

 

Specs have appeared for South Park: The Complete First Season, due to street on November 12th for forty bucks. Expect live action intros and “irreverent audio commentary on all thirteen episodes” by Parker and Stone, the Tonight Show episode featuring Jay Leno, Cartman’s O Holy Night and Ned’s O Little Town of Bethlehem music videos, as well as the original promo spots for the show’s debut.

 

 

 

 

In other TV content news, Mad About You: The First Season is headed to DVD on October 29th from the folks at Columbia TriStar. Nothing else is known about the set, except that Paul Reiser is still a dick, and Helen Hunt is still hot as fuck, but she doesn’t get naked so what’s the point.

 

 

 

 

You know, this really bugs me. I mean, South Park, fair enough I personally can’t stand it, but I know it’s a really popular show, so that’s okay. But fucking Mad About You? Jesus holy Christmas. There’s about a MILLION BILLION other shows that I’d spend time DVDing before that steaming pile of crap. Cheers? Frasier? Due South? These would all set like hashcakes at Woodstock, but nooooo. Maybe Kevin Smith was right Paul Reiser IS a Nielsen family.

 

 

 

 

Thanks to The Digital Bits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DO THE VAMPIRE

 

 

 

 

Freshly rated by the BBFC, here’s the preliminary list of extras for the upcoming Season 5 boxset of Buffy:

 

 

 

 

  • Featurette: Buffy Abroad

     

  • Featurette: Casting Buffy

     

  • Featurette: Action Heros! The stunts of Buffy

     

  • Featurette: Natural Causes

     

  • Featurette: Spotlight on Dawn

     

  • Featurette: Demonology - A Slayer's Guide

     

  • Featurette: The Story of Season 5

     

  • Gag reel (yeah, right)

     

  • Commentary: Real Me - David Fury and David Grossman

     

  • Commentary: Fool For Love - Doug Petrie

     

  • Commentary: I Was Made To Love You - Jane Espenson

     

  • Commentary: The Body - Joss Whedon

     

  • Script: The Replacement

     

  • Script: Fool For Love

     

  • Script: Into The Woods

     

  • Script: Checkpoint

     

  • Various trailers

A pretty tasty looking set, although the gag reel isn’t too likely to appear (judging by previous sets).

 

 

 

 

The Region 2 specs have traditionally been almost identical to those of the Region 1 releases, although the Region 1 version of Season 4 will have a couple more extras (newly-recorded commentaries, I think), so bear that in mind. Still, the R2 Season 5 is due for release on October 28th, so if you’re more concerned with getting your hands on the series long before it streets in the US, head for Play.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THAT DAMN GAY

 

 

 

 

I’m just dying to finish this damn thing and play with my new toy, but I couldn’t resist putting this in quickly.

 

 

 

 

Coming your way on September 10th is Triple H: That Damn Good. Yes, another Helmsley DVD a mere two months after the last Helmsley DVD was released. Anyone who doesn’t believe in Triple HGH’s strke just isn’t trying hard enough. Or is trying too hard, I forget which.

 

 

 

 

Thanks to 1Wrestling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And with that, I bid you all goodnight. More in-depth column next week, promise!

 

 

 

 

NO CAPTION NECESSARY~! I DON’T CARE~!

 

 

 

 

Peace.

 

Jay Spree.

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