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MonDVDay News Update

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In The Player: The Matrix Revisited

 

On The Box: The Commonwealth Games

 

 

 

 

 

Yikes, a Monday update, actually updated on a Monday! Gotta be a record.

 

 

 

Yup, despite ass-drenching heat and humidity, Jay stuck it out in the SpreeCave to bang out another column for you people. Fuck Amazon wishlists just PayPal me some cold, hard cash. Your contributions guarantee the timeliness of future updates!*

 

 

 

I’ve just been watching Last Action Hero (again), and that movie is BAD ASS. I could just watch it all day. There’s just so much irony packed into that ninety or so minutes intentional and unintentional you really can’t help but love it. If I ever get off my ass and write another review anytime soon, maybe, JUST MAYBE… well, I guess I’m supposed to try and generate hits, so maybe not.

 

 

 

Boring, boring week. Work is boring. Still fighting off illness, which is boring, and very tedious. My girlfriend starts as a trainee solicitor tomorrow, which is infinitely cool, but since it doesn’t directly involve me, it won’t make my day any better. Unless I flake out and have a chocolate and pizza binge or something. Speaking of my girlfriend and bingeing, it’s our two-and-a-half-year Anniversary (yes, we’re exactly THAT sort of couple) this weekend, so I’ll no doubt have numerous amusing anecdotes for next week’s update. Will Jay get laid? Will he be too pissed to get it up? Tune in next week to find out!

 

 

 

And on that note, ON WITH THE CONTENT~!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WHAT’S HOT THIS WEEK

 

 

 

A lot of crap, I’ll give you that. There’s one or two little gems, and I guess there’s a couple of big releases, but the fact that Speed’s been out in Region 2 for a while and Resident Evil has already been announced as a double-dipper kinda takes the sheen off things.

 

 

 

In fairness, Speed: Five Star Edition/Collection/Whatever is a pretty loaded set, and definitely worth a look if you can stomach Reeves’ “performance”. Whoa. And Resi Evil well, if you liked it, you liked it, I guess. It had a cool soundtrack. As mentioned here previously, the disc is pretty nice with a commentary and whatnot, but a Special Edition is on the way (probably towards the end of the year) with deleted scenes and the like, so unless you’re a TOTAL GOON you’re better off saving your money…

 

 

 

…For something like Collateral Damage. And I thought Last Action Hero was bad. Poor Arnie. I just hope to God that T3 isn’t TOO dreadful, or I might just have to hand in my ArnSoc membership card.

 

 

 

Fans of classic horror crapfests can relive the Bela Lugosi-Boris Karloff wars of old with a few choice releases this week. Lugosi fans can get their freak on with Ape Man and Death Kiss, while Karloff sado-masochists can pick up the terrifyingly-named House of Evil. Too. Terrified. To. Type. Other B-movie schlock this week comes in the form of Vice Academy 1-3. Gee, that wouldn’t be THE Ginger Lynn, now would it? I used to have such a hardon for that bitch. Oops, now I have to go surf for a while…

 

 

 

Skaters (and anyone who liked the unlockable movies in Tony Hawk’s) might want to pick up Volume 50 of 411 Video Magazine which streets this week. It’s not really a DVD as such -- well, I guess it is, but isn’t exactly… I mean… yeah, get it. There’s a bunch of other stuff like the Charlie Chaplin Collection, The John Wayne Collection, The Doors Collection and Once Upon A Time In China And America that people will no doubt be interested in, but honestly, I’m too hot and too tired to care right now.

 

 

 

Cornette and Meltzer’s Wrestling Gold: Blood, Brawls and Grudges is out this week, and I’m not honestly sure if that’s a new chapter in the series or just a re-release of one of the earlier discs. It’s probably worth checking around the net for a review of the earlier boxset. There’s some guy who used to run this place who wrote a review, I’m sure…

 

 

 

 

More wrestling-related antics with a bunch of XPW (re-)releases, Freefall, Baptized in Blood and Redemption, but I wouldn’t bother withthat crap. XPW are assholes, Rob Black is a mother fucking asshole, and that’s that.

 

 

 

 

Daddy of The Week: Actually, this might be one of the “so-bad-it’s-good” variety, but damned if I’m gonna pay twenty bucks to find out. If the name “Troma Studios” doesn’t mean anything to you, then let me just say this: Toxic Avenger, Surf Nazis Must Die, and (I think) Nympho Barbarian In Dinosaur Hell. Haven’t had enough? Okay, how about Def By Temptation; an all-black horror film, produced and directed by, and starring James Bond III. Yes, JAMES BOND THE THIRD. If that isn’t your daddy, boy, I don’t know who the hell is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(MULTI) REGION KILLER

 

 

 

 

Today could be a very, VERY dark day for DVD consumers.

 

 

 

 

Hot on the heels of similar proposals in territories like New Zealand, new legislation in the United Kingdom may make region-modding UK-bought DVD players a criminal offence.

 

 

 

 

Proposed reforms to the 1988 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act in order to implement the 2001 EU Copyright Directive are at the heart of the matter. The plans to tighten the broader laws on digital data reproduction will bring with them swinging fines and (potentially) prison sentences. Drafts are currently being prepared for consultation before the ’88 Act is amended a decision which will likely come before Parliament next year.

 

 

 

 

While exact details of the amendments are unclear, of particular interest is Article 6 of the EU Directive, whereby the circumvention of hardware or software protection is illegal. This is much in the same vein as the USA’s Digital Millenium Copyright Act that saw the incarceration of a research professor and the indictment of a 14 year-old boy (I’m sure everyone here is familiar with the stories).

 

 

 

 

Campaigners are hopeful that grassroots campaigns will incite change, thanks largely to the Home Secretary’s recent backtracking over plans to allow organisations to surreptitiously spy on emails. Further, analogies to a Microsoft-esque monopoly over media will no doubt help the cause, as will argumnts over fair use rights.

 

 

 

 

Currently, there isn’t an online petition to sign, but as soon as there is I’ll post it and I would ask you to help support your DVD brothers-in-arms by signing it. It’s one thing to stop renting discs from Blockbuster because they don’t support widescreen, but restricting consumer’s ability to import goods is a violation of free choice and free trade in every possible sense.

 

 

 

 

Click here to read the story at The Independent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WHAT ABOUT JAKE AND ELWOOD?

 

 

 

 

Oh wait, maybe it’s not that kind of band. And maybe the “brothers” part is kinda metaphorical too.

 

 

 

 

Anyway, top notch HBO miniseries Band of Brothers will finally hit our beloved format on November 5th Stateside, November 4th Region 2. No price has been announced for the R1 version, but you can pick up the R2 from Play.com for 70 quid (about US$110 at the current rate).

 

 

 

 

Play’s specs place the ratio at 16:9, but word is that the set will actually be 1.78:1 anamorphic. Audio-wise, expect DTS and 5.1, and the extras are currently shaping up well with the eighty-minute documentary ‘We Stand Alone Together’, Interactive Field Guides (character profiles) and ‘The Ron Levingston Video Diaries’, with more to be announced. Audio commentaries, at least for certain episodes, have long been rumoured and could quite possibly be part of the upcoming specs, so keep everything crossed. Just don’t hold out for much involving Spielberg himself, since he’s a miserable bastard who doesn’t do commentaries. Tosser.

 

 

 

 

Big props to the DVD Times for the info.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ED WOOD. WOULDN’T HE? APPARENTLY NOT

 

 

 

 

AAAAAAHHHH!

 

 

 

 

There’s nothing scarier than the monsters in Ed Wood’s films. Except for this bit of truly frightening news, that is.

 

 

 

 

Beuna Vista’s much anticipated Special Edition of the Tim Burton masterpiece previously scheduled for an August 13th release in Regions 1 and 2 has disappeared from the release schedule entirely. “Indefinitely postponed” I believe is BV’s official line.

 

 

 

 

Nobody really knows the whys and wherefores at the moment, with everything being bandied about from an upcoming Criterion release to a rights issue with one of the supplements. I heard one rumour waaaay back (which I really didn’t put much stock in) that they were planning on having branching footage from Ed’s original movies that play whenever a scene (such as the octopus fight) is recreated. Very cool, and unlikely, but who knows if the delay is for something like this, I’m happy to wait a little while.

 

 

 

 

The DVD Times are right on point, as usual.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE OS-FUCKING-BOURNES HIT DV-FUCKING-D. MAN.

 

 

 

 

Yes, the only TV family even more dysfunctional than the McMahons are coming to DVD. And that’s fucking official. Man.

 

 

 

 

Sharon’s keen “business-sense” was obviously in full effect, given the supremely fellating lip-service given to Harvey Weinstein (which he generously reciprocated), and Miramax will be the lucky fellows printing cash with the The Osbournes license.

 

 

 

 

The complete first season will be released on DVD this fall, with the second series following shortly thereafter (probably, like Fox’s release of 24, before the show runs in syndication). Just about nothing is known about the sets, other than the fact that they will include a shitload of never-before-seen footage (which was basically inevitable, given the nature of the show, but this has been confirmed by Weinstein anyway).

 

 

 

 

Speaking of The Osbournes, has anyone checked out that thing at MTV.co.uk? It looks like an Osbournes version of The Sims, which would be totally cool, but I’ve never actually got round to taking a look. Let me know if it’s worth five minutes.

 

 

 

 

Thanks to IGN for the lowdown.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heatstroke. Overwhelming. Body. Failing. Must. Finish. News. Report.

 

 

 

 

Bye. Bye.

 

 

Jay. Spree.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(* Guarantee of timeliness not guaranteed)

 

 

 

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