|
Posted on 11.04.08 by Widge @ 2:16 am
Comments on this: 3 so far. Add your own.  That's right, friends. Rather than deal with the divisive nature of American politics--and how lots of people will feel like they've won today, lots of other people will feel like they've lost, and most everybody on either side will, in fact, lose no matter what happens--let's take a moment and find something positive to say about Election Tuesday. Um. Er. Ah... FREE COFFEE AND ICE CREAM! YES, THAT's IT! Starbucks is giving away free coffee to anybody who asks for it--since they can't give it to you for voting because it's a conspiracy against the caffeinated voting contingent in this country. And Ben and Jerry's is giving away free scoops from 5pm to 8pm. We have to hold onto the simple good things for as long as we can. Especially if they'll melt if we don't eat them fast enough. Categorized as: Headsup
|
|
Posted on 10.26.08 by Widge @ 11:51 pm
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own. There's a lot of stuff coming out each week. We know. We get a lot of it here. And these people want you to buy their stuff. Should you? I'll try and help you out.   Alongside the fifth season of the series, Universal has put out the complete series--all eighty-two episodes across twenty discs. The good news is that the box is actually pretty cool: the cover has HULK on it in bubbled-up text where left to right you see Banner turning into the Hulk. And it's wide enough so that you can fit two stacks of slimline cases in it. The bad news is that once you open the box you see they've done nothing but put two stacks of slimline cases in it. In fact, it's just the same discs from the five season boxed sets. So there's no bonus discs or anything new under the sun. Or the box lid, as it were. In fact, for example, it's a bit weird to have a bonus bit from the first season discs--like a bonus episode from the second season. Especially since we've got the episode already on the second season discs. You do get some commentaries from Kenneth Johnson, series creator. There's a retrospective featurette and more. The major benefit to this set is that if you haven't already bought the individual season sets then this is not a bad deal. As I write this, all five sets if you bought them individually are about $146.95, whereas this set is currently $111.99. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.) Categorized as: Headsup
|
|
Posted on 10.22.08 by Widge @ 5:04 am
Comments on this: 2 so far. Add your own. The entertainment industry is shoveling stuff at your head at an alarming rate. Should you buy? Should you rent? Should you flee? This is my attempt to assist.
Okay, so the fourth Indiana Jones film has hit both DVD and Blu-Ray. And let's put aside our thoughts about the film itself for a moment. If you liked it, then you liked it and more power to you. I wish I could count myself among you, but I can't. But regardless, that sort of sets you up as to whether or not you're going to want to drop coin on these. More on that in a moment. First, I'll say that the DVD is fairly well stacked for a first pass at this DVD release. You've got The Return of a Legend featurette, which takes you through the creation of the film so you can see what drove them to go back to the well and then the pre-production featurette which shows the prep work before the madness started. Then there's the feature-length making-of docu, that goes through the actual shooting. In addition to this, there's separate featurettes that cover props, post-production, the skulls themselves--six in all. Then there's three pre-viz sequences provided as well as galleries. The Blu-Ray flavor has all of this, the vast majority of it in hi-def, plus an "Indiana Jones Timelines" feature that covers the story, the production and history aspects which is only on the Blu-Ray. Categorized as: Headsup
|
|
Posted on 10.20.08 by Widge @ 11:32 pm
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.
Well, I've mentioned that Bond is the last film you have to worry about, at least box office-wise, between now and the end of the year. In fact, I think we'll be so goddamn ready for a serious hero that the present condition of the world might make Quantum of Solace go apeshit as far as ticket sales go. So we've got a new Bond movie coming out, the second chapter of a successful relaunch of the dead franchise--it only makes sense that MGM would try to capitalize on this. And give them credit: they've done it by throwing six pre-Craig Bond (hereafter known as PCB) flicks onto Blu-Ray. I say "throwing" just because you're pretty much looking at the previous Ultimate Collection releases ported to the Blu-Ray format. But that's necessarily a bad thing. The Ultimate Collections were nothing to sneeze at. And while we see a lot of releases these days that might make you wonder whether or not they really need the hi-def treatment--just to pick the first one that springs to mind...Drillbit Taylor?--Bond is an action franchise with explodo to spare. So even the weaker installments of PCB at least look and sound a helluva lot better. Categorized as: Headsup
|
|
Posted on 10.17.08 by Widge @ 5:45 pm
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own. An ongoing attempt to help you sort through the mountains of new material that people want you to buy. Should you? I'll try and help sort this out.
The Ultimate Matrix Collection takes everything that you would want out of a Matrix set--which is basically everything that you had in previous collections--and smacks it into a Blu-Ray set. Mostly. The three films plus Animatrix are all provided in Blu-Ray and look about like what you would expect these films to like on hi-def: which is to say, awesome. Granted, there is not enough awesome in the world to fix the third film. But I'll try to keep from harping on that as we move forward. Each film comes with an "in-movie experience" that pops up with extra bits while you're watching. This is good if you're not wanting to wade through all thirty-five hours of bonus bits. Each film also comes with a commentary track with critics as well as a separate one with philosophers, with the cast and crew giving a commentary on the first film. Each film also comes with a positively ludicrous amount of behind the scenes bits, some focusing on particular scenes, like the Freeway Sequence or the Upside Down Fight Sequence. There's also two bonus discs comprising the "Matrix Experience" as well as a bonus disc that has the digital copy of the first film--if you're into such things. So not counting the digital copy, it's a six-disc set, of which four are Blu-Ray and the "Experience" discs are vanilla flavored. So should you buy it? Well, it is one of those films that just screams for hi-def, since it is, warts and all, visually stunning. So there is that. And if you wanted, say, just the first film in Blu-Ray form--you're stuck with getting it this route. There are no plans from Warner Brothers to release the films separately at this time as I understand it. It's $74.95 on Amazon as I write this, so you'll have to ultimately decide about the price point. But the set is formidable and fans of the series might want to seriously consider it. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.) Categorized as: Headsup
|
|
|
