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| Travolta is the word! (Region 1) at 13.22 on 24/06/02 |
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Two John Travolta films have recently been announced on Region one DVD. First up is one of the most anticipated DVD releases : Grease. There have been rumours of this release for a few months, and now finally we can all enjoy it on DVD. There will be two releases of the movie. One in full frame and the other 2.35;1 anamorphic widescreen. Both versions will receive Dolby 5.1 and 2.0 soundtracks, new retrospective interviews with John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, Jeff Conaway, Didi Conn, director Randall Kleiser and producer Allan Carr, and also 2 trailers. Initial runs of this DVD will include a Grease Songbook. This will only be while stocks last.
Released a month later is 70's classic Saturday Night Fever. This special edition will contain the following extras:
New 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer of the R-rated original theatrical cut
English Dolby 5.1
Audio commentary with director John Badham
3 alternate scenes
Highlights from the VH-1 Behind the Music special
Trailer
Grease is released on 17th September and will retail for $24.95. Saturday Night Fever will retail for the same price, but is released on 8th October. |
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| 20th Century Fox September releases (Region 4) at 12.17 on 24/06/02 |
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In today was the 20th Century Fox release list for September 2002. With a stack of new releases around the corner fans of all genres will be covered. There's a couple of comedies, some sci-fi, adventure, animation and various box sets all to come from the guys at Fox in a couple of months. Get out your credit cards, because the pre-orders beckon.
First up is the Special Edition of Bandits, starring Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton and our own Cate Blanchett. This action comedy tells the tale of two jailbreakers who both fall for a sexy, eccentric housewife. Extras include featurettes, script-to-scene workshop, deleted scenes, an alternate ending and a cast and crew commentary. Brilliant!
Also hitting the shelves will be the new X-Files feature, Providence. This release uncovers new information in the mythology, including the kidnapping of Scully's baby! The disc will also contain two featurettes, one of which profiles mysterious Assistant Director Brad Follmer. Spooky!
Another huge release that is destined to become a home DVD hit is Shallow Hal, starring the hilarious Jack Black and the delectible Gwyneth Paltrow. Hal is hypnotised into seeing only the inner beauty of a woman. This leads to a major dilemma for the lead character, having to choose between phsyical beauty and the kindness inside. This flick has been sitting on rental shelves for a while now but hopefully this release will stack up well against the fully loaded Region 1 version. Only time will tell.
Speaking of rental titles, Waking Life makes its way into rental outlets and promises to live up to its critical acclaim. Described as "nothing short of amazing", this groundbreaking animated feature from the Director of Slackers and Dazed & Confused is a must see for any fans of pure imagination. Check it out.
And last but not least is the much anticipated release of the classic film Willow onto our favourite format. The Ron Howard directed, George Lucas produced fantasy flick has finally been given the treatment it deserves. Here's what to expect from the disc:
THX digitally remastered picture and sound
A new Dolby Digital 5.1 mix
Commentary with star Warwick Davis (Willow)
Special Effects featurette
Making Of An Adventure documentary
Trailers, TV spots and photo galleries
Join a pre-fame Val Kilmer, diminutive hero Warwick Davis and a host of other characters in this epic adventure.
All five of these Fox titles will street on September 13, 2002. And there's plenty more where that came from. Stay tuned for more release info. |
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Ok, so its not DVD but I am still here and the audiophiles among you may be interested. Following on from its T51 comes the adventurously titled T61. So what is it? In short its an AM/FM tuner, but that would be doing it a disservice as it has really good sound quality, you won't believe that FM actually can sound this good.
New on this model
Radio Data System access with RadioText
Greater sensitivity than any previous model
The ability to store 30 favourite stations on FM and 16 on AM
A signal strength meter to help aerial setup
Dimmable fluorescent display to match the rest of the Arcam DiVA range
Retailing at �249.90 it is one of the cheapest items in the range but if you use your speakers for more than just the cinema experience then it is certainly worth a look. |
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We are entering the time of the year when the some of the big budget movies get announced on Region 1 DVD. New Line Home Entertainment have led the way with the announcement of the Platinum Series release of Blade II. The movie stars Wesley Snipes in the role of the vampire hunter Blade, the half-vampire "day-walker" superhero who lives to kill the undead.
Here's what you can expect from this feature-packed DVD:
Disc 1
Commentary track with director Guillermo Del Toro and writer David Goyer
Commentary track with producer Peter Frankfurt and Wesley Snipes
Isolated score
16X9 Widescreen (1.85:1)
Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound � English
DTS surround sound - English
Stereo surround sound � English
English subtitles and closed captions
Disc 2
Production Workshop
Director's Notebook Interactive reproduction of director's notes with an intro by Del Toro
A Pact in Blood
Art gallery
Original theatrical press kit
Deleted/alternate scenes
Blade II video game survival guide
Music video
Theatrical trailers
As you can see this is a pretty impressive set of extras. Blade II is due for release on Region 1 on 3rd September and is likely to retail for $29.95.
For fans of the movie in Europe there is a rumoured Region 2 release due in September as well. As mentioned this is only a rumour and we will give you some more concrete information as, and when we get it. |
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| Region 4 Roundup (Region 4) at 19.18 on 21/06/02 |
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Ok dokey, just to complete my region 4 postings for the day, I'll round up a couple of the other big'ish announcements from the various distributors. No doubt I've missed a few out, please let me know...and I might pull my finger out and actually add it! Anyway, here goes:
Not Another Teen Movie
Yet another teen movie is upon us, with this one starring the likes of Chyler Leigh, Chris Evans, Jaime Pressly, Christian Olsen, Mia Kirshner and Deon Richmond. The DVD will include a widescreen presentation and a Dolby Digital 5.1 track. Extras wise you can expect commentarys with the director and cast members, 16 deleted scenes, a montage of cast auditions and four behind the scenes featurettes. The disc will be released on the 18th September.
Rollerball
If you haven't seen this one, then from what I hear you're a very lucky person indeed. If however you feel like some torture then you will be interested in this remake of Rollerball starring Chris Klein, LL Cool J and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos. You can expect this to be presented in anamorphic widescreen and to come with a Dolby Digital 5.1 track. Extras wise you get an audio commentary with the 3 cast members I have already mentioned and a ten-minute interactive featurette called Rollerball Yearbook. This wonderful film will be released on the 11th September.
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
This film didn't really take off in the UK, but it did reasonably well in the US. The film features Megan Cavanagh, Mark DeCarlo, Debi Derryberry, Jeffrey Garcia and the only one I've ever heard of...Patrick Stewart! The DVD will feature both full frame and widescreen versions of the film, as well as a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. Extras wise you can expect behind the scenes footage, 2 music videos, 12 promo spots, trailers and DVD-Rom games. You can look out for this in the shops from September 6th.
Well, that's less than I thought, but there's really not much around at the moment...region 4 wise at least. If you run across any tit bits of information though, please forward it on to me. Cheers dears. |
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| Medusa announce Will & Grace (Region 2) at 18.20 on 21/06/02 |
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Millions of people are currently enjoying the new series of Will & Grace on Channel 4.
If you missed the first series or simply want to see more of this ground-breaking comedy (as once a week is never enough), the entire Series 1 is available to buy on DVD (3 Volumes) from 22nd July 2002.
Starring Eric McCormack, Debra Messing, Megan Mullally and Sean Hayes, Will & Grace is the story of two very old friends, their unusual living arrangement and their assortment of bizarre friends, ex-boyfriends (in both cases), mothers, brothers, neighbours, IRS inspectors, a Philipino maid, a dog and a parrot called Guapo.
With special guest stars including Debbie Reynolds as Grace's mother, Miguel Ferrer as a ferocious New York publicist who gets the hots for Will and Molly Shanon as a newly divorced neighbour who tries to steal Will away from Grace, series 1 of Will & Grace follows the highs and lows, the laughter and the tears of their first year of co-habitation. |
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| Hearts In Atlantis (Region 4) at 18.19 on 21/06/02 |
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Village Roadshow has announced the full DVD specs for Hearts In Atlantis starring Anthony Hopkins, Anton Yelchin, Hope Davis, Mika Boorem, and one of my favourite actors..David Morse. Anyway, without wittering on too much, here's the full specs for the disc:
Anamorphic Widescreen Transfer
Dolby Digital 5.1 Track
Audio Commentary with Director Scott Hicks
"Remembering Hearts In Atlantis" Interview with Anthony Hopkins
Cast And Crew Details
Stills Gallery
Theatrical Trailer
English Subtitles
Not a hugely packed disc, but it should satisfy most fans of the film. You can expect Hearts In Atlantis to hit the Australian shops from the 10th July this year. The retail price for the disc should be somewhere around $39.95. |
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| Hong Kong Legends waves goodbye to VHS (Region 2) at 18.05 on 21/06/02 |
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The world-renowned Hong Kong Legends label, owned by Medusa, is giving the clearest indication of the surge to domination by the DVD format with the announcement that the label will cease releasing its titles on VHS from August onwards.
Though there is still a retail market for VHS, albeit a declining one, HKL believes the time is now right to jettison tape and release on disc only. The principal reason is quality: HKL has built its fantastic reputation and brand loyalty through painstaking restoration of film prints, digital audio remixing and the creation of highly desirable Special Features which make each of its releases an event for fans and collectors. The label feels that the VHS format cannot convey this quality adequately to the consumer and that true collectors are only interested in DVD.
Medusa Executive Director Steve Rivers explains: "As DVD takes over, the VHS format is increasingly becoming a vehicle solely for releasing new blockbuster titles and price discounting is cheapening the value of the product available on VHS. Premium labels such as HKL - investing hundreds of thousands of pounds in every release to ensure the finest quality possible for consumers - need to release our titles in the highest quality and most complete form possible in order to maintain the full price we must obtain. Only the DVD format does this".
First HKL DVD only release will be the wonderful sci-fi fantasy adventure THE AVENGING FIST on 27th August. This spectacular effects-laden Hong Kong blockbuster is, at $45 million, the biggest budget HK production ever. Unlike many Hollywood movies, much of that budget can be seen on-screen.
THE AVENGING FIST took Hong Kong by storm earlier in 2002. Starring HK movie legends Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao alongside current young HK idols Lee Hom-wong and Stephen Fung, this is a wild ride for all fans of arcade games like 'Virtual Fighter' and 'Tekken'. Directed by Andrew Lau (Stormriders) and with action choreographed by Corey Yuen-kwai (Kiss Of The Dragon, Romeo Must Die and The One) and with the HKL DVD packed with fabulous Special Features, this release proves that only DVD can properly carry Hong Kong Legends' releases to the consumer. |
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| American Ninja (Region 2) at 17.51 on 21/06/02 |
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Well Chris continues to delve into his shady past with his review of American Ninja starring Michael Dudikoff, Steve James, Judie Aronson, Guich Koock, John Fujioka and Don Stewart. Here's an extract from Chris' review:
'We get a large variety of discs to review here at DVDBlokes, everything from your big summer blockbusters to smaller independent films. Every so often a disc comes along that is so magnificent it has everyone fighting for the honour of being the one to review it. Unfortunately this time around I got lumbered with American Ninja...'
Pah, you send these guys (and girls!) free discs, and they throw it all back in your face! Truthully though, we did send Chris American Ninja because we hate him, but incase you are actually interested in this...urmm....quality film, you can read the review by clicking here. And yes....the football is still fresh in my mind :( |
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| Welcome Rick! (Region 1) at 15.00 on 21/06/02 |
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It would appear that our very rude staff members have failed to welcome our new staff member! Tut Tut, I'll be having words with you lot later ;) We're happy to welcome Richard Powell to our team of staff. Richard will be having his say with all the latest titles in the DVD world, and I'm sure we can blag him to update the eastereggs every now and again as well ;)
Well Richard has already been typing away at the keyboard, and as you may have noticed, he earlier reviewed the region 1 copy of Black Hawk Down starring Josh Hartnett, Eric Bana, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, Sam Shepard and Ewen Bremner. Here's an extract from Richard's review:
'Black Hawk Down is without a doubt, one of the finest war films made in the last decade, right up there with Saving Private Ryan. Ridley Scott is truly a master filmmaker; I can hardly await his 14th feature, nor can I wait for the second edition of this DVD to be released. Beautiful Audio and Video presentations make this disc worth purchasing now (it can be found at Best Buy for a mere $15.99), but a sloppy presentation overall makes me want for a Super Bit edition in more ways than just one.'
You can take a look at Richard's full review by clicking here.All that's left to say is welcome to the team Rich! |
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