filmlover

At highdefdigest.com, there is a thread under the Blu section about Amazon price adjustments. There are usually several price changes every day, and very rarely make any sense at all. I've seem them go down several dollars one day and up several more the next. Sales that end I can understand price increases, but up and down on a daily basis like a rollercoaster is unfathomable.

And the hits just keep coming! *Becket* is coming on Blu from MPI November 25th. Extras include: Commentary with Peter O'Toole Interviews with Editor Anne V. Coates and Composer Laurence Rosenthal Archival Interviews with Richard Burton Still Gallery TV Spot Trailer

frank, that must be a mistake on Amazon's part but now is the time to go in and pre-order it then. I believe Amazon has to stick by the price you paid unless it goes down. I just preordered it. Thanks! P.S. -- I have been thinking that somehow I have a feeling that the $59.98 price must be a mistake somewhere. I know it has a lot of goodies inside, but $60 is a lot for a 2-disc movie. I have a feeling it should be street priced closer to $39.95. Iguess we will have to wait and see what happens.

I would say that special effects, as a whole, are better today, of course. One only need compare something done well with a computer to that of even someone driving in front of a matte screen in old movies. However, I miss things that were NOT special effects i nthe past but are today. I'm referring to crowd scenes, like in those Roman epics, where they would have thousands of living human beings. Today, it is only a handful of people and master copied into a computer. I also think it is harder for an actor today to really feel it when he is acting entirely in front of a blue screen.

Blu-ray.com has revealed what will be in the *7th Voyage of Sinbad* Blu-ray and standard DVD upcoming release and are below (I've already listed in a post a few down what is in the *It Came from Beneath the Sea, Earth vs. Flying Saucers* and the already released *20 Million Miles to Earth* ): Audio Commentary with Ray Harryhausen, visual effects experts Phil Tippett and Randall William Cook, author Steven Smith and producer Arnold Kunert Featurette: Remembering The 7th Voyage of Sinbad Featurette: The Harryhausen Legacy Featurette: The Music of Bernard Herrmann Music Video: Sinbad May Have Been Bad, But He's Been Good To Me Photo Gallery Featurette: A Look Behind the Voyage (includes interview footage) Featurette: This is Dynamation (Special Effects) Featurette: Ray Harryhausen Interview by Director John Landis http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=1587

Just a reminder that the deepdiscount.com Criterion Buy One Get One sale ends tonight at midnight Central time.

Great news, *Taxi Driver* and *Dr. Strangelove* are coming to Blu-ray high definition: In an early announcement to retailers, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has revealed that they will bring Stanley Kubrick classic 'Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb' to Blu-ray on December 9th. Also revealed, the studio plans to bring the Robert De Niro classic 'Taxi Driver' on February 3rd, 2009. http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=1583

Here's the cover for Quo Vadis (a bit dark, but it shows Taylor riding his chariot):

It basically means that titles that have been around for awhile on Blu (probably a year or two).

marcco, I held off mentioning An American in Paris and Gigi from my spending list because they are to be on BR next year. edgecliff, Forgot to include the Busby Berkeley vol. 2 (due Sept. 16th) to my list. Thanks. P.S. Just noticed that BB v.2 is in my Gold Box specials today, so pre-ordered it for $24.60. Good price.

film fatale, Thanks for the additional info. Just now saw a different link to the 7th Voyage title and that they say it will also be in Blu. http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=68395 With regards to the gift set, I was fascinated by the shot of the back of the box in the link you provided but couldn't make out the extras listed. From what I can tell from another site, these are the extras for each title: _Earth vs. the Flying Saucers_ b&w and colorized versions of movie Commentary by Ray Harryhausen, visual effects artists Jeffrey Okun and Ken Ralston, and Arnold Kunert "Remembering Earth vs. the Flying Saucers" "The Hollywood Blacklist and Bernard Gordon" "Tim Burton Sits Down with Ray Harryhausen" Interview with Joan Taylor A Present-Day Look at Stop-Motion David Schecter on Film Music's Unsung Hero Digital Sneak Peek of "Flying Saucers vs. the Earth" comic book Original screenplay credits Video photo galleries Original ad artwork The Colorization Process _It Came from Beneath the Sea_ b&w and colorized versions of the movie Audio commentary with Ray Harryhausen, visual effects artists Randall William Cook and John Bruno, and Arnold Kunert "Remembering It Came from beneath the Sea" "Tim Burton Sits down with Ray Harryhausen" "David Schecter on Film Music's Unsung Hero" "A Present-Day Look at Stop-Motion" Digital sneak-peak of "It Came from Beneath the Sea" comic book Video photo galleries Original ad artwork _20 Million Miles to Earth_ b&w and colorized versions of the movie Audio commentary by Ray Harryhausen, visual effects artists Dennis Muren and Phil Tippett, and producer Arnold Kunert Remembering 20 Million Miles to Earth Tim Burton Sits Down with Ray Harryhausen The Joan Taylor Interview A video discussion of 20 Million Miles to Earth's 1957 marketing and advertising campaign by producer Arnold Kunert Mischa Bakaleinikoff: Film Music's Unsung Hero Colorization featurette Still and production art gallery

While looking through Amazon tonight, I noticed that the Amazon price for the upcoming release of the complete Man from UNCLE series is a lot cheaper than the Time-Life price. Time-Life wants $249. Amazon has a pre-order price of $139.99 (down from street $199.99). I decided to put a pre-order in for it. What the heck, that's 41 DVDs (so less than $4 each). http://www.amazon.com/Man-U-N-C-L-E-Complete-Robert-Vaughn/dp/B00005JM5Z/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1217139854&sr=8-1

I was making a list and I see that Aug, 26th-Oct.21 (especially Oct. 21) is going to be expensive for me: Aug. 26: The Adventures of Robin Hood (Blu) What Happens in Vegas (Blu) Nightmare Before Christmas (Blu) Three Stooges Collection vol. 3 Warner Home Video Western Classic Collection Errol Flynn Westerns Collection Sept. 2: Moontide Road House Honey West: The Complete Series Sept. 9: Kill Bill vol. 1 (Blu) Kill Bill vol. 2 (Blu) How the West Was Won (Blu) Fox Horror Classics vol. 2 Sept. 16: Charlie Chan vol. 5 Beetlejuice (Blu) Sept. 23: Popeye vol. 3 Godfather Collection (Blu) L.A. Confidential (Blu) Sept. 23: Iron Man (Blu) My Best Friend's Wedding (Blu) Oct. 7: Sleeping Beauty (Blu) Touch of Evil Alice Faye Collection vol. 2 Young Frankenstein (Blu) Oct. 14: Romancing the Stone (Blu) Jewel on the Nile (Blu) Ultimate Matrix (Blu) Oct. 21: Sweeney Todd (Blu) Ghostbusters (Blu) Dr. No (Blu) From Russia With Love (Blu) Thunderball (Blu) Live and Let Die (Blu) For Your Eyes Only (Blu) Die Another Day (Blu) Man from UNCLE Complete Series Some of the things I will probably have to wait until the next deepdiscount special sale.

Here's the one for Stage Door Canteen:

Looking through some of the magazines I picked up at the SD Comic Con, I came across a piece that says that Adam West is doing some commentary or such on a DVD release of the complete Batman TV series. So it looks like it will finally be coming out. Considering it is already summer, I would expect we'll see this in 2009. I wonder if they will do the Green Hornet TV series in 2010 to tie in to the GH movie?

Hi, Donna, We have right to fear about The Green Hornet. I saw a banner yesterday that said Seth Rogen (Superbad, Knocked Up) is set to play Reid/the Hornet. It is supposed to be released around 2010 or 2012, something like that. I think George Clooney would have been perfect for the film. Yes, they did mention at the convention that the public gets to vote on the Real Ghostbusters box. I'm not interested in it at all. I noticed the Untouchables music for The Spirit trailer, too. Obviously a fill-in and very distracting to those of us who know it. As to the trailer, I knew it was in trouble from the opening shot looking through the skylight and having him walk across in his underwear, instead of the suit, domino mask and hat. I love Sin City and 300 was pretty good, so I know what Frank Miller is capable of, but the Spirit has always been a character that had his tongue planted firmly in cheek.

I agree about Drew C. I'd be happy without him ever again on a DVD.

Well, I am back from the San Diego Comic Con which got started today and attended a panel about DVDs and Blu-rays. Not much was announced that we don't already know. No new classic DVD/BD release info were brought forward at the time. Just "working on very special projects" they couldn't divulge at this time. One person who was on the panel said he is involved in the work on the Quo Vadis new release and said it looks amazing. He was involved in the new Touch of Evil release but doesn't know if it will go to Blu. I believe he was also the one on the panel who said that the upcoming release of How the West Was Won will stun us, especially at the removal of the lines of the three-screen approach. Another member said he saw it and it was incredible. The Godfather films were mentioned and they are going to be great. Rambo is going to get another release. Yes, it just came out on Blu, but the new one (DVD and Blu?) is going to be longer. Though not classic related, one person there said he has been hard at work on "The Real Ghostbusters" complete cartoon collection and that it will be on 25 DVDs and available only through Time-Life. It was also revealed that Warner Bros. is going to do a "History of Gangster Movies" for a TV airing. There will also be another Gangsters set from WB (no titles mentioned). In a separate piece of news from the panel, there was a brief mention that there will be a special documentary on Mel Blanc, but no date or details revealed. "The Wolf Man" is going to get a special edition in 2009 (not sure if it is in both formats or just DVD or just Blu). An interesting piece of info was revealed about why some DVD and Blu-ray cover art looks so bad that one thinks they were created by someone's Photo Shop software. The person on the panel said that when creating these things, the studios know the people who love the film are going to buy it no matter what it looks like, but they design the cover art to catch the eye of people in places like Best Buy who may not know anything about the film. There was good news in the convention booklet in the form of a color flyer from Sony, especially if you like the 50s Ray Harryhausen films as much I do. There will be a 50th anniversary standard DVD release of "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" in October, with an all-new interview with Harryhausen. It looks like it will only be on standard DVD at this time. However, there will be a three-movie standard DVD set and a Blu-ray set coming out the same month featuring It Came from Beneath the Sea, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, and the previosly released 20 Million Miles to Earth. The movies will be in b&w and colorized. The standard DVD set seems to have an exclusive creature figure from 20 Million Miles to Earth. As I mentioned a few days ago, Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters 2 will be getting the Blu-ray treatment. There is also going to be a special standard DVD gift set of the two films, and it will contain a Stay Puft Marshmallowman figurine, trading cards, and green slime. These will not be part of the Blu set. I tried asking questions in the dealers room at various studio setups about upcoming releases, but the employees there were basically hired for the show and knew nothing. Much of the excited buzz at the convention was about two new movies coming out based on comic classics. The one with the most following is The Watchmen, based on the 12-part mini-series created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. I've seen the trailer and it looks good but it could also be a big flop because it has beeen considered a project that was just plain unfilmable. The other film is The Spirit, based on the classic 1940s comic series created by Will Eisner. Again, I have seen the trailer from this but I am disappointed. They've made it look slick (kind of like Sin City) but it is missing the best part of the comic series...fun.

I was looking for something on my bookshelf tongiht and came across a bunch of my film and theatre souvenir programs. I thought it might be worth sharing scans of sll the pages of one of them, "Knights of the Round Table. (Please note: these pages have been reduced about 40%. Also, the program is just a little bigger than my scanner, so the edges will be missing about 1/2 an inch.) I will soon post the souvenir programs for "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and "Stage Door Canteen." If anybody else has a classic souvenir program, please scan it and post it in this thread.

High def. And you can definitely see it is on the Blu version. Here's a link to a review in which they say the Blu version..."includes a gorgeous 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer that trounces the original broadcast, puts the standard DVD to shame, and finally presents the show the way it was meant to be seen." The Blu version has all of the extras on the standard DVD version. However, three of the featurettes are in HD: "Establishing Mad Men" (62 min.), "Advertising the American Dream" (20 min.), and "Scoring Mad Men" (8 min.). Plus "Pictures of Elegance" is in HD. Just a side note, a 35mm movie can look better on high def than standard because it is up to six times the resolution of a standard DVD.

*"Ghostbusters"* and *"Ghostbusters 2"* headed to Blu-ray October 21, according to people at the San Diego Comic Con seeing it at a Sony Blu-ray booth. (P.S. -- I will be there tomorrow and will pick up as much new studio DVD and Blu info as I can. Will report back on it on Thursday night or Friday morning.) http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Sony/Disc_Announcements/Sony_Previews_Ghostbusters_Blu-ray_Plans_at_Comic-Con/1931

I have the Blu-ray high def edition of Mad Men and, unfortunately, they just did a regular Blu case for it. It was only the standard DVD set that got the lighter shape. I don't know why the studios are ignoring Blu in special packaging that they do for standard DVD but maybe they have seen the comments of some Blu fans who are almost fanatical about not buying anything that is not the same height as their other Blu-rays on their shelves. (I mean it. They really get p.o.'d.) I love that Lionsgate produced commentaries for every episode.

film fatale: "No, they do not own the rights to any Paramount film from the 40's." ff, you probably meant to say "every" not "any", since Universal controls much of Paramount's classic library.

hawkeye, WB won't be putting "Remember the Night" on any set. It's a Paramount film.

I am never sure how they pick tites for the boxes. Many times I can't figure the reasoning. I would have prefered more of her older titles in the set, but you may be right in that they have selected those for Forbidden Hollywood. I don't mind Annie Oakley at all. I just want more older ones. It could also be they are trying to showcase her entire career which ran for decades and so did titles from each time period.