New Release Tuesday
Written
on 13/5/08
This is a relative slow new release week. There’s nothing that sticks out as a must buy, more than not these are all rentals at best. But nonetheless let’s go through these and see what’s out today, May 13th.
Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection
These were previously only released through Best Buy, but now are collected from the two volumes at a decent price for everyone else. If you didn’t know about them or buy them from Best Buy over the last two Novembers, then I say grab it. You’ll be getting these films: “Tarantula”, “Mole People”, “The Incredible Shrinking Man”, “The Deadly Mantis”, “Monolith Monsters”, “Monster on Campus”, “Dr. Cyclops”, “Land Unknown”, “Leech Woman”, and “Cult of the Cobra”. A few of these are classics amongst ‘50s sci-fi cinema, but you wish Universal would’ve had at least a few of these with audio commentaries. This set is barebones.
Frontier(s)
After Dark Horror fest comes and goes each year, trying to give us horror fans some little independent gem. Mostly they are avoidable, but within each fest there’s usually one or two that are good. While the trailer didn’t impress me that much, early word is this is a scary, gut-wrenching French horror film in the vein of “Haute Tension”. The French recently have been known for their gritty, extreme horror and this looks to be another decent French horror film to seek out. No extras though.
The Great Debaters
Produced by Oprah herself and directed by Denzel, this film never got the award hype it thought it deserved. Apparently, its okay but not as good as the Oscar stuff from last season, so that is probably why it slips in the cracks. It sounds like a good film and did get generally favorable reviews, so it should be worth renting at least.
Indiana Jones Trilogy Special Edition
Purely to capitalize off of “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”, these repackaged films do sport some new extras, so it’s not like a cheap cash-in. But it comes down to if you held off the previously released edition that was a good set, with good transfers and extras. Are the extras here worth the upgrade? Or should you wait till their Blu Ray appearance? The price is right as you could also buy them separately too. I say keep your first set and wait for Blu.
Extras:
-new introductions by Lucas and Spielberg
Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, the Wardrobe
**DVD PICK OF THE WEEK**Disney has given this its first Blu Ray release in get set for this weekend’s “Prince Caspian”. Most of the extras have been ported over from the 2-disc set from a few years ago, but its 1080p and features a HD game for the youngsters exclusively for this BD version. Nonetheless, the picture and audio are worth the upgrade.
Timber Falls
I’ve heard of this for awhile and thought it was going to get a wider release. Right now in horror, who cares about theatrical releases, because the better ones come straight-to-DVD, like “Teeth”, “Behind the Mask”, “Fido”, and “Black Sheep”. Not to say that this will be good or not, but early reviews have been favorable. The plot seems a little to similar to any survival horror as in “Wolf Creek” or this week’s “Frontier(s)”. We’ll see and I say rent if bored.
Untraceable
Another internet/website killer, but it stars Diana Lane...eh...doesn’t matter because it’ll still follow the tried-and-true plot conventions and twists. It came out in January and I missed it, as did a lot of you, but should be worth at least one HBO viewing…late night. Otherwise, it’s just a highly glossy typical Hollywood version of the torture genre. Also on Blu Ray.
Youth without Youth
The final third of the film ruined most of the film’s interesting story in my opinion, but it’s still worth a look. Coppola is back and this time I think his daughter has rubbed off on him, since the film is a personal, private film for Francis. Tim Roth is really good about a man who ages backwards and has Nazis after him for that reason. Visually the film is amazing, but like I said the final third slows up and twists off from the characters main objective. Worth a look for the more curious, art-house people. Also on Blu Ray.
Other releases include some Criterion, like “Fire Within” and “Lovers”, both of which I have no idea about, but Criterion always make things like that worth a look. Frank Sinatra has three box sets of his films with “Early Years”, Golden Years”, and “…with Gene Kelly” all covering certain aspects of his career. Should be good. The “Rat Patrol”, Saturday Night Live” and “Drawn Together” all have new season sets out too for the TV front. New to Blu Ray are “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “Master and Commander: Far Side of the World” which should rock.
See you next week for New Tuesday Release with previews of a 40th Anniversary of “Night of the Living Dead”, Romero’s newest dead film, “Diary of the Dead”, new Criterion, new BD, and some new war movies special editions. See ya then!
Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection
These were previously only released through Best Buy, but now are collected from the two volumes at a decent price for everyone else. If you didn’t know about them or buy them from Best Buy over the last two Novembers, then I say grab it. You’ll be getting these films: “Tarantula”, “Mole People”, “The Incredible Shrinking Man”, “The Deadly Mantis”, “Monolith Monsters”, “Monster on Campus”, “Dr. Cyclops”, “Land Unknown”, “Leech Woman”, and “Cult of the Cobra”. A few of these are classics amongst ‘50s sci-fi cinema, but you wish Universal would’ve had at least a few of these with audio commentaries. This set is barebones.
Frontier(s)
After Dark Horror fest comes and goes each year, trying to give us horror fans some little independent gem. Mostly they are avoidable, but within each fest there’s usually one or two that are good. While the trailer didn’t impress me that much, early word is this is a scary, gut-wrenching French horror film in the vein of “Haute Tension”. The French recently have been known for their gritty, extreme horror and this looks to be another decent French horror film to seek out. No extras though.
The Great Debaters
Produced by Oprah herself and directed by Denzel, this film never got the award hype it thought it deserved. Apparently, its okay but not as good as the Oscar stuff from last season, so that is probably why it slips in the cracks. It sounds like a good film and did get generally favorable reviews, so it should be worth renting at least.
Indiana Jones Trilogy Special Edition
Purely to capitalize off of “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”, these repackaged films do sport some new extras, so it’s not like a cheap cash-in. But it comes down to if you held off the previously released edition that was a good set, with good transfers and extras. Are the extras here worth the upgrade? Or should you wait till their Blu Ray appearance? The price is right as you could also buy them separately too. I say keep your first set and wait for Blu.
Extras:
-new introductions by Lucas and Spielberg
Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, the Wardrobe
**DVD PICK OF THE WEEK**Disney has given this its first Blu Ray release in get set for this weekend’s “Prince Caspian”. Most of the extras have been ported over from the 2-disc set from a few years ago, but its 1080p and features a HD game for the youngsters exclusively for this BD version. Nonetheless, the picture and audio are worth the upgrade.
Timber Falls
I’ve heard of this for awhile and thought it was going to get a wider release. Right now in horror, who cares about theatrical releases, because the better ones come straight-to-DVD, like “Teeth”, “Behind the Mask”, “Fido”, and “Black Sheep”. Not to say that this will be good or not, but early reviews have been favorable. The plot seems a little to similar to any survival horror as in “Wolf Creek” or this week’s “Frontier(s)”. We’ll see and I say rent if bored.
Untraceable
Another internet/website killer, but it stars Diana Lane...eh...doesn’t matter because it’ll still follow the tried-and-true plot conventions and twists. It came out in January and I missed it, as did a lot of you, but should be worth at least one HBO viewing…late night. Otherwise, it’s just a highly glossy typical Hollywood version of the torture genre. Also on Blu Ray.
Youth without Youth
The final third of the film ruined most of the film’s interesting story in my opinion, but it’s still worth a look. Coppola is back and this time I think his daughter has rubbed off on him, since the film is a personal, private film for Francis. Tim Roth is really good about a man who ages backwards and has Nazis after him for that reason. Visually the film is amazing, but like I said the final third slows up and twists off from the characters main objective. Worth a look for the more curious, art-house people. Also on Blu Ray.
Other releases include some Criterion, like “Fire Within” and “Lovers”, both of which I have no idea about, but Criterion always make things like that worth a look. Frank Sinatra has three box sets of his films with “Early Years”, Golden Years”, and “…with Gene Kelly” all covering certain aspects of his career. Should be good. The “Rat Patrol”, Saturday Night Live” and “Drawn Together” all have new season sets out too for the TV front. New to Blu Ray are “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “Master and Commander: Far Side of the World” which should rock.
See you next week for New Tuesday Release with previews of a 40th Anniversary of “Night of the Living Dead”, Romero’s newest dead film, “Diary of the Dead”, new Criterion, new BD, and some new war movies special editions. See ya then!
