My Two Cents
Thursday, 05 September 2013 13:52

BD reviews, plus Clear History, Gatchaman, Mary Hartman, Intolerance, Abyss follow-up & more!

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Afternoon, folks!  We’ve got still more Blu-ray reviews for you today...

First up, our own Dr. Adam Jahnke has checked in with his thoughts on Warner Archive’s new BD release of Sidney Lumet’s Deathtrap from 1982.  Do check it out.

Also, Tim Salmons has given Disney’s The Great Mouse Detective: Mystery in the Mist Edition a look for you on Blu-ray Disc.  Sounds like it’s far and away better than their recent Sword in the Stone BD, so thank goodness for that.

And we’ve added 8 more classic Blu-ray Disc reviews from The Original Bits website into our new review database here, including Universal’s Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Series and Battlestar Galactica: The Plan, MPI’s Baraka, Blue Underground’s The Final Countdown, Warner’s King Kong (1933), A&E/New Video’s The World at War, Vivendi’s Monty Python: Almost the Truth – The Lawyer’s Cut and the original Bandai Visual release of Katsuhiro Otomo’s landmark anime Akira.  Enjoy!

Now then, let’s get to today’s release news... [Read on here...]

Amazon.com has listed Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim for Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray and DVD release on 10/15, and is taking pre-orders, however note that Warner still hasn’t confirmed this street date.  So expect that it could change.

Lionsgate will release Girl Most Likely on Blu-ray and DVD on 11/5.

By the way, many of you have asked about Lionsgate’s promised but never released Farscape: Peacekeeper Wars Blu-ray.  It was a title they said they were working on a couple years back, but then we never saw it.  I think I now know why: I had the chance to see the only version that did get released in HD – the German Blu-ray.  It’s absolutely riddled with Digital Noise Reduction.  Seriously, it’s worse even than Fox’s infamous Predator or Patton discs.  Much worse.  If that’s the master Lionsgate had access to, they’d have gotten crucified by BD fans if they’d released it.  Hopefully, there’s a re-master from original elements planned.  One can only hope.

Moving on, HBO has set Larry David’s Clear History for release on Blu-ray and DVD on 11/5.  HBO will also release Treme: The Complete Third Season on both formats on 11/19.

Millennium Entertainment has set Parkland for Blu-ray and DVD release on 11/5.

Meanwhile, Koch Entertainment has set D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance for Blu-ray release on 11/5, along with The Attack (2012) and Passion (2012).  A Vivian Leigh Anniversary Collection will follow on Blu-ray on 11/19, though no details are yet available about what it might include.

For you anime fans, Section 23 will release a Gatchaman: Complete Collection on Blu-ray on 10/29 (SRP $149.92), including all 105 classic episodes and the OVAs too on 14 BD discs.

Here’s something fascinating:  Shout! Factory has just announced a 38-disc DVD box set release of TV’s classic twisted soap series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman for release on 12/3!  SRP for the complete series is $249.95.  Extras will include essays by series developer Normal Lear, 2 documentary featurettes and 10 spin-off episodes of Fernwood 2 Night.  Probably a very limited audience for the title, but I’m sure glad to see Shout! going after these classic shows.  Now if only they’d consider Baa Baa Black Sheep and Seaquest DSV

For you Kenny Rogers fans, Shout! Factory will release The Gambler on Blu-ray/DVD Combo on 11/5.

Also today, Scream Factory has just revealed that they’re planning to release 1988’s Bad Dreams (starring Nightmare on Elm Street 3’s Jennifer Rubin) and 1982’s Visiting Hours (starring Scanners’ Michael Ironside and William Shatner) on Blu-ray early next year as a double feature.  The films were released as a DVD double feature by Scream in 2011 and all those extras will carry over.  And apparently, new extras for Visiting Hours are also in the works.  Watch for more in the weeks and months ahead.

Anchor Bay Films has set Leland Orser’s debut film Morning for DVD only release on 10/1.

And finally, some of you may have noticed that for a very brief time yesterday a piece of alleged “marketing artwork” appeared on Amazon.com promoting an official Blu-ray release of James Cameron’s The Abyss: Extended Collector’s Edition.  It listed a street date of 3/14/2014.  Now... we do have good information (see this Rumor Mill post from May) that 20th Century Fox is working toward releasing both Cameron’s The Abyss and True Lies on Blu-ray sometime next year, as both films celebrate major anniversaries in 2014 (it’s Abyss’ 25th anniversary and True Lies’ 20th).  But I checked with a senior source at Fox yesterday and they told me in no uncertain terms that this Amazon artwork wasn’t created by them (thus we’re not going to post it here).  It’s totally fan-produced and bogus.  That said, with any luck both films should finally arrive on Blu-ray sometime before the end of 2014 – you can bet we’ll post any official information as soon as we have it.

We’ll leave you today with a look at the Blu-ray Disc cover artwork for Summit Entertainment’s Red 2 (due 11/26), Image’s My Name Is Nobody: 40th Anniversary Edition (11/5) and Lionsgate’s City of God/City of Men (9/24), as well as both final versions of Universal’s R.I.P.D. (10/29) and Section 23’s Gatchaman: Complete Collection

Red 2 (Blu-ray Disc)    My Name Is Nobody: 40th Anniversary Edition (Blu-ray Disc)    City of God/City of Men (Blu-ray Disc)

R.I.P.D. 3D (Blu-ray 3D)    R.I.P.D. (Blu-ray Disc)    Gatachaman: Complete Collection (Blu-ray Disc)

Stay tuned!

- Bill Hunt

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