I'm going to give this new format a spin and do one longform capsule review column each week highlighting DVD/Blu-ray/VOD/streaming releases and do individual pieces on titles as time and merit permit. I'll be breaking things down by category as well. Also, just because something comes out, I'm not necessarily going to include it if I don't feel compelled to. Without further ado...
Release of Week
The Seventh Seal: The Criterion Collection
Criterion's update to one of their first releases is pretty comprehensive. They've kept the existing features, added a new (better) subtitle translation, and of course re-transferred the video and audio for Blu-ray. There's a new intro from the director recorded in 2003, and a new afterword by Peter Cowie (Criterion's go-to Bergman guy), who did the original commentary. Also new are an archival audio interview with Max von Sydow and a 1998 tribute piece done by Woody Allen. Available here and as a separate DVD release (detailed further down) are 83-minute doc Bergman Island and career retrospective Bergman 101. The original release is one of the first Criterion discs I bought, and I fully intend to upgrade at full cost to myself on this one.
New Releases (DVD & Blu-ray)
Friday the 13th
I didn't expect to enjoy the remake of a series I never really paid attention to in the first place. It's got a couple good lines and is much less intent on doing the kind of torture porn work that's dominated horror for a number of years now. It took IMdB's help to place Danielle Panabaker as the girl from Sky High. The thing they did most effectively was keep me guessing as to when the first act was over and who was actually the lead of the movie. The true staying power of the series will be dependent upon how good a job they do on the sequel they're trying to get going as we speak. Extras include a couple featurettes, one of which is about how they reimagined Jason (The Rebirth of Jason Voorhees [11:24]), and the other is more of cast and crew members talking about their relationship with the original franchise (Hacking Back/Slashing Forward [11:41]. Also included are some Alternate and Additional Scenes [8:19] that includes an alt. version of Jason getting "the mask" (glad they ditched it). The 7 Best Kills briefly run down the behind the scenes of 7 of the deaths in the movie. There's also a Picture-in-Picture Trivia Track that plays during the movie should you choose. It includes behind the scenes footage, text trivia, and interview snippets. The extra that interested me the most was a look at 9 minutes of Trick R Treat, which I saw nearly two years ago at Butt Numb A Thon. The big pain in the ass is that it's only accessible via BD-Live. Internet-connected players are only really common among PlayStation3 owners, and not just putting it on the disc means barely anyone will really see it. I'm saying this as a big supporter of Trick R Treat, one of the best horror movies I've seen in a long time. A Digital Copy of the "Killer Cut" version of this movie is also included.
Morning Light
Roy Disney put together a team of novice sailors to compete in the annual Transpac sailing race. Patrick Warburton narrates the first bit, which is a horrible tease, because it's the last you hear from him. The two featurettes, Stories from the Sea [28:32] and Morning Light: Making the Cut [41:52] should actually be viewed before watching the feature. I actually found the latter pretty watchable, the former not as much. The Making the Cut thing you almost have to see before the movie so you don't confuse all the shaggy-haired anglo guys that make up the vast, vast majority of the cast. There are a couple girls, one black guy, a Hawaiian guy, an Australian, and around 20 easy-to-mix-up white guys. The movie plays out like a reality series without the hours of padding to make it seem longer. It also lacks commercials, which is great if you like reality TV. Even though I'm interested in sailing, this one wasn't really for me. Still, it was much better than the hours of reality TV I've allowed myself to get sucked into over the years. Worth seeing on a big beautiful HDTV on a lazy afternoon.
Catalog New to Blu-ray
The Diary of Anne Frank: 50th Anniversary Edition
One of the cleanest, most fulfilling releases of the week is the movie that started the term "Holocaust Oscar Bait." A great deal of the acting may come off as overly theatrical to modern audiences, but the movie is still better than the majority of overwrought Holocaust dramas that followed it. Previously part of the Fox Studio Classics line of cost-reduced but feature-rich DVDs, they've kept all the previous extras and added about an hour and a half of new stuff. Carried over are a Feature Commentary with George Stevens Jr. and Millie Perkins (the director's son and the movie's star), feature-length doc Echoes from the Past [1:30:07], an excerpt from George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey, Millie Perkins' Screen Test, Fox Movietone Clips, Trailers, and Galleries. Totaling just under an hour and a half is a series of seven all-new featurettes (in HD), which can be gone through all at once via Play All functionality. One additional featurette beyond those I have to ask people skip. Under no circumstances should anyone subject oneself to Fox Movie Channel Presents Fox Legacy with Tom Rothman. I've never been on the Rothman hate bandwagon until now. His flubbed TelePrompTer lines and lack of enthusiasm are only the beginning of it. I've never pined more for Robert Osborne from Turner Classic Movies to save me. In fact, Osborne is mentioned in one of the featurettes. Over three hours of extras are on here, so there's plenty to watch. A great disc, just avoid Rothman. Beautiful monochromatic high-def for sure. This is the clearest I've ever heard Alfred Newman's score, too.
Miracle & The Greatest Game Ever Played
If you still have the DVDs for either of these, get rid of them now before they have no resale value. The rapid motion and CG work in parts of both movies reflect a major jump in image quality over upconverting the existing discs. There's much less blur and visible CG seams than before. The Greatest Game Ever Played is unfortunately not as widely-seen as Miracle, which many now consider the best movie about hockey we'll see for some time to come. Bill Paxton got some great work out of Shia LeBeouf and a cast full of grade-A character actors. Likewise, the actors are so naturalistic in Miracle that you assume they're all just hockey jocks pulled off the street. Both very well done, formulaic and predictable. Those last two adjectives aren't necessarily pejoratives when preceded by the former. Both discs have Feature Commentary tracks and a pile of featurettes and outtakes and so on.
Dr. Strangelove: 45th Anniversary Edition
I love this movie, it's one of my very favorites. I'm positive it'll be re-released in 5 years because a 50th Anniversary label is irresistible to anyone in marketing anywhere. No offense to Sony, but I won't buy this again until it's on Blu-ray in 1.33:1 Academy ratio. I refuse to concede Kubrick posthumously, from beyond the grave, decided to ok this 1.66:1 ratio that's carried over from the most recent DVD. I'm perfectly fine with my 1.33:1 DVD from years ago. There's a grain issue that Jeff has raised, which I won't jump on one way or another since I haven't examined it for myself on my own setup. Again, this disc does not exist for me until it's square again. There's no excuse to give in to reverse pan-and-scan. I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything here, sorry.
Ghostbusters
People are crying foul over grain issues on this release, citing it as near-unwatchable. Again, I haven't had a chance to look at it myself, but I will say the stock this was shot on originally was never going to look like Zodiac. The fact this and Strangelove are both Sony releases does make me more suspicious. It could really be absolutely no big deal and a whole bunch of people wanting it to have retroactively been a much cleaner, prettier movie when it was shot. More and more rumors float around about studios intentionally throwing substandard transfers on stores shelves, and it really isn't outside the realm of believability. I probably wait until it's randomly on special for $10 and pick it up no matter how muddy it is. If it's as bad as reputed, I might skip it altogether as well.
Friday the 13th: Part II & Friday the 13th: Part III 3-D
These movies look better than they ever have for many people my age who only ever saw them on bootleg tapes recorded off HBO or "backed up" from rental VHS tapes. The featurettes are in HD as well, which is great. Part III comes with two pairs of anaglyph 3-D glasses. After seeing these movies for the first time, I'm even more convinced a remake was no form of sacrilege what so ever. The movies themselves look and sound great, and I'd consider these definitive home video versions of both. I'm not certain what else the could add that would really would justify a re-dip other than commentary tracks, but the featurettes on these discs and the 4-6 DVDs cover a lot of trivia. When it comes to catalog horror, these are rock-solid high-def upgrades.
New to DVD
Bergman Island
An 83-minute condensation of a nearly three-hour made for Swedish TV doc. Snips must have come mostly from the second part, which dealt exclusively with his theatre career, because I learned more about the director and his influences here than I did in a course about him in college. Also included on the disc is Bergman career retrospective moving picture gallery Bergman 101, which surprises with a lot more info than I expected. If you aren't so much in to The Seventh Seal but want to dig deeper into Bergman's career, this is a no-brainer. I like that Criterion made it available as a separate spine number. A more in-depth review is on its way tomorrow.
The Outlaw
One of only two movies Howard Hughes directed (H. Hawks was originally set), this movie could've gone unfinished and it'd still be highly sought-after. The movie was cut to pieces by the censors, but still remains pretty salacious for its time. This was on DVD previously, but this is the first time the original, B&W version has been available fully restored and complete. The Colorized version features a video commentary with star Jane Russell.
Chess in Concert
I really wish I could get this on Blu-ray not because I want to be able to see individual hairs on Josh Groban's chin, but because the lossless HD audio track would be phenomenal. This is currently difficult to find in stores, so you're likely better off just ordering from Amazon.
DVD Double Dips
Friday the 13th: Part IV The Final Chapter
This is the one where we're introduced to Tommy Jarvis, who becomes Jason's fated nemesis for a few flicks. As with all the Friday the 13th reissues, there are new featurettes and commentaries. On top of that, here you've got the Lost Ending and extended scenes. A major upgrade all around from the previous edition.
Friday the 13th: Part V A New Beginning
The second installment in the "Crystal Lake Massacres" phas of the series. Jason returns from the grave for the fifth time, what a surprise, right? Again new featurettes interlock with those on previous reissues and compliment a new commentary and improved audio and picture.
Friday the 13th: Part VI Jason Lives
Jason is back and so is Tommy Jarvis, along with (tell me if you've heard this) better picture and sound, new featurettes and commentary. What I should say here is that the new commentaries are really worth checking these out on their own if you're a fan. If you've gotta own these discs, buy them, but otherwise you'd likely be fine renting or Netflixing them for the new extras. It's a shame they teased 2 & 3 in Blu but not these, though I'm sure they'll eventually go Blu.
TV New Releases
Burn Notice: Season 2
Many people jumped into this because they knew Bruce Campbell showed up in it. It turns out the show's a lot of fun on its own and continues to add to USA Networks' stable of compulsively watchable original series. They've smartly packaged this with the first season in a value-pack. Extras include select episode Commentaries, Deleted Scenes, a Gag Reel, and a series creator featurette.
Saving Grace: Season 2
Holly Hunter is in a show on TNT I wasn't aware existed until now. I'll watch just about anything Hunter is in, and as unappealing as this sounds to me, I'll still give it a shot. She's a police detective who inadvertently kills someone when she gets tanked one night. There's a guardian angel character and so on. It's still around, so the themes of redemption and the dark corners of the country seem to have connected. Extras include some featurettes.
TV New to Blu-ray
Lost: Seasons 1 & 2
I've never watched a single episode of Lost, but I'm considering it now not out of peer pressure, but because I liked the new Star Trek movie. I'm willing to give anything Kurtzmann and Orci touch a shot, and I'm way late to the table on this phenomenally popular show. I like the new Season Play feature ABC has added to their TV Blu releases that keeps track of exactly where you left off...like TiVo for discs. Why did no one ever think of this before?
Extras are identical to the DVD releases of both seasons. Apparently I have months and months before the fifth season starts, so I have time to catch up.
John Adams
The hugely popular HBO miniseries joins many shows the pay-net is rapidly converting to the Blu side of the aisle. If anything, the pricing is lower than when these sets came out on DVD and they're in 10 times higher resolution than they were previously.
Streaming Free
Troll 2 (Hulu)
You can now watch the Best Worst Movie of all time. It's so terrible, it's hilarious. Hopefully by this time next year, you'll be able to watch the documentary that's about the cult following that has exploded out of this film. Non-english-speaking Italian filmmakers directed actors with little or no training or experience in a movie with creature effects so bad they're laughable but endearing. Watch it with limited commercials for free on Hulu by clicking here.