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'Another Year' Blu-ray Announced[teaser]The Academy Award-nominated film (Best Screenplay) is planned for a high-definition release this June. [/teaser] In an early announcement to retailers, Sony has revealed 'Another Year' will hit the Blu-ray format on June 7. Over the course of an eventful year, a long-married couple brightens the lives of their family and friends through a winning combination of love, wisdom and the gift of hope in this critically acclaimed slice of life from master filmmaker Mike Leigh. Specs have yet to be detailed, but the release will be a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack and supplements will include: Commentary with director Mike Leigh and actress Lesley Manville, The Making of Another Year, and The Mike Leigh Method. Suggested list price for the Blu-ray is set at $38.96. You can find the latest specs for 'Another Year' linked from our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where it's indexed under June 7.Posted Wed Mar 30, 2011 at 09:50 AM PDT by: -
'Das Boot: The Director's Cut' Dated for Blu-ray[teaser]The director's cut of Wolfgang Petersen's acclaimed 1981 war film will be sinking Blu-ray in June. [/teaser] In an early announcement to retailers, Sony is preparing 'Das Boot: The Director's Cut' on Blu-ray on June 7. The claustrophobic tale of the crew of a WWII German U-boat was nominated for six Oscars (including Best Writing/Screenplay and Best Director) and is currently ranked #63 on IMDb.com's Top 250. Specs have yet to be revealed, but the theatrical version will also be included along with Director's commentary with Peterson, Wolfgang Petersen: Back to the Boat Retrospective Documentary, Going Deeper featurettes (Maria's Take and The Perfect Boat), 7 Captain's Tour featurettes (Rooms Overview, Entry Conning Tower, Torpedo Room & Crew Quarters, Captain's & Officers' Rooms, The Control Room, Petty Officers' Room & Galley and Diesel & Electric Motor Rooms), 2 vintage featurettes (1981 Behind the Scenes and 1983 Battle for the Atlantic), and Theatrical trailers. Suggested list price for the Blu-ray is $34.95 You can find the latest specs for 'Das Boot: The Director's Cut' linked from our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where it is indexed under June 7.Posted Wed Mar 30, 2011 at 08:00 AM PDT by: -
'Legend: Ultimate Edition' Blu-ray Detailed[teaser]Ridley Scott's 1985 cult fantasy-adventure bound for Blu-ray in May has been fully detailed. [/teaser] As previously reported, Universal Studios is preparing 'Legend: Ultimate Edition' for a Blu-ray release on May 31. Tom Cruise stars as a mystical forest dweller, chosen by fate to undertake a heroic quest. He must save the beautiful Princess Lily (Mia Sara) and defeat the demonic Lord of Darkness (Tim Curry) or the world will be plunged into a never-ending ice age! The Blu-ray will include both the theatrical and director's cuts in 1080p video, a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack, and supplements will include: Commentary with Ridley Scott (on the director's cut); Isolated music score by Tangerine Dream (on the theatrical cut); Lost scenes; Creating a Myth: The Making of Legend; Music video: Byan Ferry, "Is Your Love Strong Enough"; Theatrical trailers & TV spots; Photo gallery; My Scenes; BD-Live; and Pocket Blu. Suggested list price for the Blu-ray is $26.98. You can find the latest specs for 'Legend: Ultimate Edition' linked from our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where it's indexed under May 31.Posted Wed Mar 30, 2011 at 06:00 AM PDT by: -
'Breaking Bad: The Complete Third Season' Blu-ray[teaser]The third season of the award-winning series is slated for Blu-ray this June. [/teaser] In an early announcement to retailers, Sony Pictures will be releasing 'Breaking Bad: The Complete Third Season' starring Bryan Cranston on Blu-ray on June 7. The series picked up two 2010 Emmy Awards (Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series - Bryan Cranston and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series - Aaron Paul). Specs have yet to be revealed, but supplements will include: Commentaries; The Opening of Season 3; Unused Footage & Deleted scenes; The Music of Breaking Bad; Gag Reel; Bryan Cranston Answers Fan Questions; Aaron Paul Answers Fan Questions; The Cast on Season 3; The Breaking Bad Family Photo Album; and AMC News Visits the Breaking Bad Writer's Room. Suggested list price for the Blu-ray set is $49.95. You can find the latest specs for 'Breaking Bad: The Complete Third Season' linked from our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where it's indexed under June 7.Posted Tue Mar 29, 2011 at 01:00 PM PDT by: -
Don Bluth: The Best of the Rest Not Yet On Blu-rayby Aaron Peck [teaser]Celebrated animator Don Bluth left the Walt Disney Company in 1979. It's still easy to see the realistic animator's mark on Disney classics such as 'Sword in the Stone,' 'Robin Hood,' and 'The Jungle Book.' After he left Disney, he went off on his own, and animated many more classics that have yet to find their way to Blu-ray. [/teaser]With the releases of 'Anastasia', 'The Secret of NIMH', and 'All Dogs Go to Heaven' we find ourselves looking over Bluth's illustrious career, hoping and praying that some of his other movie soon find homes in high-definition. 'An American Tail' – Produced by Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, 'An American Tail' is the story of the Mousekewitzes and their journey from Russia to America to find a new, better life. Fievel became Bluth's first well-known character. Sure, 'Secret of NIMH' came out before 'An American Tail,' but the Bluth company didn't really have a mascot, so to speak, until Fievel hit the screen. Just like at Disney, Bluth's animation and popularity was built upon a mouse. 'The Land Before Time' – We're not talking about the umpteen sequels that the first movie spawned. Those were all cash grabs, but the first film of the franchise was fantastic. Together with his business partners Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, Bluth pieced together a sweeping tale about earth during prehistoric times. Setting the movie's plot and heart squarely on the shoulders of a Longneck named Littlefoot. 'Rock-a-Doodle' – One of Bluth's lesser known animated features was a guilty pleasure of mine as a kid. My cousin and I wore out his VHS copy of it, because we would watch it over and over again. I remember it fondly even though I'm not a big Elvis fan. 'Thumbelina' – Based on the fairy tale of the same name, Bluth wrote and directed this wonderful little film. It's not as famous or noteworthy as his other classics, but it's a well done animated feature that features some of Bluth's patented, beautiful animation. 'Titan A.E.' – This is actually one of my favorite animated films of all-time. Definitely one of the best science fiction animated features out there. I have have hopes that the stellar visuals created by Bluth and his company will no doubt blow us all away when they finally hit Blu-ray. 'Titan A.E.' isn't just one of my most wanted Bluth films on Blu-ray, it's one of my most wanted films period. So what do you think? Please add your thoughts in the forums!Posted Tue Mar 29, 2011 at 12:50 PM PDT by: -
'The Misfits' Blu-ray Announced[teaser]The 1961 John Huston western will ride onto Blu-ray in May. [/teaser] In an early announcement to retailers, MGM will release 'The Misfits' on Blu-ray on May 10. The film marked the final silver screen appearances of both Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. Specs and supplements have yet to be detailed, but suggested list price for the Blu-ray is $19.99. You can find the latest specs for 'The Misfits' linked from our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where it's indexed under May 10.Posted Tue Mar 29, 2011 at 11:45 AM PDT by: -
Blu-ray Says 'Farewell'[teaser]The French spy thriller also known as 'L'Affaire Farewell' will infiltrate Blu-ray in April! [/teaser] In an early announcement to retailers, NeoClassics will release 'Farewell' on Blu-ray on April 19. 'Farewell' is the riveting true story of a KGB colonel who, disenchanted with what the Communist ideal has become under Leonid Brezhnev, gives top-secret documents to a French businessman working in Russia, helping to hasten the end of the Cold War. He didn’t do this for money, but rather that a new world might dawn for his fellow Russians, but especially for his son. Based on the book Bonjour Farewell by Serguei Kostine, the film, directed by Christian Carion (Academy Award® nominated 'Joyeux Noel'), boasts a strong international cast starring two noted film directors who are also respected actors, Guillaume Canet ('The Beach;' 'Merry Christmas,' 'Tell No One') and Emir Kusturica ('The Good Thief,' 'Underground,' 'Arizona Dream'). The ensemble also includes Alexandra Maria Lara, Ingeborda Dapkunaite, Diane Kruger, Willem Dafoe, Fred Ward and David Soul. Specs and supplements have yet to be detailed, but suggested list price for the Blu-ray is $39.98. You can find the latest specs for 'Farewell' linked from our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where it is indexed under April 19.Posted Tue Mar 29, 2011 at 10:00 AM PDT by: -
Four X-Men Blu-ray Digibook Double Dips on the Way[teaser]A quartet of mutant-themed digibooks will be released this May. [/teaser] In an early announcement to retailers, 20th Century Fox is preparing 'X-Men,' 'X2: X-Men United,' 'X-Men: The Last Stand,' and 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' for a Blu-ray re-release on May 3. Specs and supplements are expected to be the same as the previous editions, and suggested list price for each digibook is $34.99. You can find the latest specs for 'X-Men,' 'X2: X-Men United,' 'X-Men: The Last Stand,' and 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' linked from our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where they're indexed under May 3.Posted Tue Mar 29, 2011 at 08:00 AM PDT by: -
'Growth' and 'The Rig' Announced for Blu-ray[teaser]A pair of obscure horror flicks will be getting the high-definition treatment in June. [/teaser] In an early announcement to retailers, Starz/Anchor Bay is prepping 'Growth' and 'The Rig' (starring William Forsythe) for Blu-ray on June 21. Specs and supplements haven't been confirmed yet, but suggested list price for each Blu-ray is $17.98. You can find the latest specs for 'Growth' and 'The Rig' linked from our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where they're indexed under on June 21.Posted Tue Mar 29, 2011 at 06:00 AM PDT by: -
HDD Presents: The Best and Worst from This Year's SXSW Film Festivalby Drew Taylor The last time I attended the South by Southwest Film Festival, in my hometown of Austin, Texas, it was 2002. The festival was tiny; most of my recollections revolve around the "screening room" in the convention center, which consisted of a small screen and a bunch of folding chairs (yes seriously). This year, there were ten locations where films were being screened, and long lines that snaked alongside buildings and into parking lots. In short: things have exploded. And most of this was for the best, because the festival now offers more variety and flexibility, although once the music portion of SXSW started, about midway through the film programming, things got considerably hairier and more congested. Downtown Austin seized up, its arteries clogged with hipsters, which made things more difficult, in terms of making certain screenings. [teaser]All in all, it was an amazing festival, and so in honor of it, I've put together my list of my five favorite (and five least favorite) films from this year's SXSW. [/teaser]And be sure to click over to The Bonus View to see individual reviews of many of the films I mention here (still updating that stuff, so please be patient with me). My Five Favorite Films I took part in a brief panel this year, and when the moderator asked me what my single favorite movie was this year, I said, unabashedly, Joe Cornish's 'Attack the Block.' Cornish, who in recent years had made a name for himself as Edgar Wright's co-writer, polishing Spielberg's 'Tin-Tin' script, and writing 'Ant Man' for Marvel, totally hits it out of the park with his debut feature. The film's tagline, "Inner city vs. outer space," is a good indicator of what the film is, a 'Goonies'-ish take on the alien invasion genre. Instead of landing in some posh area of London, the beasts smash into the heart of the south London ghetto, and it's up to a group of street hoods to defend the neighborhood from the invaders. Everything about this film is pitch perfect – the kids (many of whom had never acted before), the monsters (brought to life via practical effects), and the score (co-authored by British dance pop duo Basement Jaxx). Rarely does a film who walks as fine a line, tonally, and succeed the way 'Attack the Block' does. The fact that the film won the Midnight Movie award didn't surprise me, what did surprise me was that it left the festival without having secured a domestic distributor. God knows when we'll be seeing this stateside. On the completely opposite end of the spectrum is Mike Mills' touching, funny, absolutely brilliant 'Beginners.' Ewan McGregor plays a man whose father (Christopher Plummer) comes out of the closet after his wife passes away. The movie takes place after the father has died, ingeniously inter-cutting between the present, with McGregor taking care of Plummer's adorable dog and his own fledging romance with Melanie Laurent (not hard to fall in love with her), and the past, with Plummer's condition worsening. It sounds like it could be dreadful and depressing, but Mills, who went through a similar situation a few years ago, brings a light, graceful touch to the material. Amazingly, it simulates the way that memory works – flashing back and forth between eras with little provocation, or being interrupted by a series of interstitial, graphics-based title cards – and manages to tell a compelling story along with it. The movie opens in early June and I can't wait to see it again. I fell in love. You will too. This year's SXSW was gifted with a number of outstanding documentary films (like the sports doc 'Elevate' and the horse whisperer biography 'Buck') but my favorite by far was 'Conan O'Brien Can't Stop,' a look at Conan's whirlwind cross country comedy tour that immediately followed his dismissal from NBC and 'The Tonight Show.' The documentary is hilarious, for sure (large chunks of the movie I missed simply because people were laughing over it), but there's a fair amount of psychological insight into who Conan is as a person, that makes the movie unpredictable and enlightening. He's a dude that's unafraid to venture into darker, weirder territory, and the movie is immensely better for it. But back to the schlocky stuff. There were a couple of movies, part of SXSW's midnight movies program, that I absolutely fell in love with. The first is 'House of the Devil' director Ti West's new film, 'The Innkeepers.' Some peers found it slow and meandering, but I thought it was basically perfect, a wonderfully oddball mixture of chatty relationship drama and supernatural fright-fest. It's about a pair of young hotel workers (played by Pat Healy and the absolutely entrancing Sara Paxton) as they fight back boredom (and ghosts) during their final shifts at a haunted hotel. 'The Innkeepers' hits that scary-funny sweet spot incredibly well, and the movie is wonderfully photographed and paced. I saw this kind of late in the week, which I was starting to really get worn down, and I was still riveted throughout the entire thing. It might be West's most accomplished, fully realized film. A total triumph. Then there's 'Kill List,' from 'Down Terrace' director Ben Wheatley. Saying anything about this film, which combines crime elements with more horrific genres, seems like an affront. So I'll just say that I was absolutely shocked, moved, and terrified. If I said any more someone would come to lock me away. But by the end of the festival, it established stateside distribution, so hopefully everyone will be able to be in awe of this ingenious little movie, very, very soon. But it wasn't all sunshine and lollipops at SXSW this year. As with any festival, there are going to be some things that are really, truly terrible – and this year's SXSW was no different. My Five Least Favorite Films Maybe my single least favorite film of the entire week was 'Another Earth.' A much buzzed about "surprise screening" at the festival, it was directed by newcomer Mike Cahill and co-written by its star, the effective and adorable Brit Marling. It's basically an indie melodrama with a fine layer of science fiction on top, concerning the discovery of a parallel planet, exactly like ours, peeking out from behind the sun. No amount of cheap-ass Photoshop work is going to convince me this thing is a science fiction movie; and the overwrought emotions were just as phony as its special effects. I suggest the film's tagline should be: "In space, no one can hear you mumble." I doubt it'll catch on. From the very small to the very huge, Jodi Foster's 'The Beaver,' -- one of the most talked about debuts at the Festival, if only because of the off-screen antics of its star Mel Gibson -- was really very awful. The tale of a disturbed man (Gibson) who only communicates via a beaver puppet (which he refuses to take off) needed a more sure hand in terms of nailing its weird tonal shifts between drama and comedy. It also seems to have too doggedly emulated its script, in ways that, in the actual movie, feel forced and contrived, leaving many of its characters without resolution to their respective arcs. In short: I hated it. And it had nothing to do with Mel's real life bad behavior. Bad behavior, or at least a complete lack of investigative interest, is what hobbles Morgan Spurlock's new documentary, 'The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.' Posing as an expose of product placement run rampant, it instead turns into this cutesy, winking other-thing, with Spurlock selling off pieces of his own movie. It's mildly clever, in a cloyingly meta-textual way, but his refusal to give the movie any kind of depth really keeps it from ever being as special (or as funny) as it could be. Spurlock's like the class cut up that thinks, since he makes everyone laugh, he doesn't have to do his homework. Well, he does. 'Hesher,' with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Natalie Portman, has a similar problem. It's the tale of a long-haired stranger who disrupts the lives of a family mourning the loss of a parent, but its sole interest seems to be in it's "screw the world" attitude. That's all well and good for a few minutes, but when the movie violently shifts in the last act towards a kind of screechy sentimentality, well, it just falls apart completely, and what was a mildly interesting curio becomes an unmitigated disaster. And speaking of disaster, the post-apocalyptic 'The Divide' (from 'Frontier(s)' directoer Xavier Gens) is pretty disastrous – and I'm not even talking about the hail of nuclear missiles that blows apart New York in the opening sequence. No, this movie, an unrelentingly ugly and misogynistic pile of trash, is a disaster in every sense. If you've ever wanted to see how people would never, ever react in a post-apocalyptic scenario, then this is the film for you!Posted Mon Mar 28, 2011 at 02:05 PM PDT by:
