I’m not a fan of triple dips, but MGM and Fox Home Video have done an amazing job on the newly released James Bond Blu-ray set. I was generally skeptical about this dip because I already own three different versions of all the Bond films. But these Blu-ray versions are the definitive set. The picture transfer/upgrade is beautiful. I put on Dr. No and it was an eye-opening experience. The colors were deep, reach and sharp. There is so much more depth now it’s hard to believe this film is over 30 years old. It looks like it was shot on HD last week. The blacks are black which make the colors pop on my Vizio HDTV set. The hours and hours of extra features (in Standard Def) are the same ones from the Ultimate Collection from a few years ago with some neat little Blu-ray additions like a 42 Minute HD Feature called Inside Dr. No and a 18 minute feature on Terrance Young, the director of Dr. No.

The one area where they dropped the ball is on the Menu navigation system. It reminds me of the early days of DVD where the one thing you could always count on was Fox Home Video totally screwing up the menu. This is one of the ugliest and most unfriendly systems I’ve seen in awhile. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to play the movie and access the special features.  The Pop Up/Menu button doesn’t work once you select a feature. If you select a feature to watch, while viewing the film, it kicks you out and doesn’t return to the point you left off.  Each film are on a 50 GB Dual Layer disk, is in Widescreen 1.66:1 (No letter boxing!) and Lossless Audio. The movie sounds amazing on my Sony Crossbar.  I sampled a few of the other titles in this collection and it’s safe to say all six of these releases and must own.  The Six disk set includes Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Thunderball, For Your Eyes Only, Die Another Day and Live and Let Die. I’m not going to bother reviewing the movies or giving you the TPS, come on it’s Bond! You’ve all see these a million times. My only, minor complaint with this set, beyond the menu system is the lack of Profile 1.1 or BD-Live support. Yeah BD-Live sucks, but I would still like to see them implemented as standard features in all Blu-ray releases.  After watching a slew of lackluster Blu-ray releases (I’m looking at you Iron-Man!) this release restores my faith.

Movie Grade (All 6 Films, except Thunderball) - A

Features - A

Picture - A

Audio - A

Final Overall - A

EM Review by
Michelle Alexandria
Originally Posted 10.21.08

I love Joss Whedon and I loved the Serenity movie. But for some reason, I could never get into the Firefly TV Series. The pilot episode puts me to sleep every time I’ve tried to watch it. Maybe if I watch it Hi-Def, that’ll make the difference. Fox Home Video is bringing the complete series to Blu-ray this fall. Set 500 years into the future, in the wake of a universal civil war, “Firefly” centers on the crew of Serenity, a small transport spaceship that does not have a planet to call home.  Captain Malcom “Mal” Reynolds, a defeated soldier who opposed the unification of the planets by the totalitarian governed Alliance, will undertake any job – legal or not – to stay afloat and keep his crew fed. 

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I never understood the vitriolic hatred fanboys had for the Daredevil movie and the irrational loathing of Ben "Mumbles" Affleck. Yes, they took a lot of liberties with the material. Colin Farrell and Jennifer Gardner were terrible. But then I never liked Colin or Jennifer. But I thought the film maintained the basic tone of the books, Ben was almost perfect casting for DD, he fit the part and the story was a good one. Again, except for the whole blind man fighting a female Ninja in broad daylight in a Playground, no less.  The funny thing about the Disc cover is they are hyping Iron Man director Jon Favreau.  This release is feature packed, but I’m really starting to get annoyed that these companies are still ignoring the Picture in Picture spec and the BD Live stuff. It’s one of the reasons I liked the HD-DVD format that was a uniformity of features. And a release like this should have some cool BD-Live and PnP. Check out the full press release below.

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Goddamn, dirty Apes. They blew it up!!!! Aargh!! I’m a little annoyed at the moment. A few days ago, I ordered the Planet of the Apes DVD Collection on Amazon because they had it (all the movies) at an unbelievable price of $24.  Today, I get an email from Fox saying that Apes are coming to Blu in November. And this set looks pretty awesome. The question is, do I keep my new Apes standard def and wait, or send it back.

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I think the James Bond series has to be one of the worst when it comes to triple dipping. But I’ll give them a break this time, because who doesn’t want to see Bond go Blu?  Six classic James Bond films are heading to Blu-ray this fall. According to the press release. It’s weird getting this Press Release today, I’m fairly sure I got it a few months ago. So maybe MGM double dipped the press release as well.  This initial set is a strong collection - DR. NO, DIE ANOTHER DAY, LIVE AND LET DIE, FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE and THUNDERBALL. The DVD also includes a ticket to QUANTUM OF SOLACE (man do I hate that title).The only weak link is the un-watchable Thunderball. If you really want this set, I would recommend waiting, I would bet the house on several more package variations.  You gotta give it to MGM, triple, quadruple, dip or not, it looks like they are handling these releases with care.   At $35 a pop for something I already own 3 different copies of (that I bought with my own money)  these better be darn good.  Check out the full Press Release after the break.

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If your Blu and don’t know where to go to. Put it on the Ritz. The classic Gene Wilder comedy Frankenstein comes to Blu-ray October 7, 2008.  I love this movie and the folks at MGM are giving this Blu-ray release the care it deserves. Check out all the great features on this disc.  And the press release after the break. (more…)

I apologize for being a little lax on updating this weekly column, but I’ve been busy putting the final touches on the upcoming EM Book. But wow, what a way to come back. The folks at Fox Home Vide are bringing a slew of their Horror classics to Blu-ray (or as they call it Boo-ray, cute) September 9th. It seems weird that they don’t release these titles on, oh, I don’t know…Halloween?  They are bringing out the complete Omen Collection - which includes the bad 2006 remake with the goofy (not scary) looking kid (Damn you Fox! I just bought that collection off of Amazon last week) and the Russian Horror series Night Watch and Day Watch. I don’t know if I would classify those two as horror, even though it is about things that go bump in the night.  We may try and convince Fox to let us do a giveaway. These are some great titles. Check out the full press release after the break, jump, whatever…. 

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The Classic 1966 Batman movie is coming to Blu-ray, July 1st.  But Fox is crazy, they are charging $40 bucks for this. I think my rant about the price of Blu-ray Discs going up and not down has been proven basically true.  Since I don’t own this on DVD, I would seriously be tempted to pick it up. It’s one of those films that makes me relive my fondest childhood memories.  And this disc is packed to the gills with stuff. For $40 it better be! Check out the press release, it’s pretty nice.

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"Alien vs. Predator: Requiem" is the darkest tale to be spun out of the twin horror franchises. Dark doesn’t mean moody, or complex, or any of the interesting qualities affixed to the word. It’s dark as in poorly illuminated. How dark? Entire sequences go by in a black blur, with only an Alien screech here and a Predator trill there to tell us what’s going on. Like Roland Emmerich’s "Godzilla," "Requiem" is set either at night, during a rainstorm, or both.

At times, "Requiem" is so misbegotten you’ll wish the entire screen just went black and stayed that way. "Requiem" opens with a ship containing both Aliens and a Predator/Alien hybrid crashing down to earth, or more specifically, a small Colorado ‘burb. The creatures escape the downed spacecraft and start doing what they do best - indiscriminately killing humans. A second Predator later lands in the same Colorado town to wipe out the new Alien infestation.
Meanwhile, a pizza boy named Ricky (Johnny Lewis) is trying to get the attention of his crush (Kristin Hager), but the gal’s boyfriend keeps beating him to the punch, literally. Then there’s Ricky’s brother (Steven Pasquale), who just got out of prison but is on remarkably good terms with the local sheriff (John Ortiz, earning the dubious prize as the stiffest actor in the lot).  

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Other notable Blu-ray releases this week. Include Fox’s amazing new Hit Man DVD. The DVD includes Fox’s way cool new Digital Copy technology. So not only do you get the Blu-ray disk, but you can also rip a copy of it for your portable digital media player. I honestly haven’t tried this yet, I’ve been busy switching over to a Mac (more on my woes later this week). I’ll give it a try and let you all know how well it works. I love the idea of it though and hope more disks incorporate this tech.

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