The legendary Ray Harryhausen is finally getting his due this week when Sony releases the Ray Harryhausen collection on Blu-ray. This collection includes the Sci-Fi classics - "It Came From Beneath the Sea," "Earth vs. The Flying Saucers," "20 Million Miles to Earth: 50th Anniversary Edition," and "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad".  This should give any self respecting some good geek gasms and it’s all in beautifully restored HD.  Each disk is chock full of features and includes audio commentaries from Ray himself.  Check out the full press release, features and some clippage after the break. 

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Beginning this week, I’ll be looking at B-movies, unheralded re-releases and direct-to-video releases on a roughly weekly basis. Let’s start with Australian indie Gabriel [archangels versus fallen], Outpost [a new form of scientifically created undead], Rowan Atkinson Live! [he's way more than Black Adder or Mr. Bean], Sands of Oblivion [archaeologists searching for buried movie sets], and Black Moon Rising [an early Tommy Lee Jones heist flick].

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Wow, in a shocking bit of news SCE Worldwide Studios President Phil Harrison Resigns. After a terrible start it seems like the PS3 is finally going to get it’s act together later this year and he leaves? I’ve met Phil several times over the years at various Sony events - never actually interviewed him and he was always nice to me and he seemed to actually remember me half the time. That could be because I’m usually the only black female at their events, but still. He was a cool guy. Here’s the official release.

TOKYO, Feb. 25 /PRNewswire/ — Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) today announced that Phil Harrison, President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios (SCE WWS), will resign from Sony Computer Entertainment Group as of February 29, 2008. Kazuo Hirai, President and Group CEO of SCEI, will immediately assume responsibilities as president of SCE WWS, in addition to his current duties. Prior to the launch of the original PlayStation, Phil Harrison joined Sony Electronics Publishing, Ltd. in 1992, which later evolved into Sony computer Entertainment Europe, and since then, he has made a tremendous contribution to the company playing a strategic role in the launch of four PlayStation platforms, as well as building strong relationships with game developers and publishers throughout the world. Since his appointment to the position of president, SCE WWS, Harrison applied his considerable skill, knowledge and expertise to lead SCE Group’s first party game development as well as aggressively pursuing the development of new online entertainment experiences. "As one of the founding members of SCE,

Phil played a key role in the development and growth of the PlayStation business and our industry," said Kazuo Hirai. "It is sad to see him departing from SCE, but I wish to express my gratitude for his many invaluable contributions and also wish Phil the very best of luck in his future endeavors." "The past 15 years at Sony Computer Entertainment has been the defining journey of my life so far," said Phil Harrison. "I am grateful to all the PlayStation family for their incredible support, guidance and friendship. It has been a privilege to serve as part of the team and be inspired by them on a daily basis. I am so proud of everything PlayStation has achieved and will continue to support its future in every way I can."

It’s funny and ironic that I finally get around to starting the High Definition section on the site with the idea of trying to be as balanced as possible. Only to have the wheels fall off the HD-DVD band wagon. It started last month with Warner Brothers dropping the format, after that it was nothing but bad news for Toshiba’s format. And this week’s triple does of bad news - Netflix, Walmart, and Best Buy all dropping the format put a nail in the coffin. It was always a forgone conclusion that Toshiba would lose the war, if for no other reason than the PS3 including the Blu-ray drive into it’s system. Granted sales of the PS3 has been disappointing (for good reason, the system kind of sucks) comparatively speaking - in terms of game consoles, it had a big enough install base that it was almost double those who had HD-DVD players. For HD-DVD to succeed they really should have worked out a deal with MS to put the HD-DVD drive in the 360. If that happened, we would be talking about a totally different outcome now. I have both formats, but I was hoping HD-DVD would win, I still think it’s a better format and at least the freaking thing has a standard and you can upgrade it. The Blu-ray group is still trying to figure out it’s standards and half the players don’t have Ethernet ports so you can’t do firmware upgrades. But wait, it’s “funny” that the PS3 is “future” proof. Instead we’re now stuck with one format - Sony and for all practical purposes one player option - PS3. Sure there are other players, but considering you can’t upgrade most of them and there’s only a $50 difference between the cheapest Blu-ray player and the cheapest PS3, who would be dumb enough to get the stand alone player?

Already I’ve noticed that prices of Blu-ray DVDs have gotten ridiculously out of hand, you can no longer walk into a Best Buy, Target, Borders, etc. and expect to see a new release Blu-ray flick for $19.99, no these retailers have the gall to try and charge full retail prices. I was in Borders today and they had the Spiderman Blu-ray set for $99!! Really? Superbad was over $30.00 (when I say over $30, I mean like $35 - $39). Really? Resident Evil: Extinction over $30. Really??? Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix over $30. Really??? The only place you can still get Blu-ray for a reasonable price is Amazon and other online retailers. Not to mention the damn machines are still over $350! So yes, consumers, the color of Greed is Blu and we lose out again. Rumor has it the official announcement is coming later this week.