DVD

DVDs I bought or received in the month of September

• 300 (R0 USA, HD DVD)
• Black Book (R0 UK, Blu-ray)
• Dawn of the Dead (remake) (R0 USA, HD DVD)
• House of 1000 Corpses (RA USA, Blu-ray)
• The Lives of Others (RA USA, Blu-ray)
• Silent Hill (R0 Germany, HD DVD)
• Underworld (R0 Germany, HD DVD)
• Waking the Dead: Series 5 (R2 UK, DVD)
• Zodiac (R2 UK, DVD)

Another month with high definition content in a dominating position. I've essentially stopped buying standard definition material unless it (a) stands no chance of being released in HD or (b) wouldn't benefit from being in HD (e.g. TV series shot and/or edited in standard definition). Zodiac, the anomaly, was a free review copy.

Aaaaaargh! Not the bees!

In case you aren't aware, Amazon UK runs a DVD rental service similar to that offered by the likes of Blockbuster and LoveFilm, albeit without such a wide range of available titles. Anyway, if you have an Amazon account, it seems that you can get a month of free rentals. I'm not convinced that the various packages offered are cost-effective enough to be worth it in the long run, but a free trial certainly doesn't hurt, and I decided a few days ago to start renting some titles.

Top of the list was the remake of The Wicker Man, a film with such an awesome pedigree of awfulness that I couldn't just rely on the word of mouth - I really had to see it for myself. I had already seen a hilarious reel collecting many of its more intentionally funny scenes, but I felt the need to understand them in context, especially after reading my good friend the Baron's excellent review of both this atrocity and the very good 1973 original.

In retrospect, perhaps "context" is a misleading word to use, because there really is no such thing. This film is so moronic and damn near incompetent that I actually think clips of Nicolas Cage karate-kicking Leelee Sobieski in the abdomen, donning a bear costume, stealing children's animal face masks and finally having a hive of bees poured over his head work better in isolation than they do when integrated into this meandering, preposterous tale about a policeman with a crippling allergy to bees invading an island-based matriarchal commune in search of his missing daughter.

Just to put this into perspective, in the original, the protagonist, Sergeant Howie (Edward Woodward), was a devoted Christian lured to an island by a group of pagans who needed a virgin for their yearly harvest sacrifice. Obviously, the writer/director of the remake, Neil LaBute, came to the conclusion that Nicolas Cage was such a dishy catch that no-one would believe he was a virgin, so this particular aspect of his character has been replaced by a tendency to flap his arms and faint when in the vicinity of bees. Guess what the women of this island are famed for producing? That's right: honey. ("Well, Christianity and bee allergy, they're kind of the same thing," a friend said to me today when I told him about the film.)

None of this really makes any sense. Why does Cage have a bee allergy? Why is the island dominated by women, with the few male inhabitants subservient mutes? Why does he spend the final act of the film violently assaulting many of said women? Why did LaBute decide to make the missing girl Cage's daughter? Why would anyone in their right mind commission this heap of drivel? Presumably, someone in a position of power genuinely believed in this project. Cage, who also gets a producer credit, certainly did, although his hammy, outrageous performance as the marauding Edward Malus (yes, that is his name - the man who ends up being murdered by a group of crazy women just happens to be called... oh, never mind) might make you wondering if the whole thing is just an extended piss-take. Rest assured that it isn't, more's the pity: it's deadly serious, and it's a strong contender for the worst film of 2006.

Death on my mind

Well, I'm back from the research students' induction meeting - it was essentially just nibbles, drinkies and a blather - and it occurred to me that I hadn't mentioned either of my recent acquisitions.

On Tuesday, I received my copy of the Blu-ray release of House of 1000 Corpses from DVD Pacific. It features a decent but not outstanding transfer, with a VC-1 encode (intriguing, given that all of Lions Gate's previous releases have been MPEG2 or AVC). Detail is very good, and the compression is well-handled (the disc is a single layer BD25), but there is noticeable edge enhancement, and the image has been quite severely noise reduced. I haven't noticed any visible smearing, but the frozen grain in the backgrounds looks decidedly unnatural and unfilmlike, making this transfer a 7/10 for me at best. Oh, and, much to my disappointment, they haven't maintained the hilarious menus from the DVD release, which featured various members of the Firefly family instructing the viewer on menu choices. Obviously, since this material was shot in standard definition, it would have been somewhat problematic to port over, but it's too bad the footage couldn't have been incorporated into a standalone reel, because a lot of it really was very funny. "Pick a feature!!!"

I also picked up a copy of the fifth series of Waking the Dead. I was originally hoping to receive a review copy, but BBC's home video distribution division, 2 Entertain, seem to be rather inconsistent when it comes to sourcing check discs. With Casualty, I was able to get review copies of Series 1 and 3 but not 2, whereas with Waking the Dead, I got copies of Series 2 and 4 but not 1, 3 or 5. Anyway, I'm quite looking forward to seeing this series again, which aired at around this time two years ago (for some reason, there were no episodes in 2006, with the rather disappointing sixth series airing in early 2007). My memory of it is that it takes a while to find its footing, having to cope with the departure of two key cast members, but eventually turns itself around with some very strong episodes in the second half.

Incidentally, this six-disc set, just released this month, has an RRP of £34.99, but I was able to find it at DVD.co.uk for a mere £17.95 - definitely worth considering if you're planning on picking up this title.

DVD image comparison: Silent Hill (SD vs. HD)

I'm just about to go out to attend this enrolment meeting at the university, but before I leave, I thought I'd upload my latest standard definition to high definition image comparison. Today, I take a look at the UK Region 2 DVD release of Christophe Gans' Silent Hill, surely the best video game adaptation created to date, and see how it compares against the stunning HD DVD recently released in Germany by Concorde Home Entertainment. It can only end in tears.

Walk this way!

DVD image comparison: Underworld (SD vs. HD)

For my second standard definition to high definition image comparison, I've pitted the R1 USA 2-disc Unrated Extended Cut release of Underworld from Columbia Tristar against the recent German HD DVD release (also of the extended cut) from Concorde Home Entertainment. In terms of image quality, both are towards the upper echelons of their respective formats, so it's interesting to see how they compare. Underworld may not have the razor sharpness of King Kong or Silent Hill, but the HD DVD constitutes a very faithful and natural-looking reproduction of the source materials.

Note that a US Blu-ray release by Sony Pictures, featuring an AVC encode, a PCM 5.1 audio track and most (but not all) of the extras from the 2-disc DVD release, is also available. I haven't seen it so I have no idea how it compares to Concorde's version.

Have a look!

DVD image comparison: Unleashed (SD vs. HD)

I lied! Despite earlier claiming that it would probably be "a couple of days" before any actual standard definition to high definition comparisons were made available on this site, I decided to go all-out and have one ready for this very night. The first ever Whiggles.com SD vs. HD Image Comparison is for Unleashed, looking at the DVD and HD DVD sides of this combo release.

If you head over to the comparison now, you'll probably notice that a couple of things have changed from the days when I only pitted one DVD release against another. For a start, the video, audio and extras ratings (out of 10) have been removed, simply because SD and HD are on completely different playing fields, so an actual side by side numerical comparison would be pointless.

Secondly, for my image roll-overs, I have opted to present a portion of each frame rather than the whole thing. This is for two reasons. One, to save bandwidth (although, as I am allocated a terabyte of the stuff every month, I'm not sure that there's any actual point in this). Two, a full-size HD capture has a resolution of 1920x1080 - I don't know about you, but that's more than my desktop resolution. Therefore, to keep things manageable, and to avoid breaking the site's design, I opted for 720x720 crops. The HD image retains its original resolution, while the SD image is first scaled up to 1920x1080 and then cropped to match its HD counterpart.

With any luck, these changes will be to everyone's satisfaction, and hopefully you'll get something out of this first comparison. Unleashed may not be a title that shows off the HD DVD format to its fullest potential, but it constitutes a massive improvement over its SD counterpart, and hopefully the comparison will make this crystal clear.

Enjoy!

DVD review: Zodiac

This release of Zodiac has "stopgap" written all over it. If you enjoyed the film and can't wait a few more months for the director's cut, then this release may be for you, but those with more patience are advised to pass on this disappointingly empty and visually compromised edition, particularly with the director's cut being slated for release on HD DVD.

Released tomorrow in the UK, I've reviewed Warner's Region 2 release of Zodiac, David Fincher's serial killer thriller based on the real-life late 60s murders.

Zodiac's great but the DVD ain't

Yesterday, I received a review copy of the R2 UK release of Zodiac, David Fincher's latest film. The short story is that it's a great film, a worthy spiritual successor (of sorts) to Se7en, and you should definitely see it if you haven't already. For the long story, you'll have to wait for my full review for DVD Times, which will hopefully be going up on Sunday, ahead of the DVD's Monday release.

On a side note, it's been a while since I watched a standard definition DVD of a recent film, and I was horrified by just how shoddy this release of Zodiac looks. Maybe I've just been spoiled by high definition, but I was genuinely shocked by the amount of artefacting (mostly in the form of mosquito noise and horrible noise reduction smears) on display, not to mention the total lack of fine detail. I think Lyris (who saw it at the cinema) put it best when he said to me that, with high definition and theatrical screenings, you can tell what's supposed to be in focus because you can see a clear difference in clarity between, say, the actor who is the centre of attention and the background which is of less importance, but, in standard definition, or at least poor quality standard definiton, everything just sort of merges together as a flat, indistinct sea of mush.

Paramount is bringing the director's cut out on HD DVD in the US on January 8th, and you can bet your bottom dollar that I'll be snatching it up and junking the DVD as soon as possible.

Semi-decent version of Flour Flies coming soon?

Marin Spanic of German DVD publisher New Entertainment World (responsible for, among others, the recent release of The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire) has been teasing members of the DVD Maniacs forum with screen captures of a copy of Dario Argento's long-lost giallo Four Flies on Grey Velvet which blows away every version available at the moment.

This film, the director's third and the concluding part of the Animal Trilogy, is the only one of his films to not have a legitimate DVD release. Seemingly tied up in a series of endless rights dispute, it is only available in the form of a variety of heavily compromised bootlegs which fail to do is justice in any shape or form. These new captures, however, while not brilliant, are an enormous step up.

Little is known about the source at the moment. Marin would almost say that New Entertainment World is not releasing the film, but that he received a preview version comprised of excerpts from the film from a source that he is not at this stage able to disclose, and that he will hopefully be able to say more soon.

I don't want to jinx this, but it looks like we might just get a half-decent release of this mistreated film before very much longer.

Tarantan films presents...

Today I received my first ever high definition check disc - a review copy of the upcoming UK Blu-ray release of Paul Verhoeven's Black Book from Tartan Films... or "Tarantan Films", as the label misspells it. I already have the US version from Sony Pictures, due out on September 25th, on pre-order at DVD Pacific, and I intend to keep the order open in order to get the US-exclusive Verhoeven commentary plus other assorted extras, but the UK version, due out a day earlier, on September 24th, is a rather impressive package in terms of image quality, and one that Sony will have to work hard to better (if indeed they don't just use the same encode).

For a start, Tartan have clearly decided to go the whole hog, delivering the film on a dual-layer BD50 disc with a 1080p AVC encode (no repeats of their early days with the DVD format here). The transfer, which hovers consistently around the 30 Mbit/sec rate, is very impressive, slightly pre-filtered and as a result exhibiting some mild ringing and not quite hitting the heights of, say, Open Season or King Kong in terms of fine detail, but otherwise absolutely magnificent.

For audio, as seems to be Tartan's custom, the default track is a stereo affair (at 224 Kbps), with Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 Kbps) and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks also included. Unfortunately, neither the Playstation 3 nor any other currently available player can decode the high definition audio content of such tracks, so it falls back on a legacy DTS 1.5 Mbit/sec stream, but to my ears it sounds very good in its own right and constitutes an improvement on its 768 Kbps predecessor from the DVD. I'll have to do a more in-depth comparison between the two before offering my final verdict, however. Annoyingly, despite the bulk of the film being in Dutch and German, English subtitles are not enabled by default, making a pit-stop at the Setup menu (or a few button presses on the remote control) necessary before beginning the movie.

Tartan have also chosen to approach the presentation of their bonus content in a rather unusual manner, and this is likely to attract some consternation from certain parties. Whereas every other distributor I know either upscales their legacy 480i content or has the player itself switch to standard definition to play it, Tartan have embedded the material in a small window on the Extras menu. While this has the effect of making the quality look better (because it's smaller, natch), it's also going to be a bit of a pain in the neck for people with smaller displays. On a 40" screen viewed at fairly close range, it's not that big a deal, but I wouldn't like to watch it on my 20" monitor, or even on our older 32" TV.

Expect a full review at DVD Times in the near future. After a fairly lengthy period of what I can only term writer's block, I'm finally getting back into the sway of penning regular reviews.

DVD review: Spooks: Season 5

Season 5 comes across as Spooks' weakest so far, sacrificing credibility and its ensemble cast in favour of increasingly unbelievable situations and an annoyingly narrow focus. The DVD release, likewise, is the most disappointing of the bunch, making the high £39.99 RRP seem particularly extortionate given the lack of bonus materials.

In preparation for the launch of its sixth season on BBC1, I've reviewed Contender Home Entertainment's DVD release of Spooks Season 5, presenting all ten episodes on five discs.

DVDs I bought or received in the month of August

• Angel-A (R2 UK, DVD)
• Arlington Road (R0 USA, Blu-ray)
• Mr. Bean's Holiday (R0 UK, HD DVD)
• Red Road (R2 UK, DVD)
• Spooks: Season 5 (R2 UK, DVD)
• Trafico de Menores (R2 Spain, DVD)

A relatively quiet month, but I did get a free DVD out of it, and another for the price of a review.

Cat People slinks off

Source: AV Science Forum

Proving to be as elusive as the felines themselves, it would seem that Cat People, due out on HD DVD on September 25th, has been removed from Universal's schedule.

While I can't say that I'm about to slit my wrists over this news (unlike certain Blu-ray fans over the recent Paramount announcement), I'm a bit disappointed nonetheless, as I was hoping to upgrade my rather underwhelming-looking standard definition copy. Then again, it may well have been cancelled or postponed (it's unclear which) as a result of a poor master - if they were planning on using the same source as the DVD, they were probably wise to yank it. I'm sure the last thing Universal wants is another Traffic, and I'd rather they took their time releasing quality discs than merely shovelling them out, as they have been somewhat guilty of recently.

DVD debacle

I got my hands on a few DVDs over the last couple of days. First of all, I received check discs of Spooks Season 5 for my upcoming review of the soon-to-be-released set for DVD Times. The only problem was that the public relations company responsible for supplying review samples neglected to send me a copy of Disc 1, instead providing an apology note to the tune that they didn't have any left. All well and good, but unfortunately it's rather difficult to review only part of the package and still feel that you're providing readers with something approaching an authoritative perspective. Luckily, though, Disc 1 did turn up on Thursday, putting me somewhat behind schedule but thankfully now in a position to get the review done.

I also inherited a copy of Red Road, the Glasgow-based feature directing debut from Oscar-winning short director Andrea Arnold. I know next to nothing about the film, other than that the plot makes heavy use of CCTV, and that, when I saw a preview for it last year on Film 2006 (or a similar cinema television series), I thought it looked quite interesting. So, I'm looking forward to sitting down and watching it.

Oh, and, yesterday, while I was on my lunch break (I work Saturdays, remember), I decided to kill some time by wandering around Borders and looking at their overpriced books and DVDs. In addition to the discovery that they have a Blu-ray section (£24.99 per disc - as if!) but no HD DVDs, I came across the rather more reasonably-priced DVD release of Angel-A, which, when released in 2005, was the first film Luc Besson had directed in over seven years (after the debacle of The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc in 1999 he, somewhat wisely, some people might say, decided to concentrate on writing and producing). I'd been meaning to pick it up for some time but never got round to it.

Anyway, I'm exceedingly glad I did, because I watched it last night and enjoyed it immensely. I originally only popped it in to get some idea of how the transfer measured up (reasonably good, as it happens, although I'm increasingly finding it difficult to say anything positive about standard definition transfers unless I lower my expectations tremendously), but after watching the first five minutes, I found myself completely hooked. The plot, which involves a leggy angel (Ria Rasmussen) descending on high to help a hapless immigrant living in Paris (Jamel Debbouze of Amelie) overcome his debts and insecurities, is a bit hokey, but the whole thing is beautifully shot in breathtaking black and white (stylistically, this is a major departure for Besson), and it manages to be both funny and touching in its portrayal of this decidedly unconventional "odd couple". It may be a little too obviously influenced by Patrice Leconte's excellent La Fille sur le Pont (another French-language love story shot in black and white with an attempted suicide on a Parisian bridge as its inciting incident), but originality is overrated these days, and in any event the execution is hard to criticise. Highly recommended.

The Jungle Book coming to Blu-ray... oh wait, no it's not

A couple of days ago, the shills at Blu-ray.com announced that Disney's classic The Jungle Book would be coming to Blu-ray on October 2nd, alongside the film's Platinum Edition standard definition DVD release... then promptly retracted the statement, admitting that no, it actually wasn't coming out. Their source appears to have been an issue of Home Media Magazine, whose editors got their wires crossed. A simple enough mistake, you might say - although Blu-ray.com did themselves no favours by beginning their rather official-sounding statement with "Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has announced that..." The cynic in me sees this as pure Blu-ray: announce a major title and then swiftly retract it once you've got enough attention. Blu-ray.com may be a completely unofficial site, but they've certainly picked up the tricks of their idols. Then again, the HD DVD camp can't exactly talk, given their official announcement then retraction that several Spielberg titles would be coming to the format.

Disney themselves quickly rectified the matter, categorically stating that there are currently no plans to release The Jungle Book on Blu-ray. Those who want classical Disney animation (i.e. not Chicken Little or The Wild) in HD will have to wait till Autumn 2008, when Sleeping Beauty will be making its Blu-ray debut, at around the same time as Pixar's Finding Nemo (which I'll definitely be buying - the standard definition transfer for that film is by far Pixar's worst to date).

Super mega DVD extravagant announcement extravaganza

There were quite a few exciting announcements on the DVD front during my period in the wilderness, so, to make things simple, I've decided to summarise them all in one post. The first of these is Season 5 of Spooks, due for release on September 10th 2007 in the UK from Contender Home Entertainment, presumably to roughly coincide with the launch of Season 6 on BBC1. Personally, I felt that Season 5 was a bit of a step down from Season 4, sacrificing some of its realism in favour of increasingly large-scale and preposterous situations (the opening two-parter featuring a hostile takeover of the British government and an attempt to kidnap the Prime Minister's son), but it was still hugely enjoyable and remains, for me, one of the best things on TV. As with previous DVD releases, the ten episodes will be spread across five discs, although extras seem to be fairly limited this time round, with only two commentaries, interviews, trailers and a video diary preview for Season 6.

On the Italian front, we now have confirmation of the release date and contents of Starz Home Entertainment's next Mario Bava box set. Due out on October 23rd, The Mario Bava Collection: Volume 2 will feature new versions of Baron Blood, Lisa and the Devil, Roy Colt and Winchester Jack, Four Times That Night, Bay of Blood and 5 Dolls for an August Moon. This is a definite must-have for me, and includes three titles that I've never seen. Speaking of which, I really need to get round to watching Kill, Baby... Kill! and Black Sabbath in Volume 1...

Keeping things Roman, Severin Films have also announced that they intend to bring Lucio Fulci's little-seen Seven Notes in Black to DVD on October 30th, under the considerably less classy American title of The Psychic. Bonus materials will include "a never-before-published interview with Fulci as well as interviews with cast and crew". I already own two copies of this title - the (ahem) unauthorised Alfa Digital release, which is in fact a pirate copy of the initial French DVD with an English track attached to it, and the more recent French 2-disc special edition from Neo Publishing. I always felt rather guilty about paying for a bootleg copy that allowed Alfa Digital to take money for other people's hard work, but I desperately needed a copy in English. Now it looks as if I can finally bin it and pick up this authorised version.

Finally, it looks as if Alex Infascelli's most recent film, H2Odio (a.k.a. Hate2O), will be coming out on DVD in the US on November 20th. It's from Tartan Video, so a UK release is also a strong possibility. This is another disc that I'll definitely be picking up, given how much I enjoyed Infascelli's 2000 giallo, Almost Blue (his 2004 offering, The Vanity Serum, was less impressive but still interesting).

Oh, and it seems that Dario Argento's Inferno is finally being released on DVD in Italy, making this only the second DVD release of this film in the world (unless you count that bootleg German DVD with the weird cover art). The artwork chosen for it couldn't be worse, and no English audio or subtitle options appear to be forthcoming, but I'm somewhat tempted to pick it up, (a) to see what it plays like in Italian and (b) on the off-chance that it has a superior transfer to the Anchor Bay release.

Trafficking in illicit gialli

Massimo Dallamano's What Have You Done to Solange? is one of my favourite gialli - in fact, it's probably my all-time favourite non-Argento entry in the genre. His loose follow-up, What Have They Done to Your Daughters?, is also enjoyable, although not on the same level (and it's more of a cop thriller than a dyed-in-the-wool giallo anyway). Dallamano died in 1976 while he was still prepping the third instalment in this so-called "Schoolgirls in Peril" trilogy, and, although it finally did see the light of day, under the title of Enigma Rosso (or [Red] Rings of Fear for English speakers), this Alberto Negrin-helmed conclusion is generally considered to be a pale shadow of its predecessors. I've never seen it, but have wanted to for some time, and not long ago, to my considerable surprise, Spanish DVD distributor Filmax put out a fully letterboxed (2.35:1) release, which I immediately snapped up. The image quality isn't really up to snuff (it's non-anamorphic, soft, and exhibits the tell-tale signs of a bad attempt to noise reduce the artefacts of an analogue master), but it's streets ahead of, say, New Entertainment World's The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire. The problem? The only included audio track is a Spanish dub.

That's actually not as much of a problem as you might think, the reason being that I've managed to get my hands on an English-language version sourced from an old 80s VHS tape. The sound quality, unsurprisingly, is pretty ropey, but they both seem to feature the same cut of the film (it was a co-production between Italy, Spain and West Germany, with several different edits prepared for the various markets), so splicing my own version together shouldn't require too much work.

From various sources, I've also managed to get my hands on a variety of other gialli that I haven't seen yet. Many of these were never released on DVD, and as a result the copies I have look pretty shocking, but it'll be nice to actually sit down and watch some completely new (to me) gialli:

Naked You Die (Antonio Margheriti, 1968)
The Sweet Body of Deborah (Romolo Guerrieri, 1968)
The Frightened Woman (Piero Schivazappa, 1969)
In the Folds of the Flesh (Sergio Bergonzelli, 1970)
Hatchet for the Honeymoon (Mario Bava, 1970)
Cross Current (Tonino Ricci, 1971)
My Dear Killer (Tonino Valerii, 1972)
Eye in the Labyrinth (Mario Caiano, 1972)
Naked Girl Killed in Park (Alfonso Brescia, 1972)
French Sex Murders (Ferdinando Merighi, 1972)
The Killer Must Kill Again (Luigi Cozzi, 1975)
Eyeball (Umberto Lenzi, 1975)
Giallo a Venezia (Mario Landi, 1979)
A Blade in the Dark (Lamberto Bava, 1983)
Midnight Ripper (Lamberto Bava, 1986)
The Devil's Honey (Lucio Fulci, 1986)

Seems like enough to be getting on with, at any rate, although I won't be sitting down to watch them yet. My plan is to go through every giallo I own in as near to possible as chronological order - a rather daunting task, but one that I hope will get me thinking about appropriate topics for my PhD. I'll be going by the original Italian theatrical release dates (as per IMDB), if available, but in certain cases I'll only have the year of release to go by. I've done a brief recky and have made some interesting discoveries - did you know that The Black Belly of the Tarantula, The Case of the Scorpion's Tail, The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave, Cross Current, The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire and The Fifth Cord were all released one after the other, with no more than four days between each? There truly does seem to have been a time when a new giallo was coming out every week. In any event, a conservative estimate tells me that I have more than 80 titles to get through. Wish me luck!

Remember me?

No updates in over a week! You thought I'd forgotten about you, didn't you? Nothing could be further from the truth, as it happens. I did forewarn you that updates might be scarce until I'd got past my unusually busy work period, but I never for a moment thought that I wouldn't post anything at all. As it happens, though, this ended up being the best solution, because it meant that I wasn't forcing myself to make half-hearted posts in my state of perpetual weariness. I now have Thursday and Friday waiting ahead of my completely free, so you can expect a variety of posts on all sorts of exciting subjects, including the latest information on Starcraft II and Hellgate: London, a review of Episode 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer's eighth season, news on some exciting upcoming DVD and HD releases, an overview of Casualty's recently-finished twenty-first series, some of the rare gialli I've managed to get my hands on, and much more.

First things first, though, the employment front. I started my new job at the Gallery of Modern Art library on Wednesday August 1st, but I didn't actually finish working with the NHS until yesterday. I thankfully managed to wrangle a few days of paid holiday, covering the days during which the two jobs would overlap (and Thursday and Friday this week, as it happens - yay!), but that doesn't mean I haven't had my plate full recently. I really am absolutely shattered, with the past three weeks having felt like a blur of early starts and late finishes, thanks to my parents leaving me and Lyris in charge of the dogs for a week when they went on holiday, seguing immediately into my moonlighting fiasco. Even last Sunday wasn't much of a reprieve, as we went on a family outing to watch my cousin's first child being forcibly inducted into a weird cult called Christianity, when I just wanted to crawl into bed and sleep. I got there in the end, though, and I got a nice send-off from the NHS, with two lunches out an impromptu party complete with carrot cake!

Anyway, I think I'm going to like working at the library. It's surprisingly tiring work, since I'm basically on my feet all day, but time passes much more quickly at the NHS, the work is more varies, and, hey, it's only two days a week! The breaks are also extremely generous, with 20 minutes in the morning, an hour for lunch, and a further 20 minutes in the afternoon. I suspect my "weekend" will end up being Sunday and Monday once I get started on my PhD, since I'm working Wednesdays and Saturdays, and intend to make myself adhere fairly strictly to a five-day week.

Anyway, it's good to be back.

DVDs I bought or received in the month of July

• Arrivederci Amore, Ciao (R3 Thailand, DVD)
• Being John Malkovich (R0 USA, HD DVD)
• Black Snake Moan (R0 USA, HD DVD)
• Blood Diamond (R0 USA, HD DVD)
• The Bourne Identity (R0 USA, HD DVD)
• Crank (RA USA, Blu-ray)
• The Fifth Element (remastered) (R0 USA, Blu-ray)
• La Haine (R0 UK, HD DVD)
• Layer Cake (R0 UK, Blu-ray)
• Paprika (R0 France, Blu-ray)
• The Secret of NIMH: Family Fun Edition (R1 USA, DVD)
• The Simpsons: The Complete Seventh Season (R1 USA, DVD)
• The Simpsons: The Complete Sixth Season (R1 USA, DVD)
• Syriana (R0 UK, HD DVD)

PS. I know I said I wouldn't be posting much at all over the course of the next week and a half, but I felt the need to acknowledge that we have lost to cinematic visionaries, Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni, in the space of 24 hours. Shockingly, I haven't seen a single Bergman film, but this news has made me feel an intense need to rectify this problem immediately.

Random HD update

There have been several big announcements in HD-land over the last couple of days, and, for your viewing pleasure, I've summarised them all in one post.

First up, Warner have unveiled special editions of several Stanley Kubrick films, due to debut on both HD DVD and Blu-ray on October 23rd. Released separately rather than as a box set, the titles on offer are 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Eyes Wide Shut, The Shining, and a new deluxe edition (presumably with a non-bobbed transfer) of Full Metal Jacket.

All titles have been restored and remastered and will offer both archive and new bonus features. Exact specs are to be confirmed, but initial details suggest all titles will use dual-layer BD50 and HD30 discs (potentially 2xHD30s on A Clockwork Orange if the early details are correct) and boast 1080P Widescreen transfers, English Dolby True HD 5.1 Surround audio on both formats (though the Blu-ray Disc listing for 2001 suggests Blu-ray owners will get a PCM 5.1 offering instead) and of course regular Dolby Digital/Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 tracks in English, French and Spanish languages.

Unfortunately, it would seem that the version of Eyes Wide Shut being released is the American R-rated cut, complete with superimposed CGI figures to obscure some of the more intimate details of the orgy scene. As such, you can probably guess that I won't be buying it. Instead, I'll be holding out for a non-American, uncut release.

Warner have also announced Blade Runner: The Final Cut for release on both formats on December 18th. With specs suggesting that this release will topple The Ultimate Matrix Collection from its "most feature-packed HD release" throne, this deluxe set will feature a whopping five discs, and will feature four different cuts of the film, including the all-new "final cut" and the fabled work-print version. For the true obsessive, an Ultimate Collector's Edition will also be available:

The Ultimate Collector's Edition will be presented in a unique 5-disc digi-package with handle which is a stylish version of Rick Deckard's own briefcase, in addition each briefcase will be individually numbered and in limited supply. Included is a lenticular motion film clip from the original feature, miniature origami unicorn figurine, miniature replica spinner car, collector's photographs as well as a signed personal letter from Sir Ridley Scott.

See a picture of the goodies here.

Finally, Highlight will be releasing the director's cut of Zhang Yimou's Hero on HD DVD in Germany on October 11th. No word yet on the specs (I'm a little worried that English subtitles won't be in the offing), but I'll definitely be keeping track of this one, especially as there currently isn't anything approaching a half-decent release of the director's cut on DVD.

Update, July 27st, 2007 07:10 PM: A Warner representative has just confirmed that the Eyes Wide Shut HD DVD and Blu-ray releases will include both the censored R-rated and uncut unrated versions. Thank god for that!