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Monday, October 4, 2010: THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ALICE CREED (UK, 2009) 7/10 Wednesday, October 13, 2010: DON'T SAY A WORD (USA/Australia, 2001) 7/10 Sunday, October 24, 2010: TRICK 'R TREAT (USA, 2007) 5/10...

Posted at 11:59 PM in Cinema

Friday, October 1, 2010: THE DOWNFALL OF BERLIN: ANONYMA (BD, Region ABC, UK) Saturday, October 2, 2010: THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ALICE CREED (BD, Region B, UK) Friday, October 8, 2010: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (BD, Region ABC, USA) Friday,...

Posted at 11:59 PM in Blu-ray / DVD

And now for something totally (and I mean totally) different. A while back, my good friend Lee Howard (who posts on here as Count Fosco) approached me with the idea of us teaming up to do a series of podcasts...

Posted at 8:55 PM in Podcast

The final instalment in Baz Luhrmann's "Red Curtain" trilogy - which are unconnected in terms of narrative and characters but share the same technique of blending old-time song and dance with a more modern sensibility - MOULIN ROUGE! takes this...

Posted at 4:11 PM in BD Impressions

#1005: ALIEN ANTHOLOGY (BD, 20th Century Fox, Region ABC, UK)...

Posted at 10:29 AM in Blu-ray

#1004: TOY STORY 3 (BD, Buena Vista, Region A, USA)...

Posted at 9:28 PM in Blu-ray

The first time I saw William Friedkin's THE EXORCIST was in March 2001, when it got its first ever airing on UK TV (two years after the British Board of Film Censors finally saw fit to unban it). To be...

Posted at 10:39 PM in BD Impressions

#1003: MOULIN ROUGE! (BD, 20th Century Fox, Region A, USA)...

Posted at 6:29 PM in Blu-ray

There are those who hate Baz Luhrmann's bawdy take on ROMEO AND JULIET. I'm not one of them. I can fully understand why people would react unfavourably to the idea of transposing Shakespeare's dialogue into a relentlessly contemporary setting, but...

Posted at 8:43 PM in BD Impressions

...try formatting it as FAT32 rather than NTFS. Sounds like a step backwards, I know, but in my case I saw a very significant improvement in performance. A couple of months back, I bought a 16 GB Corsair Flash Voyager...

Posted at 3:55 PM in Technology

#1002: SEX AND LUCÍA (BD, Palm Pictures, Region A, USA) I'm slightly curious as to how high definition video circa 2001 holds up today....

Posted at 4:36 PM in Blu-ray

I don't know how to rate this disc. I honestly don't. I'm sure just about everyone reading this is already aware of the controversy surrounding this disc. To put it simply, it's dark. REALLY dark. So dark that during night...

Posted at 9:10 PM in BD Impressions

#1001: ROMEO + JULIET (BD, 20th Century Fox, Region A, USA)...

Posted at 7:03 PM in Blu-ray

It's interesting but not altogether surprising that, whenever people discuss Disney's animation renaissance, the impression is often given that BEAUTY AND THE BEAST immediately followed THE LITTLE MERMAID, credited with having launched the studio's "second golden age". THE RESCUERS DOWN...

Posted at 4:49 PM in BD Impressions

SZAMANKA: Premium Collector's Edition (DVD, Mondo Vision, Region 0, USA) Thanks, Mazi! As a side note, this is... ...the 1,000th title to enter my collection!!! (Counting DVDs, HD DVDs and BDs.) I probably still own about half of that...

Posted at 6:25 PM in DVD

So I'm watching BEAUTY AND THE BEAST on BD, having a great time... I get to the end of the film, the final scene fades out... and then THIS appears on the screen: Um... no. Disney, you don't DO that!...

Posted at 9:53 PM in Blu-ray

...going purely by UK general theatrical release. If I was going by release in country of origin, this list would look quite different (and much shorter too): Toy Story 3 (USA: Lee Unkrich) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Sweden/Denmark/Germany/Norway:...

Posted at 3:38 PM in Cinema

Two men soundproof a room, head out, grab a young woman off the street, strip her and tie her to a bed. Oh, and they want a cool two million for her release. That's about all I'm prepared to say...

Posted at 3:32 PM in BD Impressions

THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS (BD, 20th Century Fox, Region A, USA)...

Posted at 10:56 PM in Blu-ray

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (BD, Buena Vista, Region ABC, USA) THE EXORCIST (BD, Warner, Region ABC, USA)...

Posted at 8:36 PM in Blu-ray

Not as good as I remembered it - which oddly enough is a sentiment I've seen echoed in a number of more recent reviews of the film. It now feels a touch too arch and smug for my tastes, and...

Posted at 11:08 PM in BD Impressions

I don't think it would be unreasonable to suggest that THE SECRET OF KELLS would have been a lot less interesting if not for its visuals. This is in no way meant as a damning criticism - I've always said...

Posted at 9:54 PM in BD Impressions

Sorry about the lack of updates. I wish I could say I've been super-busy, but in actual fact for the last few days I've been laid low with the flu. If you sent me an email in the last few...

Posted at 5:04 PM in General

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ALICE CREED (BD, CinemaNX, Region B, UK)...

Posted at 10:02 PM in Blu-ray

THE DOWNFALL OF BERLIN: ANONYMA (BD, Metrodome, Region ABC, UK) The original German title is ANONYMA: EINE FRAU IN BERLIN. It was released internationally as A WOMAN IN BERLIN. I'm not sure why the title was changed for the...

Posted at 10:03 PM in Blu-ray