— John

Heads up gang, because there are actually three different Men in Black DVDs on the way, all due on Sept. 5. Both Dolby Digital and DTS versions will be available in the one-disc permutations, which will also include a commentary by director Barry Sonnefeld and star Tommy Lee Jones, looks at the character animation and the tunnel sequence (both with multi-angle content), two "making-of" shorts, five deleted scenes, production stills, storyboards, conceptual artwork, a storyboard-to-film comparison, Will Smith's "Men in Black" music video, and the usual assortment of trailers and notes. And yes, all that is the cheaper single-disc edition. That second disc on the "Limited Edition" will have the documentary "Creatures: Concept to Completion," a commentary with the director of the "Creature and Special Effects" team, a look at the "Edgar Bug" fight sequence with multi-angle content, a feature that will allow users to program sequences in a virtual editing room, and even more stills, storyboards, and conceptual art. We're not sure if the "Limited Edition" really is only going to be available for a limited time (last we checked, Saving Private Ryan is a limited edition, and it's still for sale), but serious fans probably will want to fork out the bucks for it. And, given Columbia TriStar's excellent track record of releasing quality DVDs, pre-ordering from Reel.com or other online retailers probably is a safe bet.

— Paul

Well, we certainly don't have any preview PlayStation2 from Sony here, so we're just going to mix some experience and common-sense. First, Sony really is not a company that is known for making second-rate consumer electronics, and we've gone through enough Sony A/V gear here at The DVD Journal to swear by the lauded manufacturer (and we're not getting paid to say this — we just really like Sony stuff). Therefore, we will be very surprised if the North American PlayStation2 is not an above-average DVD player, as it will utilize at lot of the research and development that Sony has dumped into the DVD format over the past several years.

That said, your question is an "either/or" proposition. We're telling everybody who doesn't have DVD player but wants one, and is also interested in the value-add that the PS2 provides with the next generation of video gaming, to fork out the $299 for the gadget. But most of these folks are DVD-curious, not digital die-hards. If you're serious about watching DVDs, building a personal library, and perhaps plugging in to a full-fledged home theater down the road, the stand-alone DVD players are still the only way to go, as they will have the best array of features, and probably a more solid construction. Sony put a lot of effort into the PS2, but while a great deal of it is technological, some of it is also cost-oriented (after all, the price-point of any given gaming system can make or break it). In particular, Sony was a pioneer of the dual optical pickup, which means that many of their DVD players have two dedicated lasers, designed to individually handle DVD and CD playback. The dual pickup can be nice (single DVD pickups don't handle blue-green CD-Rs very well, for example), but the PlayStation2 will only have a single pickup. Sony is claiming that it's a vastly improved device that will handle both media formats, but overall manufacturing costs still were a factor. This and other issues may cause you to buy a dedicated player.

— Jeff

You can identify them ergonomically, for starters — do you "push down," or do you "lift here"? The clasp is the key to the two most-popular versions of DVD keep-cases, with the Amaray having that smooth push-down clasp, which frees a disc from its enclosure by just the slightest touch (and it also has that nifty yin-yang shape, appropriately identifying the need for the proper Feng Shui in DVD packaging). As some of our readers suggested last week, the Alpha is a bit more secure than the Amaray, and probably less prone to delivering rattlers, but it also tends to freak people out now and then. After all, how comfortable do you feel about inserting your index finger into the "lift here" space above the DVD and they prying your prized possession off the tight circular clasp? Of course, the Alpha is designed to release before any DVD could actually break (and those of you who have ever tried to break a CD or DVD in two know how difficult the job is), but still, yanking a DVD from its enclosure has always struck us as something our mothers would tell us not to do, had DVDs been around in the '70s. Actually, we think Alphas are the best way to ship DVDs — but we think Amarays are the best way to store them once they have survived the parcel post.

Still don't know which are which? Here's the foolproof method. Look on the inside of the case's spine. If it's an Amaray, the Amaray logo will be embossed vertically on the bottom right. If it's not there, look under the circular DVD enclosure and to the extreme right, where the embossed Alpha logo can be found on their cases.

— Ken

Hey, our wager is with DVD Journal reader Ed Purcell, not the whole goddam world. And trust us, a gloating e-mail was duly fired off to him after the Blazers slaughtered Shaq & Co. by 29 points in front of all their Armani-wearing, cell-phone packing, A-list movie-star fans. Ed's never gonna get that Abyss: Special Edition DVD from us.

Top of the Pops: Here's the top-selling DVDs last week from our friends at Reel.com. Click the links to read our reviews of these discs:

1. The World Is Not Enough
2. Sleepy Hollow
3. The James Bond Collection: Vol. 2
4. The Matrix
5. Being John Malkovich: Special Edition
6. The Sixth Sense: Collector's Edition
7. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid: Special Edition
8. Three Kings
9. Dogma
10. The X-Files: Season One

Later.

— Ed.

Tuesday, 23 May 2000

In the Works: Here's some new disc announcements, courtesy of Image Entertainment and Reel.com:

• Columbia TriStar will release our favorite Jimmy Stewart film ever, Otto Preminger's 1959 Anatomy of A Murder (July 11), with production notes, a still gallery, and a trailer. We also can look forward to Pedro Almodovar's Oscar-winning All About My Mother (July 11), with a "making-of" short, an interview with director Almodovar, an isolated score, a trailer, and the standard cast-and-crew notes. Other CTHV stuff in the works includes the 1969 Mackenna's Gold (July 11), starring Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif, and Edward G. Robinson; Steel Magnolias: Special Edition, with a commentary by director Herbert Ross, an isolated score, and a "making-of' doc; the 1977 Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (July 11), with plenty of supplements on stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen; Jackie Chan's Gorgeous: Special Edition (July 11), with a commentary by Chan and more; The Secret of Roan Inish: Special Edition (July 25), with a commentary by director John Sayles; the recent Mike Nichols comedy What Planet Are You From?, starring Garry Shandling and Annette Bening; The Audrey Hepburn Story (July 11); and George Carlin: Jammin' In New York/ Doin' It Again (July 18).
• Plenty of stuff is on the way from Paramount, including Robert Altman's 1975 American epic Nashville: Special Edition (July 27), with a 160-minute running time (longer versions reportedly are out there), and both a commentary by director Altman and interview footage. Meanwhile, you Star Trek fans can look forward to the granddaddy of the series, The Wrath of Khan (July 11), although this one, like the rest of the Trek films on DVD, won't have any substantial extras. Rounding out Paramount's current releases are Searching For Bobby Fischer (July 11), the high-flying Active Stealth: Special Edition (July 11), with a commentary by director Fred Olen Ray, the gumshoe comedy Where's Marlowe? (July 18), and two more volumes of the Classic Star Trek TV series, due on July 11 ("City on the Edge of Forever" will in be in this batch).
• Get ready for the second edition of Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights from New Line, the first-ever "Double Platinum Edition" from the studio. The two-disc set will include all of the features on the current edition (which Anderson insists is still the "director's cut"), but the alternate 155-minute spin will be on board this one. Look for it on Aug. 29.
• Warner has the recent box-office hit The Whole Nine Yards in prep as a special edition (July 18), with a commentary by director Jonathan Lynn, interviews, and a gag reel. Also expect Boiler Room: Special Edition (July 11), with deleted scenes, an alternate ending, and an isolated score and commentary from the composer, and My Dog Skip: Special Edition (July 11), featuring a commentary with director Jay Russell and actor Frankie Muniz, and deleted scenes with commentary.
• Buena Vista will release Mansfield Park: Special Edition (July 11), which will include a commentary track from director Patricia Rozema; last year's Breakfast of Champions (June 30), starring Bruce Willis and based on the Kurt Vonnegut novel; Jackie Chan's action-packed Crime Story (July 18); the recent Kirk Douglas film Diamonds (July 18), also starring Dan Aykroyd; and the teen comedy Down To You (July 11), starring Freddie Prinze Jr., because an Act of Congress apparently dictates that he appear in all contemporary teen comedies.
• Fox has two catalog comedies in the pipe this morning, My Cousin Vinny and White Men Can't Jump. No special features on either one of these — both are due on July 25.
• Rykodisc has three double-features on the way from public-domain titles, but sometimes these budget discs can be good value. Alfred Hitchcock's early Juno and the Paycock and Blackmail, Fritz Lang's Spies and M, and Ingmar Bergman's Through a Glass Darkly and Wild Strawberries are all due on June 27 and will street for less than twenty bucks.
• Huh? When we heard that Warner's brilliant Strangers on a Train was discontinued several months back, we put our spare copy in a safe-deposit box. But now word is that the disc — which features both the US and UK versions of the psychological thriller — will re-appear on Aug. 29, and it doesn't look like it will be any different than the original.
• No such luck for fans of The Killing Fields — Warner's on-again, off-again special edition is now off, and a new release date isn't expected until sometime next year.

On the Street: The top title on the board this morning appears to be Paramount's Sleepy Hollow, which should score well on the sales charts next week. However, catalog titles dominate the street this week, including The Firm, which goes on the shelves just one day before Tom Cruise's M:I-2 hits the cineplexes. (Coincidence? We think not.) Columbia TriStar has a few notables on the board this morning as well, with both American Movie and The Guns of Navarone: Special Edition, and even the Three Stooges collection All the World's a Stooge. Documentary fans can snap up Bruce Brown's '60s surf classic The Endless Summer, and Shakespeare buffs have a real treat in store with Franco Zeferelli's 1968 Romeo and Juliet. Need we mention that Warner has finally re-released Little Shop of Horrors? It's a great DVD, so only time will tell how much longer the out-of-print first edition will remain a top-trader at eBay. Here's this morning's notable street discs, courtesy of Reel.com and Image Entertainment:

• American Gigolo
• American Movie
• Anguish
• Big Bully
• The Blood Spattered
• Cannibal Man
• City of the Living Dead
• Don't Torture a Duckling
• The Endless Summer
• Eye of the Beholder
• The Firm
• The Guns of Navarone
• La Grande Bouffe
• Last Man Standing
• Little Shop of Horrors
• Lured
• Mesmer
• Mighty Peking Man
• Money Talks
• Mortal Kombat
• Mortal Kombat: Annihilation
• Naked Killer
• Neon Genesis Evangelion Collection 0:1 (Episodes 1-4) (delayed from March 28)
• The Other Side of Sunday
• Pandora and the Flying Dutchman
• Puppet Master
• The Puppet Master Collection
• Romeo and Juliet (1968)
• Sailor Moon S: The Movie - Hearts In Ice
• Sex and the City: Collector's Edition (2-DVD set)
• Shock: Collector's Edition (delayed from March 21)
• Sleepy Hollow
• A Soldier's Tale
• The Source
• Star Trek DVD: The Original Series - Vol. 11
• Star Trek DVD: The Original Series - Vol. 12
• Stay Tuned
• Switchblade Sisters
• Three Stooges: All the World's a Stooge
• Trigun: Lost Past: Vol. 2

'Goodnight, sweet prince': A giant of the stage and screen, Sir John Gielgud, died yesterday at his home in England of natural causes. Gielgud — who perhaps made his greatest impression on American moviegoers as the choleric Hobson, Dudley Moore's butler in Arthur (he won an Academy Award for the lightweight role) — was a prominent member of a small group of actors who dominated the British stage during the middle part of this century, joined by such luminaries as Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, and Peggy Ashcroft. First making his mark in the theater, his earliest film appearances included Alfred Hitchcock's 1936 Secret Agent, where he co-starred with Peter Lorre, and in recent years he was active in small UK film projects, intermittent guest appearances on BBC television shows, and the occasional feature film (we most recently saw him in the 1998 Elizabeth). Never one to consider retiring, he was most recently associated with the production of a Samuel Beckett play in London, where he was turning up for work just a few weeks ago. You can only hope to be so healthy in your old age — Gielgud was 96.

— Ed.

Monday, 22 May 2000

Disc of the Week: When it comes to the great espionage novelists of the 20th century, the masters of the form roll off the tongue — Frederick Forsythe, John Le Carré, Robert Ludlum, Jack Higgins. And, of course, Alistair MacLean, perhaps the most bankable of all intrigue writers for his brevity, crisp plotting, and tell-tale red herrings. Pick up any MacLean novel and you can expect the following: a noble, somewhat inscrutable hero is given a suicide mission. The mission involves a rescue, invasion, or escape of some sort. The work will require the cooperation of others. However, somebody on the team will be a traitor (the knowledge of a traitor will appear before the culprit is actually identified). And, of course, everything will come down to a few nail-biting final moments before the heroes prevail. Many of MacLean's books have been translated to the big screen, and while Ice Station Zebra is a ready favorite for adventure fans, 1961's The Guns of Navarone remains his most popular to date.

Directed by J. Lee Thompson, Navarone concerns 2,000 British soldiers trapped on a Greek island during World War II, where they await rescue by the British Fleet before the Nazis take action. However, in order to reach the troops the fleet must pass through a channel guarded by two massive German guns on the island of Navarone. Time is a precious commodity, forcing the government to mount a small infiltrate-and-destroy mission, led by experienced mountain-climber Keith Mallory (Gregory Peck). He is joined by a group of experts, each selected for their unique skills — Greek resistance-fighter Stavros (Anthony Quinn); demolition-expert Miller (David Niven); sharpshooter Pappadimos (James Darren); knife-man Brown (Stanley Baker); and team-leader Franklin (Anthony Quayle). Once the team is assembled, the plot wastes no time. A dangerous undercover journey via fishing boat results in a catastrophic night-time landing on Navarone. The team are in shambles after the shipwreck, but they have no choice but to carry on, scaling a cliff-face and then determining how they should best infiltrate the mountain fortress. Surprises lie in wait everywhere, including harried encounters with the Nazi SS — who know that Allied agents have reached the island — and a pair of female resistance fighters (Irene Papas, Gia Scala), who join forces with the rag-tag Brits.

Solid fun from beginning to end, The Guns of Navarone may show its age in a few sequences here and there, but the plotting, the performances, and those evil Nazis have made it reliable entertainment for decades. Peck is the stable center of the crew, forced to make the tough decisions that could come back to haunt him. Niven, as the humanistic Miller, may be a genius when it comes to blowing things up, but he has little stomach for the realities of close-quarter warfare. And yet Quinn steals the movie from both of them as the crafty Stavros, a man who isn't merely on a mission to destroy two guns, but who has dedicated his life to killing Nazis, as he lost his wife and children to German soldiers years earlier. The trio forms both the narrative and thematic core of Navarone, driving the story forward with engaging characters and not just pyrotechnics. They simply don't make movie stars like they used to.

Columbia TriStar's new The Guns of Navarone: Special Edition is a must-have for fans of the action/adventure genre, and it features an excellent anamorphic transfer (2.35:1) from the restored print (currently at the UCLA Film and Television Archive, where the restoration was overseen by Robert Gitt). Audio is available in the original English four-channel track (in Dolby Surround) or in a new Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. The many features include a commentary by director Thompson; the 30-minute retrospective documentary "Memories of Navarone," featuring comments from Peck, Quinn, Thompson, Darren, and others; four early black-and-white featurettes from Columbia Pictures; a brief message from producer Carl Foreman, shot just after the film was released worldwide; trailers for Navarone and the Gregory Peck film Behold a Pale Horse; and cast-and-crew filmographies. The Guns of Navarone: Special Edition is on the street tomorrow morning.

Box Office: Much to nobody's surprise, Disney's $125-million animated spectacular Dinosaur debuted in the top position at the North American box office over the weekend, earning $38.6 million — the best opening this year to date — and banishing DreamWorks' Gladiator to second place after two weeks on top of the pre-summer heap. However, the Ridley Scott-directed toga-tale went down fighting, with $19.1 million in receipts over the weekend — a remarkable sum for a film in its third weekend. Gladiator also cracked the century mark in just 17 days, and it very possibly could join the $200 million club before it's done. In contrast, Warner's sci-flop Battlefield Earth, starring John Travolta, lost two-thirds of its audience over its second weekend, tumbling from $12.3 million to $3.8 million amidst fatal word-of-mouth on the street and some of the most savage reviews to be seen in the American press since Ishtar.

No other debuts really had a chance against Dinosaur, but DreamWorks had a pair of new films over the weekend, the twentysomething comedy Road Trip, with a solid $15 million (that's more than it cost to make), and Woody Allen's Small Time Crooks, which garnered $3.8 million — a marginal figure, but the best opening for a Woody film in more than 20 years (both Battlefield Earth and Small Time Crooks earned roughly the same dough, but Earth played on four times as many screens. Did we mention that Earth cost about $70 million to make? Let's just say that some folks over at Warner are having a worse Monday morning than you).

Still in continuing release are Universal's U-571, which has earned $64.4 million to date, New Line's sleeper hit Frequency, passing the $30 million mark over the weekend, and Fox's chick-flick Where The Heart Is, now starting to fade with just a $25.8 million overall gross. And it seems the Memorial Day weekend gears up earlier and earlier every year, as all eyes are on Mission: Impossible 2, which will go wide on Wednesday. As the holiday numbers won't come in until next Monday afternoon to account for the three-day weekend, M:I-2 will actually have a "debut" weekend of six days, and Tom Cruise is a good bet to come out on top.

Here's the top-grossing films at North American theaters from last weekend:

1. Dinosaur (Buena Vista)
   $38,600,000 ($38,600,000 through 1 week)
2. Gladiator (DreamWorks SKG)
   $19,100,000 ($102,500,000 through 3 weeks)
3. Road Trip (DreamWorks SKG)
   $15,000,000 ($15,000,000 through 1 week)
4. U-571 (Universal)
   $4,600,000 ($64,400,000 through 5 weeks)
5. Frequency (New Line)
   $4,300,000 ($30,300,000 through 4 weeks)
6. Battlefield Earth (Warner Bros.)
   $3,830,000 ($18,200,000 through 2 weeks)
7. Small Time Crooks (DreamWorks SKG)
   $3,800,000 ($3,800,000 through 1 week)
8. Center Stage (Sony/Columbia TriStar)
   $3,300,000 ($9,200,000 through 2 weeks)
9. Where the Heart Is (Fox)
   $2,900,000 ($25,800,000 through 4 weeks)
10. The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (Universal)
    $2,500,000 ($27,800,000 through 4 weeks)
11. Screwed (Universal)
    $1,800,000 ($6,100,000 through 2 weeks)
12. Love and Basketball (New Line)
    $1,500,000 ($21,900,000 through 5 weeks)

On the Board: D. K. Holm has posted a new full review of the much-discussed documentary American Movie, while Steve Firstenburg is on the board with a look at SHORT 8: Vision, the latest edition of the short-film DVD series. Both have been posted on our Full Reviews index. New quick reviews this week from the staff include Little Shop of Horrors, Eye of the Beholder, The Guns of Navarone: Special Edition, The End of the Affair (1955), and King Creole, and can be accessed on the Quick Reviews index. And, as usual, everything has been added under the New Reviews menu here on the main page.

We got game: We challenged our readers in Los Angeles to square off with us over the current NBA Western Conference Finals, where the L.A. Lakers are taking on our Portland Trail Blazers, and we have selected Laker fan Ed Purcell for our wager. If L.A. wins, Ed gets our copy of The Abyss: Special Edition and the original media-only press kit from Fox. Of course, after Saturday's Hack-a-Shaq fiasco, perhaps we should start scribbling Ed's address on a Priority Mail envelope right away. But we're gonna stick it out. Hey, we really don't want to lose this DVD to a crummy Laker fan like Ed.

We'll be back tomorrow with news on this week's street discs.

— Ed.

Thursday, 18 May 2000
Weekend Dispatch

Tales of the 'Rattler': We gotta tell you that it's no fun to spend an afternoon talking with the legal division of The DVD Journal, but after getting more than few letters yesterday from readers regarding "rattlers" (see yesterday's update), including various complaints about specific retailers, our attorneys got out the big black Magic Markers and crossed off some of the specifics. Sorry about that, but a subpoena is about as appealing to us as a digital rectal exam. Nevertheless, here's some choice comments about noisy DVDs from loyal DVD Journal regulars:

By comparison, the first time we used (deleted).com was the last time. We ordered eight discs, and one of them was a rattler (Brainstorm, keep-case, newly out-of-print) and the other was a crushed snap-case item (Bonnie and Clyde). After much hassle and insistence to get the bad items back first (and a policy to pay for the return shipping ourselves and be paid back for it later — the only online retailer I've ever had insist on this!), we finally got a good Brainstorm, but a sealed rattler of Bonnie and Clyde (off of its snap-case hub). After all the hassle the first time, we decided to try Bonnie and Clyde — it worked okay despite a shallow scratch so we decided we weren't gonna deal with a second exchange with (deleted).com. We kept both of those.

We've also seen plenty of rattlers in stores, none of which we bought. They seem to be in keep cases, as I recall, but I couldn't tell you if they were Amary vs. Alpha. The best rattler story is the time we were in (deleted) and found a copy of Millennium, a film my wife had enjoyed but I had never seen. It was a rattler so my wife was gonna put it back, but being a former retail store manager I decided to instead give it to the lady behind the counter. I told her it was defective and demonstrated why. She put it under the counter and thanked me. It was the only copy, so we went to leave. But I turned around at the door to go back and ask her a question, and I caught her putting the rattler back on the shelf!

— U.M.

With the keep cases, I guess a sharp jolt can dislodge the disk. My question is, if that happens so easily, why do I have such a hard time prying the things off those little rings? And it is not just when I have been drinking.

I have had a couple of bad experiences with damaged discs in Warner's cases bought through (deleted).com (New Jack City, Ladyhawke, and a few others). They came rather heavily scratched, and to this day, I'm not sure what happened to them. If I remember correctly though, they were loose in the case. So, maybe this means that one is less likely to find rattlers in snap-cases, but when they occur there is far higher probability of the disc turning up scratched.

— Michael

— J.P.

— John

— Jeff

Thanks for all the letters guys. Rattlers probably show up a lot less often than these comments indicate, but that doesn't change the fact that they tend to stick in the memory a little longer. And while complaints about various retailers' return policies are fair game, we think that, more often than not, rattlers happen in transit and are a result of poor handling (at least we'd like to think that retailers are responsible enough not to ship rattlers knowingly). Also, while the Amaray keep-case may be vulnerable during shipping (face it, that smooth push-down clasp can break off), the comments we got yesterday also indicate that the Warner snapper can also deliver a rattler now and then — something we did not suspect at first.

And hey, we already have a solution to the entire problem. DVD cases are not airtight packages — there is some room in there, which facilitates easy handling. But before DVDs are sealed for retailers, it would cause a few less headaches if an additional insert, perhaps of a foam material no less than a quarter-inch thick (or bubble-pack, as J.P. suggests), could be placed in the free space to hold the disc snug to the clasp. This would work both with keepers and snappers. However, it also would present an additional packaging cost, and unless retailers start sending back a bunch of damaged rattlers to vendors and wholesalers, it probably won't happen anytime soon.

And here's what we suspect is a dirty little secret — rattlers aren't necessarily damaged discs, and many of them can work just fine. We wouldn't be surprised to learn that some retailers open up returned rattlers, re-secure the discs, and then shrink-wrap them again before putting 'em back in circulation. It may not sound pretty, but it makes all the sense in the world, especially if we're none the wiser (you're none the wiser when you eat a sausage either — and you really don't want to see how those are made).

Commentary Clip: "We needed the 'dances with wolves' scene desperately, and eventually we had the trainer come in, and this particular angle was done by the trainer because we were having trouble with the wolf. And at one point, just as the wolf was starting to really act the way we wanted him to, the trainer ran out of the angle of the film. And I couldn't believe it, because we had finally got the wolf to do the things we wanted him to do. I went down to the trainer and I asked 'Well, what happened?' He says 'The wolf bit me.' And I said 'Well, what does than mean?' And he said 'Well, it means you're gonna have to get in there and do it.' So this angle that you see, that is me and that is the angle that I had to do, and as the wolf would come towards me I would throw meat away from him, just as he was getting close to me, and then he would chase the meat because he would go on the lowest food-chain item. And then I would run as far away from him as I could, and when he would get close to me I would throw the meat really far away (laughs). It's just how you make films."

— Kevin Costner,
Dances With Wolves

Quotable: "There is a lot to like about Disney right now. But I think the problem is that, this time, (CEO Michael) Eisner has become a victim of his own otherwise worthy micromanaging. Eisner lives by the anecdote. He often manages that way, too. While numbers show that four million homes now stock a DVD player, he claims he wasn't wowed at the possibilities of Disney's lush film library on the digital format until he took a stroll through an electronics superstore. He assumes that what he sees we see, or in a more lucrative light, we will eventually see."

— Rick Aristotle Munarriz, in a recent column at
The Motley Fool

"That's not bad for a couple of lines."

— A-list movie star George Clooney, who earned a
union-scale $596 for his surprise appearance in last
Thursday's episode of ER on NBC-TV.

"The movie industry doesn't yet have quite the same issues (as MP3 or Napster), primarily because bandwidth limitations make copying and trading films impractical. But the major studios — which today enjoy massive revenues from videocassettes only because the courts ignored their efforts to ban the technology — are determined to get out in front of the problem. They've sued Web sites carrying (DeCSS), and having won an early round in court, are now trying to bar the sites from linking to any site that houses the program. Again, the industry is trying to stop something that its customers want to do, instead of enabling it. Worse, it's trying to set a precedent that would have disastrous implications for free speech. In the long run, a legal regime that stamps out the longstanding concept of "fair use" of copyrighted material, and forces customers to break the law to do routine things that everyone wants to do, will be a disaster for all copyright creators."

— Jonathan Weber, writing this week in
The Industry Standard.

"I make the film, this is the film, that's the end of it. If you like it, you like it. If you don't like, you don't. I've never thought of supplementing it with anything."

— Woody Allen, speaking at a student forum this
week at UCLA, indicating that he probably won't
ever sit for a DVD commentary track.

"Well, as you know, I was raised only a few blocks from here, so it feels great to be home."

— Chris Rock, visiting the Cannes Film
Festival this week.

Coming Attractions: We have another stack of DVD reviews on the way, including Columbia TriStar's American Movie, the latest edition of SHORT, and lots more, so be sure to come back on Monday morning for all the latest.

Have a great weekend, gang.

— Ed.

Wednesday, 17 May 2000

Mailbag: Wednesday is the day we get to our reader mail here at The DVD Journal, and while we aren't able to personally respond to all of your letters, we'd like to let you know that we read everything we get. Here's a few reader comments from this week:

As a footnote, I thought I should mention I buy a lot of Criterion titles, and have experienced the following: Salo purchased on eBay arrived loose in case, The 39 Steps purchased from eBay arrived loose in case, Samurai I purchased from a Web retailer arrived loose in case, Blood for Dracula purchased from another Web retailer arrived twice loose in case and is now on backorder, and finally Hard Boiled purchased from brick-and-mortar retailer — the last copy in stock — loose in case (I assume nobody else wanted it even though it was out of print).

— Paul

You know, before we got your letter Paul we thought that "rattlers" (that's what we call 'em around here) were annoying, but we didn't think this was a widespread problem. In fact, while we've had a few rattlers over time, we have only ever received one sealed DVD that was a rattler and also defective — and we get a lot of DVDs through here on a weekly basis. But you bring up a few interesting points. First, we can't recall specifically if rattlers have come primarily in Amaray keepers and not Alphas or the other permutations. If they are an Amaray-specific problem, is this a drawback to what currently is our favorite DVD storage medium? Furthermore, after giving the question some serious thought over a few cold microbrews, we can't ever remember getting a rattler that was in a Warner snap-case. If our recollections are accurate, is this a distinct advantage that the paperboard-pack has over the keepers? And finally, we often notice that some of the most highly prized DVD collectibles on eBay are advertised as "sealed." As you have suggested, are a lot of these "sealed" DVDs in fact rattlers, and therefore possibly not worth the big bucks they draw at auction? Before we go bidding again, we certainly will ask the seller if the item would be suitable for entertaining a young child who likes to make noise.

Hey, we don't claim to have all the answers here — if you have something to share about rattlers, send your comments to letters@dvdjournal.com and we'll see if we can post a few more insights on the topic.

— Jack

It really has more to do with the player than the disc, but that's not the end of it. Fundamentally, the location of the layer-switch on a RSDL disc is entirely up to the DVD author(s), and while some are well done (as with the "80s" title-card on New Line's Boogie Nights DVD), others are decidedly less attractive (the awkward layer switch on Warner's L.A. Confidential, as Kevin Spacey pauses during a conversation, is a salient flaw on an otherwise brilliant release). We'll probably win few friends among DVD authors, who are dealing with constraints that we cannot imagine, but we'll scream this until we're out of oxygen — put the switch on a fade-to-black, any fade-to-black near the middle of the film, and when that isn't possible, switch on a flat cut between scenes. We've been jarred by more than a few mid-scene switches, and they never fail to generate a collective group of pained moans when the DVD Journal staff has gathered in the screening room to take in a new disc.

As for the technical details of the layer-switch and if the digital jump can be done better by some DVD authors than others, we think that most layer-switches will take similar amounts of time on any given player. Where the difference often lies is in the quality of the player itself. Our pair of Sony DVP-S300 decks handle layer switches remarkably well, as do most all Sony players and others from reputable manufacturers. However, our APEX AD-600A — which was purchased by us (and many other DVD fans) for reasons that have little to do with overall quality — really isn't a great DVD player as far as things go. It works good enough for our purposes (it's currently hooked up to your humble editor's Mac in the office here), but layer-switches simply aren't as smooth as those on the trusted Sony in our screening room. What's more, the APEX (and probably most other "budget" DVD decks) displays a remarkable lag-time when it comes to most user-input — indexing back and forth between chapters, changing audio tracks, and reverting to the main menu takes a second or two, whereas on better players these selections are normally instantaneous. We have nothing but trite words of wisdom on this one — when it comes to DVD players, you normally get what you pay for. Buy from the most-reputable manufacturers when you can afford it.

— Chris

A man much wiser that us once said "The quality of a product does not have as much affect on its overall success as much as how skillfully that product is marketed." It's a thought worth chewing over now and then.

Top of the Pops: Here's the top-selling DVDs last week from our friends at Reel.com. Click the links to read our reviews of these discs:

1. The World Is Not Enough: Special Edition
2. The X-Files: Season One
3. The James Bond Collection: Vol. 2
4. Dogma
5. Being John Malkovich
6. The Sixth Sense: Collector's Edition
7. Three Kings
8. The Matrix
9. End of Days: Collector's Edition
10. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid: Special Edition

Bring it on: Okay gang — who's gonna bet the DVD Journal editor on the upcoming Blazers/Lakers Western Conference Finals? We have a copy of The Abyss: Special Edition that we're willing to wager. Here's the deal: if you live in L.A., you're over 18, and you're a rabid Lakers fan, simply send an e-mail to lakersrule@dvdjournal.com and tell us why you think L.A. will kick Portland's ass over the next two weeks. We will select a potential winner by this weekend at the editor's discretion. If the Lakers win, we'll pop our Abyss check-discs (some of the first to come off the replicator) along with the press-only media kit in the mail to the unlikely winner. But if L.A. loses, the contestant will acknowledge to the world that the Lakers are a bunch of overrated nancy-boys — a statement that we will publish here alongside the contestant's name. Readers in New York, Miami, Philly, and Indianapolis take notice, because we're coming for some of you next.

— Ed.

Tuesday, 16 May 2000

Recordable DVD smackdown!: What a wonderful time it was for consumer electronics back in the mid-1990s. When the DVD Video technology was still in its infancy, the various CE manufacturers — bruised by several format wars over the previous two decades — realized that it would be in their best interests to sit down at the table and negotiate a unified DVD Video standard, for without unification the shiny little discs wouldn't stand a chance against the entrenched lo-res behemoth that is VHS. Under the auspices of The DVD Video Group, the various manufacturers and content providers hammered out a standard they all could live with, and that's why we now have thousands of DVD titles currently in release and millions of DVD players in people's homes. And yet, overjoyed by the miraculous DVD format, which delivers quality feature entertainment in a handy CD-sized package, it was only a matter of time before digital die-hards asked the obvious — "When are these sonsabitches gonna be recordable?"

The fact is that they've been "recordable" for quite some time. No less than seven DVD-recordable formats have gone through development, and there are currently two competing formats at this time — DVD-RW and DVD-RAM. Last November, Pioneer announced the first DVD-recordable deck for home video, currently available in Japan (albeit at prohibitive prices) and based on DVD-RW. But in early January Matsushita (Panasonic/Technics) announced their own DVD-recordable deck, which would be a DVD-RAM device. And as Matsushita's deck is set to reach the street next month in Japan, it's now become clear that the brewing format war isn't going to give way on either side.

"We aim to promote DVD-RAM as the de facto industry standard in consumer DVD video recording," an unnamed Matsushita official told Reuters yesterday. "We have no plan to make it compatible with DVD-RW recorders." And in order to make sure that their new deck will be competitive with Pioneer's model, Matsushita has announced that it will go for $2,300, which is what Pioneer is currently fetching. Both gadgets are due to arrive in North America sometime later this year (where they certainly will be massacred by Sony's DVD-ready PlayStation2, which doesn't record but will sell for a nifty $299).

If this is starting to look ugly, Pioneer isn't going to take it lying down, nor do they have to — last week in Tokyo, 12 electronics and media manufacturers announced the formation of the RW Products Promotion Initiative (RWPPI), and Pioneer, a member of the organization, is joined by such heavyweights as Sony, Mitsubishi, Sharp, Fuji, Hitachi, Maxell, Kenwood, Onkyo, Sanyo, TDK, and Samsung. All are committed to formulating "promotional activities for products based on the Pioneer-developed DVD-RW disc recording format," and while they are paying lip-service to alternative formats, it looks pretty clear that they expect DVD-RW to come out a winner.

The losers? Us. Even if Matsushita fails to successfully launch DVD-RAM as a home-video format, history tells us that the damage already may be done. The only two substantial home-video formats at this time — VHS and DVD — succeeded by near-universal cooperation from all manufacturers and content providers. But when consumers are confused by competing formats, they often decide not to invest at all. Let's face it — VHS sucks. But it works, it's idiot-proof, and it's as comfortable for most people as a pair of old bedroom slippers. Tell the average Joe that there's more than one recordable DVD format available and odds are he's gonna plunk down his cash for another trusty four-pack of blank VHS tapes, along with one or two recent DVD Video releases, and be glad that he's carefree enough not to waste his time with the mumbo-jumbo. Unless things change on the recordable DVD front, we're about to get right behind him.

In the Works: Let's get a look at some new disc announcements, courtesy of Image Entertainment and Reel.com:

• Been bidding at eBay on such out-of-print PolyGram titles as Platoon, Kalifornia, or Fargo? You can knock it off now, as MGM will street all three on Aug. 15. No word yet if these will be any different than the previous DVDs, but it doesn't look like it at this time.
• Paramount has announced that Angela's Ashes: Special Edition will appear on July 18, and it will include two commentaries, one by director Alan Parker, the other by author Frank McCourt, along with two trailers, a featurette, and the standard cast-and-crew notes. Two children's titles are also on the way from Paramount, Blue's Big Musical Movie: Blue's Clues (Oct. 3), and It's The Pied Piper, Charlie Brown (Sept. 12).
• It was regarded by many critics to be the best film of 1999 (even if it only won Oscars for Best Costumes and Best Make-up), so we are looking forward to USA's upcoming disc of Mike Leigh's Topsy-Turvy (June 20), the lively biopic of musical collaborators Gilbert and Sullivan. The new release will include a featurette, production stills, notes on the real-life composers, cast-and-crew notes, and a trailer.
• Just one from Fox this morning — Danny Boyle's The Beach, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, due on July 25.
• Artisan is on the board with this year's The Ninth Gate: Special Edition (July 18), starring Johnny Depp, which will feature a commentary by director Roman Polanski (his first DVD commentary by our count), along with a "making-of" doc, production notes, and cast-and-crew bios. Also look for Stephen King's 1983 Cujo (July 25), John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper's 1993 horror trilogy Body Bags (June 13), The Arabian Nights (June 13), with Dougray Scott and Mili Avital, The Langoliers (July 25), and Restraining Order: Special Edition (July 18).
• New Video has an interesting D.A. Pennebaker documentary on the way, 1997's Moon Over Broadway: Special Edition (July 5), a behind-the-scenes peek at the Broadway comedy Moon Over Buffalo, starring Carol Burnett and Philip Bosco. The disc will include a commentary by Pennebaker, Bosco, and others.
• Sony Music has Billy Joel: Live At Yankee Stadium back on the schedule for June 13, after it was previously dropped without a new date. Songs will include "Storm Front," "I Go To Extremes," "The Downeaster Alexa," and "We Didn't Start The Fire" — i.e., all of that shoddy, self-important crap he did after he married Christie Brinkley. Somebody wake us up when a rousing rendition of "You May Be Right" or "Only The Good Die Young" goes digital.
• BMG has prepped 38 Special: Live at Sturgis, Christopher Cross: An Evening with Christopher Cross, and George Thorogood and the Destroyers: Live In '99 All three are on the street now.
• Those of you who enjoy the collectable DVD packages from Creative Design can look forward to three more, all under license from Warner — Blade Runner, Blazing Saddles, and Twister. All three deluxe packages will include eight lobby cards, a commemorative book, a film cell from the movie, and a theatrical poster, and they are all due on June 6. However, only Twister will be a new DVD, the special edition due from Warner on June 6 as well, while both Blade Runner and Blazing Saddles are the same discs currently on the street.
• 20th Century Fox: The First 50 Years, a survey of the film studio's lauded library, has been delayed to Aug. 18 so that Image can add an additional hour a material, which will boost the release up to a DVD-18.
• Image's details on the IMAX flick The Eruption of Mount St. Helens note that the volcano — which ruptured 20 years ago this week — "lost over 8.8 cubic yards of ice, rock and dirt" during the 1980 blast. With all due respect to our friends at Image, we can see the flattened Mount St. Helens from our downtown Portland offices here, and we suspect it lost a little more than that.

On the Street: Another big box of DVDs dominate the Tuesday street list this morning, MGM's The James Bond Collection: Volume 2, which includes such 007 classics as Dr. No, The Man with the Golden Gun, and The Spy Who Loved Me, along with last year's The World Is Not Enough. Meanwhile, five Criterion titles have reached the street today after some delays, and Columbia TriStar has a great double-feature with both the 1955 and 1999 versions of The End of the Affair, available separately or in a bundled set. With such a great selection of new titles, we still must point out that Fox's Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid: Special Edition is outstanding and sure to make its many fans happy. Twilight Zone collectors have two more discs to pick up this week, and Warner has re-issued a few DVDs previously under the MGM folio, including the excellent The Philadelphia Story and Seven Days in May. Here's this morning's notable street discs, courtesy of Reel.com and Image Entertainment:

• Adventures of Hercules
• Anchoress
• Barney's Super Singing Circus
• Blackrock
• Breaks
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid: Special Edition
• Carnival of Souls: The Criterion Collection
• Cleo from 5 to 7: The Criterion Collection
• Cradle Will Rock
• Dark Command
• Dr. No: Special Edition
• The End of the Affair (1955)
• The End of the Affair (1999)
• The End of the Affair Collection (2-DVD Set)
• Felicia's Journey: Special Edition
• Fighting Seabees
• Flying Tigers
• Peter Frampton: Live In Detroit
• Geobreeders
• The House of Exorcism
• The Hunger: Soul for Sale
• The Hunger: Vampires
• The Hunger: Wicked Dreams
• In Old California
• It's in the Water: Special Edition
• James Bond Collection: Vol. 2 (5-DVD Set)
• Le Million: The Criterion Collection (delayed from 4/18)
• Les Vampires (10-DVD Set)
• Lisa and the Devil/The House of Exorcism
• The Magic Flute: The Criterion Collection (delayed from 4/18)
• Major League II
• Major League III: Back to the Minors
• The Man with the Golden Gun: Special Edition
• Masters of Russian Animation: Vol. 2
• Monsieur Verdoux
• Moonraker: Special Edition
• Murphy's Romance
• Nazca: Betrayal of Humanity
• Network
• Nowhere Land
• On Her Majesty's Secret Service: Special Edition
• Partners In Crime
• The Philadelphia Story
• Popeye
• Project A
• Red Firecracker Green Firecracker
• Rites of Passage: Special Edition
• Seven Days In May
• The Spy Who Loved Me: Special Edition
• Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train
• Twilight Zone: Volume 24
• Twilight Zone: Volume 25
• Undercover Angel
• Vagabond: The Criterion Collection (delayed from 4/18)
• Wild Side
• The World Is Not Enough: Special Edition

Later.

— Ed.

Monday, 15 May 2000

Disc of the Week: The American western genre — long a staple of both big-budget Hollywood films and matinee potboilers — was fundamentally turned on its head in 1969 by two films: Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch and George Roy Hill's Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. Both films take place in the last days of the western frontier, when transportation and technology altered the once-open landscape, and the arrival of more and more people — and better law enforcement — sent thieves and bank robbers south of the American border, where still-lawless Latin American countries provided an ample terrain for bigger and better jobs. And both films, which struck a chord with Vietnam-era audiences, effectively brought a halt to the idealized western, which hasn't seen the light of day since (the best neo-western, Eastwood's Unforgiven, has more to do with the The Wild Bunch than any of its predecessors). However, the decline and fall of the American western is where the similarities between The Wild Bunch and Butch Cassidy end. Peckinpah's film took on all of the trappings of the traditional western but added amoral protagonists, and it presented violence at a then-unprecedented level. Butch Cassidy, on the other hand, is sort of a lark, a carefree jaunt through outlaw territory as the titular characters banter back and forth in serio-comic fashion, always just one step ahead of the law — and one step away from death.

Paul Newman and Robert Redford star as Butch and Sundance, in the waning days of their heralded criminal careers. Part of the "Hole in the Wall Gang," the pair have knocked over enough banks and trains to become local legend, always retreating to their isolated Hole in the Wall camp before the authorities can mount a serious pursuit. But when Butch decides to knock over the same train twice in one week, the president of the rail company spares no expense to mount a relentless posse, headed up by the best lawman in the west and guided by a legendary Indian tracker. Barely escaping with their lives, Butch (always full of new ideas) decides the duo should relocate to Bolivia, even though neither one of them know very much about the country. They are joined by Sundance's lover, schoolmarm Etta Place (Katharine Ross), but nobody has any idea what will be in store for them in South America.

Often regarded by critics as a mixed bag (and savaged by some very high-profile writers during its 1969 debut), Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid has still earned a loyal following over the years, and whatever missteps the film may take are easily outweighed by its strongest elements, in particular the performances by Newman and Redford (the role propelled Redford to superstardom), who casually play with scenarist William Goldman's witty, Oscar-winning script. Goldman clearly enjoyed the myth-shattering possibilities of his story, where the iconic Butch Cassidy actually prefers to flee from danger rather than stand and fight, and where the sharp-shooting Sundance is afraid of water because he can't swim. Hill lends his own small touches to the direction, and the decision to always show the "super-posse" from Butch and Sundance's point-of-view — faceless, in the distance, but always just a few minutes behind — gives the chase sequence an additional surge of adrenaline. Is that why the film made such an impression on moviegoers? As some have argued, does the "super-posse" represent the government, while Butch and Sundance are clever, spirited draft-dodgers? Or did audiences enjoy what may be the first buddy/action flick, where two guys, looking death in the face, can't stop bickering with each other in a petty, comical way? Or is there romance in this story after all? Are we moved by the inevitable demise of Butch and Sundance, two heroes in a world that has no more use for them? You can come to your own conclusions. For whatever reason, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid has been a fan-favorite for 30 years and counting.

Fox's new special edition DVD of Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid features a solid anamorphic transfer (2.35:1) from a nearly pristine source print that is rich with color, while audio is available in the original mono. The many supplements include a commentary track with director Hill, lyricist Hal David, associate producer Robert Crawford, and cinematographer Conrad Hall; a 45-minute "behind-the-scenes" documentary, mostly narrated by director Hill, but with additional commentary by Newman, Redford, and others; nearly 50 minutes of interview footage taken in 1994, featuring Newman, Redford, Goldman, Ross, and songwriter Burt Bacharach; stills of various documents used to make the film, including elements of the shooting script; three trailers; and an interactive history of Butch and Sundance as DVD-ROM content. Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid: Special Edition is on the street tomorrow.

Box Office: The speculation is finally over — DreamWorks' Gladiator is a maxiumus hit, and not because it grossed more than $37 million last weekend, but because it earned an additional $24.3 million over its second weekend (always the make-or-break point of a movie), boosting its ten-day total to a colossal $73.3 million and certain to break the century mark during its first month in release. The Ridley Scott-directed film, starring Russell Crowe, bested four debuts over the Mother's Day weekend (earning more than all four combined), including John Travolta's Scientology sci-fi Battlefield Earth, which opened with $12.3 million — an acceptable number for Warner, but underwhelming when one considers that Battlefield opened in 3,307 venues, the fifth widest opening ever. The three other debuts over the weekend — Sony's Center Stage, Universal's Screwed, and Trimark's Held Up — performed as expected, although Center Stage did the only notable business, tying for fourth place with $4.8 million.

Still in continuing release are Universal's sub-flick U-571, which earned $5.8 million for third place, adding to a nearly $60 million gross; and both New Line's Frequency, with $4.8 million, and Love and Basketball which has remained in the top ten for four weeks running and earned a tidy $22.3 million so far. But it is time to bid adieu to both Paramount's Rules of Engagement, which has fallen from the top ten after six weeks and $56.7 million in receipts, and Sony's 28 Days, now on its way to DVD prep after four weeks and just less than $35 million. This morning's stinko award goes to Sony's I Dreamed of Africa, starring Kim Basinger, a film that earned mixed critical reviews but was absolutely slaughtered by Gladiator and the rest of the pre-summer fare, only earning $2.5 million last weekend before dropping out of the top ten. Remember the L.A. Confidential poster, where the platinum-blonde, larger-than-life Basinger nearly obscured a miniature Russell Crowe? What a difference two years can make.

Here's the top-grossing films at North American theaters from last weekend:

1. Gladiator (DreamWorks SKG)
   $24,300,000 ($73,300,000 through 2 weeks)
2. Battlefield Earth (Warner Bros.)
   $12,300,000 ($12,300,000 through 1 week)
3. U-571 (Universal)
   $5,800,000 ($57,900,000 through 4 weeks)
4. Center Stage (Sony/Columbia TriStar)
   $4,800,000 ($4,800,000 through 1 week)
4. The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (Universal)
   $4,800,000 ($24,600,000 through 3 weeks)
4. Frequency (New Line)
   $4,800,000 ($24,600,000 through 3 weeks)
7. Where the Heart Is (Fox)
   $3,600,000 ($21,100,000 through 3 weeks)
8. Screwed (Universal)
   $3,400,000 ($3,400,000 through 1 week)
9. Love and Basketball (New Line)
   $2,000,000 ($22,300,000 through 4 weeks)
10. Held Up (Trimark)
    $1,900,000 ($1,900,000 through 1 week)
11. Keeping the Faith (Buena Vista)
    $1,900,000 ($32,300,000 through 5 weeks)
12. Rules of Engagement (Paramount)
    $1,800,000 ($56,700,000 through 6 weeks)

On the Board: D. K. Holm has posted a new review this morning of Martin Scorsese's Bringing Out the Dead, while Joe Barlow is on the board with a look at Joel Schumacher's Flawless. Both can be found on our Full Reviews index. New quick reviews from the staff this week include The End of the Affair (1999), The Myth of Fingerprints, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid: Special Edition, Sanjuro: The Criterion Collection, The Hollywood Knights, and The Minus Man, and can be accessed on the Quick Reviews index. Everything has been added under the New Reviews menu here on the main page as well.

We'll be back tomorrow with the rundown on this week's street discs.

— Ed.

Thursday, 11 May 2000
Weekend Dispatch

PlayStation2 on deck: We finally can stop yakking about how Sony's DVD-ready PlayStation2 gaming console — already in release in Japan — will arrive in America "sometime this fall," because Sony has now announced a firm North American launch date of Oct. 26. What's more, the highly anticipated console will sell for $299 — a very reasonable price, considering that many DVD players currently sell for about that much, and the PlayStation2 will handle both DVD Video playback and the next generation of processor-intensive video games. And, of course, the folks over at Sony are very proud of their new gaming system, which probably will become the best selling gaming console (and DVD player) of all time before much longer. We all can remember when Francis Ford Coppola said in a press conference that Apocalypse Now "isn't about Vietnam, it is Vietnam." Perhaps taking a cue from the noted director, Sony Computer Entertainment of America President Kazuo Hirai said in a press conference yesterday that the PS2 "is not the future of video game entertainment — it is the future of entertainment, period." (Just so we're all clear on that.)

With a tasty sub-$300 price tag and a new broadband network that Sony is designing for some yet-to-be determined services, there's only one safe bet when it comes to the PlayStation2 — there ain't gonna be enough to go around. One million units will ship between Oct. 26 and Dec. 31, while two million more units are expected to arrive stateside during the first quarter of 2001. But according to Sony officials, pretty much the only folks who will get their hands on a PS2 in time for the holidays will be those who pre-order from dealers. In Japan, 1.8 million PS2s have sold since March, with one million units selling in the first week. It's hard to believe that a mere one million units this fall in North America will last for very long.

Commentary Clips: "(Evelyn) Ankers and Lon Chaney (Jr.) acted together in a whole bunch of horror pictures — they were the Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald of Universal horrors, but they really didn't have any use for each other. The trouble started the day that Ankers was told that she was being given a new dressing room because Universal was so pleased with her work. She was thrilled, until the first day of The Wolf Man, when Lon Chaney came up to her all ticked off and he said 'So you're the girl who swiped my dressing room. You took it away from Broderick Crawford and me, and I think that's a hell of a thing to do.' Ankers didn't know what was going on, but pretty soon she found out that what Chaney and Crawford used to do was take bottles into Chaney's dressing room, get loaded, hang all the furniture up out of the way, and then just fight. (According to Ankers) the cleaning crew was treated to a sight resembling a World War II battlefield. That, unfortunately, was just the beginning. Chaney liked to come up behind her, made up as the Wolf Man, and he'd grab and scare her. And then, during the making of Son of Dracula, there was a luncheon where Chaney and Ankers' husband Richard Denning nearly got into a fist-fight. There was just always grief, and neither one of them ended up a big fan of the other — let's put it that way. "

— Film historian Tom Weaver,
The Wolf Man: Classic Monster Collection

"I should also note that (make-up legend) Jack Pierce and Lon Chaney (Jr.) did not like each other — they had a mutual dislike. They both had abrasive personalities. Pierce was kind of a curmudgeon, he wasn't the easiest guy to get along with, and Chaney — who liked to brawl and pick on people and act like a big kid — it figures that he wouldn't like Pierce and vice-versa.... Chaney Jr. probably felt a little put-out because his dad was such a great make-up artist and he wasn't, and Pierce probably needled Chaney about that a little bit. One thing that Pierce liked to do with the Wolf Man make-up was to apply the yak hair and then singe it a little — that made the ends curl a little more, it kind of gave it an 'even' look. Pierce would use a curling iron, and every so often — sssttt! — he'd burn the hell out of Chaney and say it was an accident. But everybody, including Chaney I'm sure, knew better. Pierce and Chaney fought all the time, and Pierce refused to make Chaney up after a while. House of Dracula is one of the movies where Pierce did not do Chaney's make-up. There are photos of Pierce working on Chaney, fiddling around with the Wolf Man make-up in House of Dracula, but those were strictly for publicity."

— Weaver again,
The Wolf Man: Classic Monster Collection

Quotable: "Faced with the all-powerful Hollywood majors, it seems obvious that an efficient response lies in the creation of film groups with a European dimension, which will be capable of rivaling the American industry.... American studios never cease to make cinema history. Their ability to fill cinemas around the world with people who share the same emotions is remarkable, even if we know that big cinema doesn't only mean big spectacle. This American strength should make us overcome our own weaknesses."

— French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, speaking
at the opening of the 53rd Cannes Film Festival
on Wednesday.

"I don't believe in competition amongst alleged works of art. They give you a statue, and they lead you out and you go home and you have a statue, and what?"

— Multiple Oscar-winner Woody Allen, discussing
the Academy Awards (which he never attends).

"If I'm sick of me, I can only imagine how other people feel. So I think I'll probably sit (the Oscars) out next year. I mean, by the law of averages, I'm due to get hit by a bus any day now."

— Kevin Spacey, pondering the perils of over-
exposure in a recent interview with the Los
Angeles Daily News.

Coming Attractions: New DVD reviews are on the way, including Fox's upcoming Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, Columbia TriStar's The Myth of Fingerprints, and lots more. And if you haven't entered our monthly free DVD contest (a copy of Universal's Field of Dreams: Collector's Edition is up for grabs), be sure to visit our contest page if you get the chance, and don't forget to take our monthly DVD poll while you're there.

See ya Monday.

— Ed.

Wednesday, 10 May 2000

Mailbag: Wednesday is the day we clean out the reader mail here at The DVD Journal, so let's get to it:

The Silence of the Lambs: The Criterion Collection
Deleted scenes, cast commentary, director's commentary, textual supplements
Reel.com price: $27.99

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
Commentary track of directors/writers/actor, deleted scenes, music videos, trailers
Reel.com price: $17.99

I understand that because Criterion released it instead of the regular studio/distribution company (whose release had no features) it cost more to produce, but why doesn't the first company just do all the add-ons (like New Line did with Austin Powers) and keep the price down?

— Chris

You've very nearly answered your own question here Chris — because Criterion is not a film studio, it has to license most of its high-profile DVD releases (such as Armageddon and Brazil) from the studios that actually own the titles (in these cases, Armageddon is owned by Buena Vista, while Columbia TriStar owns Brazil). The simple reason why Criterion has to charge more money is because the small Chicago-based company cannot operate with the same economies of scale that large studios do, especially when the chief selling point of Criterion's product is quality of presentation. Virtually every other small DVD producer sells DVDs for less money than the studios, not more, because their product is just not as good (nor is there as much widespread demand for it). But Criterion bucks the system, trying to make superior DVD products without the same resources that the major studios enjoy. And perhaps foremost amongst these resources is distribution, because the major studios can get their product into a wide variety of retail outlets (DVDs nowadays can be found in any run-of-the-mill department store with a small electronics section), but many smaller distributors don't carry a wide array of Criterion's product. Pretend you own a small home-video company, get out your calculator, and run the numbers. Obtaining a license for a small film like Sid and Nancy, getting the rights for a variety of supplements like television footage or paying out-of-pocket for a commentary track, and then trying to sell the DVD with limited distribution adds about ten bucks to the unit price. If Criterion didn't charge the premiums they do on their top-tier releases, they simply wouldn't be in business. They are a minnow in an ocean of sharks.

Alas, back when the time-tested Laserdisc format was the standard-setter in home video, Criterion was having a better time of things, especially when it came to Hollywood films. Since Laserdisc was never more than a niche item, the studios gave it scant attention, producing some lasers under their own banners, but also happy to license the rights for many titles to such laser stalwarts as Image, Pioneer, and Criterion. Up until 1997, when DVD arrived on the scene, the studios really only cared about controlling their VHS product, where the bulk of the revenue was. But DVD represented a sea-change in hi-def home video, and before long the studios started to take the format very seriously, realizing that it had potential as a mass-market success — or at least that it stood to make a lot more money than Laserdiscs (fundamentally because of the far cheaper per-unit price and the overall ease-of-use factor). The bounty that Criterion enjoyed with the laser format did not translate to DVD, as the studios decided it would be in their best interests to produce their own special-edition DVDs rather than farming the job out for a license fee. And this is why we've seen great special-edition discs from such studios as Columbia TriStar, Buena Vista, New Line, Universal, and now Fox. All of them are following the high-value marketing model that Criterion established with Laserdiscs, but it simply doesn't make any sense for them to send their titles to another company. Titles that Criterion released on Laserdisc, but which may never arrive on DVD with the Criterion-owned supplements, include Boogie Nights, Taxi Driver, Seven, Citizen Kane, and many, many more. The first two have already been released as special editions on DVD from their respective studios (Boogie Nights is about to have yet another DVD edition this summer), Seven is due to arrive as a special edition in the next few months, and Warner isn't going to send their recently acquired Citizen Kane anywhere — we suspect they'll make their own DVD, thank you very much.

With less licenses and the general decline of the Laserdisc format, Criterion has been forced to fall back on their bread-and-butter product for DVD, most of them films in the public domain, foreign titles, or elements of the Janus Films collection, which they have a stake in — and while most all of these have already been released on Criterion lasers, they still represent some of the best that DVD has to offer and re-affirms DVD's status as a home-video format for film buffs — after all, where else are we going to get such classics as The Red Shoes or Wages of Fear on DVD? Even if Criterion recently has been excluded from a lot of mainstream Hollywood titles, they still remain one of our favorite DVD producers (and Columbia TriStar, with their wide array of "Columbia Classics" and some great special editions of Frank Capra films, appears to know just what Criterion-sated DVD fans like us really want). For now, Buena Vista is the only major studio that has sent recent mainstream films to Criterion, with Armageddon, Rushmore, and the upcoming Chasing Amy. However, these and other titles currently on Criterion under license stand to go out of print eventually, as have This Is Spinal Tap, The Killer, Hard Boiled, and the rest of the Criterion stuff currently selling on eBay for a godawful amount of money. (Potentially on the block down the road are Robocop, Sid and Nancy, and — yes — Brazil. It could happen.)

We hope that answers some of your questions, but we're not going to claim that we hang around the Criterion offices and chat with the staff, because we don't. However, our good friend and noted digital die-hard Sean McGinnis at DVD Verdict recently stopped by Criterion for a visit. You can read his comments here.

— J.S.

Not a problem:

1. The United States, Canada, and all U.S. Territories
2. Europe, Japan, South Africa, and the Middle East (that includes Egypt)
3. East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Hong Kong
4. Mexico, Central America, South America, Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, the Caribbean islands
5. Africa, Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union states, the Indian subcontinent, North Korea, and Mongolia
6. China

And, despite the fact that folks normally talk about there only being six DVD regions, there are in fact two more, although they really aren't geographical in nature. Region 7 is simply known as "reserved" (perhaps for internal use by DVD producers) and Region 8 is specified for "international venues," such as cruise ships, airplanes, and maybe the space shuttle.

— Philip

Hey, wait a minute Philip — are you proposing that people who fork out the money to create motion pictures actually own the fruits of their labor? Do you mean people who make movies are not performing some sort of public service? Are you implying that big-budget Hollywood flicks aren't funded with our tax dollars? Are you actually suggesting that the movies we get on DVD are, in fact, private property?

These are very dangerous ideas to be spreading around the Internet. You must be some sort of dope-smoking wacko.

Top of the Pops: Here's the top-selling DVDs last week from our friends at Reel.com. Click the links to read our reviews of these discs:

1. Dogma
2. Being John Malkovich
3. Galaxy Quest
4. The X-Files: Season One
5. The Matrix
6. The Sixth Sense
7. The Fox and the Hound
8. Pee-wee's Big Adventure
9. Three Kings
10. Blue Velvet

Later.

— Ed.

Tuesday, 9 May 2000

In the Works: Here's some new disc announcements, courtesy of Image Entertainment and Reel.com:

• We now have the details on Warner's upcoming North By Northwest: Special Edition, due on August 29, and it will include a commentary by screenwriter Ernest Lehman; a "making-of" doc featuring Lehman, Eva Marie Saint, Martin Landau, Patricia Hitchcock, and others; trailers and TV spots for several Hitch-flicks; production notes; a still gallery; and more. Thank you Warner for not shafting this masterpiece. We mean that.
• Another Cary Grant classic is also on the way from Warner, the 1944 Arsenic and Old Lace (Aug. 29), although it doesn't appear that it will have any substantial extras. More announcements from Warner include Space Jam: Special Edition (July 25), a double-dipper that follows the film-only DVD from a couple years ago, and while it still will be pan-and-scan, it will include a commentary with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Michael Jordan (yes, that M.J.), director Joe Pytka, and producer Ivan Reitman; a featurette; an isolated score; three music videos; a trailer, and a video game. Also look for Barry Levinson's Liberty Heights (June 20), with deleted scenes, interviews, and an isolated music track; the 1944 National Velvet (July 11), starring Elizabeth Taylor and Mickey Rooney; the 1996 remake of Diabolique (July 18), starring Sharon Stone and Isabelle Adjani; Clint Eastwood's 1980 Bronco Billy (July 18); and Trial By Jury (July 18), starring William Hurt, Joanne Whalley-Kilmer, and Armand Assante.
• Warner also has a pleasant selection of documentaries on tap, starting with two discs of PBS's "The American Experience" — The Democrats and The Republicans — which examine several presidential administrations during the 20th century. Both are due on July 5. Meanwhile, science buffs can look forward to the three-disc box Stephen Hawking's Universe (Aug. 1 — SRP $59.98), a journey through space and time via the mind of the famous cosmologist, and Life Beyond Earth (Aug. 1), with host Professor Timothy Ferris, who examines the possibility of extraterrestrial life.
• Does Warner's delayed The Killing Fields have a new street date? It was postponed from May 16 and we haven't seen a new date yet, but apparently it has been upgraded to special-edition status, as reportedly it now will include a commentary by director Roland Joffe and deleted scenes.
• The Hurricane: Special Edition is due to arrive from Universal on July 11, with an anamorphic transfer, a commentary by director Norman Jewison, a featurette, deleted scenes, and the documentary "The Rubin Carter Story." Other July releases from Universal include Isn't She Great (July 18), Ride with the Devil (July 18), and Beethoven's 3rd (July 25).
• Scream 3: Special Edition is on the way from Buena Vista, due on July 4, but we have yet to hear about the feature-set. Also in the works is an "Action Packed Bruckheimer Collection" box-set (June 6), featuring Armageddon, Enemy of the State, The Rock, Con Air, and Crimson Tide. Is it Christmas already?
• HBO has an eclectic group of new announcements this morning, including Citizen X (July 11), staring Stephen Rae, Donald Sutherland, and Max von Sydow; Gia (July 18), with Angelina Jolie and Faye Dunaway; the 1981 Fort Apache, The Bronx (in pan-and-scan only, for some unknown reason); Escape Under Pressure (Nov. 14), starring Larisa Miller and Rob Lowe; and the live concert Stomp Out Loud (Sept. 5), featuring the famous "Stomp" dance troupe.
• The ninth edition of SHORT (formerly Short Cinema Journal) is due on July 5. Titled Trust, the regular roundup of unusual independent films will be on board.
• The latest MGM/Warner swap is John Ford's classic They Were Expendable, which hits the street next week. Like most all of these re-issues, it doesn't appear that the new disc will be any different from the previous release — besides the snap-case, of course.
• Street date changes include Switchblade Sisters (May 23) and From Dusk Till Dawn: Special Edition (Sept. 26).

On the Street: It's a thin Tuesday for new releases, but if you've already pre-ordered Fox's massive The X-Files: Season One box-set, you probably have your DVD viewing sorted out for the week. On the street from Columbia TriStar this morning are The Myth of Fingerprints and The Hollywood Knights, while Buena Vista has Next Stop, Wonderland and Mystery, Alaska, and Paramount has Martin Scorsese's latest film, Bringing Out the Dead, starring Nicolas Cage. And if you're a Mel Brooks fan (we are), you should seek out his early classic The Twelve Chairs, now in release from Image. Here's this morning's notable street discs, courtesy of Reel.com and Image Entertainment:

• Blood Fist
• Blood Fist 2
• Blood Fist 3: Forced to Fight
• Bloodfist 4: Die Trying
• Bringing Out the Dead
• Jeff Buckley: Live in Chicago
• Father of the Bride, Part II
• Gore Gore Girls: Special Edition
• The Hollywood Knights
• Whitney Houston: The Greatest Hits
• Kitaro: Tamayura
• Looking For Lola
• Manhattan Transfer: Vocalese Live
• Dennis Miller: Live from Washington D.C.
• Mystery, Alaska
• The Myth of Fingerprints
• New Blood
• Next Stop, Wonderland
• Possession: Special Edition
• Rites of Passage: Special Edition
• She Freak: Special Edition
• Stand-Ins
• A Sunday in the Country
• The Twelve Chairs
• The Vampire Happening
• Vampyres: Special Edition (1974)
• Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography
• Rick Wakeman: The Classical Connection
• The Watermelon Woman
• X-Files: Season One (7 DVD Set)

Back tomorrow with this week's mailbag.

— Ed.

Monday, 8 May 2000

Disc of the Week: The word "masterpiece" tends to get thrown around a lot by film critics, but in the case of David Lynch's 1986 Blue Velvet, it's more than warranted, as this low-budget psycho-sexual creep-out is about as disturbing as movies come, but it is still one of the most powerful, inventive films of the 1980s, rivaled only perhaps by Scorsese's Raging Bull or Gilliam's Brazil. Kyle MacLachlan stars as mild-mannered college student Jeffrey Beaumont, who returns to his small Pacific Northwest town of Lumberton after his father has suffered a stroke. However, not long after his return Jeffrey discovers a severed human ear in a field, which he promptly turns over to the police. And an honest, unpretentious young man wouldn't pursue his gruesome discovery any further than that, would he? Of course he would — and according to Lynch, you would too, because you're only too happy to sit and watch as the voyeuristic Jeffrey breaks into the apartment of local nightclub singer Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini), discovers that she is the victim of a kidnapping/blackmail plot by ruthless drug dealer Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper), and then rashly makes himself a target for Frank while getting sexually involved with both the emotionally distraught Dorothy and artless teenager Sandy Williams (Laura Dern), the daughter of a local cop.

If you have to be pretty dumb to get in that sort of mess, Lynch makes an effort to point out that Jeffrey really isn't stupid (he's quite clever, actually), but he's inordinately curious, trapped in a small town with nothing to do but fight off the tempting mystery of the severed ear, a rotted appendage that — like the apple in the Garden of Eden — leads him down the garden path, out of his sun-soaked paradise and into a night-world of illicit sex, hazardous knowledge, and unrefined evil. And this is not an overreading, for Lynch (in his inimitable, quirky manner) goes out of his way to make sure that Jeffrey and Sandy are capable of speaking only in the most mundane fashion, with small words and clichéd phrases that underscore the essentially guileless nature of his Adam and Eve protagonists. Frank Booth is no better, for where Lynch's children fumble about for intelligent things to say, Frank can't get a single sentence out of his mouth without saying "fuck" (that most earthy of Anglo-Saxon intensifiers), and his bizarre sexual episodes with Dorothy render him less than an adolescent, but in fact infantile. Ironically, the only substantial adult in the film is Rossellini as Dorothy, (a wife and a mother, at least before Frank got ahold of her). She also is the only victim, held hostage by Frank and naively pursued by Jeffrey. And after the battle between Jeffrey and Frank reaches its inevitable, bloody conclusion, Lynch suggests that this has been Dorothy's story all along.

MGM's new DVD edition of Blue Velvet is a great item for fans of the film, with a crisp anamorphic transfer (2.20:1) that wonderfully conveys Lynch's love for widescreen composition. The source print is excellent, with strong colors and hardly any damage whatsoever. But that's all us Lynchians get for now — the only extra is a 1986 trailer. With such a great source print available, it's a shame MGM couldn't give this one a chance as a special edition, perhaps with a commentary by Lynch and/or a retrospective documentary. Nevertheless, die-hard fans will still want to fork over the money, if for nothing more than the wonderful widescreen transfer and Angelo Badalamenti's haunting score. Blue Velvet is on the street now.

And on the street tomorrow: Okay X-Files fans — you asked for it, and Fox said yes. The entire first season of The X-Files is on DVD Tuesday morning in a wonderful seven-disc box-set that's worth collecting (albeit at a collector's price). Each one of the 24 episodes from Season One — from the Pilot episode and Deep Throat to the cliffhanger The Erlenmeyer Flask — is here, and standout episodes include the mutant-chasing Squeeze and Toombs, the conspiracy-heavy E.B.E., Scully's death-row drama Beyond The Sea, the now-legendary Eve ("He's been exsanguinated!"), and — one of your editor's favorite X-Files episodes ever — the polar-thriller Ice. Along with the entire first season, extras on board include the short retrospective "The Truth About Season One"; interview segments with series creator Chris Carter; 11 "Behind The Truth" segments (which originally aired on F/X when the show went into syndication); original TV spots for each episode; deleted scenes from both the Pilot episode and Fallen Angel, available on-the-fly; a DVD-ROM game and additional DVD-ROM content; and — if only to prove that this is a definitive collection — scenes from various episodes dubbed in German, Japanese, Italian, and Spanish, as they were shown overseas. It ain't cheap, but X-Philes have no cause to complain here. Fox's X-Files: Season One box has set a very high bar for other television compilations on DVD to beat.

Box Office: It was a slice 'em and dice 'em weekend at the box-office, as DreamWorks' Gladiator chopped up the competition with a three-day gross of $32.7 million, along with a blistering $11,130 per-screen average. The Ridley Scott-directed sandal-flick, starring Russell Crowe, did better business than the following six films put together, and Universal's U-571 — the champ over the past two weeks — sunk in its wake with only $7.6 million. The only other debut over the weekend was Sony's I Dreamed of Africa, starring Kim Basinger (Crowe's L.A. Confidential love interest, at that), but despite Sony's apparent hopes of counter-programming Gladiator, and perhaps the NBA playoffs, the film only earned $2.5 million for the eighth spot.

Still in continuing release are New Line's Frequency, which shaped up respectably with $6.5 million in its second week; Universal's The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, still on the board with $6.3 million, but falling fast; Sony's chick-flick Where The Heart Is, adding $5 million to $15.7 million overall; and Buena Vista's Keeping the Faith, which will crack a $30 million gross sometime this week. However, after a stellar run (and a $115.9 million gross), Universal's Erin Brockovich has now slipped from the top ten. But if you haven't seen it yet, don't worry — it's bound to hang around on the second-run circuit for several more weeks before getting prepped for DVD. Ready to rumble next week against Gladiator is John Travolta's Battlefield Earth.

Here's the top-grossing films at North American theaters from last weekend:

1. Gladiator (DreamWorks SKG)
   $32,700,000 ($32,700,000 through 1 week)
2. U-571 (Universal)
   $7,600,000 ($49,400,000 through 3 weeks)
3. Frequency (New Line)
   $6,500,000 ($17,800,000 through 2 weeks)
4. The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (Universal)
   $6,300,000 ($18,300,000 through 2 weeks)
5. Where the Heart Is (Fox)
   $5,000,000 ($15,700,000 through 2 weeks)
6. Love and Basketball (New Line)
   $3,400,000 ($19,800,000 through 3 weeks)
7. Keeping the Faith (Buena Vista)
   $2,800,000 ($29,500,000 through 4 weeks)
8. I Dreamed of Africa (Sony/Columbia TriStar)
   $2,500,000 ($2,500,000 through 1 week)
9. Rules of Engagement (Paramount)
   $2,400,000 ($54,000,000 through 5 weeks)
10. 28 Days (Sony/Columbia TriStar)
    $2,350,000 ($32,000,000 through 4 weeks)
11. Erin Brockovich (Universal)
    $2,100,000 ($115,900,000 through 8 weeks)
12. Final Destination (New Line)
    $1,700,000 ($48,300,000 through 8 weeks)

On the Board: Joe Barlow has posted a new full review of Dogma, while Steve Firstenburg is on the board with a look at Being John Malkovich: Special Edition. Both can be found on our Full Reviews index. New quick reviews this week include The Last Temptation of Christ: The Criterion Collection, Blue Velvet, Galaxy Quest, On The Beach, and the The X-Files: Season One box set, and can be accessed on the Quick Reviews index. Everything has been added under the New Reviews menu here on the main page as well.

We'll be back tomorrow to let you know about this week's street discs.

— Ed.

Thursday, 4 May 2000
Weekend Dispatch

On the Block: As usual over at eBay, the hottest trading DVDs are from Criterion, and over the past few weeks Criterion had the three top-traders — Salo, This is Spinal Tap, and The Killer — while such other notables as Hard Boiled and The 400 Blows made it into our latest round of rankings. Makes sense to us, as they're all great discs, but we still can't figure out why anybody would pay more than $200 for the first edition of Warner's Little Shop of Horrors when the second edition is due to arrive on May 23, and it will only lack the alternate ending included on the first disc. Is that little snippet really worth two Benjamins? Or are some bidders unaware that the re-issue is on the way? If it's poor value for money, A Hard Day's Night is still trading below the $100 mark, which isn't a bad deal for Beatles fans with deep pockets. And a note to you cagey bidders out there — $2.50 ain't a lot of dough, but we've noticed that many discs are closing just that much above century marks, as both The Killer and Little Shop had high bids of $202.50, while Live at Knebworth and the Region 2 Leon: Integral Version (the director's cut of The Professional) had top closes of $102.50. The next time we go bidding on choice collectibles, we're gonna toss in an extra three bucks for good measure.

Here's the highest recent closing prices of rare and out-of-print DVDs from online auctions at eBay:

1. Salo: The Criterion Collection
   $280.00 (30 bids)
2. This Is Spinal Tap: The Criterion Collection
   $222.50 (25 bids)
3. The Killer: The Criterion Collection
   $202.50 (7 bids)
3. Little Shop of Horrors (first edition)
   $202.50 (24 bids)
5. Platoon
   $167.50 (29 bids)
6. Re-Animator: Special Edition
   $120.00 (13 bids)
7. Hard Boiled: The Criterion Collection
   $112.50 (15 bids)
8. Live at Knebworth
   $102.50 (12 bids)
8. Leon: Integral Version (Region 2)
   $102.50 (20 bids)
10. Army of Darkness: Limited Edition
    $102.00 (26 bids)
11. The 400 Blows: The Criterion Collection
    $96.00 (23 bids)
12. A Hard Day's Night
    $86.00 (19 bids)
13. Kalifornia
    $74.99 (19 bids)
14. La Femme Nikita
    $73.00 (5 bids)
15. The Devil's Advocate (first edition)
    $67.00 (13 bids)
    
    

    Commentary Clip: "What was motivating me throughout the film — it wasn't character as much as it was these different ideas, and one of the ideas was the idea of violence and what had happened to violence in films, and I felt that it had become desensitized, and part of what I was trying to do was to re-sensitize the violence, and instead of having hundreds of bullets, to slow it down and maybe have a handful of bullets but really feel the impact of every single one, because a bullet is a truly traumatic, horrific thing.... I don't like to write by myself, and I would go to various friends' homes, when they were home. I had one friend in New York who is an emergency room doctor, and I would say 'Can I come by your house and write today?' because he was home during the day. So I go over to his house, and it made the process of writing less lonely — I could write, talk to him, go get coffee, write — and I started talking to him about 'What does a bullet actually do?' And he started describing it to me, and he showed me in some journals that he had the trauma of what it does, and how the flesh is so traumatized it actually convulses involuntarily — which we didn't quite render here — but it goes up and down, like dozens of times, almost invisible to the naked eye. So that's where I said 'I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna write it and I'm gonna try to shoot it.' "

    — Director David O. Russell,
    Three Kings

    Quotable: "We make too many films in Britain. We are entrusting millions of pounds to people who have never (directed) before.... To be able to develop a screenplay is an art which the Americans are so good at and we're not. The industry here is flimsy, and the only way producers can pay their mortgage is by getting the movie made."

    — British-born director Alan Parker, recently discussing
    the state of the UK film industry.

    "I definitely could do another year, but I really don't know if it'll happen. I'm kind of happy that decision's been taken away from me. I've made my terms clear."

    — X-Files star David Duchovny, who — despite rumors
    that this will be his last season with the show — now
    says he's negotiating for an eighth season.

    "I'm not going to pretend that I know what it's like to do hard time, but I did sit through the first nine hours of The Green Mile."

    — Bill Maher, hosting a week of ABC-TV's "Politically
    Incorrect" from the Arizona State Penitentiary.

    Coming Attractions: New DVD reviews are on the way, including Being John Malkovich: Special Edition, Criterion's The Last Temptation of Christ, David Lynch's long-awaited Blue Velvet, and lots more, so be here next Monday for the latest write-ups, the box-office report, and all the rest.

    Have a great weekend.

    — Ed.

    ---

    Wednesday, 3 May 2000

    ---

    Mailbag: Got mail? We do — lots of it. Here's a few notable letters from DVD Journal readers over the past week:

16. Do you have any plans to keep us posted on the availability of opera on DVD? I know it's a small market, even by niche standards, but DVD makes so much sense for opera. Operas are long, and a typical one on CD takes three discs and costs $50. With DVD, one $20 disc gives it to you with the visuals, which is how opera is meant to be enjoyed in the first place. Listening to opera on CD is like listening to the soundtrack of a play or movie.

    — Joseph

    We're totally in support of opera DVDs Joseph, but unfortunately these items fall outside of our editorial coverage here on The DVD Journal, where we focus primarily on feature motion pictures, along with a few interactive items here and there — in the end, we are just as much a movie-lovers website as a DVD website. However, a handful of specialty distributors have released some better-known operas on DVD over the past year or so, including Image Entertainment and Pioneer. The absolute best resource for finding out which operas are on the way is the comprehensive DVD release calendar at Image Entertainment, and Image also maintains an extensive database of DVD titles currently in release. Another good bet is to simply drop by your favorite online DVD retailer (ours is Reel.com) and just run a search on your favorites. You're bound to find a few recent productions that have gone digital.

    

17. I am positively amazed that your reviewer felt that "Artisan's recent release of Lonesome Dove features a good transfer in the original full-frame (1.33:1)." My reaction to this DVD was that it was so poor that it looked like bad cable transmission. It wasn't much better than my taped copy off the original broadcast. I returned the disc with a heavy heart, because I do like DVD and had hopes for this one.

    — Leonard

    Wow, Leonard — you sent your copy of Lonesome Dove back? We couldn't disagree with you more. Perhaps in our short review (written by your own humble editor), I could have been more precise about the video transfer, but I did note that it's a "good" transfer, not a "great" or "pristine" one. Frankly, having only seen parts of Lonesome Dove on television many years ago — and never having owned or rented the videotape — I enjoyed the quality of the video, even if it might have been a little less colorful and vivid as many DVDs of the more high-profile Hollywood films on the street lately. I found no evidence of artifacts, and even if some of the apparent desaturation was a fault of the source material or the transfer, it still was pleasant and conformed completely with the film's milieu, which travels over the dusty Great Plains from Texas to Montana. Finally, whatever perceived defects that are in the Lonesome Dove DVD are far outweighed by the film itself — we're talking about one of the greatest Westerns ever made, with a top-notch cast and a moving, epic story that only could have been told in the long-form miniseries format. We can agree to disagree, but I still say that fans of Lonesome Dove will appreciate its arrival on DVD, where it is contained on a single DVD-18 with chapter access — essential for queuing up the best moments (MacRae's rescue of Lorena from Blue Duck, Jake Spoon's farewell, Call's defense of Newt in Ogalalla) when fans are in need of a fix. Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, and the rest of the cast have yet to find better material since this 1989 masterpiece, and I'll be watching this one for many years to come.

18. I got home today from work, and what to my wondering eyes should appear but a DVD keep case in my mail pile, from America Online of all people. Apparently they're sending their "Free 50 Hours" discs in keep-cases for some reason. I tossed the disc and tried to get all the decals/inserts out, but I had poor luck. However, the case is just fine. For anyone looking for a cheap alternative to buying keep-cases, if you can live with some ugly decal markings on the case, just hit any well-populated apartment building's lobby and swipe like crazy. :-)

    — Matt

    Here's our question to you Matt — if you can afford a DVD player and the normal DVD junkie habit of buying and renting new discs on a weekly basis, why are you swiping free keep-cases rather than just buying them online for a few bucks apiece? Because we know you're a digital die-hard, we're going to assume that you just enjoy being resourceful. So, for the rest of our readers who think free is the best price of all, you may want to start hunting down these recent AOL giveaways.

    But here's our question for AOL — since the recent AOL Time Warner merger, AOL, as the majority partner in the relationship, now owns Warner Bros. But Warner owns the snap-case, not the keep-case. So why is AOL sending out their ubiquitous free-offer CDs in keepers? Like most DVD fans, does AOL simply think they're better?

    Top of the Pops: Here's the top-selling DVDs last week from our friends at Reel.com. Click the links to read our reviews of these discs:

    1. Being John Malkovich
    2. Galaxy Quest
    3. Dogma
    4. The Sixth Sense: Collector's Edition
    5. The Matrix
    6. Pee-wee's Big Adventure
    7. Spaceballs
    8. Showgirls
    9. The Fox and the Hound: Gold Classic Collection
    10. Blue Velvet
    
    

    Later.

    — Ed.

    ---

    Tuesday, 2 May 2000

    ---

    In the Works: Let's get a look at some new disc announcements, courtesy of Image Entertainment and Reel.com:

    • Okay, we finally have a firm street date from MGM for The Princess Bride — July 18. However, despite a few rumors that this might be a special edition, it looks like a trailer will be the only supplement. If that's disappointing, we're still excited about MGM's upcoming Henry V, the 1989 film that put Kenneth Branagh on the map. Meanwhile, The Lion will re-release the Academy Award-winner The Best Years of Our Lives, previously on the street from another vendor. Both are due on July 18 as well.
    • If you've been thinking (as we have) that there are far too few classic Woody Allen films on disc, MGM is making up for lost time, as seven Woody flicks will street on July 5 — Bananas, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex but Were Afraid to Ask, Interiors, Love and Death, Manhattan, Sleeper, and Stardust Memories. All will be available individually or in a eight-disc box, which will also include the previously released Annie Hall (SRP $134.98).
    • Here's the final details on Universal's upcoming Jaws: 25th Anniversary Edition, which will street in both Dolby Digital and DTS flavors. In addition to the film and a new 5.1 mix, the many features include a one-hour behind-the-scenes documentary (cut down from the longer version on the Laserdisc box-set); an additional shark documentary; deleted scenes and outtakes; stills, drawings, and storyboards; production notes; a trailer; and DVD-ROM content that includes a trivia game and a screensaver. No change on the date — it's still due on July 11.
    • Columbia TriStar is double-dipping two previous titles, now to be special editions, including the 1995 Bad Boys: Special Edition (June 27), which will include a commentary by director Michael Bay, a multi-angle look at some special effects, music videos, a featurette, and more; and Cliffhanger: Special Edition (June 13), Sly Stallone's mountain-climbing thriller, which will include two separate commentaries, one with Stallone, the other with director Renny Harlin, two behind-the-scenes shorts, deleted scenes, stills, storyboards, and the standard trailer and notes.
    • Meanwhile, new releases from CTHV include Diane Keaton's Hanging Up (June 27), The Emperor and the Assassin: Special Edition (June 13), The Pest: Special Edition (June 13), The Story of Qiu Ju (June 20), Third Miracle: Special Edition (June 13), Daytrippers (June 20), Mercy (June 13), and the kiddie flick Dragon Tales: Adventures In Dragon Land (Aug. 1).
    • Just one from Criterion this morning — Roger Vadim's 1956 And God Created Woman (June 13), starring Brigitte Bardot. A restoration demonstration and a trailer will be on board.
    • Buena Vista has confirmed the next round of "Gold Classic Collection" releases, including Alice In Wonderland (July 4), Mary Poppins (July 4), Robin Hood (July 4), the movie-only A Bug's Life (Aug. 1), Hercules (Aug. 1), The Rescuers Down Under (Aug. 1), and Pocahontas 2: Journey to a New World (Sept. 5). The previous editions of Mary Poppins, Hercules, and A Bug's Life (which aren't any different than the forthcoming ones) are now scheduled to go out-of-print.
    • Other stuff in the works at the Mouse House include the straight-to-video Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins: Special Edition (Aug. 8), with a commentary by Pixar stars Woody, Rex and "Those Little Green Men," a storybook, and a trivia game. Also look for the comedy Telling You (June 27), starring Jennifer Love Hewitt and Gina Philips.
    • Image has announced a new disc of James Ivory's 1986 A Room With A View (July 4), with a new DD 5.1 track, while other fare from Image is of the specialty variety the distributor is best known for, including Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 Strike: Special Edition (July 25), digitally remastered from camera-negatives, and with a new score and a commentary by Russian cinema scholar Yuri Tsivian; The 1000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse: Special Edition (July 11), Fritz Lang's final film, digitally restored and with a commentary and short documentary; Federico Fellini's 1955 Il Bidone (The Swindle) (July 18), starring Broderick Crawford; the silent classic The Indian Tomb (July 18), directed by Joe May and starring Conrad Veidt; and Surfin' Shorts (July 25), three short films from surf-cinema legend Bruce Brown.
    • New from Artisan is the recent Discovery Channel special Raising the Mammoth (June 27), a two-hour documentary on a near-complete mammoth carcass that was removed from the Siberian ice and transported for scientific examinations. Also on the way are Final Voyage (June 20) and the family-friendly Grizzly Falls (June 27).
    • Specialty house Kino will release George Stevens' 1948 comedy On Our Merry Way, starring James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Dorothy Lamour, and Fred MacMurray. Look for it on June 6.
    
    

    On the Street: We only have eyes this morning for one of our favorite films from last year — Being John Malkovich: Special Edition, on the street now from USA. But that doesn't mean there isn't a lot of other stuff to choose from this week, including Kevin Smith's Dogma and the popular thriller Jagged Edge, both from Columbia TriStar, and four new Elvis Presley classics now in release from MGM. DreamWorks has released the much-anticipated Galaxy Quest as well, and you Monty Python collectors have two more discs to pick up this week. Here's this morning's notable street discs, courtesy of Reel.com and Image Entertainment:

    • The 10th Kingdom
    • Alone
    • Anchors Aweigh
    • Anywhere But Here
    • Bastard Out of Carolina
    • Being John Malkovich: Special Edition
    • Blackrock
    • Blue Hawaii
    • Castaway Cowboy
    • La Collectionneuse
    • Dilemma
    • The Dinner Game
    • Dogma (delayed from April 25)
    • Earth, Wind and Fire in Concert
    • An Evening with Sherlock Holmes
    • Ferngully II: The Magical Rescue
    • The Fox and the Hound: Gold Classic Collection
    • Galaxy Quest (Dolby Ditgital or DTS editions)
    • G.I. Blues
    • Gypsy (1962)
    • Jagged Edge
    • Junior's Groove
    • King Creole
    • Life in the Fast Lane
    • Light It Up
    • Little Women: Collector's Edition
    • Love Etc.
    • Marvin Gaye: Greatest Hits Live In '76
    • Monty Python's Flying Circus DVD: Season 3, Set 5 (2-DVD Set)
    • Monty Python's Flying Circus DVD: Season 3, Set 6 (2-DVD Set)
    • Nancy Sinatra: Movin' With Nancy: Special Edition
    • On The Ropes: Special Edition
    • On the Town
    • One Little Indian
    • Organ
    • Pee Wee's Big Adventure: Special Edition
    • Perfect Blue: Unrated Director's Cut (delayed from April 25)
    • The Perfect Husband (delayed from April 25)
    • Pet Shop Boys: Somewhere
    • Regret to Inform (delayed from April 25)
    • Rites of Passage: Special Edition
    • Roustabout
    • Saludos Amigos: Gold Classic Collection
    • Shameless
    • SHORT 8: Vision
    • The Slipper and the Rose: Special Edition
    • Things Change
    • Three Caballeros: Gold Classic Collection
    • Virtual Sexuality
    
    

    See ya.

    — Ed.

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    Monday, 1 May 2000

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    And the winner is: Ronda Blaisdell of Stoneham, Mass., wins the free DVD of The Birds: Collector's Edition from our April contest. Congrats, Ronda!

    Our Free DVD Contest for the month of May is up and running, and we have a copy of Universal's Field of Dreams: Collector's Edition up for grabs. Be sure to drop by our contest page to send us your entry, and don't forget to take our monthly DVD poll while you're there.

    Disc of the Week: Drawing from the epic cattle drives across the American midwest in the latter half of the 19th century, the 1989 miniseries Lonesome Dove is one of greatest, most lyrical westerns ever made (rivaling perhaps even John Ford's epic The Searchers), despite the fact that it was shot for television, on a TV-sized budget, and never played on the big screen. Thanks to Artisan, the entire six hours of Lonesome Dove is now on DVD (on a single DVD-18 disc), for fans of westerns — or just great performances — to enjoy revisiting again and again. Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones star as former Texas Rangers Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call, who, in the twilight of their active years, decide to abandon their Texas border town of Lonesome Dove, rustle some Mexican horses over the border, and embark on a 2,500-mile journey to Montana, where they will be the first men ever to graze cattle in the new territory, reportedly a paradise on earth. Hiring on a team of cowboys, the two Civil War veterans encounter a variety of pitfalls — expected and unexpected — that force them to come to terms with love, loss, rivalry, and ultimately the sense of honor that binds them as lifelong friends. Joining the journey, in part or in full, are fellow Texas Ranger Jake Spoon (Robert Urich), a man with a dangerous taste for gambling and women; illiterate prostitute Lorena Wood (Diane Lane), who is caught up in a love triangle with McCrae and Spoon; Ranger vet and trail scout Joshua Deets (Danny Glover); and trail hands Newt (Rick Schroder) and Dish (D.B. Sweeney).

    Many critics have hailed Lonesome Dove as Duvall's best performance (it certainly rivals his Oscar-winning turn in Tender Mercies), and much of the delight in the miniseries comes from Duvall's interplay with the equally excellent Jones, who, as the laconic, no-nonsense Call, is almost constantly at odds with the quixotic McCrae and his dreams of taking on one last adventure before the eventualities of life catch up with him. Urich, Glover, Schroder, and Sweeney give thoughtful supporting performances, but most appealing about Lonesome Dove is its uncompromising attempt to recreate this era in American history, eschewing the mythical, Hollywood versions of the Old West, with its cowboys, outlaws, and Indians alike, and instead focusing upon the hardship that working cattlemen endured on the dusty, uncivilized frontier. The cast also includes Anjelica Huston, Frederic Forrest, Chris Cooper, and Steve Buscemi, under the capable direction of Simon Wincer, and it must be noted that Basil Pouledouris' score is magnificent. Artisan's recent release of Lonesome Dove features a good transfer in the original full-frame (1.33:1), and audio in Dolby 2.0 (mono). Also on board are interviews with Lonesome Dove novelist Larry McMurtry and producer Suzanne de Passe, extensive textual notes on the history of cattle drives, cast and crew bios and filmographies, a trivia game, and a promo spot for the DVD. Suffice it to say that your editor has stashed this one away in his personal collection.

    Box Office: Three new movies went up against U-571 over the weekend, but none had enough muscle to dislodge last week's champ, as the Jonathan Mostow-helmed submarine thriller captured $12.3 million, boosting its 10-day gross to $38.2 million and torpedoing the competition. But it's all smiles at Universal this morning, as they scored a 1-2 punch with both U-571 and the second-place The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, which earned $10.8 million (however, the scant critical praise for this Bedrock follow-up probably will send it into a nosedive over the next two weeks). And with Erin Brockovich still in the top ten, Universal has had three top-grossing films on the board for the last two weeks. New Line, hoping to duplicate the success of its low-budget Final Destination, bowed Frequency, starring Dennis Quaid, to a respectable $9.1 million, while Fox — still trying to recover from such high-profile disappointments as Anna and the King and The Beach — got $8.3 million from Where The Heart Is, starring Natalie Portman, Ashley Judd, Stockard Channing, and Sally Field.

    Still in continuing release are New Line's Love and Basketball ($15.9 million over 10 days), Paramount's Rules of Engagement (shaping up nicely with $50.3 million so far), and Sony's 28 Days ($28.6 million in three weeks). However, DreamWorks' The Road to El Dorado has tumbled out of the top ten after five weeks, and while a $46.6 million gross is nothing to sneeze at, the most popular animated titles recently, such as Tarzan and Toy Story 2, cleared the $100 million hurdle with ease. Dropping from view are Lions Gate's American Psycho, which barely mustered a $10 million gross despite a lot of media hype, and Warner's Gossip, which debuted last weekend, failed to crack the top ten, and has now sunk without a trace.

    Finally, the IMAX run of Fantasia 2000 is now finished. Over the past four months the ultra-big-screen flick played in less than 100 theaters worldwide, but it still raked in $49.6 million in North America, contributing to a $63.8 million worldwide gross. As these numbers will be added to the film's overall revenues when it reaches the cineplexes this summer, F2K is already a good candidate for the highest-grossing flick of 2000. The summer blockbusters, which start in earnest with this weekend's Gladiator, will tell the tale.

    Here's the top-grossing films at North American theaters from last weekend:

    1. U-571 (Universal)
       $12,300,000 ($38,200,000 through 2 weeks)
    2. The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (Universal)
       $10,800,000 ($10,800,000 through 1 weeks)
    3. Frequency (New Line)
       $9,100,000 ($9,100,000 through 1 weeks)
    4. Where the Heart Is (Fox)
       $8,300,000 ($8,300,000 through 1 weeks)
    5. Love and Basketball (New Line)
       $5,500,000 ($15,900,000 through 2 weeks)
    6. Rules of Engagement (Paramount)
       $4,800,000 ($50,300,000 through 4 weeks)
    7. Keeping the Faith (Buena Vista)
       $4,600,000 ($25,600,000 through 3 weeks)
    8. 28 Days (Sony/Columbia TriStar)
       $4,000,000 ($28,600,000 through 3 weeks)
    9. Erin Brockovich (Universal)
       $3,800,000 ($113,000,000 through 7 weeks)
    10. Final Destination (New Line)
        $2,525,000 ($46,100,000 through 7 weeks)
    11. Return to Me (MGM/UA)
        $2,500,000 ($25,200,000 through 4 weeks)
    12. The Road to El Dorado (DreamWorks SKG)
        $2,200,000 ($46,600,000 through 5 weeks)
    
    

    On the Board: Steve Firstenburg has posted a new full review this morning of SHORT 7: Utopia, which can be found on our Full Reviews index. New quick reviews from the staff this week include Little Women: Collector's Edition, Showgirls, Lonesome Dove, Honeymoon in Vegas, Anywhere But Here, Gen-X Cops, and the interactive Naxos Musical Journeys. All can be accessed on the Quick Reviews index, and everything has been added under the New Reviews menu here on the main page as well.

    We'll be back tomorrow with news on this week's street discs.

    — Ed.

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