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Terminator : Special Edition Review
No, No no, we haven't been THAT fortunate to get an early review of the Original TerminatorSpecial Edition DVD :(   but the good folk over at Region 2 [UK] DVD Debate certainly have.  Sounds like MGM done a very nice job of this DVD Overall

Terminator : Special Edition Review


CTHE February 2001 Releases
It's a good thing the Columbians haven't turned evil on us with their DVD releases and so Still offer DVDs on Sellthru with the VHS Rental.  And what better way to celebrate Valentines Day than to give your loved one a copy of American Psycho [uncut] on DVD as a Valentine's Gift!!!  I think it's safe to say we've finally seen an end to Flowers and Chocolate once and for all!!!!  :)

BAD BOYS :Special Edition is also another Columbia DVD coming February 2001, in the long line of their Special Edition Reissues.  DVD File wrote a great article a short while ago on the making of the multi-angle featurette : Damage Control.   definitely worth a read.

Though made well nearly 40 years ago To Kill a Mockingbird also comes as a Special Edition with an audio commentary contributed by director Robert Mulligan and Producer Alan J Pakula (who was sadly killed in a car accident not long after doing the comm track), as well as a ninety minute doco made especially for the film's 35th Anniverary.  pity Univeral only bothered with giving us a 4x3 letterbox transfer of this terrific film.

And Just like region 4 has done with Friends and Buffy, comes another DVD NOTreleased in the US of A yet!!. 
Krull Comes as a feature packed Special Edition, with 2 comm tracks, doco, isolated soundtrack remastered 5.1 audio and more. 

See below for plenty more DVD releases and Specs from CTHE for Feb 2001.

Release Date: February 14th 2001

American Psycho
Simultaneous VHS Rental Release
R18+ (Medium Level Violence, Medium Level Sex Scene)
Subtitles : English, Spanish, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Portuguese, Bulgarian
Widescreen (16:9 enhanced)
DD5.1 English, Spanish
Single Sided, Single Layer
Horror
98 minutes

  • Isolated Soundtrack
  • ‘Making of American Psycho’ Featurette
  • Talent Profiles
  • Movie Trailers
  • Picture Disc


To Kill A Mockingbird Collector’s Edition
PG (Adult Themes)
Subtitles : English, French, German, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Turkish, Swedish, Finnish, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese, Danish, Bulgarian
Wide Screen (Letterboxed)
DD1.0 English, French, German, Italian, Spanish
Single Sided, Dual Layer
Drama
124 minutes

  • Audio Commentary with Director and Producer
  • 90 minute ‘Making of To Kill A Mockingbird’
  • Production Notes
  • Talent Profiles
  • Movie Trailer


Krull Collector’s Edition
G (general)
Subtitles : English, French, German, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Hindi, Turkish, Danish, Arabic, Swedish, Finnish, Icelandic, Dutch, Norwegian, Greek, Hebrew, Bulgarian
WideScreen (16:9 enhanced)
5.1 (English, German), Surround (French)
Single Sided, Dual Layer
Sci-Fi
116 minutes

  • Audio Commentary with Cast and Crew
  • Audio Commentary: Cinefastatique Article
  • 22 minute Documentary ‘Journey to Krull’
  • Isolated Soundtrack
  • Marvel Comic with Dialogue and Sound Effects from the film
  • 4 Photo Galleries
  • Talent Profiles
  • Movie Trailer
  • Picture Disc


Day of the Jackal
PG (Medium Level Violence)
Subtitles : English, French, German, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Turkish, Greek, Swedish, Finnish, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese, Danish, Bulgarian
Wide Screen (letterboxed)
DD1.0 English, French, German, Italian, Spanish
Single Sided, Dual Layer
Thriller
137 minutes

  • Production Notes
  • Movie Trailer


Cruel Intentions 2
Simultaneous VHS Rental Release
MA15+ (Medium Level Sex Scenes, Sexual References)
Subtitles : English, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Icelandic, Hindi, Hebrew, Dutch, Bulgarian, French, Turkish, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Greek, Norwegian, Arabic
Wide Screen (16:9 enhanced)
DD5.1 English, French
Single Sided, Single Layer
Drama
84 minutes

  • Talent Profiles
  • Movie Trailer
  • Picture Disc


Bad Boys Collector’s Edition
DVD Re-release
MA15+ (Medium Level Violence, Medium Level Coarse Language)
Subtitles : English, French, German, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Hindi, Turkish, Danish, Arabic, Swedish, Finnish, Icelandic, Dutch, Norwegian, Greek, Hebrew
WideScreen (16:9 enhanced)
DD5.1 English, French, German
Single Sided, Dual Layer
Action
114 minutes

  • Audio Commentary with Director
  • 24 minute Documentary ‘Putting The Boom & Bang In Bad Boys’
  • Isolated Soundtrack
  • 3 Music Videos
  • Photo Gallery
  • 'Multi-angle Special Effects' Featurette
  • Talent Profiles
  • Movie Trailer
  • Picture Disc


Circus Collector's Edition
Simultaneous VHS Rental Release
MA15+ (Medium Level Violence, Medium Level Sex Scenes)
Subtitles : English, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Icelandic, Hindi, Hebrew, Dutch, Bulgarian, Turkish, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Greek, Norwegian, Arabic
WideScreen (16:9 enhanced)
DD5.1 English
Single Sided,Dual Layer
Action/Thriller
92 minutes

  • Audio Commentary with Producer and Writer
  • 11 minute Behind-the-Scenes Documentary
  • 25 minutes of Deleted Scenes
  • 21 minutes of Sound Bites
  • Featurette
  • Movie Trailer

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Gladiator Tramples the Oppositions
Just prior to Xmas [was it me or did Christmas just come and go without a sound this year!] Columbia issued a press release proudly announcing that Their Gladiator DVD shipped over 115,000 units!  One thing to point out about this figure is that it relates to the number shipped to STORES, NOT how many consumers have actually bought within Australia.  Suffice to say that the number of Gladiator DVDs consumers have actually purchased, is going to be pretty damn good. 
So congrats to Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment, for not only doing so well with this DVD release, but for also taking the initiative and offering the FIRST PAL Movie DVD with a DTS soundtrack.  I for one hope to see them continue this trend with more DTS encoded DVDs. 

Click HERE for the Press Release

Stuart Little's still Cuttin' the Cheese
Stuart Little has also done quite nicely on DVD, and CTHE issued a Press Release for it also.

New Cinemas in Bris- Vegas
Though a slight deviation from DVD News, I thought a few of you may be interested to know that the Palace Cinema Chain have opened their new cinema-plex, called the Centro, on James Street New Farm, Bris-Vegas.
I dropped by to see a moofy or two there this past holiday season and they're very nice little cinemas (4 in total, each seats some 200 people).  All feature Dolby Digital Sound (a major plus for bris-vegas cinema going, AND being more you're not so mainstream cinema chain..yucko to dolby Stereo and crap sound to boot), and have stadium style seating!!. 
Sound is pretty good (nice bass), and the seats are very comfy {are very similar to the Chermside BCC chairs..though are a fraction narrower).
My only real complaint is when sitting half way down and closer in any of these 4 cinemas, the screen is a bit in-ya-face, though are no way near as bad as being up front in one of the 6 Balmoral cinemas!!! (Which I love just the same, simply because the Balmoral advertise [in the paper] what sound format a movie is in, AND have the only bris-vegas cinema to offer Dolby-EX, in addition to plain 'ol Dolby Digital, DTS AND SDDS 5.1 & 8 channel!!!! )

Anyhoo, Til mid January "Palace Centro" have a special offer when you see a movie (for only $7.50 during the opening) you get FREE membership to their Cinema Club for a year.(this membership gives you discount moofies all year around).  sweet deal.

BTW Stock is getting low on the Dolby Digital Plaques, and we're not sure when We'll next stock up, so if you want one  get in quick before we run out!

PS X-men hits DVD on 17th January...and is Rental Only... thanks Fox!!
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NZ and Replacing Snappers
With NZ only being a hop skup and jump away from OZ we've had quite a few NZ DVD'ers asking us about the Warner Slicks Replacement Offer and if we are able to offer these slicks to anyone in NZ. 
We were initially told that Warner NZ would be offering this deal for their own country, but the official word is that at this time Warner NZ WILL NOT be offering replacement Slicks.

However, we have been informed by Warner NZ that ANY NZ DVD'ers are allowed to get their replacement slicks from Australia

The only drawback with anyone wanting to get Amaray cases from OZ for their Warner DVDs is the high price for International postage. Even though we're only a hop skup and jump away the price is pretty hefty.  (the DVD slicks by themselves shouldn't cost all that much though).
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Slicks and Screenshots Galore
More screenshots and DVD slicks for you to suss out.  Univeral's Natural Born Killers, Two Hands and Turbulence 2.  T2 has possibly the COOLEST menu for audio select with the option of selecting either Dolby 2.0 or 5.1. Each of the channels of these audio formats are indictated by levels that move up and down.  (though the shot we took is static..sorry :(  (i'm such a sucker for gimics!!!
From Roadshow we have Slicks and Menus from the Scream Screen Saga DVD (aka Scream 4), The Skulls, and Final Destination.  FD has some very cool menus where the main menu background shows a different background animation AND differetn audio when you work your way thru the sub-menus and back again...neat

DVD Slicks   //  DVD Menus

Scream Screen Saga DVD Box Set
Set for Release any day is the $100 retail box set of the 3 Scream Movies and a 4th Disc loaded with Special features.
The movies are the same DVDs as previously released in OZ (with the original being released here by Magna in a dreaded 4x3 Pan-Scan version WITH 2 Channel sound...arrgh!), while 2 and 3 both being Anamorphic Widescreen with Dolby 5.1 sound.
The Forth disc, mislabelled as Deluxe Widescreen, is actually 4x3 fullframe (as originally videotaped, etc).
Extras on Scream 4 as it's become known around the place include.

- Behind the Screams - 30 minute doco on the making of the scream trilogy,
- Screen tests from Neve, Skeet and Jamie.
- Sunrise Studios Trailers (this is the studio in the Scream movies which makes the STAB films.),,these trailers are spoofs of real movies like Blair Witch Project (their trailer is for Scared Bitch Projectz), and my favourite, Ice Scream Truck.   These are the most pathetic trailers you are ever likely to see....you just gotta love 'em!! and there's 12 in total!  
- Scream 2 Featurette (which is here 'cause it wasn't on the Scream 2 DVD).
- Crew bios
- Scream Music Video by Master P, and a hidden movie trailer.

Several other scream 4 extras on the region 1 version have actually been included on OUR Scream 3 DVD (like the scream 1 outtakes)

On the DVD-Rom content side of things..which comes in at about 1.3 gig!.   you get:
- Screamsaver.  this is a whopping 220meg and contains seqences from the scream movies.  Iif you leave the Scream 4 DVD in your PC, the screen saver will access much higher quality versions of these seqences on the Disc, and i have to say the quality even at fullscream..err i mean screen, sorry :) is pretty damn good.
- Scream Scripts.  Scripts from all 3 moofies with piccys and shooting schedules to boot.
- Scream Game.  test your knowledge of the scream moofies
- Character Web. Shows every main trilogy character and how who links to who!
- Web Archive - for scream 3
- Scream Online takes you to the scream site on the web

The only thing our version is missing over the region 1 4th DVD is the "cutting room" feature which allows you to create a few of your own seqences from scream 3's opening seqence, as you can with the Men In Black Collector's Ed DVD.  a bit of a pity that.  BTW the USA retail price for Their Box set is $US90 (or about $185 australian...hmmmmm)

Ripley Reviewed
Sometimes you just get a DVD you can never get motivated to review.  I'm not saying The Talented Mr Ripley is a bad movie, in fact i thought it was pretty good, just one of those things i guess :)
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DOLBY STUFF IN STOCK!!!
Though in Limited quanities, we now have stock of the Genuine Dolby Digital Wall Plaque (their Home Theatre Version), Dolby Digital Mouse Mats (these actually look really cool!!!) and the Dolby Digital Demo DVD version 1.5) 

Goto the DOLBY STUFF page

We've included a few screen shots of this groovy little demo DVD on our DVD Slicks page
Just as a matter of interest, the entire DVD has been Dolby Digital 5.1 encoded at 448kbps.   There's the intro to dolby featurette, the Dolby Digital Story (with some kick ass effects), the 7 Dolby Digitial Trailers (aurora, rain, city, train, canyon, Egypt and their latest "game"), as well as some additional music.

From the looks of it, Game is for the PC world of computer games and it's an excellent 5.1 trailer to boot...(check out the DVD Slicks page  for some screen shots from it.

The "Additional music" includes 3 versions of Allegro, in D major.   this track has 3 audio versions, one in 5.1, one in 2.0 surround and the last in Stereo.  Each of these has been encoded at 448kbps and the difference in detail between the 5.1 and stereo tracks is incredibile (with the stereo track having sooo much more detail, but I guess with there only being 2 tracks taking up 448bps instead of 5.1 tracks, this is expected, but still..WOW).
The other music track is San Fernando Valley, which only comes with a 5.1 mix.

For Anyone who preordered any of the above Dolby Products, we'll be shipping these to you within the week, (upon final payment of order). 

Cass's Latest Reviews
Between PC Viruses Cass has managed a few reviews.  She Hated Pokemon : The First Movie (god let there NOT be anymore :) but Loved Magnolia & Singin' in the Rain, and didn't think Detroit Rock City was too bad either. 
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DVD Slicks Replacement Update
Just got word today that the DVD Slicks are just about to be shipped from Warner to the participating OZ DVD sites.  a list  was attached to the email and it included some 290 odd dvds that slicks are being made available for replacing (though some were Beuna Vista titles, and they have always come in an amaray with a slick..anyhoo). 
Though it is getting very close, Please don't email us your requirements as a few things are still being finalised to make it all much easier to process for both you and us with an On-line order form.

DVD Menu Shots
Drop by the DVD Slicks page for the latest DVD menu shots.  Since getting our hands on a copy of Gladiator, we've been able to add a few more of its menus, as well some from BATS, Guns from Navarone, and Whatever it takes.

Pioneer DVD player and Subtitles
Anyone with a Pioneer DVD player knows what a pain in the ass it is when you hit the Subtitle button, and to turn the damn things OFF again you have to scroll thru the whole lot (hands up those who tried hitting the "0" button in hope that IT turned off subtitles!! ..haha me to :) 
When i hit this button on one of the Columbians DVDs i just wanna smack myself in the head, having to scroll throught 72 thousand bloody subtitles they seem to find it necessary to include!!!!!  grrrrrr ...Please Note this is the only real gripe i have about their generally fabulous DVDs!!!!..well that and the friggin' annoying Dolby City Trailer! there's 6 others you could use ya know!!!  <grin>)

Anyhoo, by sheer accident I noticed that if you hit the Subtitle Button followed by the CLEAR button!  the subtitle mode switches to OFF! I was overwhelmed with Joy upon discovering this feature as it's bugged me for the 18 months I've owned my 717 (and i'd swear there is no mention of this in the manual).   ... just thought I'd share this little tip :)

Latest Review
Paul emailed his review of American History X the other day and well i kinda forgot to post it (sorry jamesy :), but here tis, American History X

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>> more november 2000 news >>

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