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Sunday 26th May 2002 |
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6.1
Surround Sound Review - Harry Potter
Who would have thought a simple story of wizardy, goblins and magic would become a hotbed
of controversy..at least here in Australia.
In just a few days time , Harry Potter's First Novel to Film adventure will make it's way
to DVD, but for us lowly Australian DVD'ers, it'll be a choice of 4x3 Panned and Scanned,
or 4x3 Panned and Scanned. The Rest of the world also have two choices, but there's
are 4x3 Panned and Scanned, OR Anamorphic Widescreen!At
Least the Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround EX audio mix is in tact, and we've fully decoded it
into "6.1 Surround" for our DVD Review.
DVD Reviews
Kathryn has been hard at work on more reviews, but this time she's almost
gone retro with the Brilliant 4 disc set of The History of Jazz, Steve Martin's cleverly
constucted Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, and the Ali doco, Through the Eyes of the World.
PS We've been tinkering with some PHP of late, so if
you've noticed any problems access the Undead Interview or any of the Reviews listed
about, please let us know. |
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May 2002 Reviews
+ Harry Potter "6.1"
+ History
of Jazz
+ Dead Men ... Plaid
+ Ali -Thru
the Eyes
+ Things you Can tell....
+ Town & Country
+ Angel Eyes
+ The
Mexican SE "6.1"
+ The Score
+ The
Watcher
>>
more reviews >> |
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Sunday 19th May 2002 |
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Interview
with the UNDEAD
No No, we haven't managed to snare an interview with Rose P. :) but rather Peter and
Michael Spierig.These twin brothers have been making
short films for quite a few years and have finally decided to sink their teeth into a full
length feature film called.....UNDEAD. As the name suggests, we're
talking about a zombie flick folks! And this is no ordinary run of the mill zombie flick.
It's an AUSSIE-made zombie flick.
Michael and Peter took some time out of their [no doubt]
busy schedule to indulge DVDown Under in an interview.....happy reading. (and be sure to
check out the UNDEAD teaser trailer available on-line)
A Deadly DVD that's just Eeevil
It must be that time of the year or something for zombie flicks are on the
return. Resident Evil is kicking some major zombie-butt at the cinemas, UNDEAD is
currently in the making, and now Sam Raimi's equally delicious EVIL DEAD
is being resurrected for DVD in Region 4.
Big Sky Video are set to make
their DVDdebut in Australia with the mid June releases of Evil Dead, and
it should be pretty well received. If you've been keeping up with the overseas DVD
news, you'll know that Anchor Bay pulled out all the stops in delivering a killer version
of Evil Dead with a new Anamorphic Widesreen Transfer and event when so far as to remix
the audio into Dolby EX and DTS-ES.
While the region 4 version doesn't carry these 2 new audio
remixes, it does have the Director's Approved Anamorphic Widescreen picture
(and in PAL). On the Audio front, i'm afraid you'll have to settle for a plain 'ol Dolby
Digital 5.1 remix :) As much as i love the idea of remixing into Dolby EX
and DTS-ES, I haven't found all that much to rave about with these "old" films
getting spruced up tracks. As a result, I'm not overly concerned about the region 4 audio
track. (yes i know...shock horror, but it's true :)
The one, or two ommisions from the region 4 DVD that i am sad about, are the 2 excellent
Evil Dead Audio Commentaries. Unfortunately it came down to licensing issues (spell
overseas owners again wanting too much money..when will they learn! )
Audio commentaries aside, the region 4 DVD is packed with
plently of extras. (and on the plus side, without a DTS track and the 2 audio comms,
there's heaps more room for picture encoding)
STREAM AV are the encoders who have taken on the job to author Evil Dead for Region 4, and
the DVDs they've authored for region 4 so far have all been pretty damn good.
One thing our region 4 DVD gets that isn't included in
either the Region 1 OR region 2 DVD is a 32 page booklet. The booklet was written
during the films production by Josh Becker (he made a whacked out little film a few years
back called Lunatic : A Love Story..which starred Sam's little brother Theodore :)
EVIL DEAD : Special Edition
Picture : 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
Audio : Dolby Digital 5.1, 2.0
Subtitles :?
Extras :
- THEATRICAL TRAILER
- FULL COLOUR INSERT FEATURING LINER NOTES BY BRUCE CAMPBELL
- ‘THE EVIL DEAD JOURNAL’ BY JOSH BECKER (THE ONLY
RECORD OF THE MAKING OF THE EVIL DEAD)
- FEATURETTE – ‘DISCOVERING EVIL DEAD’
- OUTTAKES – ADDITIONAL FOOTAGE
- STILLS AND POSTER GALLERY
- FILM BIOGRAPHIES
- EVIL DEAD CREW AND CAST CREDITS
- EVIL DEAD QUOTES AND TRIVIA
We've also got a front cover scan for Evil Dead in our
Slicks and Menus Page
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Monday 13th May 2002 |
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DVD
Wars : Attack of the Re-Release
With the advent of DVD and all the u-beaut features implemented at the time of it's
inception, one would have thought...back then at least.. that the overkill of re-releasing
a movie wouldn't be necessary anymore. Afterall, how many times did Star Wars make
it's way to Laserdisc.Superbit DVDs
is one such "gimmick" used to tempt people into buying the same DVD, but in a
"new and improved version" (no doubt SuperBit titles will make it to Australian
shores shortly, seeing as a select number of PAL titles have been released in the UK under
this banner)
Until we see Superbit DVDs we'll have to be content with the plain 'ol Special Edition DVD
Re-release. Though no official word has come from Two of the studios set to do so,
from a "censorship" point of view, CTHE and Warner are in deed re-releasing some
high profile movies to DVD in Region 4 as...Special Editions (with more to follow no
doubt:)
As of the date of this publication, slated for release as
Special Edition DVDs to Region 4 are the following (please note, that no release
dates or specs are availalbe...only the titles)
- Almost Famous : Ultimate Edition (let's
hope THIS one gets DTS)
- The Fugitive : SE (Warner)
- Jerry Macguire : SE (CTHE)
- The Net : SE (CTHE)
Another Future DVD Worth Backing
..and yet even more DVD news not supplied directly by a Studio source.
BTTF.com has published some fabo news regarding the worldwide release of Back to
the Future on DVD this year. Included in their 10th May editioral are the
special features for all 3 Discs. No doubt the technical specs will soon follow.
DVD Review
After a slight delay in reviewing, due to a minor technical glitch, Katherine
has reviewed a DVD with a rather long winded title. Things You Can Tell Just
By Looking at Her (and yes it's a chick flick :)
DVD Menu Shots
Menus shots of upcoming DVDs include :- Zoolander, American Werewolf in
Paris, Kill Me Later, Pirates of Penzance
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Thursday 2nd May 2002 |
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6.1
Surround Sound Review - The Mexican
You think after several years, they'd get it right, but The Mexican was released to
theatres with a
Dolby EX encoded track and no one knew about it! (well very few at least :)
Though not carrying a Dolby EX "flag" the Region 4 DVD of The Mexican sports the
same audio mix..and it's a cracker! Then again, in the hands of Gary Rydstrom, you
wouldn't expect anything but the best with an audio mix.....
DVD Reviews
Cass was busy last week and whipped up some more reviews.
Jeeepers Creeepers, Where's the Special
Feeeatures????
A box Office smash hit in its native homeland of USA, with a sequel
ALREADY in the works, Victor Salva's Jeepers Creepers was released by MGM
in REgion 1 Land in the DVD14 format... yes that's right Dual Layered on one side (DVD9)
AND Single Layered on the flip side (DVD5) totaling a DVD14. The movie & comm
track were on the "9" and the truckload of extras on the "5"
Unfortately in OZ, JC1 didn't do so well ...add to that, "special features licencing
issues" and we get.....a bare bone DVD release :(...well okay, so we get a
trailer....along side the Anamorphic Widescreen Picture and Dolby Digital 5.1
soundtrack....
HOWEVER, not all is lost....in light of the situation, Roadshow are very
kindly offering the Region 4 DVD version of JC1 something not found on the USA verison OR
the UK version... A DTS5.1 audio mix! YAY!
Jeepers Creepers will begins stalking Aussie Shores on the 3rd July. |
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