Great releases, but 2LB has previously been available; I’m going to limit the list to first-time-on-DVD titles. But I’m excited about it too. And thanks for the Saura reminder as well.
FWIW, here’s the list I came up with for the display:
*
Ace in the Hole
Army of Shadows
Battleship Potemkin
Black Book
Blade Runner: The Final Cut
Borat
Boss of It All, The
John Brahm: Fox Classic Horror Collection
Brute Force
Casino Royale
Casshern
Children of Men
Classic Western Roundup, I and II
Darwin’s Nightmare
Departed, The
Eastern Promises
First Films of Samuel Fuller, The
Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima
Fountain, The
Grindhouse: Deathproof and Planet Terror
Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, A
Harsh Times
Hot Fuzz
I Am Cuba: The Ultimate Edition
I Think I Love My Wife
Idiocracy
Intruder, The
Ivan’s Childhood
Killer of Sheep
Little Children
Live Free or Die Hard
Namesake, The
No End in Sight
Offside
Old Joy
Pierrepont: The Last Hangman
Planet Earth
Popeye the Sailor: 1933 – 1938
Power of Art, The
Prime Suspect: The Final Act
Queen, The
Rescue Dawn
Sansho the Bailiff
Shooter, The
Sicko
Simpsons Movie, The
Sweet Movie
Talk to Me
Three Films by Hiroshi Teshigahara
Tripper, The
Venus
War and Peace
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
Wind That Shakes the Barley, The
Zodiac*
I love I Am Cuba but have been hesitant about TUE since I already have it on its initial release. Have you actually watched all the extras?
Great list, btw
I haven’t yet, but it still seems worthwhile. The film itself is a “new high-definition master from the original Russian 35mm fine grain master,” 26 min introduction by Martin Scorsese, two audio tracks–Spanish language, and Russian, which is oddly poetic in this context. The three discs also include an “award winning” 91 minute documentary about the making of the film, The Siberian Mammoth; a 30 minute interview with the screenwriter; and a two-hour documentary about the director of I Am Cuba, Mikhail Kalatozov.
Check out Dave Kehr’s column in the NYTimes:
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Oh and . . .
. . . thanks. Unfortunately, most of our customers just skim over it long enough to find The Simpsons Movie. Still, some of the newly available classics have rented too.
I’m a bit torn, since Barnes & Noble is doing a buy 2-get 1 free DVD sale, which means I’m ruminating on Criterions and box set options, and as much as I love Cuba, I’ve got one already and it’ll be ages before I get to the extras anyway, so there may be other things I want more…
I haven’t seen the older edition, but if the ethereal glow of the new one is due to the new transfer, that alone is worth the price.
Not a movie, but I think my favorite DVD release this year was Flight of the Conchords.
FotC almost made the cut, but being a whole TV series counted against it. Arbitrary, I know, but we have limited space and thus were forced to adopt some pretty arbitrary standards.
Stardust had a great HD release, with great quality film, superb sound and excellent bonus features. The Simpsons DVD was also decent, though by no means a must-buy. The cincher for me was Casino Royale. That movie made for awesome Blu-Ray material.
I gotta say, I was rather disappointed with the DVD for FotC. No extra stuff whatsoever, and not even a Scene Selection - just “Play episode.” I would have settled for a simple “jukebox” setting so you could just listen to the musical numbers.
One of the most bare bones, basic DVD releases I’ve seen in recent memory.
I thought Stardust was one of the worst movies of this–or any other, for that matter–year. The focus of the list was not simply the quality of the package, but the overall, um, rentability of the disc in question. It was a combination of the best new movies of the past year, along with the best of the classics that have finally been made available. The film itself was more important, in this list, than the packaging.
Yeah, that was pretty disappointing for me, as well. Not a single making-of documentary? No HBO special? No Austin documentary?
Yes, but they *do *have a Spanish language dub track. As funny as those shows are, they’re funnier dubbed in Spanish. Especially Murray. I recommend it highly.