It seems I rarely get an opportunity to go out to the movies any more. I don’t suspect I’ll get a chance to see the new Ridley Scott Robin Hood film until it hits home video. Luckily, I’ve had four new DVD releases from Columbia Pictures Robin Hood Collection to keep me company lately. Ranging from 1948 to 1960, these films are classics and a whole lot of fun to watch. If only they were on Blu-ray…

You might get the impression from the DVD covers above that these four films are in rough condition or have been colourized for home video. Far from it! All four films look great as far as standard-def presentations go. All were filmed in colour and are quite vibrant here, with fairly clean, if somewhat thin mono audio presentations (not a big surprise, considering the age of the films.) Hey, one of them is even presented in anamorphically enhanced 2.35:1 widescreen! Way to go 1960!

So, Columbia’s Robin Hood collection discs all look and sound pretty decent but what about the movies themselves? Well, I don’t think any of the four would please a young, modern crowd with their hokey dialogue and clumsy fight scenes. But film enthusiasts and collectors need to sit up and pay attention to these releases. They’re, all four of them, quite a lot of fun and somewhat relevant to film history! The three earliest efforts in the collection, The Bandit of Sherwood Forest (1946), Prince of Thieves (1948) and Rogues of Sherwood Forest (1950) all echo the very famous and successful Adventures of Robin Hood starring Errol Flynn. In fact, both Bandit and Rogues play as pseudo-sequels, with the protagonist being the son of Robin Hood, instead of the man himself. This was Columbia clearly trying to cash in back in the day. And you know what, they did a decent job! These three early films are super fun to watch, with the only real sore spot being Rogue‘s John Derek being thoroughly unable to act his way out of a paper bag. He’s terrible! Thankfully, the movie only suffers so much at his hands.

Of the four new releases, the one I was most looking forward to was the 1960 Sword of Sherwood Forest produced by Hammer Films! I’m sorry to report that this is also the film I ended up enjoying least of all. I’m a Hammer fan. And, I admit, my expectations were a bit high with this one seeing as how it’s directed by Terence Fisher (Horror of Dracula), co-stars Peter Cushing and Oliver Reed and is a follow-up to the popular 50s TV show, The Adventures of Robin Hood starring Richard Greene! Sadly, Greene is showing his age here. He seems lazy in the role, relying on the unrelenting energy of villains Cushing and Reed to carry to film. While I’m happy to add this to my Hammer collection and ecstatic that the transfer is so healthy on DVD, I really wish the film itself had a more robust Robin in the lead.

Oh, and I really, REALLY wish that all four films were on Blu-ray. But that’s no surprise, is it?

Columbia Pictures’ Robin Hood Collection DVDs are available now.

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TRUE BLOOD: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON (2009, Blu-ray released May 25, 2010 – MSRP $79.98)

With a cast of great characters and compelling b-movie storylines, True Blood is just as silly, soap operatic and supernatural in its second season as it was in its first. Perhaps even more so! And that fun transfers in whole to this exceptional Complete Second Season Blu-ray set!

As I mentioned earlier in the week in our Top 5 Blu-ray disc column, I’ve only just started watching this series. My girlfriend and I burned through both the first and second seasons of True Blood in a matter of days. I can’t say for certain that the experience hasn’t clouded my judgment of the second series as a stand-alone set but I’ll do my best here to single these 12 episodes out of the bunch.

True Blood: The Complete Second Season gets off to a running start, picking up directly from the season one cliffhanger, and never looks back. There’s a new murder mystery in Bon Temps and telepath Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) and her 150-year old vampire lover, Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) are caught in the middle of it. Before they can escape the madness and have some time to foster their blossoming relationship, they come up against an army of God-loving vampire killers, a cult of frolicking Dionysian lust-worshipers and the eccentric, Yahtzee-loving Queen of vampires. It’s not easy for the couple to sneak in a few moments alone amongst the weirdo’s, rednecks and shape-shifters of Bon Temps! Especially with Bill’s new, young vampire ward, Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) tailing him around, making trouble at every turn and his powerful vampire Sheriff, Eric (Alexander Skarsgård) desperate to claim Sookie for his own at any cost.

The second season works fairly well, adding a genuine and original threat to the mix and further developing a lot of our favourite characters. Sadly, some interesting characters and plot-threads are introduced and left to twist in the wind (Eric’s 2000-year old “maker” comes and goes before you know it) while other personalities from season one either fail to make an appearance (the vampire magistrate!) or test your patience with a stream of unending (poorly written) shifts in attitude and loyalty (I don’t believe anyone in the real world would act as Tara (Rutina Wesley), Sookie’s best friend, did through this season.) All told though, the series is a light bit of fun. Like a modern day Dark Shadows - a supernatural vampire soap opera with fang planted firmly in cheek!

Much like everything HBO releases on Blu-ray (via Warner Home Video, of course) True Blood: The Complete Second Season looks absolutely stunning! A healthy, naturalistic veneer of film grain compliments a great deal of detail and wonderful contrast here. This is a fantastic looking set of transfers with an equally stunning and enveloping DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack.

True Blood: The Complete Second Season features a fairly plentiful yet mixed bag of extras, the best of which are the seven audio commentary tracks. They vary in quality depending on participants but are, generally speaking, the highlight of the set. I would, however, happily trade any or all of them in favour of a nice “making-of” documentary, the likes of which is nowhere to be found here. Instead, we’re offered several episodes with an “Enhanced Viewing Experience” – a picture-in-picture pop-up track that offers up the occasional trivia, detail or factoid and allows direct access to a couple of hours of “Character perspectives” and other content, most of which can be viewed outside of the “experience”. I didn’t like any of it. It’s all in-character conversations monologues, fake infomercials and news broadcasts which, to me, is so much less valuable than seeing behind the scenes of the production. Perhaps fans of the original Southern Vampire Mysteries books will appreciate this additional extended-universe content more than I did.

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I think I just crapped my pants. John Carpenter’s Escape from New York is finally coming out on Blu-ray! This is classic Carpenter at his best, made in the early 80s with one of his best synth-guitar soundtracks and his finest leading man, Kurt Russell tearing up the screen for the first and best time as the deadly Snake Plissken! God, I love this film! Sadly, MGM hasn’t published all the disc details yet but I’ve got my fingers crossed that we’ll finally see a nice, detailed remaster here.

ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK
(August 3, 2010 – MSRP $24.99)
Video: 1080
Audio: TBA

Special Features:

• TO BE ANNOUNCED

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Despite my general dislike for the Star Wars prequels, I really enjoyed the Clone Wars: The Complete Season One Blu-ray set. And now, less than a year later we’ve got all the details for the follow up – the Complete Season Two on Blu-ray. Now, if you look closely, you’ll notice that the specs state that the discs will have lossless audio but don’t hold your breath for that dream to come true. The first set was announced to have similar specs but shipped with a lossy 5.1 Dolby Digital track instead. We’ll know for sure when the October 26th release date rolls around…

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS THE COMPLETE SEASON TWO

(October 26, 2010 – MSRP $59.99)
Video: 1.78:1 1080p
Audio: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio

Special Features:

• Behind-The-Scenes Featurettes on each disc
  • Attack of the Zillo Beast
  • Magic of the Holocron
  • Return to Geonosis
  • Creating Mandalore
• 64-page production journal that includes early sketches, artist notes and concept art from Season Two of Star Wars: The Clone Wars
• Blu-ray Exclusive — The Jedi Temple Archives
  • An extensive database exploring special effects footage, early concept art, 3-D character and object turnarounds and early animation. The Archives is a rare look at the assets in various stages of creation for The Clone Wars, with a wealth of surprises and never-before seen moments sprinkled throughout

Via: Star Wars.com

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I grew up reading the brilliant Lone Wolf and Cub comics by Koike Kazuo and Kojima Goseki. I admit to initially being lured in by the awesome Frank Miller covers on our western editions but was quickly won over by the content (which, incidentally was originally presented as a 42-episode epic, which ran in Manga Action between September 10, 1970, and April 1, 1976.) You can imagine my joy at discovering that one of my favourite comics had been adapted into a series of films. A now, thanks to AnimEigo, we’re going to have our first look at the bloody blades of Ogami Itto and son on Blu-ray!

Now, here’s the rub with this release – it’s not one of the original Japanese versions of the films. What we’re getting on Blu is an American edit called Shogun Assassin, an 86-minute film cobbled together from the pieces of the first two Lone Wolf and Cub movies, Sword of Vengeance and Baby Cart on the River Styx, dubbed into english and given a synth-score by Paul Revere & the Raiders‘ Mark Lindsay. The result has something of a ‘Robotech‘ effect – a completely transformed, brand new animal, for better or worse. Luckily, in this case, it’s better. Shogun Assassin is a pretty cool film in and of itself. And if AnimEigo’s new 1080p reconstruction and remaster lives up to our expectations of it, we’re in for a real treat here.

SHOGUN ASSASSIN

(August 24, 2010 – MSRP $24.98)
Video: 2.35:1 1080
Audio: TBA

Special Features:

• Brand new feature-length audio commentary with producer David Weisman, poster illustrator Jim Evans, and Gibran Evans, who provided the epic voice narration of Daigoro
• Must-see 10+ minute interview with Samuel L. Jackson about his fondness of SHOGUN ASSASSIN and other samurai films
• (UNCONFIRMED) Program Notes
• (UNCONFIRMED) Daigoro’s History Lesson
• (UNCONFIRMED) Restoration Gallery
• (UNCONFIRMED) Theatrical Trailers

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