I actually don’t need any more reasons to be excited about Criterion‘s upcoming Blu-ray edition of Rainer Werner Fassbinder‘s World on a Wire but this new ‘Three Reasons’ trailer from the studio has got me seriously chomping at the bit to get my hands on the disc. In a muscular month of releases that includes the likes of Preminger‘s Anatomy of a Murder and Lena Dunham‘s Tiny Furniture, World on a Wire is the one that gets my blood pumping. Just look at that photography! My god, ’70s retro-sci-fi is super cool. Even cooler when it’s German.

The Blu-ray disc will be in shops in a little over two weeks.

WORLD ON A WIRE
(February 21, 2012 – MSRP $39.95)
Video: 1.33:1 1080p
Audio: uncompressed monaural

Special Features:

• New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• Fassbinder’s “World on a Wire”: Looking Ahead to Today, a fifty-minute documentary about the making of the film by Juliane Lorenz
• New interview with German-film scholar Gerd Gemünden
• New English subtitles
• Trailer for the 2010 theatrical release
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Ed Halter

Related posts

• Criterion February Blu-ray titles: World on a Wire, Tiny Furniture, Anatomy of a Murder, Vanya on 42nd Street, Three Outlaw Samurai, La Jetée (1)
• [VIDEO] Three Reasons: Three Colors: White – The Criterion Collection (0)
• [VIDEO] Three Reasons: Three Colors: Red – The Criterion Collection (0)
• [VIDEO] Three Reasons: Three Colors: Blue – The Criterion Collection (0)
• [VIDEO] Three Reasons: The Phantom Carriage – The Criterion Collection (0)

Can you believe this? To this day, I have yet to see a single film in the Twilight series. It’s true. So the trailer above means very little to me. Nor does the release of the Blu-ray disc of the penultimate film, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1. It’ll be on store shelves in a few weeks, which I take to mean that the final installment of the series will be hitting cinemas shortly thereafter. At this point, I think I’m just going to wait ’till this whole things is wrapped up before I dive in and experience sparkling vampires for myself.

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN – PART 1
(February 11, 2012 – MSRP $33.99)
Video: 2.39:1 1080p
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1

Special Features:

• 6-PART MAKING-OF DOCUMENTARY
• WEDDING VIDEO
• JACOB’S DESTINY
• EDWARD FAST FORWARD and JACOB FAST FORWARD
• AUDIO COMMENTARY by director Bill Condon

Related posts

• Top 5 New Blu-ray releases for the Week of March 16 (1)
• Top 5 New Blu-ray releases for the Week of July 20 (1)
• The Runaways Blu-ray Disc review (0)
• Remember Me Blu-ray Disc Review (0)
• Letters to Juliet Blu-ray Disc Review (0)

Was I, like, the only thirty-something guy in North America who didn’t think The Hangover was the best comedy of the last few years? I’m sure I wasn’t alone, but it feels like it at times. My ho-hum feelings about the original film led me to skip out on catching the sequel in the theatre. I understand it brought in a lot of cash for Warner but was universally panned by critics. Can’t say I’m surprised by either result. But what I am surprised by, is that I’ve hit a sufficient point of Hangover de-saturation that I’m now ready to dive into the sequel. I guess my sour feelings have passed and I’m in the mood for sophomoric man-comedy. The Hangover Part II Blu-ray hits shops next week, on December 6th. Check out the Blu-ray trailer above.

THE HANGOVER PART II
(December 6, 2011 – MSRP $35.99)
Video: 2.40:1 1080p
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1

Special Features:

• Comedy Rhythm of Todd Phillips
• Not Your Everyday Monkey
• Bangkok Tour with Mr. Chow
• Action Mash-Up
• Hangover 2 Laugh Track
• Gag Reel

Related posts

• The Hangover gets the Double-Dip treatment – Extreme Edition Blu-ray Box on the way (1)
• The Hangover Blu-ray announced and detailed (2)
• Blu-ray Picks for the Week of December 15 (0)
• Valentine's Day Blu-Ray Disc Review (0)
• [VIDEO] Wish List: Watchmen Episode of Prisoners Of Gravity with Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (0)

I warned you several days ago that the Blog was going to be crazy with posts about Kieślowski‘s Three Colors trilogy and I wasn’t kidding! The Blu-ray set hits shops today and I’m fairly certain it’s going to win a place in my top releases of the year. I’ll talk more about it in the weekly new release post so in the meantime, until I get that finished up and on line, check out this last of Criterion‘s Three Reasons videos for the trilogy, focusing on the final chapter, Red.

“Krzysztof Kieślowski closes his Three Colors trilogy in grand fashion, with an incandescent meditation on fate and chance, starring Irène Jacob as a sweet-souled yet somber runway model in Geneva whose life dramatically intersects with that of a bitter retired judge, played by Jean‑Louis Trintignant. Meanwhile, just down the street, a seemingly unrelated story of jealousy and betrayal unfolds. Red is an intimate look at forged connections and a splendid final statement from a remarkable filmmaker at the height of his powers.“

THREE COLORS TRILOGY
(November 15, 2011 – MSRP $79.95)
Video: 1.85:1 1080p
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio

Special Features:

• New high-definition digital restorations with DTS-HD Master Audio
• Three cinema lessons with director Krzysztof Kieślowski
• New interviews with composer Zbigniew Preisner; writer Krzysztof Piesiewicz; and actors Julie Delpy, Zbigniew Zamachowski, and Irène Jacob
• Selected-scene commentary for Blue with actress Juliette Binoche
• Three new video essays, by film writers Annette Insdorf, Tony Rayns, and Dennis Lim
• Kieślowski’s student short The Tram (1966) and his fellow student’s short from the same year The Face, which features Kieślowski in a solo performance
• Two short documentaries by Kieślowski: Seven Women of Different Ages (1978) and Talking Heads (1980)
• Krzysztof Kieślowski: I’m So-So . . . (1995), a feature-length documentary in which the filmmaker discusses his life and work
• Two multi-interview programs, Reflections on “Blue” and Kieślowski: The Early Years, with film critic Geoff Andrew, Binoche, filmmaker Agnieszka Holland, cinematographer Sławomir Idziak, Insdorf, Jacob, and editor Jacques Witta
• Interviews with producer Marin Karmitz and Witta
• Behind-the-scenes programs for White and Red, and Kieślowski Cannes 1994, a short documentary on Red’s world premiere
• Original theatrical trailers
• New and improved English subtitle translations
• PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by critics Colin MacCabe, Nick James, Stuart Klawans, and Georgina Evans, an excerpt from Kieślowski on Kieślowski, and reprinted interviews with cinematographers Sławomir Idziak, Edward Klosinski, and Piotr Sobocinski

Related posts

• [VIDEO] Three Reasons: Three Colors: White – The Criterion Collection (0)
• [VIDEO] Three Reasons: Three Colors: Blue – The Criterion Collection (0)
• Top New Blu-ray releases for the Week of November 15 (0)
• Top 10 New Blu-ray releases for the Week of February 1 (1)
• The Criterion Collection: The Double Life of Véronique Blu-ray Disc Review (1)

It’s been scant few days since I posted the first of Criterion‘s Three Colors videos and they’ve already hit us with their second. The studio is clearly ramping up to next week’s release of the three-disc boxed set which, I have a sneaking suspicion, just might be the Blu-ray collection of the year. But I can’t say for sure at this point, as I don’t have it in my grubby, little hands yet. I am, however, camped out at my mailbox as I write this, waiting, with fingers crossed, that it will turn up today, to avoid a weekend of pathetically staring at a blank screen, imagining how great these incredible films might look in 1080p. There’s got to be statement in there about the human condition, right?

“The most playful and also the grittiest of Kieślowski’s Three Colors films follows the adventures of Karol Karol (Zbigniew Zamachowski), a Polish immigrant living in France. The hapless hairdresser opts to leave Paris for his native Warsaw when his wife (Julie Delpy) sues him for divorce (her reason: their marriage was never consummated) and then frames him for arson after setting her own salon ablaze. White, which goes on to chronicle Karol Karol’s elaborate revenge plot, manages to be both a ticklish dark comedy about the economic inequalities of Eastern and Western Europe and a sublime reverie about twisted love.“

THREE COLORS TRILOGY
(November 15, 2011 – MSRP $79.95)
Video: 1.85:1 1080p
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio

Special Features:

• New high-definition digital restorations with DTS-HD Master Audio
• Three cinema lessons with director Krzysztof Kieślowski
• New interviews with composer Zbigniew Preisner; writer Krzysztof Piesiewicz; and actors Julie Delpy, Zbigniew Zamachowski, and Irène Jacob
• Selected-scene commentary for Blue with actress Juliette Binoche
• Three new video essays, by film writers Annette Insdorf, Tony Rayns, and Dennis Lim
• Kieślowski’s student short The Tram (1966) and his fellow student’s short from the same year The Face, which features Kieślowski in a solo performance
• Two short documentaries by Kieślowski: Seven Women of Different Ages (1978) and Talking Heads (1980)
• Krzysztof Kieślowski: I’m So-So . . . (1995), a feature-length documentary in which the filmmaker discusses his life and work
• Two multi-interview programs, Reflections on “Blue” and Kieślowski: The Early Years, with film critic Geoff Andrew, Binoche, filmmaker Agnieszka Holland, cinematographer Sławomir Idziak, Insdorf, Jacob, and editor Jacques Witta
• Interviews with producer Marin Karmitz and Witta
• Behind-the-scenes programs for White and Red, and Kieślowski Cannes 1994, a short documentary on Red’s world premiere
• Original theatrical trailers
• New and improved English subtitle translations
• PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by critics Colin MacCabe, Nick James, Stuart Klawans, and Georgina Evans, an excerpt from Kieślowski on Kieślowski, and reprinted interviews with cinematographers Sławomir Idziak, Edward Klosinski, and Piotr Sobocinski

Related posts

• [VIDEO] Three Reasons: Three Colors: Red – The Criterion Collection (0)
• [VIDEO] Three Reasons: Three Colors: Blue – The Criterion Collection (0)
• Top New Blu-ray releases for the Week of November 15 (0)
• Top 10 New Blu-ray releases for the Week of February 1 (1)
• The Criterion Collection: The Double Life of Véronique Blu-ray Disc Review (1)

I hope you’re all ready for me to not shut up about this boxed set for at least the next couple of months because I don’t think there’s anything more exciting coming along before the end of the year than the Three Colors box from Criterion. To get you in the mood for the November 15th release, the studio has released a Three Reasons video for the first film in the trilogy, Blue. Expect to see videos for White and Red pop up over the next week. This Blu-ray release is going to be so good! SO GOOD!!

“In the devastating first film of the Three Colors trilogy, Juliette Binoche gives a tour de force performance as Julie, a woman reeling from the tragic death of her husband and young daughter. But Blue is more than just a blistering study of grief; it’s also a tale of liberation, as Julie attempts to free herself from the past while confronting truths about the life of her late husband, a composer. Shot in sapphire tones by Sławomir Idziak, and set to an extraordinary operatic score by Zbigniew Preisner, Blue is an overwhelming sensory experience.“

THREE COLORS TRILOGY
(November 15, 2011 – MSRP $79.95)
Video: 1.85:1 1080p
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio

Special Features:

• New high-definition digital restorations with DTS-HD Master Audio
• Three cinema lessons with director Krzysztof Kieślowski
• New interviews with composer Zbigniew Preisner; writer Krzysztof Piesiewicz; and actors Julie Delpy, Zbigniew Zamachowski, and Irène Jacob
• Selected-scene commentary for Blue with actress Juliette Binoche
• Three new video essays, by film writers Annette Insdorf, Tony Rayns, and Dennis Lim
• Kieślowski’s student short The Tram (1966) and his fellow student’s short from the same year The Face, which features Kieślowski in a solo performance
• Two short documentaries by Kieślowski: Seven Women of Different Ages (1978) and Talking Heads (1980)
• Krzysztof Kieślowski: I’m So-So . . . (1995), a feature-length documentary in which the filmmaker discusses his life and work
• Two multi-interview programs, Reflections on “Blue” and Kieślowski: The Early Years, with film critic Geoff Andrew, Binoche, filmmaker Agnieszka Holland, cinematographer Sławomir Idziak, Insdorf, Jacob, and editor Jacques Witta
• Interviews with producer Marin Karmitz and Witta
• Behind-the-scenes programs for White and Red, and Kieślowski Cannes 1994, a short documentary on Red’s world premiere
• Original theatrical trailers
• New and improved English subtitle translations
• PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by critics Colin MacCabe, Nick James, Stuart Klawans, and Georgina Evans, an excerpt from Kieślowski on Kieślowski, and reprinted interviews with cinematographers Sławomir Idziak, Edward Klosinski, and Piotr Sobocinski

Related posts

• [VIDEO] Three Reasons: Three Colors: White – The Criterion Collection (0)
• [VIDEO] Three Reasons: Three Colors: Red – The Criterion Collection (0)
• Top New Blu-ray releases for the Week of November 15 (0)
• Top 10 New Blu-ray releases for the Week of February 1 (1)
• The Criterion Collection: The Double Life of Véronique Blu-ray Disc Review (1)

Though it’s filled with ghoulish imagery, The Phantom Carriage feels more like a New Years film to me, than a spooky Halloween treat. Perhaps because it takes place on New Year’s Eve. Yeah, that’s it. It’s a terrific, haunting film and one of my favourite Criterion Blu-ray discs of the year so far. See Criterion’s Three Reasons to own the disc in their new trailer, posted above. Read the many reasons I recommend it in my full review, linked to below:

READ MORE: The Criterion Collection: The Phantom Carriage Blu-ray Disc Review

• The Criterion Collection: The Phantom Carriage Blu-ray Disc Review (2)
• Top New Blu-ray releases for the Week of September 27 (3)
• Top New Blu-ray releases for the Week of November 8 (1)
• Top 5 New Blu-ray releases for the Week of October 12 (1)
• Top 5 New Blu-ray releases for the Week of May 3 (0)

The Harry Potter home video releases have been in the news this past week, with Warner announcing that all titles will be put on a brief moratorium come December 29th. The final film in the franchise, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, hits Blu-ray next week, on November 11, giving you a window of less than two months to grab it up before it’s gone. Now, we all know the films won’t be absent from shelves for long. In fact, the moratorium is only on the manufacture and distribution of the DVDs and Blu-ray discs in the USA. Discs will likely still be sitting on store shelves for some time, but anyone in the US deeply in need of getting their hands on one of those films and unable to find it in their country of origin need only hit up an international retailer, Canada included, where product will continue to be available. So, in short, there’s no need to panic. Warner have also confirmed that when Harry Potter returns to home video in late 2012 the last two Ultimate Collector’s Edition boxed sets in the series will finally be released along with a gargantuan multi-disc set of the entire series. So purchase wisely this holiday season with a mind to the fact that more Potter is on the horizon in the near future. In the meantime, to get you geared up for the final film’s debut on Blu, check out the trailer above for a preview of the disc and it’s special features.

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, PART 2
(November 11, 2011 – MSRP $35.99)
Video: 2.40:1 MPEG-4 AVC 1080p
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1

Special Features:

• Blu-ray Exclusives:
  • Maximum Movie Mode hosted by Matthew Long (Neville Longbottom) and other cast members (80 minutes) – As the epic showdown between Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort approaches, don’t miss a single detail as the forces of Good and Evil clash one final time throughout the grounds of Hogwarts.
  • A Conversation with JK Rowling and Daniel Radcliffe – Join J.K. Rowling and Daniel Radcliffe for an exclusive conversation about bringing the character of Harry Potter to life, the last decade of films and how their lives have changed by the fame that they’ve both experienced.
• The Goblins of Gringotts – Hosted by Warwick Davis, you’ll see the entire process of becoming a goblin” in a Harry Potter film, from auditions and casting to makeup and prosthetic tests as well as filming the final scenes.
• The Women of Harry Potter – A look at the remarkable women in Harry Potter’s life and the critical role they play in the films.
• When Harry Left Hogwarts – BAFTA award-winning filmmaker Morgan Matthews has been given unprecedented access to the creative decision-making processes that have been kept as a closely guarded secret – until now. Hear the personal stories of the faces we know, and those we don’t, as we come to the end of one of the most successful eras in cinema history.
• WB Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter
• Deleted Scenes
• Game demo of “LEGO® Harry PotterTM: Years 5-7 for PS3®

Related posts

• [VIDEO] Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 Blu-ray Trailer (0)
• Top New Blu-ray releases for the Week of November 8 (1)
• New Harry Potter: Ultimate Edition Blu-ray sets announced for Prisoner of Azkaban, Goblet of Fire (3)
• New Harry Potter: Ultimate Edition Blu-ray sets announced for Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince (1)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and Complete Collection Blu-ray set announced and detailed (2)

I can’t wait to see the new Gossip Girl version of Disney‘s Cinderella. If the trailer above is any indication, all the classic music in the film has now been replaced with the contemporary soundtrack of on-screen teen lust – all rebellious guitars and triumphant cymbal-crashes.

I kid, of course. If this upcoming Diamond Edition Blu-ray of the film is anything like it’s predecessors, Cinderella will look and sound as it always has, only better, brighter and cleaner. There’s no word yet on when the disc will be released but with the Lady and the Tramp: Diamond Edition coming up in the spring, it’s a safe bet the studio will save Cinderella for the fall of 2012. Consider this trailer a super sneak peek!

Related posts

• 14 Classic Disney Animated Titles in Upcoming Diamond Collection Blu-ray Releases (0)
• [VIDEO] Wish List: Studio Ghibli Collection on Blu-ray (2)
• [VIDEO] James and the Giant Peach Blu-ray Trailer (2)
• [VIDEO] Finding Nemo Blu-ray Trailer (0)
• [VIDEO] Fantasia & Fantasia 2000: Diamond Edition Blu-ray Trailer (1)

At long last, it looks like Finding Nemo is on it’s way to Blu-ray. It’s about time too, as it’s the last Pixar film to be released on the format. No release date or details yet but the trailer embedded above has made its way onto the internets, promising we’ll see some Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich fishies in HD sooner rather than later. The best guess, at the moment, is that the disc will hit around the time of the films big-screen 3D release, next September. Okay, I guess that’s kind of later than I’d like. But, you know, at least we’re not talking about 2013 here!

Related posts

• Up Blu-ray Disc Review (3)
• Disney Pixar's Up Announced and Detailed for Blu-ray (UPDATED) (1)
• Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure Blu-ray Disc Review (1)
• The Incredibles heading to Blu-ray in April (1)
• The Incredibles Blu-ray Disc Review (0)