What a tough week! On first glance, it didn’t seem to me that there was a whole lot hitting the shops but then, when I began to assemble the TOP 5 list, I quickly discovered otherwise. There’s some great stuff here, including a couple of films that my girlfriend has claimed are the best movies she’s seen all year and a whole lot of amazing catalogue releases including the first ever North American Hammer Films release in HD!

1. THE A-TEAM

I had no choice but to rank The A-Team tv-to-cinema adaptation as the number one Blu-ray release this week, as my girlfriend claims it’s the best film of the year. Honestly, we saw it in the theatre several months ago and I thought it was fun and far more coherent than I expected it to be. The performances are strong (Liam Neeson doing his best grizzled George Peppard with Bradley Cooper and Sharlto Copley following up their spotlight gigs in The Hangover and District 9 respectively) if not a bit tongue in cheek and the action is way over-the-top fun. It’s ok! But my girlfriend couldn’t stop raving about it. And my nephew couldn’t stop raving about it. So, there must be something there. Of any of the new Blu-ray discs out this week, The A-team is most likely the best bet to entertain a wide audience.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

• The Devil’s in the Details: Inside the Action with Joe Carnahan
• Never-Before-Seen Deleted Scenes
• Gag Reel
• Plan of Attack
• Character Chronicles
• Visual Effects Commentary with Visual Effects Supervisor James E. Price
• BD-Live

AMAZON: $22.99

2. TRUE GRIT

Hot on the heels of the Coen brothers’ remake comes Paramount‘s high-def debut of the Henry Hathaway original True Grit. What an amazing film! Not only does it feature John Wayne in one of his final performances (and what a performance it is!) but the film can also boast great early turns by Dennis Hopper and Robert Duvall! The Blu-ray contains all the same features as the previously issued DVD (excellent commentary track and handful of featurettes) but is technically a step-up. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound track is dialogue and center heavy but opens wide for the rich, robust Elmer Bernstein soundtrack while the 1.85:1 presentation seems to be the most film-accurate on home video to date, exhibiting greater detail, more accurate colour and just a hint of film grain. My guess is that the studio used an slightly older HD master and could bump the detail up a hair with a fresh one but I doubt we’ll be seeing another release of this duster anytime soon so fans need to rush out and grab this one up while they can!

AMAZON: $17.99

3. THE BLACK PIRATE

I can’t even believe that in 2010 we’ve seen such amazing silent era films as Metropolis, The General and Battleship Potemkin released on Blu-ray! I feel a bit spoiled, to be honest. And today sees the addition of another silent great to the roster – Douglas Fairbanks‘ fun, two-strip technicolor The Black Pirate is out on Blu-ray, thanks to the great folks at Kino. The disc is a revelation, looking so much better than you’d expect and offering the choice of the original 1926 Mortimer Wilson orchestral score in Linear PCM 2.0 or a DD 2.0 Lee Erwin organ score. Kino has really knocked it out of the park here! And the the disc just gets better, as it includes a wealth of quality special features including a very informative commentary track from film historian Rudy Behlmer, a b&w “Talkie” version of the film and heaps of outtakes and stills. Highly recommended!

AMAZON: $25.99

4. THE TOWN

Ben Affleck sure is making a lot of effort not to suck lately. He must’ve gotten tired of churning out duds like Daredevil and Gigli and instead, now seems to be putting forth a serious effort to deliver some decent films onto the cinemascape! The Town is his second dramatic crime-thriller following the 2007 Gone Baby Gone. The Blu-ray disc features two cuts of the film – the 125-minute theatrical cut and 153-minute extended version – both crammed onto one disc without seamless branching (there are little to no noticeable quality issues despite the low-bandwidth video encodes.) They offer significant differences and are both worth watching, along with Affleck’s commentary track, which dissects the additions. The hearty DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 brings the love and may bust-up your glassware with all it’s punchy gusto. Muscular audio design and dynamic range will leave you breathless.

AMAZON: $24.99

5. THE OTHER GUYS

My review copy of The Other Guys arrived last week. As the credits were rolling my girlfriend announced that this was the best film she had seen all year. I reminded her that she had previously claimed that The A-team was the film of the year. She offered up a “hrmpht” and asked to see the gag reel.

This is a real return to form for the team that brought you Anchorman. Will Ferrel and all his cohorts (too many brilliant comedians to name here) are in top form, improving their way through a mostly incoherent buddy-cops-versus-evil-businessmen plot. The laughs don’t stop when the film is over as the special features, of which there are a multitude, act as an extension of the films gags, offering up hours of deleted scenes and cut-loose improv comedy. After watching all the ad-libbing on the set I’ve got to wonder if the shooting script wasn’t maybe just a loose outline.

AMAZON: $22.99

6. VAMPIRE CIRCUS

Yeah, I know. It’s another six-disc Top 5 list this week. But I just can’t let the post publish without talking about Vampire Circus! I haven’t seen the Blu-ray disc yet so I can’t speak to the quality of Synapse Films‘ work yet but I’m just so damned happy that somebody is manning up and releasing a Hammer film in high-def! This bad boy really looks fantastic on the surface, packed with special features including an all new documentary on the making of the film. I’m sincerely hoping for the best with this disc and praying, if it’s up to snuff, that you’ll all go out and buy a copy. Maybe then the studios will see that there’s an audience for these films in HD. Here’s hoping that the classic Dracula and Frankenstein films make their way onto Blu by this time next year!

AMAZON: $20.49

NEW THIS WEEK ON 3D BLU-RAY:

AMAZON: $31.99 , $29.99

ALSO AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY THIS WEEK
Clicking an image will take you to Amazon.com where you can learn more about and purchase the Blu-ray disc:

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Now that’s more like it! You might have read my rant about the studios treating classic Hammer and Universal horror films as second class citizens. If not, just know that it’s a serious point of contention between me and the majors. We’re barely on speaking terms these days. Well, thank the good lord for Synapse Films who have taken it upon themselves to rescue and distribute the Hammer spectacular Vampire Circus. It’s certainly one of the lesser known titles but hell, at this point, I’ll take what I can get. Details below:

Special Features:

• THE BLOODIEST SHOW ON EARTH: Making Vampire Circus – An all-new documentary featuring interviews with writer/director Joe Dante, Hammer documentarian Ted Newsom, Video Watchdog editor/author Tim Lucas, author/film historian Philip Nutman, and actor David Prowse.
• GALLERY OF GROTESQUERIES: A Brief History of Circus Horrors – A retrospective on circus/carnival themed horror productions.
• VISITING THE HOUSE OF HAMMER: Britain’s Legendary Horror Magazine – A retrospective on the popular British horror/comic publication featuring author Philip Nutman.
• VAMPIRE CIRCUS: Interactive Comic Book- Featuring artwork by Brian Bolland.
• POSTER AND STILLS GALLERY

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I have to express my disappointment, however, that the studios have yet to dig deep into their catalogue releases to afford us nice, new high-def transfers of horror classics like the iconic black-and-white Universal monster films of the thirties and forties, or those fantastic, blood-red Eastman-color Hammer spectacles from the fifties and sixties. It’s a shame that such important classics perpetually get treated like second-class citizens by the major studios. I mean, even the DVD releases of groundbreaking Hammer releases The Curse of Frankenstein and The Horror of Dracula have only been offered in bare-bones, albeit relatively handsomely-transferred DVD editions. Why not assemble a new special feature packed collector’s edition Blu-ray, while some stars of the films are still willing and able to participate? And though Universal’s classic monster DVD editions are wonderful to behold, brimming with documentaries and commentary tracks, they could really use a high-def face lift, if you ask me.

All right, sorry for the rant. I know it’s only a matter of time before all of those amazing films find their way to Blu. I just hope we see them sooner rather than later. In the meantime, check out all the awesomeness now available to us in high-def. Some of these discs, newly released and listed below are truly great and are must-haves for all film fans!

Happy Blu-Halloween!

10. IT’S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN

The third prime-time animated Charlie Brown special has been a Halloween classic for almost fifty years now. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown was released in 1966 and looks pretty decent on Blu, considering its age. The Blu-ray/DVD combo pack also includes It’s Magic, Charlie Brown as well as a short 14-minute featurette on the history of the animated specials.

Amazon: $18.49

9 . MANIAC

William Lustig‘s Maniac is one crazy-ass serial killer flik. It’s got Joe Spinell giving a sometimes nuanced, sometimes crazy performance of a lifetime as murderer Frank Zito and more gory make-up effects than you can shake a stick at, thanks to Dawn of the Dead splatter-guru Tom Savini. The new Blu-ray from Blue Underground looks pretty grim (black crush, noise and an overall dull image presentation) but packs a wallop in the extras department, with two commentary tracks, a host of interviews in HD and more spread over this two-disc set.

Amazon: $17.99

8. VAMPIRE GIRL VS. FRANKENSTEIN GIRL

I don’t want to beat a dead horse here but I think FUNimation‘s Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl is a pretty fun little piece of fluff. I covered the Blu-ray release in more depth in the full review of the disc (which you can read in full here) so I don’t want to go overboard heaping the praise on this bad boy, but let me just say in short, that if you think you might enjoy seeing monsters that look like attractive Japanese schoolgirls hacking away at each other while showers of blood spray the screen red, well, you’re in for a treat!

Amazon: $19.49

7. SPLICE

Ahhhh Splice. It’s been a week since my viewing of this film and I still don’t know how I feel about it. It’s pretty creepy, that’s for sure – following Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley‘s misadventures with genetic mashups and the strangely attractive, sometimes naked girl-thing that the experiments produce. The disc looks and sounds pretty great and has a few featurettes that give a fairly decent look behind the scenes of the production. All in all, pretty cool, in a gross, Cronenberg kind of way…

Amazon: $26.99

6. RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD

BRAAAAAIIINNNSSS!!! I’m pretty sure that no zombie had ever moaned for brains before Dan O’Bannon‘s groundbreaking Return of the Living Dead. Am I wrong? These are some damn chatty living dead! The film is equal parts horror and comedy and eighties rock and roll through and through. The Blu-ray presents the film looking and sounding way better than ever and includes a nice selection of bonus features (commentary, featurettes, zombie-subtitles and more). Fans will want to scoop this one up immediately!

Amazon: $11.49

5. THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW

I can’t get over just how stunning the Rocky Horror Picture Show disc looks and sounds on this newly released Blu-ray disc. I mean, I’m not a huge fan of the film. I’ve seen it a number of times over the years but never, ever has it been so visually vivid or sonically dynamic! The image is derived from a 2K/4K master struck from the original camera negatives and the audio is presented in a haunted-house rocking DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1! This is one amazing Blu-ray disc, packaged in a really nice hardcover digi-book and brimming with special features. It’s a must-have for any fan of the film!

Amazon: $18.49

4. HOUSE (HAUSU)

I feel like I’ve been waiting for this Criterion Collection Blu-ray release of House (also known as Hausu in its native Japan) forever! After almost a year of hints that the film would join the collection, House finally hits shelves this week and it is tremendous. As you’d expect from any Criterion release, the film has never looked or sounded so good and never been released in any home video edition that featured as many special features as this. For a full rundown of the disc, read our previously published article here: Criterion announces October Blu-ray titles: Seven Samurai, The Magician, Paths of Glory, House, The Darjeeling Limited

Amazon: $34.99

3. POLTERGEIST

This isn’t the first release of Tobe Hooper‘s (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) Poltergeist on Blu-ray. In fact, the initial 2008 digi-book release is superior to this newly released one in one critical way – the hardcover digi-book packaging! That said, this is a great, genuinely spooky movie, with a solid script and some wonderful performances. The Blu-ray disc is the same as in the 2008 package, featuring a really rock-solid transfer, a surprising killer Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio track and a 30-minute, two-part look at real-life ghost hunters.

Amazon: $15.99

2. PSYCHO

Alfred Hitchcock‘s horror classic Psycho has never looked or sounded better than on this brand new, remastered 50th Anniversary Blu-ray edition. The previously available DVD transfer was sorely lacking and Universal has gone to great pains to improve upon it for the films high-def debut. The robust collection of supplemental material is truly impressive, featuring all of the DVD extras in addition to a brand new commentary track, “Hitchcock/Truffaut” audio interviews and a couple of featurettes.

Amazon: $17.99

1. THE EXORCIST

This incredible two disc Blu-ray edition of The Exorcist is, hands down, the finest new horror release on the format this season. Aside from the fact that the film is probably the best of the bunch on my list, the rest of the package also reigns supreme, featuring a gorgeous, hardcover digi-book, both versions of the film (original theatrical and extended cuts) and so many special features it’ll make your head spin (pun intended)! Read our previously published article for a full breakdown of the 2-disc Blu-ray set details: The Exorcist coming to Blu-ray in October.

Amazon: $25.99

ALSO NEWLY AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY THIS HALLOWEEN
Clicking an image will take you to Amazon.com where you can learn more about and purchase the Blu-ray disc:

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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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