A range of titles are scheduled for Blu-ray Disc today, August 19th.
Walt Disney Video is trying its hand at teen related movies on Blu-ray, releasing Best of Both Worlds Concert: The 3-D Movie, which is $23.95 at Amazon, and Camp Rock: Extended Rock Star Edition, which is $22.95 at Amazon.
Amazon has a new sale listed today, that includes the recently reduced Lionsgate and Starz titles reported previously.
The sale also includes Disney titles as well as small distributors like Magnolia and HDNet - 83 titles in total.
Titles include Sex and Death 101, The Bank Job, Mad Men - Season One, The World’s Fastest Indian, Rambo and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.
We see a few nice specific sale items at Amazon today.
Firstly, if you don’t have I am Legend yet, now is a great time to get it for only $13.95 - saving over 60%.
The savings are even better for 3:10 to Yuma, Blade Runner (Five-Disc Complete Collector’s Edition) and War - all are $14.95, a savings of 63%.
Of course we already a number of titles discounted 57% to $14.95, including 16 Blocks [Blu-ray], 300, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Syriana and The Host.
There are also quite a number of new half off titles, some no doubt left over from the sale that recently ended - so perhaps you last chance to get Flags of Our Fathers, The Italian Job, We Were Soldiers, District B13, To Kill A King at $14.95 - or at 48% off (still $14.95) Alexander, Revisited, Blazing Saddles, Blood Diamond, Bullitt, Deliverance, Dog Day Afternoon, Full Metal Jacket, GoodFellas, Lethal Weapon, The Getaway (1972), The Last Samurai, Training Day and Run Lola Run.
You can see a list of discs with over 45% savings on this pre-filtered Amazon Stats page.
There were quite a number of interesting releases on Blu-ray Disc today.
The miniseries Broken Trail was released by Sony at the catalog title pricing, complete with Dolby TrueHD on a BD50 disc. Sony also released The Other Boleyn Girl, again on a BD50 with True HD audio. Lastly from Sony - The Professionals was released with a PCM soundtrack, this time on a BD25 disc.
Image Entertainment released Heart: Alive in Seattle with DTS-HD Master Audio.
Fox released Jumper with DTS Master Audio and a Bonus View Picture in Picture feature.
Warner released Natural Born Killers in the special book packaging on a BD50 Disc with Dolby TrueHD audio - sadly this one carries the premium price tag.
Warner also released The Bucket List - this one didn’t fare so well with only a BD25 disc and Dolby Digital audio - of course the premium pricing for a new release remains. This movie made almost $100M at the box office and stars Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman - you would think it deserves better than Dolby Digital audio. Warner needs to know that this level of support is not acceptable!
Magnolia released The Signal - not much info on this one other than it is coded for all regions.
Lions Gate released Witless Protection with 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio on a BD50 disc - sounds like a winning presentation (Warner, pay attention) though perhaps this disc has limited appeal to anyone other than Larry the Cable Guy fans - with a 1.7 at IMDb and 0% at Rotten Tomatoes, it sounds a little dire.
Mantra has released Girls Gone Wild: Hottest Moments Ever, adding to their seemingly never ending supply for this series.
Lastly, Amazon has added a special Blu-ray 12-pack , perhaps to make it easier for that instant collection if you are just starting out. It seems like a pretty decent selection of titles, though it wouldn’t take many that you don’t want to make it a false economy…
Fans of Anime will be pleased to hear that Funimation has announced Dragon Ball Z - The History of Trunks / Bardock: Father of Goku for Blu-ray on July 15th, 2008. Retail price is set at $34.98, you can pre-order at Amazon for only $25.99.
One of my favourites this year, The Bank Job, has been freshly listed by Lions Gate Home Entertainment - scheduled for a July 15th, 2008 release. This blandly titled crime thriller features Jason Statham and was directed by New Zealander Roger Donalson (who also directed The World’s Fastest Indian). The retail price will be $39.99 - pre-order at Amazon for $27.95.
As expected, Sony Pictures will be releasing Exorcism of Emily Rose along with the other horror titles on Blu-ray Disc on July 22nd, 2008. Retail will be $28.95, the Amazon price - only $19.95.
We also have a couple of titles coming from the smaller distributors - Umvd/Visual Entertainment is planning to release Postal on August 26th, 2008. This title will retail for $34.99, the Amazon price - only $23.95.
Also Life Before Her Eyes will be released by Magnolia on August 19th, 2008. The retail price will be $34.98, pre-order at Amazon for $23.95.
Looks like Amazon has a few foreign titles on sale today.
Still two weeks from release, you can pre-order Shinobi - Heart Under Blade (Special Edition) for only $10.95, representing a discount of 63% off retail. Not sure if that is an error or not, but it certainly makes it a sweet deal for anyone on the fence for this release.
In the Anime corner, we see Dragon Ball Z - Broly Double Feature for $16.95, a savings of 52% off retail.
Also at half off retail we see the French action movie District B13 for $14.95.
With the recent release of an internal DTS Master Audio decoder included in the latest Playstation 3 firmware release, you might be wondering what titles are around that feature this lossless codec.
Look no further! After some tweaking of the Audio field filtering on the Blu-ray Statistics page, you can now easily get a list of some 85 DTS Master Audio titles - just by clicking this link. Studios such as Fox, MGM, New Line, Lionsgate and Magnolia have released DTS Master Audio discs - and even Sony with the release of Close Encounters of the Third Kind - no doubt at Steven Speilberg’s request… or insistence? Distributors Image Entertainment, Tartan and Koch have also used the codec.
We see some interesting new titles available for pre-order at Amazon today.
Magnolia has a new title coming - The Signal will be released June 10th, 2008 - Day and Date with DVD. While there are few details on this Horror/Sci-Fi/Thriller title, it is good to see Magnolia back in the game after quite an absence. Amazon list the title for $23.95.
Back in the main stream we have a twin pack - National Treasure 1 & 2 - from Disney. Both discs include a 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 transfer and an uncompressed PCM 5.1 Surround track (at 48kHz/24-bit) and are loaded with extras. Amazon’s price ($48.95) suggests it is better to get National Treasure and National Treasure: Book of Secrets as individual items (2 x $23.95 = $47.90), assuming there is no bonus in the 2 pack.
Lionsgate are releasing Weeds Season 3 on June 3rd, 2008, also Day and Date with the DVD. Tech specs include 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 video and uncompressed PCM 7.1 Surround audio. The extras include audio commentaries on eight episodes, pop-up trivia tracks on seven episodes, three making-of featurettes, a gag reel, musical montage and a ‘Weeds’ soundtrack sampler.
