Amazon has a new list of MGM and Fox Home Entertainment titles on sale for $9.99.

Titles in the promotion include The Amityville Horror, Dark Blue, Walking Tall, A Bridge Too Far, Navy Seals and The Graduate.

Amazon has also listed a selection of Paramount title for $9.99, a saving of 66%.

Discounted Paramount titles include The Sum of All Fears, Aeon Flux, Face/Off, Clear and Present Danger, Mission Impossible and Patriot Games.

Always good to see Blu-ray for under $10.

See a full list after the break:

(more…)

February 2nd marked the Blu-ray release of the MGM title To Live and Die in L.A.

This movie plays a lot like an eighties version of The French Connection, and no doubt the film-makers were aiming to repeat the success of that film.

This time around though the characters are are even more flawed and the tone is darker.

The start of the film is somewhat cliched, with the agent who is about to retire losing his life in the line of duty.

Big time counterfeiter Rick Masters is the man behind the crime and Secret Service agent Richard Chance vows to take Masters down, no matter what it takes.

As the plot plays out, Chance gets deeper into the underworld as he tries to get closer to Masters in order to make the collar.

As a result To Live and Die in L.A. plays more like a gritty crime drama than a thriller, though it has elements of both.

While the film is certainly well made, when the good guys sink to the same levels as the bad guys, I feel that the audience loses empathy with the characters and the film suffers as a result.

On the plus side, it is great to hear the Wang Chung soundtrack - a real blast from the past.

The cast includes William L. Petersen from CSI and Willem Dafoe, as well as appearances by Dean Stockwell, John Turturro and Robert Downey Sr.

To Live and Die in L.A. was directed by William Friedkin, who won Best Director Oscar for The French Connection and also directed The Exorcist.

The movie has been well received by critics, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 86% and IMDb score of 7/10.

To Live and Die in L.A. earned $17.3M at the US box office.

Contrary to what the box art says, the video on the disc is an AVC 1080p encode at 38 Mbps, and is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1.

With the age and style of the film, there is quite a bit of grain, so it is no surprise to me that they have used such a high bitrate to avoid artifacts.

Check out the details page for To Live and Die in L.A. to see full resolution PNG screen captures taken directly from the disc.

The main audio is lossless DTS-HD Master Audio with 5.1 channels - 24 bits resolution at 48 kHz.

The box is also has incorrect capacity information - the disc is actually a dual layer BD50, with 40.3 GB used and is coded for All Regions.

It is apparent to me that MGM opted to delay the release of the film in order to do a fresh transfer and encode, though did not change the artwork that matched the original effort.

I must say that I am thrilled that MGM went to these extra lengths to ensure the best possibly image quality for this release.

The only extra on the Blu-ray Disc is the Theatrical Trailer, though the DVD that is included contains a number of supplements.

To Live and Die in L.A. is another great release from MGM Home Entertainment.

The retail price is $24.99, or order it right now at Amazon for $15.99, saving 36%!

Extras:

• Theatrical Trailer

Synopsis:

William L. Petersen (Manhunter, CSI ) and Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man) face off in a deadly game of cat and mouse in this “riveting” (The New York Times) action-thriller from the Oscar-winning director of The French Connection. “Full of flash, style and grit” (Boxoffice), this raw tale of corruption and revenge features one of the most harrowing car chases ever caught on film and a shockingly explosive ending. Federal agent Richard Chance (Petersen) has a score to settle, and he’s through playing by the rules. Whether that means blackmailing a beautiful parolee, disobeying direct orders or hurtling the wrong way down a crowded freeway, he vows to take down a murderous counterfeiter (Dafoe) by any means necessary. But as the stakes grow higher, will chance’s obsession with vengeance ultimately destroy him?

Blu-ray Cover Art Gallery for the week of the 7th of February 2010 reveals a number of catalog titles from Lionsgate including Arnold in The Running Man, along with fresh titles from Universal in the form of Couples Retreat and A Serious Man.

Maybe someone can get A Serious Man, watch it and explain it to me…!

Warner is also releasing The Time Traveler’s Wife while Magnolia also has a couple of new titles - the comedy Serious Moonlight and the British film Bronson.

Stargate fans are also treated to a Blu-ray release of SGU Stargate Universe: Season One.

Click on any cover to see the details for the title.

Amazon has listed a new promotion with Twentieth Century Fox Blu-ray titles for only $9.99.

Titles in the promotion include Cast Away, Planet of the Apes, Speed and The Devil Wears Prada.

Amazon will no doubt continue to mix and match titles at this price point.

You can find more $9.99 titles from Fox after the break.

(more…)

MGM kicked off the Blu-ray year with the remake of the movie Fame, released by MGM Home Entertainment on January 12th 2010.

The movie is a loose remake of the 1980 Alan Parker movie Fame film, following the four years of study at the Performing Arts High School in New York City.

The movie starts with the auditions for the school where just a couple of hundred students are chosen from the thousands of applicants.

The four years of High School follow in turn, following the students’ lives, revealing the talents that they try to develop as well as the weaknesses that they need to overcome to succeed.

Perhaps needless to say, there are good times and hard times, mixed in with a lot of music and dancing.

The Blu-ray Disc features an optional longer cut, with even more music and dancing.

On the downside, since there is no main character, the movie lacks a center and comes across largely as a giant montage of music and dancing.

There are a few relationships between the characters, but the story is largely the struggle of the students and it did’t really resonate with me.

The cast is an interesting combination of ex-NBC sitcom stars like Kelsey Grammer, Megan Mullally and Bebe Neuwirth, with a group of barely known young actors including Kay Panabaker, Kherington Payne and Naturi Naughton.

Fame was directed by Kevin Tancharoen, who has a background in music, video and performance.

The movie was largely panned by critics, earning a Rotten Tomatoes score of 27% and an IMDb score of 4.2/10.

Fame took in $22.5M at the US box office.

The video on the disc is an AVC 1080p encode at 29.5 Mbps, and is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1.

See the details page for Fame for full resolution PNG screen captures taken directly from the disc.

The main audio is lossless DTS-HD Master Audio with 5.1 channels - 24 bits resolution at 48 kHz.

The disc is a dual layer BD50, with 49.8 GB used and is coded for Region A.

Special features for this release include a Digital Copy for both Windows Media and iTunes.

The disc also includes both the Theatrical and Extended Edition of the movie using seamless branching.

The Digital Copy is the extended version of the movie with the 15 minutes of extra performances.

Additional footage is presented with a selection of deleted scenes and a music video is also included.

The Remember My Name feature introduces the actors in the movie along with the back story of their characters.

There is a featurette that focuses on the dancing in the movie and lastly there is a segment that shows the finalists in the Fame National Talent Search, along with the full performance of the winner of the contest.

I think that Fame is a good choice for people who enjoy the music and dance performances, though don’t look for anything much beyond that.

The Blu-ray Disc is a technically strong release from MGM Home Entertainment.

The retail price is $39.99, and it is available at Amazon for $24.99, saving 38%!

Extras:

• Includes Both Theatrical And Extended Edition Of Fame
• Deleted Scenes
• Fame Music Video
• Remember My Name Character Profiles
• Fame National Talent Search Finalists
• The Dances Of Fame

Synopsis:

Fame Soars even higher with the Extended Dance Edition of the film, featuring over 15 minutes of thrilling dance footage you couldn’t see in theaters! Passions will be tested. Hearts will be broken. Talent, dedication and hard work will triumph! Fame is the inspiring story of a group of dancers, singers, musicians and actors at the New York City High School of Performing Arts, and their spirited drive to live out their dreams of stardom. In an incredibly competitive atmosphere, each student must shine amidst the tumult of school work, deep friendships, budding romance and self-discovery. Debbie Allen, Charles S. Dutton, Kelsey Grammer, Megan Mullally and Bebe Neuwirth co-star along side a group of gifted young performers in This soaring reinvention of the Oscar-Winning hit film.

Something that has fascinated me a little lately is the trend towards DTS-HD Master Audio, to the point now where it has become the de facto standard for Blu-ray Disc releases.

A couple of studios have used it from the start - Fox, who also distributes MGM, took quite a bit of flack for using DTS-HD Master Audio on their releases back when there were no players capable of decoding it or even passing it on to a receiver.

Universal Studios has also religiously used DTS-HD Master Audio on their releases, though capable players were abound well before they finally started releasing Blu-ray discs after having been exclusive to the HD DVD format.

Disney and Lionsgate moved to DTS-HD Master Audio from Linear PCM and smaller distributors like Image Entertainment, the Criterion Collection and Magnolia Home Entertainment have started using DTS-HD Master Audio as a matter of course.

More interesting to me though is the defection of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment from Dolby TrueHD to DTS-HD Master Audio in recent times, as well as an apparent similar defection under way over at Warner Home Entertainment.

Sony has certainly already made the move and newly announced Warner titles inreasingly have DTS-HD Master Audio where in 2009 only a handful of titles used the codec.

While Paramount has also been predominantly using the Dolby TrueHD codec, there have been cases of DTS-HD Master Audio releases, especially associated with the Star Trek franchise.

I talked to both Sony and Dolby at CES this year and got differing answers regarding the SPHE move to DTS-HD Master Audio.

Dolby stated that the work flow for titles with TrueHD and seamless branching had difficulties, which pushed some studios to use DTS-HD Master Audio for certain titles at least.

This may be a credible reason that we see DTS-HD Master Audio on the Warner release for Watchmen, which used seamless branching for the Maximum Movie Mode on the title.

However we are seeing DTS-HD Master audio listed for upcoming Warner titles like Poseidon and The Box, which seem like fairly standard releases.

Talking to Sony I got a very different answer - they said that the move to DTS-HD Master Audio was one of consumer preference measured by an internet poll.

Regardless of the reasons behind the moves, it is interesting to see the DTS codec now dominating the Blu-ray landscape with over 45% percent of the lossless audio Blu-ray releases, when at launch it looked like it simply wasn’t ready for prime time at all.

If you have any thoughts on this, feel free to add your comments.

I ordered up a few new discs at Amazon - certainly some great savings to be had.

Aligning with the Best Buy sale I mentioned yesterday, Amazon also has both Zack and Miri and True Romance for only $9.99, saving 66% off the retail price.

Even better savings can be had with Guy Ritchie’s RocknRolla at $8.99 (75% off!) and the original Pink Panther for $9.49, a 73% discount.

I also grabbed Fletch at $9.99 - again 67% off the retail price.

Of course with Amazon you never know when prices will change, so get em while their hot!

Looking over the Blu-ray Cover Art Gallery for the week of the 10th of January 2010, the titles that stand out for me are the new release from the Criterion Collection 8 1/2, the remake of Fame, critically acclaimed The Hurt Locker and perhaps Rob Zombie’s remake sequel Halloween II.

Science fiction fans might find the movie Moon to be down their alley, as well as a single disc, regular packaged version of The Matrix.

The Simpsons have their Complete Twentieth Season on Blu-ray, with a mixture of upconverted and true HD sourced episodes.

Click on any cover to see the details for the title.

Warner had some interesting press this week on a number of fronts.

Firstly, Warner has issued a formal release date for one of the ‘holy trilogies’ - The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy will street April 6th 2010 in the original theatrical versions.

Expect the extended versions to be released at a later date.

Additionally Warner has announced the intention of releasing ‘double feature’ titles on Blu-ray Disc.

The double features will be priced at $24.98 and will see release starting February 23rd.

Watch for movie pairings such as Dirty Harry / Magnum Force with Clint Eastwood, Analyze This / Analyze That with Billy Crystal and Robert De Niro, Presumed Innocent / Frantic featuring Harrison Ford, Miss Congeniality / Miss Congeniality 2 starring Sandra Bullock and Grumpy Old Men / Grumpier Old Men with Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon.

Warner Home Video will also be releasing their entire Theatrical New Release slate as Blu-ray combo packs, including a standard-definition DVD and a Digital Copy of the film along with the Blu-ray Disc of the film.

At no additional cost, these Blu-ray combo packs offer consumers the quality of Blu-ray with the convenience of being able to watch the film in any format.

We have also seen this kind of approach for certain titles from Fox, MGM and Disney - it will be interesting to see if more studios follow suite.

Perhaps needless to say the bargains are free flowing today, including some titles marked down over 77% to $7.99 at Amazon.

Titles in the promotion from Warner include I Am Legend, Music and Lyrics, The Departed and The Lake House.

From Fox / MGM you can pick up Live Free or Die Hard and Ronin for only $7.99.

Trek fans can find Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home for $7.99 also.

Not sure how long these will last so grab them while you can!

Update: I have added a list of all titles for $7.99 - see the full list after the break:

(more…)