Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Out today on DVD

Casino Royale - Special Edition (3 discs) - 4 stars






This pisses me off. This is the version that should have been released back in 2007. But no, we got the 2-disc Widescreen Edition. Like a chump, I bought that. I should have known that there would be a double-dip when the next movie came out. In my defense, the Widescreen Edition had enough bonus features that I didn't think the double-dip would come so soon. If the DVD had been a 1-disc with very few bonus features, I would have waited.

This version is the one to buy. It has 2 commentary tracks and a bunch of good extras. Even though I already own the Widescreen Edition (2007!), I will pick up this for the extras.



Oh, and the movie is great. Best Bond movie ever. It only took them 21 movies to get it right!

They are also releasing a bunch of the old Bond movies in Ultimate Editions. I'm hoping that they are the exact same versions that were released with the Ultimate Edition box sets from 2006. But so far, I can't seem to find out for sure.





The only thing that would make me buy the old movies AGAIN would be a newly recorded audio commentary with Sean Connery.





Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (not reviewed)







This is a documentary of Ben Stein going around and talking to people about intelligent design. I'm guessing that Sarah Palin will enjoy this.




Incredible Hulk: 3 Disc Special Edition - 3 stars





I liked it a lot. Much better than the 2003 version. You can get this as a single disc or the 3 disc edition. But the 3 disc might as well be 2 discs, because the 3rd disc only has the digital copy of the movie. If you get the single disc, you will get a commentary track with director Louis Leterrier and Tim Roth (why no Ed Norton?) and some deleted scenes. If you get the 3 disc (2 disc) version, you get more deleted scenes and several good featurettes.


I must admit I am disappointed with this DVD. When the movie came out, there was talk that Edward Norton wanted a longer cut of the movie released, and around 70 mintes of footage was cut. Not only do we get less than that in the deleted scenes (around 30 minutes), but they are included as deleted scenes. I have no use for deleted scenes. I only watch them once. I would prefer the deleted scenes be edited back into the movie so I could see the longer cut. The Lord of the Rings DVDs are the perfect example of this. You can watch the theatrical cut or the extended cut.


I wouldn't be surprised if they release a longer version of the movie in a year or two, when the next Hulk movie comes out (or the Avengers movie).




Sold Out: A Threevening With Kevin Smith (not reviewed)




I'm looking forward to this. I loved An Evening With Kevin Smith (2002). If you haven't seen it, look for it. Whether you like his movies or not (Clerks, Mallrats, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back), you will enjoy his stories about writing a script for Superman, meeting Prince, fighting with Tim Burton, and many other stories.


He released another Evening With DVD (Evening Harder, 2006) which wasn't as good. Hopefully this new one will be better.





The Strangers - 1 star






This wasn't very good. It had some good scares, but that was it. I didn't care about the characters and there is not much to the story. Just 2 people in a house terrorized by 3 psychos in masks. I love a good horror movie, and this isn't one.

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