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This month's must-have Blu-rays (plus the ones you can skip)
A roundup of some recent and upcoming sci-fi, fantasy and horror Blu-ray releases.
Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Oct. 13 (Universal Studios Home Entertainment, $29.98) Ron Howard's live-action adaptation of the iconic Dr. Seuss story arrives on Blu-ray. The movie looks really, really good in high definition, but the entire slate of supplemental content was previously available on SD releases. However, the set comes complete with a physical copy on DVD as well as Blu-ray, making this moderately redundant but at least complete enough that you could replace previous versions without losing playability.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Oct. 6 (Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, $39.99) Another Disney classic debuts on Blu-ray with a beefed-up slate of extras and superlative presentation. Disney's restoration process is virtually unparalleled, producing spectacular images along with an expanded and immersive multichannel audio presentation. Meanwhile, another discful of extras adds historical context and creative background on this historic animated achievement, making this a must-have for casual fans, animation enthusiasts and cinephiles alike.
Drag Me to Hell
Oct. 13 (Universal Studios Home Entertainment, $39.99 ) Sam Raimi's attempt to resurrect his horror roots arrives on Blu-ray in a slim but satisfying single-disc set. The presentation of the film is theater-quality, featuring not only crystal-clear images but a muscular sound mix that's destined to scare your pants off. Unfortunately, other than a collection of production video diaries, there's little in the way of bonus materials. But as one of the overlooked releases of last summer, this set is worth buying if only as a second chance to check it out for the first time.
Contact
Oct. 20 (Warner Home Video, $28.99) Robert Zemeckis' hard-science opus arrives in high definition with a considerable wealth of extra content. While the majority (OK, all) of the extras are holdovers from previous releases, this set offers an overdue chance for the film to be discovered by younger science fiction fans, thanks in no small part to gorgeous video presentation and an immersive, stereoscopic soundtrack. There may not be a lot of titles worth upgrading to HD just because of what they are, but Contact is one of them, and thankfully it doesn't skimp on what's been around in the name of being the best-looking thing now.
Year One
Oct. 6 (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, $39.95) Michael Sera and Jack Black bounce onto Blu-ray with a collection featuring two versions of the movie, terrific presentation and a wealth of extras. With only three minutes of footage between the two, it's tough to see precisely where the "unrated" material comes in, but what's actually more annoying is the credits after literally every single extra scene and sequence, making the "added" humor considerably less funny. But as the for-all-intents-and-purposes biggest and best release ever for this film, this Blu-ray warrants a rent if you're a fan, even if you may not be afterward.
By MCP-001 at 9:59 AM ON 10/27/09
Why look at all of those Blu-Ray Coasters!
By divephotog at 10:14 AM ON 10/27/09
Expensive coasters... why even bother with any of them? None of these is really worthy of being in an expensive collection. - kh
By real sci fi at 10:48 AM ON 10/27/09
Contact. yes!
Year one. Worst movie ever.
By Obi Window Washer at 10:57 AM ON 10/27/09
Year One was hardly the worst movie ever. That title belongs to "Manos the Hands of fate" and to a slightly lesser extent "Plan 9 from outer space". "A Clock work Orange" can also be added to that list.
By tcodee at 11:06 AM ON 10/27/09
@Obi Window Washer year one was horrible by any standards. The films you mentioned were bad, but at least they had a camp factor and no major stars or budget. Year one had a major studio backing it and Jack Black, one of the most over rated unfunny comedians of all time.
And A clockwork Orange is a great film
By apollojd at 11:27 AM ON 10/27/09
Anyone who names A Clockwork Orange as a "bad move" has no right to express an opinion about a film of any kind ever again
By REDante at 11:27 AM ON 10/27/09
Actually they forgot about another dvd. A movie about space slugs that escape aliens and land on Earth that go into your head turn you into a zombie and if you shoot them in the head it only explodes releasing more space slugs to jump into peoples mouths. This Overlooked 80's B movie has enough gore, plus a subplot about a cop murdering a serial killer that killed his girlfriend only for one of the slugs to go into the killers mouth and comeback as a zombie. Oh yea its called Night of the Creeps, if you enjoyed Zombieland you might enjoy this movie
By Necronomic Recovery at 11:50 AM ON 10/27/09
That's some shockingly poor photoshop work on the cover to Year One.
By Praetor ShinzonII at 12:00 PM ON 10/27/09
Why is the cover art on US release so awfully unartistic as compared to cover art from say, the U.K., Germany and Japan? Noticed that when I used to buy VHS from other countries, they almost always have better cover art. Go figure.
By jolinar at 3:05 PM ON 10/27/09
Must have Blu-ray of the year:
STARGATE: 15TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
By Andreas at 7:38 PM ON 10/27/09
"Anyone who names A Clockwork Orange as a "bad move" has no right to express an opinion about a film of any kind ever again"
Sure they do. It's an opinion.
By sparrowlord01 at 10:31 AM ON 10/28/09
I wish that these distributors would get the idea that in this recession, no one can easily plunk down $30-$60 for a freaking disk that cost about $1.20 to make. Even figuring in marketing costs, it's a big ripoff. I only buy a Blue Ray if I find it on eBay for under $15. Which is what I consider a fair price for a movie. HD really isn't that much better than a normal DVD as far as I'm concerned. I guess they put these out for the Yuppie, Muppie (Middele-aged Urban Parasite), and Guppie (Geriatric Urban Professional) crowd with more money than brains.
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sparrowlord01:
I wish that these distributors would get the idea that in this recession, no one can easily plunk down $30-$60 for ...More »