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ARCHIVED NEWS - 22nd to 28th September 2003 27th September
Having now seen the disc, I can add that Masque of the Red Death is not in the promised 2.35:1 ratio, it's a pan-and-scanned full-frame presentation, which, of course, makes it completely worthless. A far better bet is to buy the Region 1 double-bill from MGM (which pairs Masque with another Corman / Poe movie, The Premature Burial). This leaves horror fans with a bit of a problem, of course, in that none of the films in the Horror Classics set is available separately, so anyone wanting Night of the Eagle or Zoltan Hound of Dracula will be stuck with a useless copy of Masque of the Red Death. (A more likely scenario is that people who wanted Masque and Night of the Eagle would now be lumbered with a duff copy of Masque and a copy of the terrible Zoltan Hound of Dracula that they never wanted in the first place!) You can discuss this release in this thread at Roobarb's DVD Forum. 25th September
Click here, or on the sleeve image, above, to read the review. The disc is due on November the 10th, with an RRP of £22.99. Note that there'll also be a single-disc version of the disc available, with an RRP of £15.99. You can discuss the disc in this thread at Roobarb's DVD Forum.
24th September I've got two pages of screen grabs for your perusal today.
Next are some grabs from the very cool Alien Quadrilogy box set trailer that's featured on the X-Men 2 DVD. The trailer is full of flash cuts and quick transitions, so it's difficult to tell if there's anything new in it, but these grabs should at least whet your appetite until Fox finally release the full specifications for the set. You can see the trailer grabs here. The Hammer on DVD guide has been updated, with the latest information from DD Video.
As before, each episode will be accompanied by a commentary track. Here's how the four-disc set breaks down: DISC ONE: Episodes: Kif Gets Knocked Up A Notch, Leela's Homeworld, Love & Rocket, Less Than Hero and A Taste of Freedom. Features: Gallery for Kif Gets Knocked Up A Notch; deleted scenes from each episode; international clip from Love & Rocket. DISC TWO Episodes: Bender Should Not Be Allowed on TV, Jurassic Bark, Crimes of the Hot, Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles and The Why of Fry. Features: Bonus alternate commentary track for Jurassic Bark; deleted scenes from Crimes of the Hot, Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles and The Why of Fry. DISC THREE Episodes: Where No Fan Has Gone Before, The Sting, Bend Her and Obsoletely Fabulous. Features: Deleted scenes from each episode; animatics for Obsolutely Fabulous; Star Trek Panel Easter Egg. DISC FOUR Episodes: The Farnsworth Paradox, Three Hundred Big Boys, Spanish Fry and The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings. Features: Deleted scenes from each episode; Easter Egg (The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings); eleven segments of 3D models from rough drafts; stills gallery (new character artwork); trailer and nine pencil test segments. Fox is also releasing a new compilation of The Simpsons on November the 3rd. Christmas With The SimpsonsIt will contain five seasonal episodes: The Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire, Mr Plow, Miracle on Evergreen Terrace, Grift of the Magi and She of Little Faith. The disc will also contain a Mr Burns-themed bonus featurette. RRP is £15.99. The BFI are going to release two volumes of short films made by Avant-Garde filmmaker Peter Greenaway on the 20th of October. The Director has supervised the re-mastering for the discs, and has also contributed new filmed introductions, as well as allowing access to his paintings, drawings and designs. Volume 1 features A Walk Through H, H is for House, Windows, Intervals, Dear Phone and Water Wrackets, as well as artwork galleries spanning the years 1968 to 1978, notes on unmade projects and hidden features. Volume 2 contains Vertical Features Remake and The Falls, Greenaway's remarkable account of a mysterious phenomena which warps the laws of nature. Both films feature music by regular Greenaway contributor Michael Nyman. The second disc will house the galleries covering the years 1975 to 1990, and will also contain documents from The Falls and more hidden features. (Volume 1 runs for 87 minutes, with 16 minute of extra features. Volume 2 runs for 224 minutes, with 7 minutes of bonus materials). RRP for each disc is £19.99. The BFI will release Greenaway's The Draughtsman's Contract early in 2004. You can discuss these Peter Greenaway discs in this thread at Roobarb's DVD Forum. Here's a look at the sleeves...
22nd September
The set contains all twenty-two episodes of the seventh season of The X-Files, on six-discs. The season included some good high concept stories (X-Cops, The Goldberg Variations, Hollywood A.D. and Je Souhait, for example) among the increasingly run-of-the-mill escapades that were beginning to prevail. Bonus features include audio commentary tracks on three episodes (First Person Shooter, by Chris Carter, all things, by Gillian Anderson and Je Souhaite, by the ever-reliable Vince Gilligan); The Truth About Season 7 (a twenty-minute featurette); ten deleted scenes (which can be branched back into the episodes); thirteen special effects breakdown mini-featurettes; profiles of A.D. Skinner (from the Biogenesis compilation, 6m) and Samantha Mulder (from the Closure compilation, 5m) and a whole bunch of TV trailers. As usual, the episodes are presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, with 2.0 audio. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. DVD box set competition closed yesterday. Congratulations to the lucky winners: Luke Goldsmith, Liselotte Soudain and Ed Perkins, and my sincere thanks to Warner Home Video, who provided the prizes. The answer to the question "Which actor played agent Napoleon Solo?" was, of course, Robert Vaughn. I've added a few new sleeves to the Alternate Reality section, the archive of rejected or orphaned VHS and DVD sleeves. Digging out my folder of "S" sleeves to look for the two sleeves for the unreleased David Jason sitcom A Sharp Intake of Breath, I also found another abandoned Steptoe and Son design and an early version of Alexei Sayle's Stuff. If you have any comments about the Alternate Reality gallery they can be added to this thread at Roobarb's DVD Forum. I've made a few updates to the Hammer on DVD guide, since the major overhaul at the weekend. My thanks to those people who have provided feedback, additions or corrections. Last week's News entries can be found by following the link below... ARCHIVED NEWS:
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I've
added some menu screens from two of the films in Warner Home Video's
Horror Classics box sets (see News entries for the 
First
up are the menus for Fox's forthcoming X-Men 2 2-disc special
edition DVD. You can see the menu screens 
The
fourth and final Futurama box set will be released on November the
17th by Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. RRP for the set is
£39.99.
