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21st October 2004 There are two new reviews for you today: Andrew Smith has reviewed Eureka's Laurel & Hardy Double Bill of March of the Wooden Soldiers and Bogus Bandits, and Ceri Laing has reviewed Network's eagerly-awaited Star Cops set, which is currently due on November the 8th. Click on the sleeve images, right, or here for the Star Cops review, or here for the Laurel & Hardy review.
The disc will feature deleted scenes, a Director's Video Diary (10m), Wolfboy and Blood, Guts and Fire featurettes, and two items titled Fun on the Set and Costume Design. No technical specifications were announced. The American equivalent disc is presented in anamorphic 1.78:1 format; the Canadian version is 1.78:1 widescreen, without anamorphic enhancement, so it shouldn't be hard for Mosaic to better that. Sadly, it seems that the Canadian disc's commentary track will not be included on the Mosaic version. (The Canadian disc also features optional commentary on the deleted scenes). This is a shame, because a version that combined an anamorphic transfer and the commentary track would have been the best version available. RRP for the Mosaic disc will be £15.99. 19th October 2004 Network have changed the release date of their eagerly-anticipated Star Cops DVD set (again!) The series will now be released on November the 8th (a week later than previously due). Thanks to Mark Andresen for letting me know that the el cheapo version of The Ghoul (1934) that's being sold by Classic Entertainment is, in fact, the restored version. (I wonder if Classic Entertainment have simply re-mastered it from the R1 MGM DVD!?) Still, worth a punt for a quid, if you can find a copy, I'd say! The Offers page has been updated to add Amazon's offer on the Red Dwarf - Series 5 Limited Edition Gift Set DVD set (which comes with a Corgi Starbug model). It's on offer at £14.99 (RRP £24.99). Ker-ching!
Let's start the week with reviews of two very nice discs from Momentum: Region 2 versions of The Howling and The Fog. Both of these are released today. The Fog two-disc set is very similar to the Region 1 version, from MGM, but Momentum's The Howling Special Edition is substantially different from its Region 1 counterpart (also from MGM). Matt West has reviewed The Howling, here, and new Zeta Minor contributor John J Johnston has reviewed The Fog here. Welcome aboard John!
We have three new competitions for you to
try your luck with today, offering the chance to win the second series of
Stephen Bochco's fine crime drama series Murder One, the third of
the four seasons of the popular ITC adventure series The Adventures of
Robin Hood, or a set of new Cult Horror discs, from Warner Home
Video, which include Tony Scott's stylish The Hunger and Polanski's
The Fearless Vampire Hunters. Click on the banners, above, or
here for Murder
One - Case One,
here for
The press release didn't mention any technical specifications, but if the sleeve the company has provided is to be believed, the disc will be presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, with a choice of DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio tracks. There's no mention on the sleeve of any bonus materials, so it's back to the press release to discover that the disc will feature Deleted Scenes, a Jackie Chan Stunt Piece; a Behind The Scenes Featurette, and a commentary track by the director, whose name is presented in such miniscule type on the sleeve that I won't risk straining my eyes by crediting him here. RRP for the disc will be £19.99. And now, over to Ceri, for his weekly news roundup, and guide to the latest bargains...
Hi folks, back once again with a summary of this week’s update to the Incoming and Offers pages… We’ll start with the films this week… As a follow-up the report last week that Columbia Tri-Star have pencilled in Hellboy for January, it’s now appearing on some of the retailers for January the 17th. The two-discer has an RRP of £22.99. Paramount’s Top Gun - Special Edition has been put back to the 17th of January, with special features now being listed as commentary by Jerry Bruckheimer, Tony Scott and Navy Experts; Best of the Best: The Real Top Gun; Top Guns of the Sky; Visionary Alliance: Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer; five music videos; vintage gallery; Behind the Scenes; Survival Training; storyboards and trailer. Its RRP remains the same: £19.99. Some special features for a Warner Home Video release of Tod Browning’s Freaks have been cleared at the BBFC. These include The Side Show Cinema running to sixty-three minutes, Alternate Endings (just under six minutes) and a Special Message (two and a half minutes). So far a release isn’t being listed by any of the retailers. Classic Entertainment has four more horror film triple bills lined up at the ‘competitive priced’ RRP of £3.99 each – so no doubt brought you in glorious shite-o-vision (you have been warned!). The 1st of November sees 3 Classic Horrors of the Silver Screen - Volume 2 featuring A Bucket of Blood (1959), The House On Haunted Hill (1959), and The Ghoul (1934). The 6th of December sees 3 Classic Horrors of the Silver Screen - Volume 3, which includes Little Shop of Horrors (1960), The Bat (1959), and Bride of the Monster (1955). Then, on the 10th of January, there are 3 Classic Bela Lugosi Films of the Silver Screen, featuring Invisible Ghost (1941), Scared To Death (1947) and White Zombie (1932) and Volume 4 of 3 Classic Horrors of the Silver Screen, including Carnival Of Souls (1962), The Ape Man (1943) and The Mesa of Lost Women (1952). Fancy a bit of early film-making? Well, on the 25th of October the BFI have a collection of adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays due out. Silent Shakespeare features The Tempest (1908), King Lear (1910), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1909), Twelfth Night (1910), The Merchant Of Venice (1910), Richard III (1911), and the first Shakespeare film ever made King John (1899). The release also has a commentary and introduction by Dr. Judith Buchanan of the University of York, sleeve notes and bibliography. Its RRP is £19.99. A box set of five Pedro Almodovar films is listed for the 27th of December from Pathé. The films include Live Flesh, All About My Mother, Talk To Her (seemingly just the previous releases), a new-to-Region 2 appearance for Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down (a.k.a. Atame!) and Almodovar’s latest film Bad Education (a.k.a. La Mala Educacion), which is also a first-time release. The latter two will also be available separately. The box set has an RRP of £49.99, with the individual releases of Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down (a.k.a. Atame!) and Bad Education (a.k.a. La Mala Educacion) at £19.99 each. Now the TV releases…
The American show, The 4400, currently having a UK airing on Sky One, is now being listed by some retailers. Paramount is preparing a release of Season 1 of the show, about the sudden return of 4400 missing people, for January the 10th, with an RRP of £34.99. Sky’s home-grown show Hex - their cross between Charmed and Buffy The Vampire Slayer - is due a week later on January the 17th. The Series 1 release is from Columbia Tri-Star with £29.99 as its RRP. Also being listed from Columbia Tri-Star on the 17th of January - Dawson’s Creek – Season 4, with an RRP of £44.99 and Fat Friends – Series 1 at £24.99 (confirming our report last week), together Fat Friends – Series 1-3 at £59.99. Finally, a couple of delays… …with the green-lighting of Series 4 of Spooks, the Series 3 release has now been put back to coincide with the broadcast next year. Play is listing a date of the 3rd of October 2005, but expect this to drift next year, as the next series finds its place in the schedules. …and Network’s Star Cops has slipped a week, so it will now be out in two weeks time on the November the 1st. But it’ll be worth the wait! That’s it for Incoming, now onto the update to Offers page… Thanks to Lissa for posting that Amazon have knocked down the price of Big Train to £13.99 (£11.00 off!). Two other retailers have taken the lead from dvd.co.uk and are offering the Lord of the Rings – Return of the King (Extended Edition) Box Set very cheaply. But Choices Direct and Sendit have pushed the bargain price down by 50p – they both have the set at £17.49. Thanks to Stuart Flanagan for posting about the latter! Play has added a whole wodge of titles to their Box Sets sale, some of which have only just been released! Firstly, thanks again to Lissa for posting that The Complete Crime Traveller is at £16.99, Press Gang - Series 1 at £9.99, Robin of Sherwood sets at £10.99 each, Sykes - The Complete 1972 Series at £10.99, The Marx Brothers Collection at £16.99 and The Complete Royle Family at £14.99. Thanks to Ian for posting that the Bugs - Series 1-4 sets are at £12.99/£11.99 each. Also included in the sale are some very good Acorn titles: A Family at War - Series 1, (the fantastic!) To Serve Them All My Days and (the just out!) The House Of Eliott - Series 1 all at £30.99 each; A Horseman Riding By, (the also just out!) By the Sword Divided - Series 1 and When the Boat Comes In - Series 3 all at £27.99 each. Network’s The Sweeney – The Complete Series 1 is at £22.99; the Tales of the Unexpected (4 Disc Box Set) and The Norman Conquests (3 Disc Set) at £13.99 each; and Volumes 1 & 2 of Charlie Chaplin Classics are both at £36.99. Finally, thanks to Analogueman for posting that the forthcoming Dave Allen - On Life is at £6.99! And that’s yer lot from me! Previous Zeta Minor News entries can viewed here. |
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Mosaic
will release the third instalment of the Ginger Snaps series,
Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning, on January the 17th (the film will
be released to rent on December the 27th). The film is essentially a
re-boot of the series, using the characters of Ginger and Bridgitte in a
nineteenth-century setting,
Entertainment
in Video has announced the release of the recent Steve Coogan / Jackie
Chan adaptation of Around The World In Eighty Days, which will hit
retailers' shelves on November the 15th.
A
limited collector’s edition of a 
