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Blu-ray titles announced the week of December 10th, 2010
This week's batch of Blu-ray announcements was fairly light compared to the pre-holiday push of titles shared in November. Saw: The Final Chapter was the only film announced in 3D. On the 2D front, two big re-releases of famous classics were announced: the single disc edition of Blade Runner will arrive on January 4th and forgo the oodles of bonus features found on previous versions in favor of just the movie and some commentary by Ridley Scott while the 30th anniversary edition of Raging Bull will come slightly later in January and include 50 minutes of new features. Noteworthy new titles coming to Blu-ray for the first time include Steven Spielberg's A.I., which was originally developed by Stanley Kubrick in the 70s, and Steven Soderbergh's cult classic Out of Site starring George Clooney and J. Lo. That said, we know Birddemic: Shock and Terror and The Dorm That Drips Blood are really the two titles you've been hankering to watch in glorious 1080p. To view our full roundup of announcements this week by release date, read on after the break.
Blu-ray titles announced the week of December 3rd, 2010
If you were hoping this week's announcements might contain exciting teases of new 3D titles to watch on that holiday gift you're expecting to soon be "surprised with", unfortunately it was a 2D sweep. Movies recently in theater including Red, Stone and Buried seem like decent titles though to start the Netflix cue off right in the new year, since all will be released by the end of January. Reading that Christopher Nolan's cult classic Memento is ten years old has also left us wondering where the time went. Finally, classic movie buffs should perk up over vague details about the ultimate collector's edition Blu-ray release of Orson Welles' Citizen Kane -- thought by many to be the greatest film of all time -- which will apparently arrive sometime next year, along with Charleston Heston's Ben-Hur. To view our full roundup of announcements this week by release date, read on after the break.
Blu-ray titles announced the week of November 19th, 2010
Plenty of upcoming Blu-rays were announced over the last week -- unfortunately most aren't terribly exciting. TV fans should keep an eye out however for the first season of FX's well-received Justified, in addition to season two of Nurse Jackie and season six of Weeds. On the movie side, both Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and the romcom Going the Distance are scheduled to be available on Blu-ray a mere three months after their theater debuts and conveniently just in time for Holiday stocking stuffing. Along those lines, if you were thinking Pamela Anderson's Barb Wire in HD would make a good thank you gift for your boss, sadly it's not releasing until February -- so go with plan B, bub. For a complete look at our roundup of announcements this week by release date, take a gander at the list after the break.
Don't forget: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind comes to Blu-ray January 25th
Come January, if your recollections of 2010 leave you wishing for a full brain reformat, unfortunately science -- at least in its legal incarnations -- can't help you. Universal's decision to release Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind on Blu-ray this coming January though will at least let you live vicariously through the trippy shenanigans of Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet. Available for pre-order now from Amazon for just shy of $20, the 1080p version will ship as a single 50GB dual-layered Blu-ray disc and feature a DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio soundtrack along with a host of extras, like interviews with the cast and short documentaries on the film's production. Now that you've been alerted, if you try to pull the I don't remember card come January, we'll know Frodo, Kirsten Dunst and Mark Ruffalo stopped by your crib in the middle of the night.
Cameron says the Avatar extended edition Blu-ray is the last 2D release left... for reals
Wondering when the Avatar Blu-ray release madness might end? Well James Cameron thankfully clarified at a recent press event that the Avatar extended edition Blu-ray on November 16th will be the last 2D, 1080p, iteration of his Blue Man Group epic before the 3D version arrives. He also slightly adjusted his previous November 3D Blu-ray release predictions made during a Wall Street Journal interview -- stating vaguely that the highly-anticipated format would instead arrive "maybe one, [or] two years out." That's much more in line with statements made by his Fox handlers (coincidence?) and now leaves Panasonic as the only party still claiming their anointed 3DTV owners will bring the Avatar 3D Blu-ray "experience" home sometime this year. Still, while we certainly don't know who at this point would fail the polygraph, we're not Na'vi enough to ignore how Panny's time line helps attract consumers to buy 3DTVs over the holiday season. As with most rumors though, only time will tell who in this debacle had the date right, so for now we'll content ourselves watching the Alien Anthology.
Aliens Blu-ray screenshots re-stir our appetite for upcoming anthology, not a hole in the chest
Watching the Alien Anthology Blu-ray trailer definitely left us itching for the epic sci-fi collection's Blu-ray release on October 26th. But seeing Sigourney Weaver all HD'd up without an SD reference point did make it hard to tell how much effort has gone into the transfer process. Screenshots leaked on AVSForum of the Cameron-supervised remastering of Aliens for Blu-ray though show that the king of the world has clearly been busy de-graining his work to shine in 1080p. The SD to HD shot-for-shot comparison in the gallery below however does highlight some heavy use of blue filtering, hinting James' time on Avatar may have left him with permanent Navi goggles. Still, making the Alien Queen slightly more smurf-ish doesn't mean she's any less scary -- or gooey for that matter. To see for yourself, hit up the gallery below. %Gallery-104699%
