My latest Sympatico/MSN DVD column went up yesterday, but I was away from the interwebs for most of the day — I know, I’m still shaking a bit — so I wasn’t able to post the link. But if you’re at all curious about the failings of “Body of Lies” and “Flash of Genius”, click away.
Also online now, and possibly of interest, is my interview with Steven Soderbergh, whose epic “Che” finally opens in Toronto tomorrow. I’ve interviewed Soderbergh a few times now, and he’s one of my favorite directors to talk to — he’s generous with his time and enthusiastic about his interests, and he’s as much of a gearhead as I am. Well, more so, really, since he actually gets to muck with the stuff I only passively consume.
Anyway, the text version is barely a sliver of the content of our 45-minute conversation — which touched on everything from the high-def format war to the “trojan horse” qualities of his “Ocean’s” trilogy to watching “Chinatown” on HDNet — so I advise you to play the audio clips at the bottom of the page for extra goodness.
And no, Universal has no immediate plans to release catch-up BD editions of “Out of Sight”, “Erin Brockovich” or “Traffic”, so cherish your HD DVDs if you’ve got ’em.
Actually, Norm, Alliance is putting TRAFFIC out on Blu-ray in 2 weeks. (It’ll be featureless, but the HD DVD’s extras were no great shakes.)
What did he say about CHINATOWN on HDNet, out of curiosity? I’m having trouble playing the clips.
We were talking about how frustrating it is to stumble across a beloved film on a high-def channel and realize that (a) it’s a compressed signal and (b) no 1080p disc exists or is forthcoming. (The other title that came up was “Empire of the Sun”.)
Alliance is releasing a BD edition of “Traffic”? Dammit! Well, at least it’ll be news to Soderbergh, too … maybe I should send him one?
Thanks, Norm. Yeah, Alliance have been busy little beavers lately. They’re also putting out SE7EN the same day, and they’ve been quietly releasing the ELM STREET flicks on BD as well.
I was impressed that they built an SE disc of “The Constant Gardener” … but “Seven”? “SEVEN”?!? Why won’t they share this information with me?
Yeah, I only found out because I somehow wound up on that “Universal Video Canada Sales Communication” mailing list for retailers. They’ve also got the uncut REQUIEM FOR A DREAM coming out on Blu-ray March 3rd, by the by.
As I understand it, the licenses to many of the titles Alliance distributes will be expiring soon, so the studio is rushing out quickie Blu-ray editions as a last-minute cash grab. Most of the titles (including Sin City and Se7en) have no bonus features, even though the earlier DVD editions were loaded. Some of the discs (like Constant Gardner) claim on the packaging to include all the DVD supplements, but the disc is actually bare bones.
Still, it’s nice to have some of these titles in high-def while we wait for the U.S. rights holders to get around to them. (Note that Disney will be putting out a proper Sin City SE Blu-ray later this year.)