Bond on Blu round two, in steel

I'm still rushing to finish up my Ip Man review, now also known as the "Man, am I slow!" review. Some household chores are beckoning me (it's the Lunar New Year again), so I'll make this short and sharp.

I presume most James Bond fans like myself already know what's coming in the second wave of catalog Bond films on Blu-ray, namely Goldfinger, Moonraker, and The World Is Not Enough (all to be released together with Quantum of Solace on 3/24, as mentioned earlier).

In addition, The Digital Bits reports that MGM has also thrown a Never Say Never Again: Collector's Edition Blu-ray release in the mix.Yes, we'll be seeing that Bond title on 3/24, which will include commentary with director Irvin Kershner and James Bond historian Steven Jay Rubin, three featurettes ("The Big Gamble," "Sean Is Back" and "The Girls of Never Say Never Again"), a theatrical trailer, and a photo gallery. I know, I know, Never Say Never Again is not officially a "Bond" film because it wasn't produced by Cubby & Co. (click here to school yourself), but hey, we are not all purists here.

Finally, you might have noticed that the links above lead you to Amazon.com exclusive "steelbook" editions of the Bond Blu-ray discs (except for Quantum of Solace). Check out the images. Steelbooks? That sounds better that the Warner Bros. digibook format. It's not that I don't appreciate the effort by Warner, but those digibooks are seriously lacking in build quality. I would much rather have a saddle-stitched inlay in a plastic case compared to those. If the Bond steelbooks are anything like the packaging for Band of Brothers, I say keep 'em coming. NB: Despite what was reported elsewhere, the steelbook editions cost only about a buck more than the regular editions. (In the case of Goldfinger, the steelbook is currently cheaper than regular edition!)

Alrighty then, I'm off to clean a toilet ... and a happy Lunar New Year to those of you who celebrate it.

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Coming up: Falling Down, Let the Right One In, Quantum of Solace, and more

OK, here's a bunch of Blu-ray releases to look forward to (I know I am).



I don't really like any of Baz Luhrmann's work since Strictly Ballroom, but those of you who do, Australia will be coming to Blu-ray on March 3. The release will include deleted scenes, a documentary (Australia: The People, The History, The Location), and nine featurettes (Photography, Production Design, Costume Design, Locations, Cinematography, Sound, Editing, Music and Visual Effects).

Next, Let the Right One In arrives on Blu-ray on March 10. Features and specs for this title have not been announced yet, but you can bet I'm looking out for this one.

Jonathan Demme's Rachel Getting Married will arrive on Blu-ray on March 17. I haven't seen this one yet, but it's gotten pretty decent reviews, so I'm definitely interested.

On March 24, we'll getting The Matrix (finally, free from the accursed trilogy!) on Blu-ray. For those of you who got the trilogy on Blu-ray, not to worry: this is not some scam by Warner Bros. to screw you out of more green. Apparently, the disc in this digibook release is EXACTLY the same as the first disc in in the trilogy. It's just that Warner Bros. heard the prayers of people like me who love the first one but detest the sequels; hence the standalone release (although I don't really care for the digibook packaging).

Okay, I know this will thrill the socks off some people, but unfortunately not me: also on March 24, Quantum of Solace arrives Blu-ray. Features include theatrical trailers, the "Another Way to Die" music video, seven featurettes (Bond on Location, Start of Shooting, On Location, Olga Kurylenko and the Boat Chase, Director Marc Forster, The Music and Crew Files). Yep, all that in high definition. I don't know, but Quantum of Solace just didn't work for me, just like The Dark Knight didn't work for me. I like Casino Royale A LOT; I like Batman Begins a bit less, but the sequels to both films left me colder than last night's dinner. But hey, to each his own. Quantum of Solace will probably be a kick-ass Blu-ray and sell like hot cakes, just like The Dark Knight.

Well, there it is. I'll be back with a review of Ip Man by the end of the week. Stay tuned.

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2009: A more sensible approach

"Did they get an X-ray of your wife's jaw at the hospital?"
"No, they got a moving picture instead."

In between my incredible growing work load (mostly stuff I omitted to do in 2008, really) and putting together a 1,500-photo slideshow of my Canada trip, I've been thinking about new features for Moving Pictures. As this is not a full-time job (yeah, I've been bitching about that since forever), I see that I have to be realistic about what I can—and can't—do here. This blog is fast becoming as meaningless as the joke above.

I've been too ambitious in the past, thinking I could come up with essay-length film reviews every week, on top of the news, the updates, and also the commentaries. In the end, I did a half-assed job of just about everything, except maybe for the piece I wrote on The Hustler and The Color of Money. (Or maybe I screwed that up too.)

Anyhow, I've just finished updating the "new and upcoming" all the way up to the end of February. Also, try the new search bar by Google. It's definitely improved a lot: it displays the search results neatly in a box right on top of the posts, and they arranged in hits from this blog, links from this blog, results from the blogs I subscribe to, and finally the web. Like I said, neat.

I've also just recently tried cataloging all the DVDs and Blu-rays I own on a Google Docs spreadsheet, but discovered that the "My Movies" function on IMDb might actually more user-friendly. I used to have an account on DVD Spot, but it unfortunately stopped operating late last year. I haven't made up my mind if I'll ditch the online spreadsheet thing; I can't get it to display images for each title or link to the relevant movie pages on IMDb either, but I managed to use a formula to calculate the number of movies I own, and break the number down into DVDs and Blu-rays. "My Movies" can't do that, but it makes information about each much more accessible, so my family–and me as well–won't have go blind looking for something to watch on a Friday night.

Now, as for reviews, I haven't quite fixed on a formula yet, but I'm looking at something like this: capsule reviews that summarily give my opinion of a film, and if it's a DVD or Blu-ray title, my opinion of the picture and sound quality, as well as the supplemental features available on the release. One important bit I will DEFINITELY include is this: if it's a catalog release on Blu-ray, and I have both the DVD and the Blu-ray, I'll let you know if it's worth the upgrade. In times like these, we'll be watching pennies before Blu-rays.

Ok, I gotta catch some sleep. (Yeah, work tomorrow.) I'll be back with some release news before the week is over, and I'll also have a review of Ip Man as well as think piece on the current state of HD home entertainment and what its ramifications for us Joe Blows. In the meantime, feel free to poke around.

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