Archive for the ‘DVD News’ Category


MGM on-demand DVD round two – ‘Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot’, ‘The White Buffalo’ and more

March 25th, 2010 | article by | 1 Comment »
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With The Warner Archive Collection proving a rather successful endeavor for that company, 20th Century Fox is stepping up its game and offering another large batch of MGM catalog titles as made-to-order DVD-Rs through an agreement with Amazon.com’s Create Space on-demand service.  There’s some very desirable stuff here – Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot – The Complete Series, The White Buffalo starring Charles Bronson and Will Sampson, and The House of Long Shadows, with Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, Cristopher Lee and John Carradine.

A full listing of available and soon-to-be available MGM on-demand titles is here: MGM Limited Edition Collection



Shout! Factory’s ‘Gamera vs. Barugon’ DVD up for preorder

March 17th, 2010 | article by | 5 Comments »
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The second installment of the original Gamera franchise is on its way from Shout! Factory, with a scheduled release date of July 6, 2010.  Box art and disc specs have yet to be announced, though you can bet this is going to be the best domestic release of the title for some time to come.  You can currently pre-order the title through Amazon.com at considerable savings (30% off retail!).

Gamera vs. Barugon is easily the most traditionally dramatic of the Showa series and is ostensibly a tale of greed and consequence (and giant monsters, of course!).  It follows several men who travel to the South Seas in search of a giant opal, only to inadvertently unleash the monster Barugon upon the world.  Luckily Gamera is on the prowl, having been extricated from that pesky Z-plan rocket by a wayward meteor.

Gamera vs. Barugon was released, dubbed and re-edited, to American television by A.I.P. under the generic title War of the Monsters and later (uncut and with an alternate dub track) on VHS and Laserdisc through King Features and Image Entertainment.  The Shout! Factory release will mark the first time the film has been made officially available in the USA its original Japanese.



‘Max Headroom’ coming from Shout! Factory

March 1st, 2010 | article by | 1 Comment »
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Shout! Factory is quickly becoming one of my favorite DVD companies, and this news only furthers that opinion.  From the press release:

Shout! Factory and Warner Home Video, a division of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, Inc., announced a multi-property alliance to bring the highly anticipated Warner Bros. television series Max Headroom and The Norm Show to the home entertainment marketplace. Under its multi-year agreement with Warner Home Video, Shout! Factory will be the exclusive media company to distribute Max Headroom and The Norm Show DVDs for home entertainment releases in the United States and Canada. The announcement was made today by Shout! Factory founding partners Richard Foos, Bob Emmer and Garson Foos; and Jeff Brown, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Non-theatrical Franchise Marketing.

Production has begun to develop a wide range of bonus content for Max Headroom: The Complete Series DVD box set, as well as re-transferring the episodes from the original elements to provide the highest picture quality.

“Max Headroom is a uniquely sought-after television property, boasting a large fan following and consumer interests. We have been pursing this property with Warner Bros. for years, and we’re thrilled that it’s finally coming to fruition,” state Shout! Factory founding partners. ”We’re pop culture fanatics at Shout!, and both of these shows are loved by fans of TV and are highly requested.  We’ll do them justice with great extras and packaging.”

You can read the full press release on Shout! Factory’s agreement with Warner Brothers here: Shout! Factory and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, Inc. Announce Content Deal



A home video release 45 years in the making – ‘Crack in the World’ coming to DVD in 2010

February 24th, 2010 | article by | No Comments »
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Color me surprised, but when a company I’ve never heard of announces that they’ve licensed titles from Paramount’s hefty catalog of previously unreleased productions it can be nothing but good news.

There is no firm street date as yet for this Olive Films DVD, just one of around 20 older Paramount properties the company intends to release by the end of the year.  And while I find it doubtful that there will be much in the way of supplemental content given past experience, this is still exceptional news for fans who have been waiting for a proper video release of the title for the past two decades or more.

You can read Wtf-Film’s review of the film here: Crack in the World (1965) dir. Andrew Marton



Gamera, The Giant Monster – cover art and more

February 13th, 2010 | article by | No Comments »
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Thanks to both SciFi Japan and August Ragone’s The Good, The Bad, and the Godzilla blog, we’re getting a nice sneak peak at the cover art for Shout! Factory’s upcoming Gamera, The Giant Monster DVD Special Edition.  It looks great to this reviewer, and is an improvement over what Kadokawa has produced for their own recent Blu-ray editions.

August is working with Shout! Factory and, thanks to his latest blog entry, we know a little more about the work that’s going into these releases:

“For Shout’s Gamera releases, I’ve assembled an international rag-tag unit of die-hard fans, known as the “Z Plan Team”, who have been working overtime in gathering as much information and materials on the original films as possible for the on-disc Special Features supplements (as well as the corresponding printed booklets), and we have uncovered tons of fascinating facts and trivia about the production of Daiei’s beloved series. The Special Features will also include Audio Commentaries, with the first recorded by none other than Yours Truly.”

Sounds like good stuff all around to me, as August says in his entry, “I can say that these will be DVDs that any self-respecting kaiju eiga fan shouldn’t pass up!” SciFi Japan has a nice new article up as well, including an interview with Cliff Macmillan, VP of DVD Production and Acquisitions for Shout! Factory. Click here to check it out.

Gamera, The Giant Monster streets on May 18th, and can currently be pre-ordered through Amazon.com at a discounted price of $17.99.  Click here to order.



Gamera, The Giant Monster (1965) Special Edition DVD details announced

February 12th, 2010 | article by | 2 Comments »
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From the Shout! Factory press release here:

From Japan – the country that brought us such mythical movie monsters as Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra and King Ghidorah – storms Gamera, the titanic terrapin feared by adults and loved by children. On May 18, 2010, Shout! Factory will unleash Gamera, The Giant Monster – Special Edition on DVD for the first time in its unedited original version, with English subtitles — in anamorphic widescreen from an all-new HD master. The DVD includes a 12-page booklet with an essay by director Noriaki Yuasa, a photo gallery, trailers and more. The collectible Gamera, The Giant Monster Special Edition DVD is priced to own at $19.93.

The disc is currently up for pre-order at Amazon.com at a reduced price of $17.99.  Click here to order.



Showa “Gamera” coming from Shout! Factory in 2010!

February 7th, 2010 | article by | 7 Comments »
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More huge news for cult movie fans from Shout! Factory, who look to be keeping pretty busy this year.

Word is currently coming down the pipeline that the company has officially licensed the entire Showa Gamera (1965′s Daikaiju Gamera through 1980′s Uchu Kaiju Gamera) series for release domestically on DVD and will reportedly be working from the latest HD transferred elements.  Right now news is slim, though Monster Island News reported roughly two months ago that the company is / was on the lookout for 35mm elements for the American cut of the first Gamera feature.

At present only the first film is listed for pre-order at Amazon.com, with May 18, 2010 as the scheduled release date  – Gamera: The Giant Monster



Out now and upcoming . . .

January 27th, 2010 | article by | No Comments »
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This past weekend UK outfit Eureka! released under their Masters of Cinema label what is already one of the most exciting foreign language DVD releases of the year – Nobuhiko Obayashi’s bizarre fantasy horror House / Hausu, arguably the best coming of age story ever to revolve around a house that eats people.  The disc includes a new anamorphic widescreen transfer, a 90-minute collection of interviews about the film featuring the director, cast, and crew, a theatrical trailer, and an extensive booklet.  The disc is highly recommended for stateside fans who just can’t wait for the eventual Criterion Collection offering (as of yet still unannounced), and is currently offered at 39% below retail at Amazon.co.uk.

Out on the 19th of the month was another fine offering from Shout! Factory, a lavish DVD re-release of Kingdom of the Spiders, previously only available as an expensive German or pathetic Goodtimes release.  The new special edition includes a restored 1.77:1 anamorphic transfer, a commentary featuring director Bud Cardos and many of the crew, a new interview with star William Shatner, and a slew of other featurettes.  The disc is currently available at a savings of 25% from Amazon.com.

And last but not least among notable new releases is a new multi-film collection from Warner, the 4 Film Favorites: Urban Action Collection, released with absolutely zero fanfare on the 14th of January.  The four film collection includes Three the Hard Way, Hot Potatoe, and Black Samson, but the big news of the packages has to be the DVD debut of Jim Kelly’s Black Belt Jones.  While budget in price the transfers are great, and the package can be had for $14.99 at Amazon.com (note: you may be able to find a better deal at your local retailers, so shop around).

Upcoming is the just announced Forbidden Planet, slated for Blu-ray release from Warner on September 7th.  No word on extras as of yet, but I imagine that (in line with previous Warner hi-def offerings) that the package will more or less mimic the special edition DVD from 2006.  Even if it was an unlikely bare-bones release, Wtf-Film would still love to add this classic to his high-def collection.



Luigi Cozzi hits high definition hard – “Starcrash” Blu-ray due out this September from Shout! Factory

January 26th, 2010 | article by | 3 Comments »
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Details (as they currently stand) are available at Blu-ray.com

At least the bad news of the day (that the upcoming Blu-ray of Joe Dante’s Piranha is delayed until August 3rd) is tempered with great news, that Luigi Cozzi’s ridiculous spaghetti sci-fi epic Starcrash will be making its hi-definition debut just a month later, on September 7th.  Also newly announced for Blu-ray release is Death Race 2000 (street date June 22nd), recently remade by Paul W.S. Anderson as Death Race.  With Shout! Factory given access to the extensive New World library, we can expect more good things in the future.

Starcrash stars Caroline Munroe (At the Earth’s Core), Marjoe Gortner (Earthquake, Food of the Gods), David Hasselhoff (tv’s Knight Rider), and Christopher Plummer (The Sound of Music).  Special visual effects by Germano Natali (Monster Shark) and Armando Valcauda (Hercules).  Screenplay by Luigi Cozzi and Nat Wachsberger (The Mafia Wants Blood).  Original score by John Barry (King Kong, The Black Hole).  Directed by Luigi Cozzi.



More Toho on Blu-ray November 20th!

September 10th, 2009 | article by | 1 Comment »
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Toho continues to release their special effects films, recently restored in high definition, to Blu-ray in Japan [same Blu-ray region as the USA!].  November 20th will see the release of Shusuke Kaneko’s excellent millinium effort GODZILLA, MOTHRA, KING GHIDORAH – GIANT MONSTERS ALL OUT ATTACK, the 1984 return of the King of the Monsters, GODZILLA, and the dim-witted 1991 sequel GODZILLA VS. KING GHIDORAH.  More exciting than all three of those combined, from my perspective, is that Toho will be releasing their seminal disaster effort SUBMERSION OF JAPAN, directed by Shiro Moritani from the novel by Sakyo Komatsu with fantastic effects direction by Teruyoshi Nakano, on the same date.

On American shores, the soon-to-be-released Blu-ray of the original GODZILLA due out from Classic Media / Genius Products looks to be a real bust – high definition, to be sure, but soft, interlaced, and mastered from the same edited version of the film as the earlier two-disc DVD.  Those seriously interested in adding this to their collection in high def should think about Toho’s own Blu-ray, sourced from their reecently restored high definition master, or wait for a company like B.F.I. to release an English-friendly disc.



The Monster Squad . . . on Blu-ray? Why yes!

September 7th, 2009 | article by | No Comments »
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Looks like Lionsgate will be releasing Fred Dekker’s ode to the Universal creature features of old to high definition on November 24th of this year – welcome news indeed.  It’s being advertised as a 20th Anniversary Edition [two years late, but who cares] and should include the same supplements as the two-disc DVD from 2007.  You can currently pre-order the disc from Amazon.com at the low low price of $13.99.

Lionsgate will release Blu-ray discs of the original My Bloody Valentine and Cujo on the same date, both of which can be pre-ordered from Amazon at considerable savings.  I can’t say that I’m really excited about those two, but the more older genre titles that make their way to high definition the better!



D’Amato’s ROSSO SANGUE coming July 28th from Mya Communication

July 13th, 2009 | article by | No Comments »
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Joe D’Amato’s slasher-inspired semi-sequel to his 1980 horror ANTHROPOPHAGUS is finally seeing the light of day on English-friendly DVD.  ROSSO SANGUE [also known as ABSURD and HORRIBLE, the title used for the upcoming release] has only previously seen release on German DVD.  Those interested can check out an advance review over at DVD Drive-In and pre-order the film from Amazon.com.

Also scheduled for July 28th and also from Mya Communication is Sergio Martino’s ISLAND OF THE FISHMEN.  Sorry to be announcing these so late, but Mya has no official site as far as I’m aware and it can be difficult to keep up with their release schedule.



Press release – EAGLES OVER LONDON coming from Severin Films on Blu-Ray and DVD

July 11th, 2009 | article by | No Comments »
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I know I’ve mentioned this release before, but Severin Films has finally issued an official press release for their first Blu-Ray title:

LOS ANGELES, CA, July 10, 2009 – Severin Films today announced the first-ever DVD/Blu-ray release of the WWII epic EAGLES OVER LONDON. The 1970 hit was the international breakthrough film by Italian action master Enzo Castellari, best known as the writer/director of the original INGLORIOUS BASTARDS which will also be released on DVD and Blu-ray by Severin on July 28th.


“EAGLES OVER LONDON is a terrific film with one of my favorite storylines ever,” Quentin Tarantino said at the film’s Los Angeles premiere in 2008. “You’re in for a real treat!” Exclusive bonus features on the disc include footage of Tarantino hosting the film’s premiere in “Eagles Over Los Angeles”, plus the candid and revealing “A Conversation with Quentin Tarantino and Enzo G. Castalleri Part 2″ and more.


Nine years before his classic BASTARDS, Enzo Castellari virtually invented the ‘Macaroni Combat’ genre with this over-the-top saga of valor, vengeance and machine-gun mayhem starring Hollywood legend Van Johnson (THE CAINE MUTINY) and Frederick Stafford (Hitchcock’s TOPAZ) as military officers pursuing a team of Nazi saboteurs through war-ravaged London. For this landmark international production, Enzo would re-create the evacuation of Dunkirk with 2,000 extras on a beach in Spain as well as the Battle Of Britain on a soundstage in Rome. “Almost 40 years later,” says Enzo, “Severin’s restoration and release of my first major film is both tremendously satisfying and humbling.”


EAGLES OVER LONDON will be making its way to DVD and Blu-ray on July 28th, with Severin Films’ Blu-ray of THE INGLORIOUS BASTARDS scheduled to street the same date.  You can pre-order at considerable savings from Amazon.com through the links above.  You can find more details on both releases at the Severin Films website.



The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue headed to Blu-ray

July 3rd, 2009 | article by | No Comments »
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A nice late birthday present for me, indeed!

From Blu-ray.com:

“Blue Underground has announced that they will bring ‘The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue’ to Blu-ray on October 27th. The film, also known as ‘Let Sleeping Corpses Lie’ and ‘Don’t Open the Window’, will be presented in 1.85:1 1080p VC-1 accompanied by a 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack.”

Special features look to, not surprisingly, duplicate the 2-disc DVD from a couple of years back.

In minorly related news, the first  Severin Films Blu-ray releases – of the Enzo Castellari war films EAGLES OVER LONDON and THE INGLORIOUS BASTARDS – are due out the end of this month.  Pre-order at considerable savings [and help an unemployed web master out in the process] at Amazon.com via the links above.



First round of Toho Tokusatsu Blu-rays announced!

July 3rd, 2009 | article by | No Comments »

September 18th is the day for fans of Toho Tokusatsu, old and new.  Titles scheduled for release in high definition on that date are RODAN, MOTHRA, GODZILLA ’54, GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE, and GODZILLA: FINAL WARS.  While I couldn’t really care less about that last one, the others are all good news indeed!

So far, only Japanese subtitles are listed as being included – a shame since some of Toho’s earlier Blu-rays were English friendly.  Never the less, the new HD Hi-Vision masters Toho is sourcing these titles from look fantastic, making these discs a must-buy for serious fans.

For details on the titles and pricing, please see the listings at Amazon.co.jp