Oliver Carter

When I first saw Dream On in 1991 I was amazed by how original the show was.  Even now, the use of old Universal movie clips to represent the thoughts of main character Martin Tupper (Brian Benben) still holds up well.  HMV are currently selling the first season on DVD at the ridiculous price of £2.99.  You would be foolish not to add it to your collection.

Source: NCAC

Further indications of the declining DVD market have been shown by Sony Pictures USA who have announced that they will be cutting 450 jobs partly due to a change in people's DVD buying habits.  Although Blu-Ray sales have been steadily rising, the LA Times reports that combined DVD and Blu-Ray sales declined by more than 13% last year.  This is most likely due to the following factors:

• Consumer uncertainty: Many consumers are unsure of whether to continue purchasing DVDs or to move to Blu-Ray
• DVD Rentals: Rather than invest dying format many are choosing to rent films as an alternative
  
• Online downloads: Again, another alternative (both legal and illegal) method to purchasing DVDs

US outfit Blue Underground have recently announced that they will be releasing the cult spaghetti western Django on Blu-Ray on 25 May 2010.  All of the Blue Underground releases I have seen so far have had high quality transfers so I will have high expectations for this mark.  It will be interesting to see how it compares to the Italian Blu-Ray release of A Fistful of Dollars (Sergio Leone, 1964) which I consider to be one of the best all round Blu-Ray releases I have seen so far.  Here is a list of the extra features, taken from blu-ray.com:

• Django: The One And Only: interviews with star Franco Nero and assistant director Ruggero Deodato
• The Last Pistolero: short film starring Franco Nero (BD-exclusive)
• Western, Italian Style: a 1968 documentary about the Spaghetti Western phenomenon containing interviews with directors Enzo G. Castellari, Sergio Sollima and Sergio Corbucci (BD-exclusive)
• International trailer
• Italian Trailer
• Franco Nero intro (BD-exclusive)
  

On the same day they will also be releasing Lucio Fulci's City of the Living Dead (aka Gates of Hell, 1980) on Blu-Ray but it might be worth holding out for Arrow's forthcoming UK release which will have exclusive special features.

Unbelievable!  Firstly, I should state that I didn't, nor would I ever, watch it but the first scene of a recent episode of the awful Channel 4 show Hollyoaks features a homage to Dario Argento's Suspiria (1977).  The interesting thing is that it appears to have no relevance to the plot of the episode (I have not watched the whole episode, feel free to let me know if I am incorrect).  Check out yourself in the video the below, it is the first scene after the credits.

So was the director of the episode a fan who was so excited about buying the recent UK Blu-Ray release of the film that he had to pay homage to it in Hollyoaks?

Thanks to Jonny over at Lovelockandload for pointing this out.

News circulated yesterday that Playstation 3 has finally been hacked.  It transpires that the mastermind behind this hack is George Hotz, the first person to hack the iPhone.  Here's hoping that it will be possible to install Xbox Media Center for greater media file compatibility and also allow multi-region playback of DVDs and Blu-Ray discs. 

I don't get much time to produce to fan DVDs anymore but I recently completed work on a fan DVD of Ferdinando Baldi's giallo Nine Guests for a Crime (aka Nove ospiti per un delitto, 1977).  The video and audio was taken from the Italian Surf Video DVD.  As you can see in the attached screenshots, the picture quality of the Italian DVD is very good indeed.  One of the problems with the Italian DVD was that the 16x9 flag was not set correctly by the original author of the disc.  This meant that when played the image was squashed.  Using a tool such as Ifoedit it is possible to correct such an oversight with a simple few taps of a keyboard.  Subtitles were created by DjangoLi, the owner and master fan subtitler over at Italian Film Translation.  I also included the original Italian trailer from the Italian DVD.  The Italian Surf Video DVD can be purchased from Kult Video.

         

I recently saw Adventureland (Greg Mottola, 2009) and was surprised to see this Velvet Underground song used.  It's a good film but this is an even better song.  The lyrics and simply perfect and the lead guitar riff is hauntingly memorable.  Here's a video of Lou performing the song a few years back.  It is almost as good as the studio version of the song.

With the current state of the DVD industry it is hard to predict what will be released in the coming year.  What follows is a list of my most anticipated DVD/Blu-Ray releases of 2010.  There will no doubt be others added over the year but here are the ones that have caught my eye so far:

Dark Night of the Scarecrow (Frank De Felitta, 1981) Lionsgate, USA: DVD. Date TBC

A little known television movie starring Larry Drake and Charles Durning.  This was originally going to be released on Blu-Ray and DVD by Image Entertainment but since they are currently considering filing for bankruptcy it looks as if Lionsgate will be attaining the rights to this cult classic.

Elvis: The Movie (John Carpenter, 1979) Shout Factory, USA: DVD. 2 March 2010

Issues with music rights have prevented this little seen John Carpenter film, which was the first of many collaborations with Kurt Russell, from being released.  Hopefully it will be the full uncut version and will feature a typically excellent commentary track from Russell and Carpenter.  Shout Factory are probably the American DVD label to watch in 2010.

The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973) Warner Brothers, USA: Blu-Ray. October 2010

One of my favourite films of all time, I just hope that Friedkin doesn't continue his unwelcome trend of tampering with his original edit as he has done with Cruising (1980) and the Blu-Ray release of The French Connection (1971).  Warner have confirmed that both the 1973 and 2000 versions will be included. 

Kingdom of the Spiders (John 'Bud' Cardos, 1977) Shout Factory, USA: DVD. 19 January 2010

William Shatner as a veterinarian trying to save a town from tarantulas.  What is there not to like?  This will be the third time I have purchased a DVD of this film.  What makes this release particularly attractive is the special features; an interview with the film's spider wrangler (what a great job title), an interview with Shatner and a commentary track with Cardos.  Another great offering from Shout Factory.
 
So Sweet, So Dead (Roberto Bianchi, 1972) Camera Obscura, Germany: DVD. February 28 2010

Aside from the forthcoming releases from maligned American label Mya Communication (I will discuss this in a forthcoming blogpost), Camera Obscura could be the label to keep an eye on for releases of rare gialli.  That cover art is sublime.

Suspiria (Dario Argento, 1977) Cine Excess, UK: Blu-Ray. Today!

This should be with me tomorrow morning courtesy of Amazon.  Advance reviews have praised this anticipated release.  What next, Cine-Excess?

Thriller: The Complete Collection, Image, USA: DVD. TBC

With Image threatening to declare bankruptcy it is doubtful whether this release will happen which is disappointing considering that Tim Lucas and other respected genre enthusiasts have been recording audio commentaries for the release.  Perhaps Shout Factory can come to the rescue?

The Twilight Zone Complete Collection, Image, USA: Blu-Ray. TBC

Again, a release announced by Image.  I have been putting off completing my Twilight Zone collection on DVD ever since it was rumoured that there would be a Blu-Ray release.  Hopefully it will appear and will look as good as the Star Trek and The Prisoner Blu-Ray releases.

Urban Action Collection Warner Brothers, USA: DVD. 12 January 2010

I first saw Black Belt Jones (Robert Clouse, 1974) on VHS in the late 80's and loved Jim "Bullshit Mr Han Man" Kelly in the lead role.  It has never appeared legally on DVD and is part of this great value four-film Urban Action Collection.   It contains other Blaxploitation action classics such as Hot Potato (Oscar Williams, 1976), Three The Hard Way (Gordon Parks Jr, 1974) and Black Sampson (Charles Bail, 1974).

Who Dares Wins (Ian Sharp, 1982) Arrow, UK: Blu-Ray. 8 March 2010

Who would have expected this to be released on Blu-Ray in 2010?  Another film I remember fondly from my youth.  Lewis Collins is great in the lead role and the build up to the action filled finale is well executed. 

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What other releases would I like to see in 2010?  Fingers crossed for the following:

The Amazing Spider-Man Live Action Television series (something tells me that Marvel do not want this to see the light of day on optical disc.  I prefer it to Raimi's recent offerings).
Cold Case Files: The Complete Collection (morbid I know but this is the best true crime television series I have seen).
The Equalizer: Series Two onwards
High Crime (Enzo G. Castellari, 1973)
One Step Beyond: Seasons Two and Three
Profondo Rosso (Dario Argento, 1975) Blu-Ray (hopefully the Blu-Ray release of Suspria will lead to some of Argento's other classics being released on the HD format).