Saturday, March 14, 2009

Top 10 Blu-Ray releases I am looking forward too

So I thought I would take time out from commenting on our sorry economic state and write a blog entry on one of my favorite subjects: Blu-Ray. For those of you who don't know yet, Blu-ray is everything it is cracked up to be and some. Some ardent DVD collectors are not pleased that there collections are outdated, and some pirates are not pleased that it is difficult to rip and trade these disks, but if you rent them or buy them (and I do both) you will love them. A 622% increase in resolution, extension of the color space, and quantum improvements in the audio stream make the Blu-Ray experience better than going to the theater... If you have a nice large screen... preferably a DLP.

So, as the format is just a little more than 2 years old, many many great titles are as yet unavailable. Since I have faint hopes somebody in the big-5 studios may pass by this page, I thought I would publish my wishlist.
  1. The Incredibles: With all due respect to Wall-e, which is a masterpiece, I still think the Incredibles is the greatest movie Pixar has ever made. It is my favorite movie of all time, and it is a damnable shame that this movie is not yet out on Blu-ray. Disney needs to get this out on the double-quick time.
  2. The Exorcist: With all due respect to John Carpenter's Halloween, many will tell you that the Exorcist is the greatest horror film of all time. I am in this camp. The Exorcist DVD stinks. Warners did not do a good job on the digital master. This movie has never enjoyed a good release for the home viewer. A major restoration project should be undertaken here, and a reference quality master should be created.
  3. The Minority Report: Not a big fan of Steven Spielberg, I hate Tom Cruise and everything he stands for, and I believe Colin Ferrel only gets parts because he is a dirty bisexual bastard who sleeps with anything. With that said, I love this movie. Along with Schindler's List, it is Spielberg's finest work. It is another Philip K. Dick masterpiece perfectly communicated on the screen. I just noted that TBS presented a true HD version of this film this weekend, which means the Blu-ray cannot be far away. Incidentally, the HD master TBS showed looked fantastic. The movie could have been vastly improved by replacing Tom Cruise with Mel Gibson and Colin Ferrel with Liam Neeson.
  4. Dr. Strangelove: I regard Dr. Strangelove as the greatest film of all time. No equivocations. Sorry Copola, sorry Orson Wells, sorry Hitchcock. Stanley Kuprick is the greatest director of all time, and this was his greatest masterpiece. Can't say enough good things about it. It is also the finest work in Peter Sellar's stellar career. Like so many older films, a major restoration project will have to be undertaken to restore this film and make a perfect reference master. Still, this must be done, and the sooner the better.
  5. Braveheart: We've been waiting entirely too long for this one. I don't know what is holding up the show. When I left the theater after seeing this one in 1995, I was convinced I had seen the great film ever made. No film ever more justly won the Best Picture award. Time and historical inaccuracy have softened my opinion of this film, but it is still one hell of movie classic. It should be out on Blu-Ray by now.
  6. Aliens: Probably James Cameron's absolute best movie. No, the Titanic was not his best. Very chicky and deathy, but not his best. This absolutely should be out on Blu-ray. I cannot believe that such a crowd pleaser was not in the first wave of movies release on High-def. I am stunned that it did not come out on HD-DVD immediately, and I am stunned that it still has not arrived on Blu-Ray.
  7. True Lies: Arnold Schwarzenegger's finest movie. Also one of James Cameron's best movies, and that is saying a hell of a lot. Can anyone offer any explanation as to why this movie is not out on Blu-ray? I don't think any rational explanation exists.
  8. Star Wars: I am talking about the original, not all the other stuff. Need I make any case for this?
  9. South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut. I personally regard this as the funniest movie of all time. Hysterical, pure comedy. Animation of the type Trey Parker and Matt Stone do scales extremely well. so the DVD still looks good when popped into the PS3. Nevertheless, this movie deserves a Blu-Ray.
  10. Escape from New York: When I was a young man, there were three science fiction flicks that I liked better than all the others. They were The Road Warrior, and Bladerunner, and Escape from New York. The Road Warrior and Bladerunner have long been on Blu-ray. They look terrific. Escape from New York has not yet appeared. Escape from New York is a grindhouse masterpiece from the greatest grandmaster of the grindhouse: John Carpenter. He's made a lot of my favorite films, but this is close to the top. I would say that only The Thing is better.