— Ariel

We don't think that the major studios are going to stop releasing DVDs next month (in fact, a look at the current release schedule indicates that things will hum along smoothly through the first quarter of 2000), but the fact is that the studios are re-evaluating their approach to the DVD Video format, although right now it's mostly wait-and-see. Their first strategy has been a legal one, and every major content provider has made it clear that they will pursue anybody who posts the Content Scrambling System crack (known as DeCSS) to the fullest extent of international copyright law, potentially holding violators on the hook for millions of dollars of potentially lost revenue (a cease-and-desist letter was even sent out on behalf of 11 studios and parent companies, and they aren't kidding around). Therefore, anybody who posts DeCSS on the Web is either begging for attention or certifiably insane. If legal intimidation does the trick, the overall losses from DeCSS might be filed under "acceptable," and things will go on as they are.

However, we don't agree with your comparison between VHS and DVD. Yes, VHS piracy has been a thorn in the studios' side, but as an analog format, VHS dupes always show signs of degradation, and after a few generations of copying they're practically worthless. Such is not the case with the totally digital DVD, where infinite copies of a source program can be replicated without any signal deterioration. That's a very real danger, and it's why CSS was invented in the first place. Without it, DVD Video as a consumer format would never exist. The good news is that current recordable DVD-ROM drives only handle 2.5 gigabytes per side, far less than the 4.7 gigs that DVD Video discs hold, making a direct disc-for-disc copy impossible — for now. When recordable DVDs get larger (as they inevitably will), anybody with the hardware and DeCSS will be able to toast their own illegal DVDs and sell them, or even just give them away (which is still a form of theft).

That all said, you are correct that DeCSS doesn't post a major threat to the studios as much as a minor headache, and one that the music and software industries have been forced to live with for years. Perfectly copied illegal DVD movies will be floating around before too long (they can be made now, albeit they require two blank discs), but the studios can keep this practice in check by creating attractive packaging that appeals to the "collector" demographic, and by keeping new DVDs relatively cheap, automatically reducing the "pain-in-the-ass" factor that has kept CD Audio retail-sales strong despite the mass availability of recordable CD. As long as DVDs are affordable, why take the time and effort to borrow a few from a friend and pirate them? And beyond that, how does anybody plan to impress their friends with their expansive, carefully chosen collection of pirated DVDs? For some people, only the original will do.

The trick now is to convince the studios that they may have to drop their DVD prices, rather than abandon the format altogether. In the meantime, we're betting that a new generation of CSS is on the way, and it will certainly close the loopholes that made the first one so vulnerable.

(Regretting that I never bought the Fantasia LD box set.)

— Gary

Like you, we noticed that Fantasia was not mentioned in Disney's DVD press-release last week, which certainly left a lot of people scratching their heads. After all, if only ten animated titles were to be reserved for "Platinum Collection" status, shouldn't Fantasia be one of them? Would it really be removed from home-video moratorium in favor of such titles as The Little Mermaid and Aladdin? However, for some time we have been laboring under the impression that Fantasia will never be released on home video again, an impression mostly based on several Internet rumors. We haven't been able to confirm if this is true, but the omission of Fantasia from the "Platinum Collection" gives the rumor some weight with us. So you can either expect the film to arrive on DVD in the next two years or hedge your bets and head over to eBay to look for that box. However, while you're there you might consider bidding on the DVD of Fantasia from Taiwan (pictured here), which is code-free and can be found for auction now and then (the last closing bid we saw was $55.00).

— Dwight

We won't go as far as calling it illegal, but you certainly have a point. Many DVD fans who pre-ordered titles like Pinocchio, Mulan, and Peter Pan because they thought they wouldn't reappear for many years are doubtless wondering if the Mouse gave them the straight scoop. Furthermore, if the supplemental materials on the current VHS editions turn up on DVD in the next two years, a lot of folks are gonna feel downright shafted.

Top of the Pops: Here's the top-selling DVDs last week from our friends at Reel.com. Click the links to read our reviews of these discs:

1. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
2. Big Daddy
3. The Matrix
4. How the Grinch Stole Christmas
5. Saving Private Ryan
6. Notting Hill
7. Saving Private Ryan (DTS)
8. L.A. Confidential
9. Boogie Nights
10. 101 Dalmatians

See ya later.

— Ed.

Tuesday, 16 November 1999

In the Works: Here's some new disc announcements posted over the past few days at Image Entertainment:

• Trimark is on the board with Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers: Special Edition (Jan. 25), which will include three minutes of restored footage, a commentary by Stone, an hour of deleted scenes, a "making of" documentary, cast and crew interviews, and a trailer.
• Buena Vista's latest crop of announcements includes The 13th Warrior (Jan. 18), From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter (Jan. 18), An Ideal Husband (Jan. 18), My Life So Far (Jan. 25), and My Son The Fanatic (Jan. 25), and get this — the first three titles will be anamorphic transfers. Things are shaping up in the Mouse House after all.
• Columbia TriStar has announced a new disc of The Big Brass Ring: Special Edition (Jan. 11), which is based on a screenplay by Orson Welles, starring William Hurt, Nigel Hawthorne, and Miranda Richardson. The disc will include a commentary with director George Hickenlooper and co-writer F. X. Feeney, deleted scenes, and a trailer. Also look for Jumanji: Special Edition (Jan. 25), which will include a "making-of" documentary, a commentary with the special effects crew, a couple of featurettes, an isolated score, storyboard-to-film comparisons, and conceptual art.
• New oldies on the way from CTHV include Frank Capra's Mr. Deeds Goes To Town: Special Edition with Gary Cooper (Jan. 18), which will include a commentary by Frank Capra Jr., a retrospective featurette, advertising materials, and a trailer. Also expect Anthony Mann's The Man From Laramie starring Jimmy Stewart (Jan. 25). Other discs in production include The Odessa File (Jan. 11), Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip (Jan. 11), Solo (Jan. 18), and Twin Falls Idaho: Special Edition (Jan. 18).
• Last we checked, Fox still had a lot of unreleased films in the vault. But you'll have to wait for 'em, because we're gonna get six episodes of Ally McBeal on a two-disc set come Jan. 11. Other Fox titles in the works include last year's Great Expectations (Jan. 18), One Fine Day (Jan. 18), French Kiss (Jan. 18), Picture Perfect (Jan. 18), and Lake Placid (Jan. 11).
• Paramount has announced a new DVD of The Runaway Bride: Special Edition (Jan. 25), which will feature a commentary with director Garry Marshall, a music video from The Dixie Chicks, and a trailer.
• HBO's ready to get down and dirty with the bleep-free Chris Rock: Bigger and Blacker, performing live from the Apollo. Look for it on Jan. 18.
• New Video is prepping a DVD release of D.A. Pennebaker's 1967 Bob Dylan documentary Don't Look Back: Special Edition (Jan. 4), which will include a commentary by Pennebaker and Dylan tour manager Bob Neuwirth, five original performances, a trailer, and an alternate video of "Subterranean Homesick Blues" (wherein Dylan flips through lyrics on cue-cards — you don't think INXS came up with the idea on their own, do you?).
• Artisan is preparing a new DVD of this year's Animal Farm (Jan. 18), which features the voices of Patrick Stewart, Kelsey Grammer, Ian Holm, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Pete Postlethwaite, and Paul Scofield (not a bad bunch there). The disc will also include an interview with Grammer, a trailer, and supplements on George Orwell's influential novel.
• Warner has overhauled the PolyGram-released Short Cinema Journal #1.2: Dreams with additional content, including several commentaries and alternate audio and video tracks. We thought the PolyGram edition might become a minor collectable because of the intricate packaging (a jewel-box enclosed in a folding cardboard shell), but that just ain't the case anymore — Warner's rehash is an impressive job, in particular the new commentary track by Terry Gilliam on La Jetee, the inspiration for his 12 Monkeys. If you already bought the original, the good news is that the Warner edition (now simply called Short) currently streets for around ten bucks. Look for this latest arrival on Nov. 30.
• We thought that Disney was pushing things by lumping Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas in with their current classic animation series by asking $39.99 for the brand-new, straight-to-video title, but apparently somebody came to their senses — the MSRP has now been dropped to $24.99.
• Street date changes include Encino Man (Jan. 18), The House of Yes (Jan. 18), A Midsummer Night's Dream [1999] (Nov. 30), A Price Above Rubies (Jan. 18), and The Tourist Trap (no new date).

On the Street: News Line's Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me is on the street this morning, and it's sure to be a big seller. Two Criterion titles have also arrived, Monty Python's Life of Brian and Peeping Tom. In addition, Python fans can check out the second installment from their classic BBC television series. And after being delayed by only a week, John Sayles' Lone Star is in the stores today. Here's this morning's notable street discs, courtesy of Reel.com:

• Anastasia
• Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
• Bartok The Magnificent
• Bridge of Dragons
• The Castle
• Cher: Live in Concert
• Cherry Blossom Paradise
• The Climb
• The Crossing Guard
• The Crystal Hunt
• Dear Santa
• The Distinguished Gentleman
• Eat My Dust
• Exotica
• Fitzcarraldo (delayed from Nov. 2)
• Hell in the Pacific (delayed from Nov. 2)
• Instinct
• Krakatoa: East of Java (Uncut) (delayed from Nov. 2)
• The Last Valley (delayed from Nov. 2)
• Liquid Sky
• Lone Star (delayed from Nov. 9)
• Lord of the Dance
• Monty Python's Flying Circus: Season 2
• Monty Python's Life of Brian: The Criterion Collection
• Peeping Tom: The Criterion Collection (delayed from Sept. 28)
• The Plague of the Zombies (delayed from Nov. 2)
• Rasputin: The Mad Monk (delayed from Nov. 2)
• Tea With Mussolini
• Tokyo Decadence

Region 2 hack-attack: Many DVD fans in Region 2 have gone to great lengths to obtain an altered "code-free" DVD player that will allow them to play much-prized Region 1 discs (often of films that have yet to reach the theaters overseas), but, while we support international region-coding, manufacturers should be more careful — reportedly, a relatively inexpensive deck currently for sale in the UK can be converted to code-free by doing nothing more than punching a few buttons on the remote control. Ouch.

Quotable: "The people that initiate scripts are the studio heads, and more and more, these studio heads are being guided by their marketing departments. You don't make good pictures by listening to marketing people, because they are always living in the past."

— John Frankenheimer

— Ed.

Monday, 15 November 1999

Disc of the Week: If there can be any doubt as to what a magnificent film Patton is, one should remember that this epic wartime biography of George S. Patton reached American theaters in 1970, a point in American history when any shamelessly pro-military film should have flopped. But despite the nation's growing anti-war sentiment, fostered by thousands of American casualties in Vietnam, Patton was a box-office smash, solidified the careers of George C. Scott and Franklin J. Schaffner, gave Francis Ford Coppola his first big break, and won seven Academy Awards (surely the highest distinction of politically correct sentiment), including Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Art Direction, Editing, Sound, and Actor (which Scott famously refused to accept, staying home to watch a hockey game on TV during the ceremony). The film may have had a restorative effect on the American psyche by reminding its audiences that war can be a noble enterprise, even when the battle is led by those who are the most unstable. As Gen. Patton, Scott captures the complexity of the man and the soldier with all of his eccentricities, including his insistence on always wearing jodhpurs and carrying a riding whip, his poetry, his belief in reincarnation, and his disdain for the 20th century, where a mechanized infantry and wholesale destruction made it increasingly difficult for soldiers to prove their valor on the field of combat. Scott comes up with one of the greatest screen performances in history, and Coppola's screenplay (reworked by Edmund H. North) demonstrated his ability to tell a lengthy story without ever losing momentum. Director Schaffner took advantage of more than 70 European locations to give Patton its epic scope, and his late decision to relocate Scott's troop-rallying speech from the middle of the film to the very beginning was a stroke of genius, introducing us to Patton's fighting ethic, but also letting us know right away that this isn't supposed to be an ordinary war film chronicling an important battle, but instead a story about one person, and how that person influenced history, even though he was never loved by his own superiors and he never fully accepted the world in which he was forced to live. This new two-disc set from Fox includes the complete film on disc one, along with a brief audio essay and trailers for Patton, Tora! Tora! Tora!, and The Longest Day. Disc two includes the 50-minute documentary "Patton: A Tribute to Franklin J. Schaffner" and Jerry Goldsmith's rousing score as an alternate audio track. If we were forced to pick a "Greatest War Film Ever Made," we'd probably pick this one.

Box Office: Here's a word that is appearing today on The DVD Journal website for the first time: Pokemon. Yes, we have labored hard to keep the Nintendo kiddie-sensation from appearing on these digital pages because, well, for one we don't really care, and two, we don't want children reading this website anyway. But our mission is to report the news, and the news is that Warner's Pokemon: The First Movie is a bonafide smash. Despite reports that parents were dropping their kids off in cinema 1 to see the animated flick while they took in grown-up fare in cinema 2, the pocket-monster blockbuster hauled in $32.4 million over the weekend, and it has grossed a total of $52.1 million since its debut last Wednesday, giving it a five-day record for any film in November (A Bug's Life was the previous record-holder). If only Kevin Smith could get a video game. His new Dogma, starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, snagged third place over the weekend, but the respectable $8.8 million in receipts looks anemic compared to his trading-card competition. Columbia TriStar's The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, starring Milla Jovovich, also did well with $6.3 million, and Fox's Anywhere But Here, with Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman, pulled $5.7 million in receipts. Double Jeopardy, The Sixth Sense, and American Beauty are still showing a pulse after many weeks in release. However, Fight Club and Bringing Out The Dead, relative new arrivals, have now fallen from the top ten with disappointing overall grosses.

Here's the top-grossing films at American theaters from last weekend:

1. Pokemon: The First Movie (Warner)
   $32,400,000 ($52,100,000 to date)
2. The Bone Collector (Universal)
   $12,000,000 ($35,300,000 to date)
3. Dogma (Lions Gate)
   $8,800,000 ($8,800,000 to date)
4. The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (Sony)
   $6,300,000 ($6,300,000 to date)
5. Anywhere But Here (Fox)
   $5,700,000 ($5,700,000 to date)
6. The Insider (Buena Vista)
   $5,100,000 ($14,200,000 to date)
7. The Bachelor (New Line)
   $4,700,000 ($14,400,000 to date)
8. House on Haunted Hill (Warner)
   $4,400,000 ($34,800,000 to date)
9. Double Jeopardy (Paramount)
   $3,100,000 ($108,700,000 to date)
10. The Sixth Sense (Buena Vista)
    $2,700,000 ($267,800,000 to date)
11. American Beauty (DreamWorks)
    $2,500,000 ($62,800,000 to date)
12. Light It Up (Fox)
    $2,500,000 ($3,200,000 to date)

On the Board: New full reviews have been posted for Life is Beautiful: Collector's Edition and Big Daddy, which can be found on our Full Reviews index. New quick reviews this week include Patton, Notorious, The Thin Red Line, 10 Things I Hate About You, and Aquaria, and can be accessed under the New Reviews menu here on the main page.

We'll be back tomorrow with news on this week's street discs.

— Ed.

Friday, 12 November 1999
Weekend Dispatch

"Iron Giant" cleans up: Warner's The Iron Giant, which garnered immense critical acclaim while suffering from dismal late-summer box-office receipts, solidified its claim to being the best animated of the film of 1999 at the 27th Annual Annie Awards, held last weekend in California, where the movie took home nine trophies in the categories of directing, writing, music, theatrics, character animation, effects animation, storyboarding, individual voiceover, and production design. The film was nominated for 15 awards overall. Disney's Tarzan, which trounced The Iron Giant at the box office, took home only one award for technical achievement, while The Lion King II: Simba's Pride earned the statuette for home-video production (VHS edition).

The Iron Giant arrives on DVD Nov. 23.

Delayed!: One of the most-anticipated discs of the past few months, Criterion's The Third Man, has now been delayed from its previous street date of Nov. 16, and no new date has been announced. However, we have heard rumors (unconfirmed) that it may be available in January. Criterion's The Night Porter has also fallen off the release-radar for the time being.

It may never end: The American Film Institute, the folks responsible for the "Top 100 American Films of All Time" and "The AFI Top 50 Movie Stars" are still at it, now preparing a list of the 100 Best American Film Comedies, scheduled for release in 2000. As with the AFI Top 100, the Best American Film Comedies are being selected by 1,800 voters from a wide demographic group, who are being provided with a pre-selected list of 500 films from which to choose. Voting will be completed by the end of the year, but the results will be kept under wraps until next June, when the AFI hauls out their third three-hour television extravaganza on CBS to reveal the winners. The only thing we like about AFI lists is that they're a fun opportunity to bitch about AFI lists.

Commentary Clips: "This is Liam Neeson's first big scene, and the first time he'd been in a film at all, on-camera. He, of course, had some scenes with Helen Mirren, and they fell in love during the film, and spent a year or two together subsequently. Liam is a boy from the north of Ireland, very inexperienced and innocent, and Helen was great teacher to him. I don't mean just sexually, I mean she knew everybody and took him around. Of course, everyone loved Liam. Every woman wants to cuddle him, and many of them do."

"These days, of course, nobody even questions these things [special effects], 'How do they do that?' They say, 'Oh, they must've done it on the computer.' David Hockney, he's the artist, said to me, 'You know, the digital effect will be the end of the movies, because it used to be that whatever we saw on the screen, we knew that it had occurred at some point in time and place. Now we can no longer be sure.' So films have lost their reality."

— John Boorman, Excalibur

Coming Attractions: New DVD reviews are on the way, including Patton, The Thin Red Line, and Big Daddy, so be sure to check back Monday morning for all the skinny. And if you haven't entered our monthly free DVD contest, be sure to visit our contest page if you get the time, and don't forget to take our monthly DVD poll while you're there.

A parting thought: Over the past week, voters in San Francisco decided that banks cannot charge money for ATM services to customers who do not have an account with the institution — in other words, they have been mandated to provide a service for free. In the meantime, the Justice Department has determined that Microsoft is a "monopoly" because they offer a Web browser to Windows consumers for nothing — the only way that Bill Gates could have avoided the recent imbroglio (which may result in a breakup of Microsoft) would have been to charge money for a product that he was happy to give away.

(Everybody scratch your heads now.)

— Ed.

Thursday, 11 November 1999
-- Newsroom Code Red --

Disney to release all animated titles!: As we first predicted last Friday on this very website, Walt Disney Studios and their home-video division Buena Vista have completely thrown out their previous one-toe-in-the-water DVD marketing strategy and fully embraced the digital format, albeit with a few traditional Disney reservations. Key points of the new strategy, announced yesterday by Disney Chairman Joe Roth, include:

• All future DVDs from Disney/Buena Vista will be released day-and-date with VHS editions.
• A "Platinum Collection," comprising ten of Disney's most-popular animation features, will begin arriving next fall on DVD and VHS with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Each additional Platinum title will arrive every fall after that (Platinum titles include Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Bambi, The Jungle Book, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, Lady and the Tramp, and 101 Dalmatians). These releases will only be available for a limited time, and will re-appear in 10-year cycles thereafter.
• Disney's remaining 26 classic animation titles will be released on DVD over the next two years, and without moratorium dates. Using the Platinum Collection list as a reference, here's a few we can expect: Sleeping Beauty, Alice in Wonderland, Dumbo, Robin Hood, and The Aristocats. The overall amount of titles indicates that Disney will release at least one animated DVD per month for the next two years, although it's possible they will arrive in waves of three every quarter.

Why the change of heart in the Mouse House? First, the growth of the DVD market has been undeniable, and even the mighty Disney can no longer disregard the future of home video. Secondly, due to some recent profit slumps (the last 3Q was especially disappointing), Disney has taken steps over the past year to simplify their multi-national megacorp, including selling off many of their print-publication holdings, merging their television-production division with the Mouse-owned ABC network, and putting their animation and special-effects units under one roof. Top Mouse Michael Eisner is determined to return The Magic Kingdom to the 20% profit margins it has enjoyed in previous years (shareholders expect nothing less), and a key part of the Disney reorganization involves finding ways to profit from, as Eisner called it last week, "entertainment experiences that are already on the ground," i.e., popular home-video titles that can be repackaged and re-marketed with little overhead.

We say great. Although some people are bound to feel a little irked by the "Platinum Collection" and its ten-year cycle, it should be noted that this policy is in place for both VHS and DVD — there is no distinction between the two. Some of you may have been hoping that the Mouse would abandon their well-known moratoriums altogether, but we never expected anything of the sort. The fact remains that Disney has now brought their DVD releases completely in line with their VHS editions, meaning that there is now only one cross-format home-video strategy. And that's progress.

Notably: Those of you reading closely certainly noticed similarities and differences between Disney's "Platinum Collection" and the current crop of Disney DVD releases, namely that many of the current titles are not on the ten-year list — in particular Pinocchio, Hercules, Mulan, Peter Pan, and The Lion King II: Simba's Pride. Therefore, it doesn't appear that these five discs will go on moratorium for 7-10 years, as previously announced, but will re-appear within the next two years, and for good. The only 1999 discs that are also in the Platinum Collection are 101 Dalmatians, Lady and the Tramp, The Jungle Book, and The Little Mermaid, and it's a safe bet that those four will probably return no sooner than 2005. Therefore, if you can only buy a few Disney DVDs right now, those are the ones to get.

Left unsaid: Here's a word we were hoping to hear from Disney yesterday: anamorphic. We didn't.

"Missing in Action" Flick of the Week: With James Whale's Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein now on DVD from Universal, a new generation of film fans have been exposed to the director's well-regarded expressionist style, along with his unusual sense of wit. However, Whale never really wanted to be known as a horror director — in fact, the Englishman was originally brought to Hollywood by Universal because of his reputation as a stage director. It was only after the two Frankenstein films that Whale got his opportunity to return to his theatrical roots, directing the 1936 Show Boat, a landmark American musical that reveals how capable he was in virtually any genre. Based on the Broadway musical of the same name by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II (Hammerstein also handled the screenplay here), Show Boat broke ground in depression-era, segregated America by utilizing a cast of black and white actors and giving both groups substantial amounts of screen-time. The story follows a loosely-knit clan of actors and stagehands on a Mississippi riverboat who ply their theatrical trade up and down the river during the summer, but when Magnolia (Irene Dunne), the captain's daughter, marries smooth talking, free-gambling Gaylord Ravenal (Allan Jones), the family's fortunes take a turn for the worse, as Gaylord abandons his new bride and child in Chicago and the shy Magnolia must turn to the big-city stage to survive. While elements of Show Boat are overly melodramatic (and the tacked-on conclusion is a wretched cliché), the many musical numbers are all stand-outs, and especially those by Paul Robeson, Hattie McDaniel (Gone With The Wind), and Helen Morgan, all of whom helped make songs such as "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man," "Ol' Man River," and "Bill" staples of American musical theater. In fact, the performances are so good, and each character is so well-defined, that even an old-fashioned minstrel show (Dunne actually performs a song in blackface) can't discredit the overall production.

Three versions of Show Boat have been filmed: the James Whale version from 1936, a Technicolor production in 1951 (starring Kathryn Grayson and Howard Keel), and a very early talkie back in 1929. We're partial to the Whale version, and while it's not currently on disc, it appears that Warner recently acquired the rights from MGM, so a new DVD could appear in the next year or so. The 1951 version is already on disc from MGM. As for the 1929 edition, that isn't on home video anywhere, and not because there's no market for it — it was lost many years ago, and it probably will never be recovered.

On the Block: Here's the highest recent closing prices of rare DVDs from online auctions at eBay :

1. Little Shop of Horrors - $310.00
2. Platoon — $202.50
3. Salo: The Criterion Collection — $153.50
4. The Killer: The Criterion Collection — $143.00
5. This Is Spinal Tap: The Criterion Collection — $96.00
6. The 400 Blows: The Criterion Collection — $92.22
7. Live at Knebworth — $81.00
8. The Sound of Music (Region 2) — $70.00
9. Seven Samurai: The Criterion Collection (first edition) — $69.50
10. Leon, aka The Professional (Region 2) — $65.00

See ya later.

— Ed.

Wednesday, 10 November 1999

Mailbag: Wednesday is mail day here at The DVD Journal, so let's get to it:

— Jim

Thanks for your letter, Jim. We don't read a great deal of the audiophile press (after all, audiophiles and videophiles are different breeds), but we did base our comments on a recent magazine article where several "experts" faced off over the new hi-res audio formats. Many said SACD or DVD Audio would be better than PCM, while others disagreed, so it just seems like a healthy debate to us, and one that has yet to be settled.

But quality isn't our primary concern about hi-res audio — we simply recognize that there's a big difference between an audiophile environment and the average listening situation, and this factor will give SACD and DVD-A one of their greatest challenges as they try to win over new consumers, since most people don't own expensive gear or speakers but instead listen to music on headphones, in their car, or with boom boxes. Audiophiles will doubtless love the new formats, but when we say "substantial improvement," we're not talking about a bunch of golden ears in a carefully baffled room — rather, it's doubtful that hi-res audio will be a substantial improvement on a Walkman or in the world of car audio (particularly when the latest mass-market success in that arena has been the dreaded, cranked-beyond-belief subwoofer — hardly an audiophile trait). DVD-A or SACD may eventually replace PCM if the formats gain some inertia, but then again, they may not have enough early adopters to get the hardware out of the $5,000 range. We're also skeptical if the masses are all that interested in multi-channel audio, a key selling-point of the new formats, but easily abused or downright worthless in a casual background-listening environment.

A second concern we have about SACD or DVD-A has to do with consumer acceptance, and DVD Video provides a perfect analogy. Some people use DVD-V as the source for a home-theater system, but plenty of other DVD-V consumers have nothing more than mid-sized televisions. Many more watch DVD movies with DVD-ROM drives on their PCs or Macs. Why did these consumers buy into DVD-V in the first place? It isn't quality, because (frankly) they can't appreciate all of the benefits that DVD Video has to offer without a fully equipped home theater. They bought into DVD because it's more convenient that VHS — period. Nobody bought VCRs back in the 70s and said "What a great picture!" They bought them so they could time-shift television shows. Similarly, many DVD owners have invested in the format because it's more durable, it doesn't require rewinding, it offers chapter selection and value-added content, etc. Compare these many paradigm-shifts to hi-res audio, where nobody is claiming that the formats are more convenient than Compact Disc, just better quality. And we would suggest that convenience, not quality, is what drives new consumer technologies. This is the Achilles heel of the new formats because, while superior (and they doubtless are), they may not offer enough novelty over CDs to survive in the mass market.

Put your 8x10s away: After a Lucasfilm memo was recently leaked and posted on several Star Wars websites regarding the casting of Anakin Skywalker in Episode II of the series, the powers-that-be at Skywalker Ranch were swamped with telephone calls, letters, and portfolios from thousands of young men who think they actually have a chance to be Jedi. But Lucasfilm only had one response, posted at the official Star Wars website (www.starwars.com) — knock it off! Or as the actual missive reads: "The casting director, Robin Gurland, will not start interviewing actors for Episode II until the end of January 2000 at the earliest. Also, Robin cannot accept unsolicited head shots, resumes, tapes or phone inquiries. The submissions must come through an accredited agent or agency. All the actors who worked on Episode I, even the ones sometimes referred to by the public as 'unknown', are professionals in the field, and all work with an agent. In addition, please note that since George Lucas is not involved in the first stages of the casting process, no submissions should be sent to him."

The upside? Jake Lloyd won't be in the next movie. The bad news? The Star Wars website has now confirmed that Jar-Jar Binks eesa comin' back.

DVDs Done Dirt Cheap: Reel.com has posted a new round of DVDs currently selling for 50% off, and this has to be the best group yet, with Die Hard, L.A. Confidential, Boogie Nights and Pi all going for bargain-basement prices. So don't pay retail — punch this link instead and get the goods. Here's all the rock-bottom discs:

• Big Daddy — $12.49
• Die Hard — $14.99
• George of the Jungle — $14.99
• Boogie Nights — $12.49
• Pi — $12.49
• Rolling Stones: Live at the Max (IMAX) — $12.49
• L.A. Confidential — $12.49
• Gloria — $14.99
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas — $9.99
• City of Angels — $12.49

And don't forget, DVDs at Reel.com are currently shipping for free. Nada. Zilch. Nothing.

— Ed.

Tuesday, 9 November 1999

In the Works: Here's some new disc announcements, courtesy of Image Entertainment:

• Warner has finalized their end-of-the-year slate, and we're looking forward to new discs of The Mosquito Coast (Dec. 14) and Papillon (Dec. 14), both of which will feature anamorphic widescreen transfers. Also look for new Warner discs of American Flyers (Dec. 21), The Spitfire Grill (Dec. 7), Extreme Measures (Dec. 14), Something To Talk About (Dec. 14), The Exorcist 3 (Dec. 14), and Young Guns 2 (Dec. 14).
• MGM is prepping a new disc of this year's The Thomas Crown Affair: Special Edition, starring Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo, and it will include a commentary by director John McTiernan. Expect it on Jan 4.
• If you're a fan of Dirty Dancing (and to be truthful, we are not), you'll be glad to know that Artisan is planning to release a special edition on Jan. 18, which will include a commentary by writer/producer Eleanor Bergstein, a "Dirty Dancing: Live in Concert" television show, a featurette, a trailer, and music videos of the songs "Hungry Eyes," "She's Like the Wind," and "I've Had The Time of My Life." The previous DVD release of Dirty Dancing has been discontinued.
• Mel Brooks fans can expect a new Fox DVD of his History of the World, Part 1 (reportedly on the street now). It's in widescreen, but it's also mono and only has a trailer as an added attraction.
• The post-Splash comedy Volunteers starring Tom Hanks and John Candy is on the way from HBO, due on Dec. 14, and this one's gonna have two theatrical trailers (hold us back).
• The trippy extraterrestrial cult-flick Liquid Sky will street from MTI next Tuesday. No supplements have been announced (which makes us think, at this late date, there may not be any).
• Anchor Bay has announced a new DVD of Tex, based on the S.E. Hinton novel and starring Matt Dillon and Emilio Estevez. It's due next week.
• It gives us great consternation to announce the testosterone-packed Latino pop-sensation that is Ricky Martin is now coming to DVD with Sony's Ricky Martin: One Night Only (Dec. 14). Young Ricky and his leather trousers will perform solo (we hear he'll sing a song about a "Velveta mocha" or something), and he also will be joined by Carlos Santana and Jose Feliciano. Buy it if you like it — we'd take a DVD edition of Santana's Supernatural over this one any day.
• On the other end of the FM dial, Warner Music will street Filter's Title of DVD, the companion video to the alterna-rock band's Title of Record CD release. Six videos, live performance footage, and interviews will be on board, due on Dec. 7.
• Columbia TriStar's DVD release of Dr. Strangelove, which was placed on moratorium earlier this year when the film was licensed to Warner as part of the Stanley Kubrick Collection, has now returned to the shelves. However, besides the packaging, the DVDs are identical, and furthermore, it looks like the Warner edition is still in circulation. We say buy the CTHV disc if you don't have either — the keep-case is a better package.
• Street date changes include The Bonfire of the Vanities (Nov. 23), Feeling Minnesota (Nov. 23), Great Santini (Nov. 23), Meatballs (Nov. 23), A Midsummer Night's Dream [1999] (Nov. 23), On Dangerous Ground (Nov. 23), A Thin Line Between Love and Hate: Special Edition (Nov. 23), Three Amigos (Nov. 23), Trial and Error (Nov. 23), Caligula [both editions] (Nov. 30), Dead Calm (Dec. 14), Lone Star (Dec. 21), Pacific Heights (no new date), Anchors Aweigh (no new date), and The Big Sleep (no new date). That last one really, really bites.

On the Street: The Disney classic animation arrives in earnest this morning, with 101 Dalmatians, Mulan, and Hercules on the street (albeit for only the next 60 days). Other notable arrivals include the holiday favorite Scrooged, the latest classic Trek installment Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful: Collector's Edition, and Criterion's The Passion of Joan of Arc. Here's this morning's notable street discs, courtesy of Reel.com:

• 101 Dalmatians: Limited Issue
• Friends and Lovers
• Heaven
• Hercules: Limited Issue
• I'll Be Home for Christmas
• Life Is Beautiful: Collector's Edition
• Lips of Blood
• The Living Dead Girl
• Mulan: Limited Issue
• Natalie Merchant: Live in Concert
• Notting Hill: Collector's Edition
• The Passion of Joan of Arc: The Criterion Collection
• Resurrection
• Roy Orbison: A Black and White Night
• Saturday Night Live: The Best of Adam Sandler
• Saturday Night Live: The Best of Mike Meyers
• Scrooged
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
• Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers: High Grass Dogs
• Tommy Boy
• Tourist Trap
• Trekkies
• Van Halen Video Hits

Auction watch: Get it while you can, because Warner has now discontinued their DVD release of Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train, a move that regrettably decreases the amount of Hitchcock films on disc while we have been patiently waiting for more to arrive. If the disc doesn't reappear soon (we have no idea why it was even pulled), we're certain that it will become a prized collectable, as it includes both the American and British cuts, along with notes to help Hitch fans find the differences. In fact, we like this one so much that it's been on our Top 25 for as long as we can recall. (By the way, it doesn't appear that this particular DVD has disappeared because MGM now has the rights. According the agreement struck between Warner and MGM last March, The Lion took control of all Warner product up to 1948 — Strangers on a Train is from 1951.)

"Strike that — reverse it": Despite being told by a New Line representative last week that a Platinum Edition of Seven was not in preparation, The Digital Bits is reporting exactly the opposite. Since the Bits normally has rock-solid sources, we're now going on their information. Look for a new Seven next March.

Quotable: "I stand to make more money doing that sequel than I've ever made in my life. But who cares, if it betrays Clarice — who is a person, in some strange way, to me.... The movie worked because people believed in her heroism. I won't play her with negative attributes she'd never have."

— Jodie Foster, revealing in an interview with
W magazine that she will not reprise
her role as Clarice Starling in the forthcoming
Hannibal, the sequel to The Silence of
the Lambs, in particular because she doesn't
agree with directions that author Thomas Harris
took the character in his new novel, which was
released earlier this year.

— Ed.

Monday, 8 November 1999

Watch Wednesday: After telling you about Disney boss Michael Eisner's decision to revaluate the Magic Kingdom's lukewarm approach to DVD (see Friday's update), Variety is now reporting that he will unveil a new Disney DVD strategy at an industry analysts' meeting in Burbank on Wednesday. And don't expect Eisner to announce less digital output — as of last week he is now on record as a serious DVD supporter, convinced that The Mouse can reap low-overhead profits by releasing many of their classic catalog titles on disc. It's also possible that Eisner will annouce futher Disney support for special-edition releases, anamorphic transfers, and other types of value-added content. Keep your browser pointed here for more on this story during the coming week.

Disc of the Week: The 1971 Tora! Tora! Tora!, a rare American-Japanese co-production, has become the definitive cinematic account of the events leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor, along with being an unparalleled war film that keeps its emphasis upon historical re-enactment rather than dramatic license. In fact, the producers of the film make the bold declaration that everything that happens in the film is historically accurate — not a single character or event is fictitious. Because of this, Tora! Tora! Tora! ranks among the most valuable of World War II films, depicting the growing conflict between the United States and Japan with a sober detachment that simultaneously entertains and edifies the viewer, detailing the mistakes, blunders, and political opportunism on both shores of the Pacific that led up to what President Roosevelt described as "a day that will live in infamy." With the American segments directed by Richard Fleischer and the Japanese segments by Toshio Masuda and Kinji Fukasaku, Tora! Tora! Tora! is also an unusual war film that refuses to advocate for either side, but instead illustrates the very human people behind the history. There are no two-dimensional bloodthirsty Japanese characters — rather, we learn that the country's political and military leaders were gravely divided over the proposed attack the U.S. fleet in Hawaii, recognizing the necessity of such a move if they were to continue their invasion of China, and yet also understanding the great risks of waking the "sleeping giant" and opening a two-front war. It wasn't America's most shining hour either. While frosty negotiations between the two powers plodded along in Washington, the Japanese knew they would have to deliver an ultimatum, and when they finally did it was all but a confirmation that they would attack an American base (either in the Philippines or in Hawaii). But the instructions from Washington to their Pacific commanders to go on heightened alert never got through in time. On Sunday morning, Dec. 7, 1941, several Japanese aircraft carriers that had secretly traversed thousands of miles across the Pacific launched their surprise assault, and the final half-hour of Tora! Tora! Tora! is a genuine masterpiece of the wartime genre. No expense is spared as real airfields and real targets are destroyed by low-flying Japanese fighters, creating a large-scale devastation that few films have matched since. The sequence was enough to earn the film an Academy Award for special effects — only Patton, which arrived from Fox the same year, kept it from winning even more Oscars. This new disc from Fox offers a splendid transfer from a pristine source print, along with remixed audio in Dolby Digital 4.1 and trailers for Tora! Tora! Tora!, Patton, and The Longest Day.

"The Wall" pushed back again: Pink Floyd fans, hang in there. Columbia TriStar's upcoming Pink Floyd: The Wall has been delayed for a second time, now from Nov. 23 to Dec. 2.

Box Office: The box-office slump over the past few weeks that has seen few films break the $10 million mark continues, with only Universal's debut The Bone Collector scoring high numbers ($17.2 million), which easily gave the Denzel Washington thriller the top spot at the weekend box office. However, the next-highest film, New Line's The Bachelor, bowed with less than half of that, scraping in a modest $8 million on its first weekend despite appearing on virtually as many screens as The Bone Collector (Reuters is reporting that the movie also has the rare and dubious claim-to-fame of not receiving a single positive review from any major film critic). Only one other new arrival broke the top ten, Buena Vista's The Insider, which landed $7 million in receipts. Meanwhile, Fox's Fight Club, Miramax's Music from the Heart, and Paramount's Bringing out the Dead continue to fall off the blockbuster radar, each snagging $3 million or less, which means that moviegoers are still lining up for such flicks as American Beauty, Double Jeopardy, and The Sixth Sense, which all have been in release for several weeks now and have racked up solid overall grosses.

Here's the top-grossing films at American theaters from last weekend:

1. The Bone Collector (Universal)
   $17,200,000 ($17,200,000 to date)
2. The Bachelor (New Line)
   $8,000,000 ($8,000,000 to date)
3. House on Haunted Hill (Warner)
   $7,800,000 ($28,100,000 to date)
4. The Insider (Buena Vista)
   $7,000,000 ($7,000,000 to date)
5. Double Jeopardy (Paramount)
   $4,500,000 ($104,500,000 to date)
6. The Best Man (Universal)
   $4,300,000 ($24,000,000 to date)
7. American Beauty (DreamWorks)
   $3,300,000 ($58,900,000 to date)
8. The Sixth Sense (Buena Vista)
   $3,200,000 ($264,100,000 to date)
9. Music of the Heart (Miramax)
   $3,000,000 ($7,900,000 to date)
10. Fight Club (Fox)
    $2,500,000 ($32,000,000 to date)
11. Superstar (Paramount)
    $2,025,000 ($26,100,000 to date)
12. Bringing Out the Dead (Paramount)
    $2,000,000 ($14,700,000 to date)

On the Board: A new full review has been posted for Hard Eight: Special Edition, and can be found on our Full Reviews index. New quick reviews this week include Bride of Frankenstein: Classic Monster Collection, Pinocchio: Limited Issue, Tora! Tora! Tora!, 12 Monkeys: Collector's Edition, and Arlington Road, and can be accessed under the New Reviews menu here on the main page.

We'll be back tomorrow with news on this week's street discs.

— Ed.

Friday, 5 November 1999
Weekend Dispatch

A Mouse that could roar: Disney has long been regarded as a DVD underperformer since the format's inception, and not for just one reason. With only a trickle of titles arriving on disc in the early days, Disney was often lumped in with non-starters Fox and Paramount, who couldn't even be bothered to embrace the format until August of '98. Disney was also a Divx supporter, and even a Divx edition of Alice in Wonderland was announced, only to be permanently delayed by the pay-to-play format's death earlier this year. Anamorphic fans have been continually frustrated by The Mouse's lukewarm support of 16x9 transfers, and almost everybody who has bought the feature-free Disney discs of Rushmore, Armageddon, A Bug's Life, and Shakespeare in Love have felt a little swindled when special editions of the same titles were announced at a later date. Even the recent series of Disney animated classics have met with mixed reaction, streeting with hefty $39.99 retail prices and no features while the corresponding, less-expensive VHS releases have behind-the-scenes documentaries.

But things in the Mouse House seem to be changing, albeit slowly. Anamorphic special editions, even when belatedly announced, are a welcome improvement. The fact that Disney gave fair warning that a special edition of Tarzan will arrive next year — allowing some consumers to safely skip the feature-free edition — is also a sign of progress. And despite some detractors, we are glad to see classic Disney animation on DVD. Some have focused on price, features, and moratorium dates (we're no more pleased than anybody about those factors), but animated DVDs from Disney are still a VERY BIG DEAL. Nobody expected to see five bonafide classics on disc before the end of 1999. In fact, let's chapter-select back to Jan. 6 of this year to see what Top Mouse Michael Eisner said in his annual letter to Disney stockholders:

---

Another development that may or may not have an impact on our animation business is the digital video disk. I say "may not" because, over time, it may simply replace videotape. Therefore, I will restrain my enthusiasm for the potential of this new format, which of course is difficult for me. In 1998, we began releasing our films onto DVD. We are hopeful that, in the coming decade, this technology will grow to the point where we can profitably release more of our animated library titles in this format.

---

That's right — he said decade. But in an unprededented teleconference yesterday with securities analysts, Eisner wanted to re-assure them that the Magic Kingdom will soon return to the cash-cow profits they have enjoyed in previous years (Disney has endured some profit slumps lately), and he specifically cited DVD as a key factor, according to Variety, who note that "Eisner said he still believed the company was a growth-oriented organization with new opportunity to resell its library of films into new markets like DVD and expand operations overseas and on the Internet." Eisner is also quoted as saying "Our management approach is evolving somewhat.... Our intention is to maximize shareholder value by making the most of the array of quality entertainment experiences that are already on the ground."

Translation: "We're gonna put more of our classic titles on DVD."

Quotable: "It's a widely held secret. Many people would have to have the key... which is like having no key at all."

— Encryption expert Phil Zimmerman, in an interview
with The Washington Post, regarding this week's
cracking of DVD Video's Content Scrambling System
encryption technology. The new hack, originating in
Norway and called "DeCSS," now allows DVDs
to be effortlessly duplicated with readily available
DVD-ROM hardware. And if you think this is a
good thing, think again — while some folks are
downplaying the event, many studios are certainly
reconsidering if they should be putting any of their
top films on DVD at all.

"If this phase of sophisticated piracy cannot be curbed — and I don't know how it can — and movies become instantly available on the Internet, it will change the economics of the industry."

— Tom Pollock, former CEO of Universal Studios.

"The hundredth copy of a digitized movie is as pure as the original, whereas in the analog world, each copy is degraded in quality. With a single keystroke, a pirate can do millions of dollars' worth of damage to the market for a film, even if the pirate doesn't make a nickel himself."

— Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture
Association of America.

Coming Attractions: New DVD reviews are on the way, including Pinocchio: Limited Issue, Bride of Frankenstein: Classic Monster Collection, Paul Thomas Anderson's Hard Eight: Special Edition, and others, so be sure to check back on Monday for all the latest.

Go enjoy the weekend. We'll see ya soon.

— Ed.

Thursday, 4 November 1999

Correction: Thanks to a couple of DVD Journal readers who read the excellent The Digital Bits closer than we do (things can be busy around here). In a recent interview with DVD producer David Prior by Bits editors Bill Hunt and Todd Doogan, Prior confirmed that he is working on the forthcoming Fight Club DVD, and it will in fact be an anamorphic transfer (despite our doubts on the matter in yesterday's update). Prior also noted that the shake-up in Fox's DVD department earlier this year has resulted in a more DVD-friendly crew compared to the previous head-honchos, and that we can expect a lot of improvement from Fox in coming months — therefore, the anamorphic two-disc special edition of Patton released this week isn't such an anomaly after all, but in fact a sign of things to come.

"Missing in Action" Flick of the Week: The late Raul Julia was a gifted Puerto Rican-born actor who enjoyed a successful Hollywood career, but while most people probably first think of The Addams Family movies when they hear his name, we think of something else entirely — Hector Babenco's 1985 Kiss of the Spider Woman, a film that isn't only MIA on DVD, but completely unavailable in any retail format. Julia stars in Spider Woman as Valentin Arregui, an imprisoned political revolutionary in an undefined South American country whose only purpose in life is to bring down the dictatorship that has put him behind bars. Holed up in a tiny cell and separated from those he cares about, Arregui has no choice but to listen to the endless cinematic fantasies of his cellmate, Luis Molina (William Hurt), a gay window-dresser who has been tossed in the joint for crimes against nature (i.e., being homosexual). Not that Arregui likes it. He would rather concentrate on nothing more than the stark reality of his political struggle, although he can't do anything to make Molina shut up ("Give me a key and I'll walk out of here," Molina says. "Until then, I'll escape in whatever way I can.") But before long, Molina's recollections — and perhaps embellishments — of his favorite movies capture Arregui's attention, giving him brief respite as well from his inactive, boredom-plagued days. Molina's stories also form an unusual narrative tapestry in Spider Woman, never really being part of the prison story and yet lending insight into the fundamental natures of both men, and Babenco does a neat trick by using the narratives as both a thematic device and a cinematic counterpoint, expanding what should be a claustrophobic film beyond its four barren walls. By the time part of the film's narrative action leaves the prison (towards the conclusion), the effect is not nearly as jarring as one might expect, for even in those moments Babenco never stops weaving his dreamlike story (Manuel Puig's experimental novel on which the film is based has a similar quality, and is recommended reading for all Spider Woman fans).

Kiss of the Spider Woman was released on VHS on the Island Alive label, but the only place to find that edition now is at your local renter or on eBay. We haven't yet determined who now has the rights (Island isn't in the home-video business anymore, it seems), nor do we expect any sort of DVD until a new VHS returns to the retail shelves.

Ford gets AFI nod: Harrison Ford, who is probably responsible for selling more movie tickets than any other actor, was selected to receive the American Film Institute's 28th Life Achievement Award, which will be presented next February. Ford will join the ranks of such previous AFI honorees as Alfred Hitchcock, Jimmy Stewart, and Clint Eastwood, but the reclusive star — known for shunning the lights of Tinseltown in favor of his Wyoming ranch — downplayed the award with typical understatement, noting that "the things that brought me success were other people's successes, not mine. I've always given credit to them for that."

R.I.P.: British actor Ian Bannen, who recently charmed American audiences in the well-received UK import Waking Ned Devine, was killed in a car crash yesterday in Scotland while taking a break from his latest project. A popular character actor during a career that spanned more than 40 years, Bannen's film credits also include Braveheart and The Flight of the Phoenix, and he was also a well-known British television personality. Bannen's wife Marilyn, who was driving the car, survived the accident. Bannen was 71.

— Ed.

Wednesday, 3 November 1999

"Exorcist" DVD smashes UK records: Every digital die-hard knows that Warner's The Matrix is the top-selling DVD of all time in North America, but the recently released DVD of Warner's The Exorcist earned the top spot on the all-time UK sales list earlier this week, with 17,645 units in the hands of British DVD fans in just seven days. Of course, The Matrix has yet to arrive on disc in Region 2, but there's another reason for the Exorcist ascension — the film had never been previously available on home video in the United Kingdom, causing the day-and-date VHS edition to rack up 67,074 units this past week as well (the British Board of Film Certification only approved The Exorcist for home consumption last February). Will The Matrix do better? Maybe, but we know what all UK film fans really want — A Clockwork Orange, which hasn't been theatrically shown in the UK since 1972 and has never been a home-video item. And don't blame the censors either. Stanley Kubrick himself imposed the Clockwork ban shortly after the film's release in response to several headline-grabbing copycat crimes.

Mailbag: It's time to clean out some of the reader mail here at The DVD Journal:

— Dan

In general, we don't recommend that people avoid buying non-anamorphic DVDs unless they own 16x9 televisions. While anamorphic DVDs can improve the quality of the picture when downconverted to 4x3 screens, a properly mastered DVD without anamorphic enhancement can still look very good, and light years beyond videotapes. We thought that both Seven and The Game were very attractive discs, so there's really no reason to wait. The odds of either being re-released as anamorphic special editions are slim. (We did hear a rumor this week that New Line was prepping a Platinum Series edition of Seven, but a New Line representative told us there are no plans for such at this time.)

As for Fox's track record on anamorphic transfers, it's not very good. Okay — it's shite. With only a few notable exceptions (The Alien Legacy box set, this week's special edition of Patton), Fox seems as interested in anamorphic transfers as they are in eating live insects for breakfast. A 16x9 Fight Club would be great, but don't bet on it. We'll be happy if we get a commentary track.

— Jeff

That sounds like it could be one of those dreaded "Divx-enhanced" Proscan players to us, but while we will freely bash Circuit City's erstwhile pay-to-play DVD scheme, we're not in the habit in commenting on particular DVD manufacturers (one cross word about any model or brand-name would only result in a deluge of angry e-mail, and we admit that we aren't hardware experts anyway). The fact is that you usually get what you pay for, and if you can afford to spend a little more money, dropping $300-$450 on a DVD player rather than $225 might be a good investment in the long run (however, we think that if you pay more than $500 for a new deck, you probably are paying for extra "quality" that you may not need). If the Proscan fits your budget, have fun. If you can afford a little more, shop around. Above all, you should read hardware reviews in all of the major home-theater magazines, and dropping by e-town now and then is a good habit for every DVD fan.

As for display models, we think that open-box bargains are often the best way to go, as long as they still have the warranty and user's manual. Not only don't you have to deal with all that cardboard and Styrofoam, but you get a cheaper price for the same item, sometimes as much as 50% off the MSRP. Saying "open box" to us is like shouting "Ding-Dongs" at a weight-loss seminar.

Top of the Pops: Here's the top-selling DVDs last week from our friends at Reel.com. Click the links to read our reviews of these discs:

1. The Matrix
2. How the Grinch Stole Christmas
3. The Blair Witch Project
4. Mission: Impossible
5. Broken Arrow
6. As Good As It Gets
7. The Mummy: Collector's Edition
8. Shakespeare in Love
9. The Prince of Egypt
10. The Wizard of Oz: Special Edition

Quotable: "I still don't think it's really possible for a film to cause a kid to go out and 'do something.' In one case, we had a claim that someone saw Scream and got ideas. But I don't buy it.... We were all shocked by the school shootings, but when Congress started citing Scream as an example of the kind of horrible, reprehensible films out there, we decided not to hold back (in the forthcoming Scream 3). The only thing we avoided were scenes in the high school or anything like that."

— Wes Craven, in a recent interview
with Time Out New York.

— Ed.

Tuesday, 2 November 1999

PlayStation predicted to crack $1 billion: How many Sony PlayStation consoles are there in the United States? According to Sony, 21 million units, which means you can easily find one in every five American households. Even more surprising? Sony is predicting that the holiday-season revenue from their top-selling game-system will reach $1 billion, and the Japanese mega-corp is even planning to spend a Divx-sized $150 million over the next two months on marketing. Sure, that new $99 price-point is tempting, but the DVD-ROM based PlayStation2 is expected to arrive on North American shores within the next 12 months, and while more expensive, it will play DVD Video programming, along with far superior games. Depending on how you look at it, this year's final PlayStation push is a great bargain or just a fire sale.

On the Street: World War II Tuesday has finally arrived with a slew of great releases on the street this morning, including Saving Private Ryan: Special Limited Edition, Patton, The Thin Red Line, The Longest Day, and Tora! Tora! Tora!. Also on the street are two long-delayed Criterion discs, Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps and Stanley Donen's Charade (at least, we hope they're on the street today). Here's this morning's notable street discs, courtesy of Reel.com:

• The 39 Steps: The Criterion Collection
• The Apostle: Special Edition (re-release)
• Armstrong
• Big Daddy
• Blood Dolls
• Charade: The Criterion Collection
• The Commitments
• Embrace of the Vampire
• Free Enterprise: Special Edition
• Free Money
• The Full Monty
• Hell in the Pacific
• Human Cargo
• A Kid Called Danger
• Krakatoa: East of Java
• The Last Valley
• The Longest Day
• Patton
• Poison Ivy
• Poison Ivy 2: Lily
• Poison Ivy 3: The New Seduction
• Rasputin: The Mad Monk
• Reptile
• Roger Corman: Retrospective
• Saving Private Ryan: Special Limited Edition
• The Thin Red Line
• Tora! Tora! Tora!
• Van Halen Video Hits
• Virtual Encounters 2

New leadership at Universal: Stacey Snider, who has been serving as co-chairman of Universal Pictures for the better part of this year, was officially made one of the most powerful women in Tinseltown yesterday when she was promoted to sole chairman of the film company — a job that few women have historically held at any major studio. The move comes on the heels of last year's Universal shakeup, when Universal Studios Chairman Frank Biondi and movie boss Casey Silver departed the front office after financial losses and a string of box office flops (e.g., Meet Joe Black). Under Snider's recent direction, along with co-chairman Brian Mulligan, the studio gained a few blockbusters with such films as The Mummy, American Pie, and Patch Adams (a movie that grossed more than $200 million worldwide despite the fact that it is really, really awful). Snider joins Paramount chair Sherry Lansing as the only other alpha-female in Hollywood.

— Ed.

Monday, 1 November 1999

And the winner is: Chris Chambers of Marietta, Ga., wins the free DVD of A Nightmare on Elm Street from our October contest. Congrats, Chris !

Our Free DVD Contest for the month of November is up and running, and we have a copy of Universal's Out of Sight: Collector's Edition up for grabs. Be sure to drop by our contest page and send us your entry, and don't forget to take our Monthly DVD Poll while you're there.

Disc of the Week: Were you starting to think that Matthew Broderick didn't have a film career anymore? So were we — and then we saw Election, perhaps the best comedy of 1999, and certainly among the finest of the decade. Coming off a string of underperforming films and a horrible case of high-profile miscasting (Godzilla) that failed to capitalize on his particular strengths as an actor, Broderick shows in Election that he can be one of Hollywood's best light-comic performers, given the right script and some smart direction. Broderick stars as Jim McAllister, a high school teacher in Omaha, Neb., who loves nothing more than being in the high school groove — teaching his civics class, supporting the sports programs, and acting as the faculty advisor to student government. But his milquetoast existence soon spirals out of control when Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) — an annoying, overachieving, self-important brainiac — launches her campaign for student body president without opposition. The abstract, instructive side of Jim's nature doesn't like Tracy's campaign, feeling that every election should have at least two candidates. But a more obscure part of him just doesn't like Tracy, who previously had an affair with his best friend Dave (Mark Harelik) that cost the guy both his teaching job and his marriage. Giving in to his baser instincts, Jim thus recruits bonehead campus jock Paul Metzler (Chris Klein) to run for president as well, which only makes Tracy more committed to winning. The premise of Election is simple but clever, and scenarist/director Alexander Payne probably could have set the film on autopilot after the first 20 minutes and come up with an entertaining jaunt. But Payne instead spins Election in a variety of unexpected directions, coming up with a film that continuously surprises the viewer with every subsequent scene. Broderick and Witherspoon perfectly play against each other, and their passive-aggressive power-struggle soon chips away at their few admirable qualities, revealing the troubled souls who reside within. Payne's direction is equally impressive, with many thoughtful touches that are both unusual and funny. Election is a film that consistently entertains, offering a few belly-laughs in the process. And yet, like all great comedies, it's also grounded in the fundamental pathos of its characters, reminiscent of many classic films from Preston Sturges and Billy Wilder — and frankly, that's the highest compliment we can think of.

Box Office: Warner's House on Haunted Hill scared up $15.1 million over the Halloween weekend, giving the film the top spot on its debut weekend (and covering the film's $15 million budget in the process). But the weak box-office trend that first appeared last week (when no film broke $10 million) only got worse with all those Halloween parties, as Universal's The Best Man claimed second place with an underwhelming $6.5 million and Paramount's Double Jeopardy snagged third with $5.4 million. Besides The House on Haunted Hill, only one other debut managed to crack the top ten, Miramax's Meryl Streep-helmed Music of the Heart, which found itself in fifth place with $3.7 million. DreamWorks' American Beauty is still on a slow burn, pulling $3.9 million in receipts and remaining in the top ten after 47 days in release, but Fox's Fight Club can only hope for such momentum — the critically acclaimed film plummeted to just $3.3 million in receipts in its third weekend after posting $11 million just two weeks ago. Other films rapidly dropping off the potential-blockbuster radar are The Story of Us ($3 million) and Three To Tango ($2.2 million). But the top per-screen average went to the oddball Being John Malkovich, which earned a massive $25,000 per screen in 25 venues (by comparison, House on Haunted Hill did $5,572 per screen). Miramax's animated Japanese flick Princess Mononoke also performed well, with $17,500 per screen in just eight theaters. We're expecting both movies to crack the top ten when they go wide.

Here's the top-grossing films at American theaters from last weekend:

1. House on Haunted Hill (Warner)
   $15,100,000 ($15,100,000 to date)
2. The Best Man (Universal)
   $6,500,000 ($18,100,000 to date)
3. Double Jeopardy (Paramount)
   $5,400,000 ($98,300,000 to date)
4. American Beauty (DreamWorks)
   $3,900,000 ($54,200,000 to date)
5. Music of the Heart (Mirimax)
   $3,700,000 ($3,700,000 to date)
6. Bringing Out the Dead (Paramount)
   $3,500,000 ($11,600,000 to date)
7. Fight Club (Fox)
   $3,300,000 ($27,700,000 to date)
8. The Sixth Sense (Buena Vista)
   $3,200,000 ($259,800,000 to date)
9. The Story of Us (Universal)
   $3,000,000 ($22,300,000 to date)
10. Three Kings (Warner)
    $2,500,000 ($53,700,000 to date)
11. Bats (Destiny)
    $2,300,000 ($8,000,000 to date)
12. Three to Tango (Warner)
    $2,200,000 ($7,700,000 to date)

On the Board: A new full review has been posted for Adrian Lyne's 1997 Lolita, which can be found on our Full Reviews index. New quick reviews this week include an early look at Saving Private Ryan: Special Limited Edition, which will be on the street tomorrow. We also have quick looks at Election, eXistenZ, Devil in a Blue Dress, and The Lady Vanishes, all of which can be accessed under the New Reviews menu here on the main page.

We'll be back tomorrow to let you know about this week's street discs.

— Ed.

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