Bonus Barry Black Holiness

Yet another of those great score/duff film adventures for John Barry. Just stumbled over the news that Intrada are releasing his 1979 score with 20 minutes of previously unheard music. Head to Film Score Monthly for the complete lowdown.

No Sooner Did I Type It...

The always excellent DVD Beaver site has already got its hands on the Blu-ray of Straw Dogs as well as the upcoming 'Hellraiser', and 'Dressed to Kill' too. Head here for overviews and comparisons on the discs: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/new-format.htm

Siege of Trencher's Farm

Straw Dogs finally makes it's Blu-ray debut on September 6th. I'd almost given up hope with the amount of times it's appeared and then disappeared from schedules. It's an MGM release, so be prepared for a wealth of extras including 'a case' and 'a sleeve'. Word is that it only contains TV spots and a trailer, but I AM pinning on my hopes on it being better than the blurry, soft and foggy transfer that Anchor Bay trotted out twice on DVD. $16.99 pre-order from Amazon.

Exclusive in More than One Way

Forbidden Planet International, who are seriously inviting a visit from the Trades Description Act chaps have announced yet another Character Options Exclusive Doctor Who set. It looks great, but if you're releasing exclusives all the ruddy time, don't they feel less exclusive? Oh wait, exclusive means you can't buy them overseas, despite the 'International' bit, so it's excluding me from getting my hands on them. Now I see. Anyway, retailing at just shy of 34 quid, they'll be selling the Sontaran Experiment Set from the end of February. It contains a puzzled looking Tom Baker sculpt, minus the poorly concealed sling, Styre, and a Sontaran ship. Marvellous, if only I could buy one without being shafted on Ebay.

Burn Rubber

Earlier in the week Silva Screen announced that they'd be releasing Roy Budd's fantastic score for 'Fear is the Key' on March 7th. If memory serves me, this has been out of print for a long time, and has been missing from my collection as a result. This soundtrack is another of those which effortlessly eclipse what's going on onscreen, and I have far less love for the movie than I do for the score. If you're a Budd virgin, then a) shame on you, and b) pencil this into your diary and get collecting what else is available from the late great man.

Snakes on an Astral Plain

This is more like it. Head to Doctor Who Online for details of the March 2|Entertain release of the 'Mara Tales' boxset. If last year was a disappointing one for releases from the Who back catalogue, this year is making up for it with some good looking titles.

Hold Your Horses

It comes to something when a rummage around the internet for release schedule news throws up one solitary tidbit. 'Throw up' is probably quite accurate too. Anchor Bay are announcing that on April 26th, the kind of film that Blu-ray was invented for will be released. Yes, that's right, how did you know it was more fodder from the abysmal ScyFy Channel's movie production wing? Anyway, the film is 'Dinoshark' and I can say with no small amount of shame that I have watched that epic from end to end in one of those ill-judged "It'll be so bad it'll be hilarious" moments. Admittedly there were moments of hysterically funny action, but on the whole it was mind numbingly tedious, and prompted me to wonder when exploitation cinema got so boring. I know it's from a mainstream production company really, but it's crass and cheap enough to be considered exploitation, except with none of the vicarious thrills that previous decades have taught us should come with a feature such as this. The film couldn't even be bothered to suggest that atomic power had created the shark, but on the flip side, a couple who had been 'making-out' got eaten. They just weren't smoking pot, or in the back seat of a convertible.

Try and contain your excitement until April.

False Start Number 4007

Got a load more illustrations to add to the site, with a handful of new Who stuff, and some horror pieces too. Of more note is the fact that I've cobbled together a review. Yeah, no-one is more shocked than I am. A little late, but I've offered my rambly, ranty thoughts on the DVD release of the Doctor Who Season 18 potboiler 'Meglos'. No-one gets out with their dignity intact!