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.

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.

Jason and the Argonauts

My inner 6 year old just wet himself. Talos will be grinding and creaking his way across your screens on July 6th, as Sony Home Pictures Entertainment unleash the Don Chaffey 1963 live action/Harryhausen stop-motion epic on Blu-ray. Extras don't look terribly exciting, listed as 'The Harryhausen Legacy' and 'Ray Harryhausen interviewd by John Landis'. I can't find word on whether the extras will be in HD. Doubt it though.