Welcome to this week’s DVD Diggers, where we’ve got a stew goin’.
It’s hard to deny it now, the year is coming to a close. Holiday lights are up in stores, Cinema Blend forum members are brandishing holiday themed signatures, and talk of wrapping up the year’s best movies has started. However, it’s not quite time to wrap everything up yet, there are still a few promising movies and DVD releases on the horizon before the year ends. For now, we’ll just keep looking at the current week’s releases.
Red Ain’t Dead
The big releases this week are super hero themed: the best live action super-hero film of 2004, and one of the nails in Ben Affleck’s career’s coffin from 2003.
Spider-Man 2 was my favorite film this year until The Incredibles reared it’s glorious CGI head. I’ll save all my praise for my review coming later this week, but if you want a perfect super hero movie, Spider-Man 2 is about as good as they get. As you might expect, Sony Pictures is taking advantage of that fact by offering several different versions of the DVD release.
Firstly the DVD is offered in separate Widescreen and Full Screen versions, or if you prefer the Superbit gimmick, that’s available too (interesting, since typically Superbit versions are a couple of months behind the standard releases). There is also a “gift set” release which includes the movie, along with a commemorative comic, an artwork portfolio book by over 25 comic book artists, and a few other goodies. It’s a pretty impressive looking gift set, although personally I prefer DVD gift sets that offer something additional as far as the DVD itself goes. The biggest disappointment for Spider-Man 2 however, is that, if other Marvel DVD releases are any indication, there will be a double dip release somewhere down the road, most likely titled “Spider-Man 2 2.0” or something equally as catchy. I almost never go for the “2.0” or “1.5” releases Marvel has offered so far, but I’m always disappointed about them since they almost always offer additional extras I’d be interested in.
The other super-hero release this week is the Director’s Cut of Daredevil, a movie I wasn’t terribly impressed with in the first place. Personally, I don’t see how a scene of a blind man driving a car, or defending Coolio in the courtroom is going to make up for the film’s shortcomings, but there still seems to be quite a bit of interest in this release. Our resident number cruncher, Michael Brody, could tell you what a failure Daredevil’s initial theatrical run was, but I think it’s pretty obvious the success or failure of that movie isn’t the reason for this DVD release. Undoubtedly this “Director’s cut” is mainly about getting audiences excited in the franchise before it’s Electra spin off hits theaters. Personally, I think Sony probably would have been better off not releasing this and just hyping Jennifer Garner in tight leather clothes. Ah, who am I kidding. Even the disappointment of Daredevil isn’t enough to blot out Garner in tight clothing.
Only 1/8 its original size
The new gimmick coming out this week is the “mini-DVD”, a smaller disc designed for the new portable DVD player by CyberHome. Actually, I assume more manufacturers than just CyberHome will be putting these out, otherwise it really will be a waste of time producing DVD titles for a single manufacturer player, but at the current time CyberHome’s player is all I could find.
Even though the player doesn’t come out for another week, several titles are coming out this week in the “mini-DVD” format. Looking at the titles coming out in this format (Justice League, A Cinderella Story, Free Willy, etc) it’s obvious what the target audience for this thing is: adult comic book geeks. Seriously, this is another product targeted at parents as a method of keeping their kids quiet and entertained during long trips, family visits, or during a Rated-R movie. I’m not kidding, I’ve seen parents drag their kids into Rated-R movies and make them watch their portable DVD player while the parents get to watch their movie. If you ask me, the scene of Chucky disemboweling someone playing on the large screen behind the small image of My Little Pony is going to scar kids towards their own shows too.
My suggestion for parents out there looking into this - would you buy a Beta machine in the days of VHS? Mini-DVDs won’t be able to hold as much information, allowing studios to cut corners on material beyond the movie. Also, with only one manufacturer at the current time, this is likely to be obsolete within a year. As always, do your homework about what you’re buying and make sure you’re making a wise investment. I don’t see much of a future in this one right now.
Until next week I’ll be up to my neck in Jack Bauer, Tim “The Toolman” Taylor, and Corey Matthews. Mix those three together and you can imagine what my dreams will be like...
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