Thursday, September 3, 1998
2:49pm PDT - As we reported last week, here are the official details on Artisan's October releases of the RAMBO series and the newly remastered DIRTY DANCING: SE, direct from Artisan's press release:
First Blood
Starring
Sylvester Stallone
Richard Crenna
Brian Dennehy
Directed By
Ted Kotcheff
Produced By
Buzz Feitshans
Rambo: First Blood Part II
Starring
Sylvester Stallone
Richard Crenna
Charles Nappier
Steven Berkoff
Screenplay By
Sylvester Stallone
James Cameron
Story By
Kevin Jarre
Based On The Characters Created By
David Morrell
Directed By
George P. Cosmatos
Produced By
Buzz Feitshans
Rambo III
Starring
Sylvester Stallone
Richard Crenna
Written By
Sylvester Stallone
Sheldon Lettich
Directed By
Peter MacDonald
Produced By
Buzz Feitshans
ARTISAN HOME ENTERTAINMENT PRESENTS
THE RAMBO TRILOGY
DIGITALLY REMASTERED WITH
BEHIND-THE-SCENES FOOTAGE
Available For The First Time Ever on DVD!
Special Documentary An American Hero's Journey
Included On The Rambo Trilogy
First Blood - He never fought a battle he couldn't win - except the conflict raging within his own soul. Academy Award-nominee Sylvester Stallone stars as war hero, John Rambo. An ex-Green Beret haunted by memories of Vietnam, he was once the perfect killing machine. Now he's searching for peace, but finds instead an over-zealous, smalltown sheriff who's intent on a fight. This pulse-pounding saga has been digitally remastered and contains the exciting featurette, First Blood.- A Look Back.
Rambo: First Blood II - He's back! Superstar Sylvester Stallone is John Rambo, the ultimate action hero, in this explosive Oscar-nominated sequel to First Blood that boasts a riveting screenplay by Stallone and James Cameron. Although the Vietnam war is officially over, Rambo remains the perfect killing machine. But his survival skills are put to the ultimate test on a top-secret mission that takes him back to the jungles of
Vietnam in search of POWs. This adrenaline-charged tale has been digitally remastered and contains exciting behind-the-scenes footage.
Rambo III - The battle rages on as Sylvester Stallone detonates the third and most explosive blast in the action-packed trilogy. Combat has taken its toll on John Rambo, but he has finally begun to find inner peace inside a monastery - until his friend and mentor Col. Sam Trautman (Richard Crenna) shows up to ask for his help on a top-secret mission in Afghanistan. It's an intense, pulse-pounding adventure that boasts unrelenting action and suspense from start to finish. Digitally remastered, Rambo III contains the new featurette, Rambo III. Full Circle.
Included on First Blood, Rambo: First Blood II and Rambo III is the newly produced, An American Hero's Journey, a 25-minute behind-the-scenes documentary about the trilogy with a look at Rambo as a mythic hero. Noted in this insightful special is an interview with David Morrell, author of First Blood and Christopher Vogler, author of A Writer's Journey and an expert on mythology.
First Blood - The DVD is digitally mastered in 16:9 Widescreen format; 2.0 Dolby Surround; commentary track with David Morrell (author of the book the movie is based on); audio interactive menus; trivia game; featurette; scene access; theatrical trailer; production notes; cast & crew information; Spanish subtitles; and closed captioning.
Rambo: First Blood Part H - DVD is digitally mastered in 16:9 widescreen format; 2.0 Dolby Surround; commentary track with George Cosmatos (director); audio interactive menus; documentary - An American Hero's Journey; trivia game; scene access; theatrical trailer; production notes; cast & crew information; Spanish subtitles- and closed captioning.
Rambo III - DVD is digitally mastered in 16:9 widescreen format; 2.0 Dolby Surround; commentary track with Peter MacDonald (director); audio interactive menus; trivia game, Featurette; scene access; theatrical trailer; production notes; cast & crew information-, Spanish Subtitles; and Closed Captioning.
Artisan Home Entertainment
Genre: Action
Rated.- R
Running Time: First Blood - Approximately 96 Minutes
Rambo: First Blood Part II - Approximately 95 Minutes
Rambo III - Approximately 102 Minutes
Copyright. First Blood - 01 982 Carolco Pictures, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Rambo: First Blood Part II - 1985, 1988 Carolco Pictures, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
Rambo III - Copyright 1988 Carolco Pictures, Inc. And Carolco International N.V.
All Rights Reserved.
Suggested Retail Price: $24.98 Each
Catalog Number. First Blood - DVD - # 60465
Dirty Dancing
Starring
Patrick Swayze
Jennifer Grey
Jerry Orbach
Cynthia Rhodes
Written By
Elenor Bergstein
Directed By
Emile Ardolino
Produced By
Linda Gottlieb
HAVE THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE
ALL OVER AGAIN WITH
ARTISAN HOME ENTERTAINMENT9S
BREAKTHROUGH SMASH HIT
DIRTY DANCING
Digitaliy Enhanced And Remastered
Pan & Scan And Widescreen Versions Available
At New Low Price, Just $14.98 Each
DVD And Si)ecial Collector's Edition Two-Pack Available
Limited Consumer Offer For A Special Edition
Commemorative Dirty Dancing Music Box
Artisan Home Entertainment is proud to re-release the blockbuster hit Dirty Dancing. Digitally remastered after having been enhanced from its original splendor, the romantic dance classic has been hailed as the first successful independent film in history, grossing over $170 million worldwide.
The Dirty Dancing soundtrack made music history with two consecutive soundtracks selling over 20 million units, both winding up in the Top Ten on the record charts. Now that the soundtrack has been digitally restored, oldies but goodies such as "Be My Baby," "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" and the Academy Award-nominee for Best Song "(I've Had) Time Of My Life" amplify the grooves that make classic hits.
Additionally, Artisan is offering a special opportunity for fans of the film a limited special edition commemorative Dirty Dancing music box for the holiday season.
DVD is digitally mastered in widescreen and standard format; English: Dolby Digital Surround 5. 1; French: Dolby Stereo 2.0; Spanish: Mono 1.0- English, French and Spanish subtitles; English captioning; interactive menus; scene access; production notes; cast and crew bios; and theatrical trailer.
Special collector's edition two-pack includes the full-length movie and the Dirty Dancing Live in Concert, featuring all the film's hit songs performed live.
Available in widescreen, pan & scan, special collector's two-pack and DVD.
Artisan Home Entertainment
Genre: Drama
Rated. PG-13
Running Time: Approximately 105 Minutes
Copyright.- 1987 Vestron Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Suggested Retail Price: $14.98 (Pan and Scan, Widescreen)
$24.98 (Collectors Edition, DVD)
Catalog Number. Pan and Scan - VHS# 16013
Widescreen - VHS# 60523
Collectors Edition - VHS# 49505
DVD - # 60444
Pre-Order Date. September 22, 1998
Street Date: October 13, 1998
Available In: DVD, VHS (Stereo, Color)
Closed Captioned
1:25pm PDT - We're waiting for the DVD, thank you. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that intial sales of Titanic on VHS are slower than expected. Come on, Paramount! When are you announcing the DVD? Guess we'll just have to remain on the beach until our (DVD) ship comes in...
1:13pm PDT - Here's some information on Toshiba's 3rd generation DVD players and their new association with Zoran chips.
The BIG Picture thanks our friend and neighbor, Bill Quintero of San Diego, CA for scanning the first look at the LOST IN SPACE box cover. Click on either image to see a larger version.
Wednesday, September 2, 1998
3:24pm PDT -- A first from The BIG Picture. We've added Bob Banka's comments and impressions to Jeff's in our exclusive first look at New Line's LOST IN SPACE. This "Siskel & Ebert" style approach adds depth and perspective to the review -- so we urge you to take a second look, even if you've already read the original review. Just be sure that you set aside about 10 minutes to read the sucker! While we can't provide the full-tilt boogie treatment x 2 for every future review (insert sigh of relief here), we thought that this ground-breaking, reference quality title deserved some special attention in light of the fact that New Line Home Video so graciously advanced us a review copy so far ahead of the October 6thstreet date...
10:15am PDT - A BIG Picture EXCLUSIVE: Take a deep breath and relax... I just got off the phone with our representative at 20th Century Fox Home Video and you can forget the negative rumors floating around. The official word is that all news contained in the August 10th press release, including pricing, is still valid and that release dates are still on track.
9:49am PDT - A nasty rumor has started on the Internet that Fox Home Video is pulling back from it's earlier announcements and that open DVD product will not be offered until after the upcoming holiday season. The BIG Picture will have a definitive answer for you shortly, but we have serious doubts that this rumor is valid. Check back later for an official response from Fox Home Video.
9:25am PDT - Now this looks like a hot seller if we ever saw one. Dell Computer is rolling out a notebook PC with a gigantic 15-inch liquid crystal display and DVD among other features for $2,999 as it and vendors such as Compaq prepare to offer the latest and greatest models with the fastest notebook chips yet. Read the entire article at C/NET.
9:09am PDT - Wanna win a free DVD player and 5 movies? ZD/NET has the scoop and NetFlix has the goods. Register to win from a link on this page and good luck!
9:06am - PDT After a few mis-starts due to trouble finding a name/domain combination that was available, The BIG Picture gives a tip of our hat to Peter Bracke's DVD File website. Peter started DVD File shortly after we kicked off The BIG Picture and the latest incarnation of his excellent site is very clean and well defined. A valuable DVD resource, you should pay DVD File a visit if you haven't already got it bookmarked.
Tuesday, September 1, 1998
11:40pm PDT- "Certainly, there's a point at which if we thought it wouldn't be successful, we'd be obliged to make some decision": Here's another full article detailing Divx's plight. According to this article, Circuit City's stock has fallen 43 percent since July, largely on concerns about the Divx financing, analysts said. Gee Dick, it's a good thing you sold when you did, eh?
11:26pm PDT - The DVD sPy alerted us to the plight of MGM and Divx in the following truncated Hollywood Reporter stories. Please be advised in advance that this link will not provide the full stories -- only the key points. MGM is laying off an estimated 80 employees from various divisions. Meanwhile, Divx was hoping to have an oxygen-starved, but wealthy investor this week to keep Divx afloat, but no one seems to be rushing towards Rick Sharp with the cash he needs. Considering Mr. Sharp sold off just over $9 million of his Circuit City shares in late June (source: Yahoo), perhaps he wouldn't mind putting several million of his own money in. Ya think?
5:18pm PDT - Man, you Trekkers are gonna love this. Interplay Productions has announced the shipment of STAR TREK: Starfleet Academy, "the first and only STAR TREK flight simulation game that enables players to captain the original USS Enterprise while interacting with actors from Paramount Television's STAR TREK series. STAR TREK: Starfleet Academy propels flight simulation to new frontiers with its state-of-the-art technology, rich graphics, and dynamic gameplay. Reprising their famed STAR TREK roles, William Shatner as Captain Kirk, Walter Koenig as Chekov and George Takei, in a special appearance, as Captain Sulu appear in full-motion video in STAR TREK: Starfleet Academy, marking their first filmed appearance in a STAR TREK computer game. STAR TREK: Starfleet Academy employs the talents of many notable STAR TREK and Hollywood veterans including movie sequences that were helmed by award-winning director, Martin Denning, at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood to an original music score by Ron Jones, who composed the music for more than 50 STAR TREK episodes." One of our forum readers points out that this game has been available for months on CD-ROM and this may simply be a port to DVD.
5:12pm PDT - Reel.com provides the results of their demographic research as it pertains to the first 200,000 copies of the Titanic VHS video sold on-line for $9.95. Did you get your copy for that great price? Me neither. I've never been fond of paying for the same thing twice. I'm waiting for the DVD announcement. TBP hopes that all DVD supporters will.
5:06pm PDT - Time to break out the cake and party hats at Macrovision Corporation -- they just landed a multi-year deal to copy-protect 100% of Paramount's DVD product.
11:51am PDT - The good folks at New Line Home Video have provided us access to beautiful hi-rez screen shots of the LOST IN SPACE DVD menus. They're slow to load, but well worth the wait. They can be seen by clicking the link above or the one contained here.
11:18am PDT - In the immortal words of P.T. Barnum.... There's a an interesting and insightful thread going on in The BIG Picture DVD & Home Theater Forum regarding Circuit City's earnings statement for last quarter by Chairman Richard Sharp. It seems that CC is looking for risk-hungry investors to prop up the mortally-wounded Divx scheme.
7:21am PDT - Haste makes waste... Due to an innocent formatting error, Jeff McNeal was credited for Bob Banka's review of SHOCK CORRIDOR when the review was first posted yesterday. We apologize to all concerned for the mistake. Jeff is cowering in the corner, his arms raised to shield his face from the sun -- and we're sending Bob a box of chocolates and a dozen roses to try and ease any pain and suffering we may have caused him with our inadvertent goof.
2:07am PDT - The BIG Picure has reached a new milestone. Over ONE MILLION PAGE VIEWS in the month of August alone... One million, three thousand, eight hundred forty-four to be exact. Thank you! And thanks to all who have spread the word about this website to family, friends and associates. To celebrate the good news, we've got more FREE DVD's to give away. Stand by for more information. For more details about our stats for the month of August, click here.
12:01am PDT - We're not sure what we've done to merit such an honor, but on one of our frequent treks over to Home Theater Forum, we were surprised and honored to see our logo featured prominently on HTF's home page, identified as one of their sponsors. Gee Ron & Parker, does this mean we're going to be getting an invoice in the mail from you, too? But seriously folks -- thank you not only for the humbling honor you betstow upon us over there, but thank you also for being one of the classiest DVD resources on the World Wide Web. We're pleased to be in such fine company. And for any other site that wishes to link to ours, here's a banner that you're highly encouraged to steal and use with a link back to your friends at TBP. ;-)
Monday, August 31, 1998
605:pm PDT - The BIG Picture has two more reviews posted today: THE REPLACEMENT KILLERS and SHOCK CORRIDOR.
Yes, Dionne, we know the way... TBP Congratulates Anthony Plonka of San Jose, CA for finding HAL 9000 at the bottom of our news archive index page and being the first to send us an e-mail saying: The BIG Picture is our of this world! Actually, that was OUR typo on the contest page, not Anthony's. We later corrected the gaffe, changing "our" to "out", but would have accepted either response as correct. Enjoy your new copy of "2001: A Space Odyssey", Anthony! And a special thanks to all who participated!
While having lunch earlier today, I caught a great commercial on TV for Gateway with built-in DVD-ROM drives. They were selling DVD movies as the reason to buy one. Speaking of which, have you taken our latest poll (above)?
2:33pm PDT - With the memorable quote "This is not your parent's encyclopedia!", Webster's International DVD Encyclopedia hits the streets via Multimedia 2000. I wonder what the coverage about DVD itself will look like.
2:19pm PDT - You're about to enter a different dimension... Panasonic has acquired the rights to all 156 episodes of Rod Serling's original TWILIGHT ZONE and will be releasing ALL of them on DVD worldwide, beginning September 21st at a suggested list of $24.99. It appears that each disc will contain 3 or 4 episodes. Many more discs in hte series are slated for release in '98. Ah! The perfect stocking-stuffer!! TBP will provide an advance glimpse at the first TWILIGHT ZONE DVD within a couple of weeks....
10:51am PDT - FREE DVD ALERT!! TBP has noticed an awful lot of discussion going on regarding MGM's 2001 disc. As we draw the month of August to a close, we'd like to help settle the debate in your mind by giving away a copy of this landmark science fiction work of art that still has everyone scratching their heads 30 years later. Simply search The BIG Picture for a graphic of HAL 9000 TODAY. Check our contest page for full details and good luck!
WEEKEND UPDATE
Sunday, 8:46am PDT - As we continue to work on the first phase of our review for LOST IN SPACE (I'll explain what that means in a moment) TBP is pleased to announce Bob Banka's latest (and certainly one of his greatest) reviews: 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.
Sunday, 8:58am PDT - Sometime today, I'll post the world's first in-depth DVD review of New Line's LOST IN SPACE. Then, sometime during the week (after Bob has had a chance to see our advance copy) I've asked him to provide his own comments and observations as well. While the effort of mega reviews like this are seldom warranted, we feel that anytime a studio provides us an exclusive like this, we're going to give them the definitive, patent-pending, full-tilt boogie treatment X 2. Besides, we thought that our readers might enjoy the novelty of seeing Bob and I in a Siskel & Ebert style approach. Finally, there are so many features packed into this disc that we want to make sure that nothing is missed. So... look for part one of our in-depth, comprehensive review today as promised -- and a never-before offered combined review later this week.
4:46pm PDT - This may be old news to DTS supporters, but the DVD sPy found this article at the DTS website referencing a September launch of DTS encoded DVD's. Can everyone finally stop holding their breaths, now? We figure that once DTS DVD authoring gets underway, Spielberg and Co. will no longer have any excuses to snub open DVD. We predict a Dreamworks SKG open DVD announcement by mid October.
12:38pm PDT - The disc is in our hands and it's time to let the cat out of the bag. With our special thanks to NEW LINE HOME VIDEO, The BIG Picture is pleased to provide the first in-depth look at one of the most highly anticipated DVD titles slated for release on October 6, 1998...
1:55am PDT - Talk is cheap, baby. From the dank basement of our Put up or Shut up department, Divx impresario Paul Brindze makes a bold statement about the national rollout of Divx. We prefer to categorize his statements as the precursor to the last hurrah. Also on the attractive Access DVD website, the DVD Group stiff-arms any real association with Divx "at this time".
1:32am PDT - Workin' night and day for you... Another BIG Picture WORLD EXCLUSIVE: The first in-depth review of MIDNIGHT RUN. Was it worth the wait? Read our review and draw your own conclusions.
