Friday, November 13, 1998
10:33pm PST -- I just watched two DVD's tonight. MY GIANT (a five-glober for image - absolutely stunning) and Stephen King's THINNER (non-enhanced, 2-glober). And what do I come back to but some heavy hammer announcements via Laserviews. Columbia's announcing THE BIG CHILL:SE, Fox announces their enhancement-challenged versions of DIE HARD 1, 2 and 3 and Warner announces the return of DEVIL'S ADVOCATE, among other things....

12:18pm PST - There are DVD's and there are DVD's!! Jeff McNeal takes a thorough look at DANCES WITH WOLVES. This title is going to sell a gajillion copies for Image.

12:13pm PST - MacWorld gives high praise to the Home Depot Home Improvement DVD.

Ooh, ah! Friday the 13th!! Maybe we should just say "forget it" and take the day off! NOT A CHANCE, baby! Having the chat window here on the news page seems to be going pretty good! Should we keep it?

Thursday, November 12, 1998
5:12pm PST - Bob Banka takes a critical look at STAR TREK: GENERATIONS for our collective benefit -- and offers a few choice words to Paramount regarding their exclusion of 16x9 enhancement for this feature. One of Bob's best reviews ever. Read it.

2:47pm PST - We just received a great scoop! "CompUSA will be selling the "US Marshalls" DVD at its Salt Lake City stores tomorrow for $4.99. The Salt Lake Tribune advertisement reads: "Why rent when you can own ? Only DVD lets you watch as many times as you want ! In small print : Limited Quantities. 1 per Customer." If you're interested, call your local CompUSA and see if you can snag this title for the same price! Wow! Thank you Thomas E. Campbell!

1:43pm PST - We're hearing from lots of readers who are discovering more and more outlets that are renting DVD. Tower Records on Sports Arena in San Diego (where we used to buy most of our titles - go Eldon!), also in Seattle, Washington. Hastings in Boise, Idaho is renting DVD, as is Hollywood Video in Renton, Washington. This is it, folks. DVD has definitely entered the mainstream -- and Divx is tied to a big rock at the bottom of that stream and the water is rising fast!

9:29am PST - Technical and creative eggheads unite! Ever wonder how DVD authors learn how to pull it all together? Wonder no more. Enroll in the DVD PRO University next March and discover it all during this comprehensive three day seminar in Santa Barbara, California! And if you like Cajun food, be SURE to have dinner at The Palace just off Main Street. Or for seafood, don't miss The Enterprise Fish Company just west of highway 101. Can you tell I skipped breakfast this morning?!

9:22am PST - Image Entertainment reports their second quarter results with an increase in DVD sales over the same time last year of 120%. As DVD grows, their Laserdisc sales are sliding, resulting in a small, net loss for the company.

9:01am PST - Studies have shown that babies like watching other babies on TV. Remember the barking dogs singing jingle bells? Well, somebody has combined the two, to drive everyone in your household nuts this Christmas. To keep your infant occupied, pop in the JINGLE BABIES DVD in which " 500 individual real baby sounds have been recorded and carefully constructed into holiday melodies." Says the producer: "The auditions were grueling ...It was babies crying in stereo for ten hours straight." This sounds like the perfect gift to give to your enemy that has small kids. And don't get any ideas -- mine are well past that age now -- thank goodness!

Okay, so it's a little mean-spirited. But our GOLDEN BONE-HEAD award is merely intended to serve as a wake-up call to four DVD suppliers that we know can do better. So far, it's a tight race between Disney and Fox. Have you cast your vote yet? This poll has also sparked a spirited debate over at the Home Theater Forum. Speaking of forums, the popular "It's All DVD" forum at E-Town has been MIA since sometime yesterday. This is the second disappearing act that E-Town has pulled recently.

Wednesday, November 11, 1998
11:55pm PST - Walked into the local Good Guys! in Carmel Mountain Ranch (San Diego, CA) earlier this evening and spotted the fancy Divx display, with the Zenith and RCA Divx players, plus two NON Divx players, with a 5.1 surround setup. The display was flanked by two circular racks filled with Divx titles! Front and center -- a large 32" monitor with a solid blue screen and the words SYSTEM ERROR - REQUIRES SERVICING. No one was rushing to fix the display, and no shoppers were paying attention to it, either. But I certainly had a good (and audible) chuckle.

5:18pm PST - Say kids! Here's some good, clean fun! Tell us which studio you tend to shy away from when making your purchase decisions and help us award our first (and hopefully last) GOLDEN BONEHEAD AWARD!! Take the poll (above). It's going to be a tough decision!

4:18pm PST - Residents of Bellevue, Washington should be thrilled to learn that your local Tower Records is now renting a wide selection of DVD's for $1.99 a day! Perhaps you'll run into Tony K. Phillips, who e-mailed us the good news! This reminds us to point you in the direction of Trent Fordham's DVD Post. The site has a new address and features a great DVD Rental directory!

1:56pm PST - Did you know that Best Buy is getting their toes wet with on-line DVD sales at their website? Neither did we! Thanks for the tip-off, Mick Bernardo!

1:25pm PST - Our rep at Paramount is hard to corner, but I spoke with her briefly on the phone today regarding the 16x9 enhancement issue. According to her, they're looking at doing 16x9 enhancement on a "case by case" basis, but when I asked why practically no titles other than the first set have been enhanced, the reply was that "it's felt that most people don't have widescreen monitors yet" and that the "letterbox transfers look great" -- , so why bother, in essence. When I asked why the first slate of titles were enhanced then, I ran into a brick wall. It was stressed that since Paramount is "just getting our feet wet", they are "closely monitoring DVD developments" and it would appear that no firm policies have been set. My rep was also under the impression that there are only 500,000 DVD players "out there" -- less than half of the rapidly growing number. Somehow, I don't think this conversation really answered any questions. At least not to our satisfaction.

1:00pm PST - Sony Music has announced some delays for the following upcoming titles:
Rage Against The Machine moves to 12/22
Karajan, Battle moves to 12/8
Neil Diamond moves to January
Karajan, Mutter, Vivaldi: Four Seasons moves to February

12:42pm PST - In case you haven't seen it already, Laserviews has updated their DVD news page with title announcements from Image and Criterion.

10:39am PST - It takes one to know one: The Digital Bits has done an outstanding job with an insightful, in-depth review of HBO's mini-series FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON. The review is nearly a mini-series in itself. Better make a pot of coffee and pull up a chair.

10:22am PST - Here comes Excedrin headache number 247 for CEO Chairman and Divx Godfather Richard/Rick/Dick Sharp... Eight companies from the world of entertainment, consumer electronics and retailing are joining forces for an unprecedented promotion of DVD products, featuring aggressively priced DVD players, free DVD discs and free DVD rentals - one of the eight companies includes Divx's fair-weather friend, The Good Guys!, who are reportedly tiring of flogging a dead horse. Circuit City and the Hollywood suits thought Divx was going to be a thoroughbred, but it's a nag, baby, a NAG!

10:16am PST - West Coast Entertainment announces another player in the rapidly growing video on-line market. @moviebuff.com will feature "an extensive movie database, which aids consumers in making educated decisions about the rental and purchase of over 140,000 video and DVD titles. Consumers can make purchases from the site, which will offer DVD, VHS and a wide range of accessories as well as other entertainment related merchandise."

10:08am PST - FREE DVD RENTAL! So... you've never rented a DVD from NetFlix? Now is the time, pal. It's free. That's right, FREE. As part of an aggressive holiday promotion, first time NetFlix renters can get a free 7-day rental for a limited time. For details on this and other holiday-oriented promotions, check the press release. So... What are you going to rent from NetFlix today, hmmmm?

10:00am PST - Here's something for you PC gamers. Lander sounds likea pretty cool game. Be sure and let us know what you think when it becomes available.

9:48am PST - The Red Herring Report offers an insightful and informative glimpse into the business plan and inner workings of BigStarDVD.com.

Be it ever so humble...In this funny article in the Pittsburgh Business Times, the author goes on a rant about theater etiquette - driving home many of the reasons we prefer to sit around in pajamas enjoying our own home theaters. It's no wonder that we love DVD the way we do...

Tuesday, November 10, 1998
4:43pm PST - Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes! The BIG Picture reviews today's new release of DAVID BOWIE: ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS.

2:01pm PST - Is there any truth to the rumor that Circuit City is installing pay toilets in all their stores as a way to re-acquaint their customers with the concept of "pay per use"?

1:58pm PST - The evils of Divx are already spawning seeds elsewhere -- kinda like those pods in INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. Thanks to our reader Robert Hansen for providing the link to this provocative -- and soon to be controversial move by Yahoo...

1:40pm PST - BigStar officially launches DVD site. Here's the company press release -- and when it says "extensive database of technical reviews" -- we're proud to say that they're referring to ours.

Speaking of our reviews, you probably can't miss our new "Current Review of The Day" and "Archive Review of the Day" feature (above). One of our latest reviews will be featured each day, along with one from the vault. Even if you've already purchased the featured movie, it's fun to go back and read the review, perhaps sparking renewed interest in that title sitting on your shelf.

1:14pm PST - A gift that the recipient has to keep paying for? This past weekend, I found myself on a commuter flight aboard Southwest Airlines on a day trip to Sacramento from San Diego. Upon perusing the November issue of the airline's in-flight magazine, what to my wondering eyes should appear... but a Divx come-on in their holiday "gift buying guide". They showed the RCA Divx player, which I must admit looks a damn sight better than the klunky Zenith player that Divx was apparently so anxious to distance themselves from. But seriously, folks.

11:24am PDT - You've already heard the news, now it's official. Here's the press-release from the DVD Group announcing the millionth player sold -- there's also a hilareous "correction" to the press release.

7:20am PST - The Washington Post reviews Panasonic's Palm Theater and the author suggests that the price should drop from $1,300 to about $200 before he'll buy one. So, how about it, Panasonic? Heck, we'd even go for twice that price!

7:05am PST - Ah, here we go... In this revealing interview of James Cameron, we may finally come to know why TITANIC hasn't been announced for DVD as of yet, even though the release is inevitable. It seems that the director likes the ability of having both widescreen and full frame versions on one disc -- and so do we... But to accomodate that feature, TITANIC might have to be split onto two DVD's, thus blowing one of the major advantages of the format. To date, we haven't seen a single title split onto more than one DVD -- and we think it would be a (watery) grave mistake for Paramount to do so. While we applaud Cameron's desire to offer both formats of a film on a single disc, the way Columbia Tristar has done since day one, we do not feel that a film should be split over two discs to accomodate that feature. The solution is simple: In the special case of a long film like TITANIC, Paramount should offer two versions of the disc for sale; Full Frame and Widescreen, just as they do for videocassettes -- and let the consumer decide which aspect ratio they wish to buy. Or, better yet, as our reader Glen Cianciulli points out, charge $2-$5 extra and include BOTH discs in one package. C'mon, Paramount! Let's get with it.

Monday, November 9, 1998
10:42pm PST - Sorry for the sparse news most of today... We've been busy behind the scenes writing more reviews! Jeff McNeal takes the Internet's first in-depth look at CRASH from New Line and Bob Banka gets the early scoop on MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, while finding time to take a good look at Image's CHUSHINGURA.

Remember Paramount's supposed production delays? Somebody needs to remind Paramount! Bob Banka picked up THE RAINMAKER, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, STAR TREK GENERATIONS, and NIGHT FALLS ON MANHATTAN over the weekend.

Today's issue of Business Week carries an unflattering look at Divx in their Science & Technology section called 8-tracks, Betamax -- and Divx?.

It seems like everyone is jumping on the DVD bandwagon. The latest example comes courtesy of Marshall Dudley and the Knoxville News Sentinel in their article DVD Puts it all together...

WEEKEND UPDATE
Another BIG Picture Exclusive First Look: This weekend, we received and reviewed TREASURES OF THE TWILIGHT ZONE and MORE TREASURES OF THE TWILIGHT ZONE. Are these highly anticipated titles worth the wait? Find out how they look and more in our exclusive, in-depth, first-look reviews!

BIG Picture regular Daniel Deganis has forwarded an interesting sidebar to the DVD/Divx battle: While Divx fights to hang on through the Holiday season, Time Warner is quietly preparing the final death blow to Divx on the sidelines with video on demand...

Score: DVD - 1,033,984 players sold. Divx - ?? Dana, our Special Field Correspondent to The BIG Picture, found these two articles about Divx and DVD for your weekend reading... From the Chicago Sun-Times: DIVXs JUST DON'T MEASURE UP and from Techweb: DVD, DIVX PROMOTIONS KICK IN FOR CHRISTMAS.

Good news. The Digital Video Depot in Canada (the folks selling the Alliance version of PULP FICTION: SE on November 24th) have promised to send us a copy to review for comparative purposes. As soon as we get it, we'll provide you with an in-depth review and let you know how well the Alliance PULP stacks up against Buena Vista's version.

The BIG Picture is pleased to announce that we have entered into a new content licensing agreement with DVD Empire, a long-time sponsor of this site. Be looking for Bob Banka and Jeff McNeal's unedited, full length reviews to be appearing on DVD Empire in the near future. DVD Empire joins BigStar Entertainment as a non-exclusive licensee of BIG Picture original review content and we are very pleased that our works will be gaining an even wider audience through both of these reputable on-line DVD retailers.

Friday, November 6, 1998
8:38pm PST - According to Laserviews, DEEP IMPACT has been announced by Paramount for December 15th release, but don't expect deep clarity -- it appears that the title will not be 16x9 enhanced. There's plenty of other great news and releases worth checking out as well.

8:49am PST - Desperate times call for desperate measures... While Panasonic hangs back without shipping Divx players -- presumably to see how the market shakes down, Jason Graham writes to tell us that the new Divx TV ad is resorting to scare tactics: "When you go in to buy a DVD player, make sure it has the DivX feature because only DivX players can play both DVD and DivX discs." We have only one word to describe this ploy: Pathetic.

8:22am PST - Ah, the ubiquitous Robert Lundemo Aas from Robert's DVD Page (always one of our favorites) has provided us a link to a little postscript from David Hughes (see below) as he lashes out at the "DVD Vigilantes" who took exception to his pro-Divx stance.

12:43am PST - Here's Bob Banka's review of Akira Kurosawa's HIGH AND LOW. Both this title and PREDATOR are sponsored by Digital Eyes and will be added to the ratings and review index after we get a few hours sleep,...

12:10am PST - A day late and a dollar short... Yesterday, we finally received an e-mail from Fox -- containing the announcement and specs for titles that were just released on Tuesday. Gee guys... The press release info is supposed to be dispersed before the titles hit the street, not after! Duh! While we're feeling a bit saucy with respect to Fox, here's Bob's review of PREDATOR, back when Arnold Schwartzenegger was the action KING!! Of course, PREDATOR features Jesse "the body" Ventura -- who just body-slammed his way into the governor's mansion of Minnesota. The governor now prefers to be known as Jesse "the mind" Ventura. One thing for sure about the new leader of Minnesota -- he sure knows how to spit!

Thursday, November 5, 1998
11:53pm PST - Our Canadian neighbor, Peter Overduin, tipped us off to this article in today's Vancouver Sun: The dawning of Dvix. The format that everyone loves to hate is sneaking across the border in 1999 and this Canadian article is well balanced, but predictible in it's slant against that wayward format. Steve Tannehill from DVD Resource has a very nice quote as well. Kinda funny that they spelled Divx wrong, though... Not that we've ever misspelled anything!

6:51pm PST - We've fixed the link to BigStarDVD below. Sorry for the HTML hiccup.

6:49pm PST - Our friends from the North say that the Alliance version of PULP FICTION:SE appears to be RSDL, their announcement makes NO mention of 16x9 enhancement -- so don't get too excited... At least, not yet. It's been our experience that if a company doesn't announce the anamorphic feature -- the disc doesn't usually have it. Bummer.

9:43am PST - Blossom Technolgoies want you to be the first on your block to author DVD's with the first under-$40,000 authoring system! Whooo-hooooo!!

9:22am PST - Still sitting on the fence with respect to DVD? DVD Express wants to drop-kick you into the future with a free DVD player-a-day giveaway.

9:16am PST - An interesting footnote to the wildly innacurate pro-Divx article written by David Hughes for the Virginia-based JOURNAL: One of our readers wrote to the author and and copied us in on a response from Mr. Hughes, who didn't like what our reader had to say and threatened to sue him for libel. I hope that Mr. Hughes has mighty deep pockets, because if that's his response to criticism, his lawyer is going to be awfully busy chasing his own tail.

9:12am PST - Josh Mays wrote to tell us:
"Just thought you'd like to know that I found a place to get those Canadian Disney DVD imports that everyone is talking about. You know, the 16x9 enhanced special edition of Pulp Fiction, the special editon of Trainspotting, and I just found out also that you can get DVDs from Canada for "Emma" and "The Prophecy" (with Christopher Walken) also RIGHT NOW!!! You can't even get "The Prophecy" over here period, it's not even announced!! Anyway the website is WWW.DV-Depot.com . They are a Canadian retailer who will ship DVDs to America and their prices are not bad. The Disney DVDs run $25.96 before shipping. The also have the new FOX DVDs for a lot cheaper than over here since they are pressed in Canada and not in the US. For Example the $29.99 Fox DVDs over here sell for $19.99 at this website and the overpriced $34.99 ones over here sell for $24.99 there."
Thanks for the tip, Josh. As mentioned here the other day, FOX titles can be had for those same prices here in the states at Costco -- and anyplace else that thinks Fox's value to pricing ratio is absurd.

9:07am PST - NetFlix has announced their top ten DVD rentals for the last two weeks and -- surprise! -- LOST IN SPACE is at the top of the heap.

1. "Lost In Space"
2. "City of Angels: Special Edition"
3. "Mercury Rising"
4. "Godzilla"
5. "Twilight"
6. "Deep Rising"
7. "Species 2"
8. "Star Trek: First Contact"
9. "Wild Things"
10. "The Thing: Collector's Edition"

Wednesday, November 4, 1998
10:58am PST - "GONE WITH THE WIND" blew in like a hurricane to take the top spot on Reel.com's best seller's list this week. Hmmm. Must've been Bob's review... :-)

10:56am PST - Even your local greasemonkey will be going DVD, as the format infiltrates garage diagnostic equipment.

10:35am PST - Direct to the source... We've been receiving e-mail saying that letters to the editor of The Journal (the Virginia newspaper inaccurately promoting Divx) are being kicked back as "undeliverable". That's because their mailbox is full. What does that tell you? One of our local readers in Virginia, Jim Farber, has gifted us with something even better. The e-mail address the author, David Hughes. So if you feel compelled to.. ah... gently correct Mr. Hughes regarding his innacurate remarks and lack of research, you may contact him directly at: dhughes@wizard.net

Tuesday, November 3, 1998
9:56pm PST - Kevin Cook from DVD AniMania sent us some upcoming releases for you anime fans: From the Pioneer Animation site's PAC de America:
First Quarter 1999 Releases
Bastard! DVD - ?/?/1999
Fushigi Yuugi: The Universe Of The Four Gods Vol. 1 DVD - ?/?/1999
Tenchi In Tokyo: A New Start Vol. 1 DVD - ?/?/1999

Central Park Media Announcments
Heroic Legend Of Arislan DVD - 02/?/1999
Judge DVD - 03/?/1999
Revolutionary Girl Utena Complete DVD - 03/?/1999
Cybernetics Guardian DVD - 04/?/1999
Takegami: Guardian Of Darkness DVD - 04/?/1999

9:53pm PST - Special thanks to all that have e-mailed us with the address for "The Journal" -- the rag that published the grossly innacturate Divx propaganda below. Here's the e-mail address in case you'd like to send your own "letter to the editor": journal@jrnl.com

6:18pm PST - Rumors to the contrary, Paramount has no plans to release SCROOGED with Bill Murray in December. Too bad. That's a rumor that we would have liked to see come true.

5:58pm PST - Costco cuts Fox down to size.. We've enjoyed reading that Costco is selling the $34.99 Fox titles for $$22.99 and their $29 titles for $19.99. Now that's more like it!

Speaking of street buzz, a Canadian company called Alliance is apparently marketing a special edition of PULP FICTION with deleted scenes, in a 16x9 enhanced transfer on November 24th. We're a little skeptical on this one, but we hope the rumors are true and that the anamorphic treatment cleans this title up a bit. Buena Vista did a horrendous job with the original DVD release of PULP FICTION and this modern-day classic deserves so much better -- and so do the rest of us.

10:34am PST - Oh brother. Here's one of the first positive articles we've seen about the blight known as Divx. Of course, the only way this shill for Circuit City can put a positive spin on Divx is by resorting to false statements like: "Following very successful test marketing in Richmond and San Francisco..."? Huh? How can the writer make such assertions with no sales data from Circuit City. Too bad this clown didn't include his e-mail address. I'm sure he'd get an earful. Credit for this one goes to DVD Insider and our Special Field Correspondent, Dana.

10:30am PST - DVD not catching on as rapidly as expected? Don't worry, the news isn't as negative as the headline in this Seattle Times story... Special thanks to our special field correspondent, Dana (we've promoted Dana from Ace Cub Reporter to special field correspondent, but the pay is the same).

10:08am PST - And the reviews just keep on coming! Before settling in to watch DAMAGE last night, we had the pleasure of spending 85 minutes with THE WHO: LIVE AT THE ISLE OF WIGHT FESTIVAL, 1970.

1:30am PST - So this is it. The moment we've all been waiting for, eh? The first batch of 20th Century Fox discs are out, and Bob Banka reviews YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN to commence the parade. The YF review is sponsored by Digital Eyes. I was going to watch a FOX disc tonight, but I never got past New Line's excellent transfer of the sexy, steamy, forbidden DAMAGE. A strange movie to be sure, but one of the most beautiful transfers of the year. No surprise that it was authored by LaserPacific. Dang, those guys are good!

Monday, November 2, 1998
5:08pm PST - Be looking for Bob's review of YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN to be posted shortly. The BIG Picture will also be taking a critical look at PREDATOR, SPEED and HOME ALONE 3 -- which may not be worth the high sticker price on principle alone...

12:49pm PST - LaserPacific, the post production house responsible for some awesome DVD authoring, isn't putting all their eggs in one basket. They're also helping to develop HDTV content for broadcast television.

11:55am PST - C-Cube brings home DVD recording one step closer with a new chip. Details on C/Net

11:45am. Ace Cub Reporter Dana has found another tasty anti-Divx article, reprinted by a fellow over at the Home Theater Forum. We can dig it.

Ain't too proud to beg... Thanks to you, The BIG Picture continues to grow. Last month, we achieved 1,170,694 page views -- up nearly 150,000 from the previous month -- another record breaker. THANK YOU. Part of our growth stems from the inclusion of The Sony VPL-W400Q Forum & FAQ, which we brought in-house after launching it on a third-party forum hosting service last May. This page has become one of our most active, with over 35,000 page visits in October. That's the good news... The bad news is that we are quickly approaching the limit on our storage and must acquire additional bandwidth immediately in order to accomodate our two growing forum pages and our burgeoning review library (with new DVD reviews being added on a near-daily basis). Currently, the VPL-W400Q Forum has no commercial sponsors, so an excellent opportunity exists for advertisers that want to appeal to a well-heeled group of home theater owners with the kind of discretionary income that goes along with high-end front projection setups. WE NEED NEW SPONSORS in order to keep the VPL-W400Q Forum and FAQ viable. Please e-mail or call me, Jeff McNeal, at 619-673-5429 if you own, manage, or know of a company that can benefit from tens of thousands of advertising impressions per month and the new business that follows. We have five available sponsorship slots available and as an added bonus, anyone that advertises on the VPL-W400Q Forum will also receive a FREE bonus ad banner on The BIG Picture. We appreciate all inquiries.

WEEKEND UPDATE
All right!! A couple of NEW REVIEWS for the weekend! Bob Banka takes a look at one of the hot new titles from the soon to be absorbed Polygram -- Check out THE BIG LEBOWSKI. And just in time for Halloween, Bob reviews the film that most reviewers (including yours truly), wouldn't touch with a wireless keyboard: Trimark's splatter-fest, DEAD-ALIVE, which has got to be the goriest fright film I've ever seen in my life. In fact, I couldn't get through the final chapter or two of the film without fast-forwarding past the blood and mayhem. When I was finished watching DEAD-ALIVE, I felt like I should say 6 "Our Father's" and 10 "Hail Mary's". The New Zealand-produced film is not without a sense of humor, but it is DEFINITELY NOT for the kids.

A BIG PICTURE EXCLUSIVE: Our friends at New Line Home Video have dropped by their "hot off the press" copy of DAMAGE, the steamy, sexy thriller starring Jeremy Irons. The disc contains both the R and "unrated" version of the flick. Look for another exclusive review coming soon from The BIG Picture.

I was curious to see one of the new "budget gourmet" titles from Warner, so I watched an old favorite last night: SHARKEY'S MACHINE. While I was not pleased that Warner did not release it in its original, theatrical format, I must say that the full-frame transfer wasn't bad at all. Rather than watching a 4:3 image on my 16:9 screen, I just chose to zoom in and fill the screen, cropping the top and bottom slightly. Nothing seemed amiss, and the transfer held up fine during the magnification. While I'd rather see Warner charge a few more bucks and do every title with equal production values, I'm still happy to have this title on the shelf.

Laserviews has released a major update to their DVD news page with lots of new release information, street confirmations, changes, etc. Real glad to see PATRIOT GAMES and ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK coming, to name just two. We find it strange and a bit frustrating that Fox has decided to keep a lid on the specs for their first batch of discs until they're on the dealers shelves. Are they DD 5.1 or not? TBP will be reviewing several from the first FOX crop this coming week.Conversely, we've seen in a recently press release that all but two of Universal's late December/early January titles will be widescreen enhanced. That's a big step in the right direction that we hope Fox, Paramount and Buena Vista will take notice of.