RhymePhile's Rat Race

Original subject there, Rhyme. Heh.

I watched the film Amelie (I'm too lazy to insert that little accent to make it Frenchier) last night and really enjoyed it. It was funny, romantic, and whimsical in a Pushing Daisies and Wonderfalls way. I approve.

For you Family Guy fans, Best Buy will have a Blu-ray gift set exclusive for the Something Something Something Dark Side release next week. Check it (it's slightly too big for my layout, but I don't want to resize it):



The lunchbox is based on the original Empire Strikes Back lunchbox from 1981. See below.



I had to go searching on eBay to find that image. Back then, I only ever had the tin lunchboxes, which we all had until I guess kids started getting busted in the dome and they stopped making them. Looking at those lunchboxes brought back memories. Man, I had the black Star Wars one with the X-Wing on the front, and then the light blue Empire Strikes Back one, and the blue Return of the Jedi one. Oh, memories!

The T-shirt is Ernie the Giant Chicken as Boba Fett.

The first Star Wars Family Guy parody was clever and actually funny. We'll see about the second.

You want collectible packaging or a little something special when you pick up Star Trek on DVD November 17? Here's where to go (click all images for bigger):

US
Hollywood Video - Rent/Buy any Star Trek DVD and be entered to win an autographed poster of Uhura (Zoe Saldana).



Transworld (FYE/Coconuts/Suncoast) - Collectible Steelbook packaging.



Best Buy - Collectible Gift Set with four pack of badge pins.



CVS - Consumer Offer. Buy $15 (or more) in iTunes gift cards and get the DVD (single disc) for only $9.99 (First week only).

Target - Limited Edition Collectible Starship Enterprise Packaging on both 2-Disc DVD and 3-Disc Blu-ray. (click below to play video ad)



Amazon.com - Star Trek Limited Edition Replica Gift Set (Three-Disc + Digital Copy) [Blu-ray]



CANADA
Best Buy Canada - 3-Disc Special Edition Blu-Ray Collectible packaging – Easily assembles to become a Star Trek U.S.S. Enterprise DVD Package! (same as Target in the US).

Future Shop - Exclusive 2 Disc Steelbook Edition and 3-Disc Blu-Ray Steelbook Edition.

HMV - Limited Edition Blu-Ray Gift Set – includes Star Trek 3-Disc Blu-Ray set with Digital copy and Four Replica Starfleet Division Badges.

Wal-Mart Canada - Exclusive Lenticular o-sleeve package on the Star Trek 2 disc DVD

If you haven't spent the time and money collecting all the Farscape DVD sets, save your money and wait for November 17. Click the thumbnail below for a larger image.




( Full press release, complete with information on DVD extras, behind the cut )

Star Trek is coming to DVD and Blu-ray on November 17, as a three-disc Blu-ray with digital copy, two-disc DVD with digital copy, and a single-disc DVD.

"I cannot wait for fans of Star Trek to check out the home entertainment release of the film. The behind-the-scenes features on the DVD -- and especially the Blu-ray -- give a wonderful look at the crazy hard work and incredible fun that went into making this movie," said J.J. Abrams. "The cast and crew were truly extraordinary to work with -- watching these special features, you'll see why. And for people who didn't catch Star Trek in the theater, I hope they do now, as Paramount has done an exceptional job with this release; the picture and sound quality are both excellent."

Well, thank you, J.J.

What about all the delicious special features?

( Don't be a DenIbngan Qatlh (Denebian slime devil)! See the tons of special features behind the cut! )

I posted this to supernatural_tv, but I'm sure it's held up in the moderation queue at the moment.

Here's some box art of grumbly-looking Dean, blue-steeling Sammy, and ethereal Castiel from the cover of the Season 4 set. We get Dean's hand (or suitable stunt hand double) but no Metallicar! It comes out September 1.

DVD and BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES

· The Mythologies of Supernatural: From Heaven to Hell – Three section featurette gallery bridging Heaven, Purgatory and Hell to examine key mythological precepts

· Commentary on 3 Key Episodes by Executive Producers and writers

· Extended/Unaired Scenes

· Gag Reel

Total Running Time: Approx 1034 minutes, EC runtime approx 243 min
Price: $59.98 SRP
Language: English, Portuguese
Audio: English 5:1
Subtitles: ESDH, Chinese, Thai, Spanish, French


Blu-ray
Price: $79.98 SRP
Language: English, French, Japanese
Subtitles: ESDH, French, Japanese

The DVD release is July 28, and I come bearing high-res art (1650 x 2237) for you artists out there. No information on extras, yet. Enjoy.

Click for bigger.

For all the Stargate: Atlantis fans out there, the final season hits DVD June 30.

Here's a high-res image (1800 x 2400) of the box art, plus a extremely large publicity photo of Joe Flanigan. Some interesting info: the photo was taken March 18, 2008 (feel free to work out which episode he was filming at the time) on a Canon EOS 30D. This photograph is 3504 x 2336, which means you can make out the wispy hair around his ears and marvel at his fuzzy hair, if you were into that sort of thing, which I'm not, because I don't watch the show and only do this for you crazy fans. Feel free to share this with SGA comms and Friends, as I'm not a member anywhere. Enjoy!

( Full set breakdown of the 5-disc set behind the cut, with extras, etc. )

Click on the thumbnails to make gigantic

Here are some new high-res images for Season 4.5 (including the above title treatment in 1375 x 475 resolution, suitable for large banners, headers, etc.); the DVD cover image (in a crisp 1366 x 2055 resolution); and the trade communication (basically a 4-color flyer at 1575 x 2100, extremely suitable for iconing and other high-res projects, although you may need to do a bit of color correction, since it looks rather magenta-hued).

Lions Gate sent over a copy of the two-disc My Bloody Valentine special edition today. It comes with both the 3D and 2D versions of the film, four pairs of 3D glasses, and a bonus disc with extras, including two featurettes, deleted and extended scenes, an alternate ending, and a gag reel. The film comes out on DVD May 19th.

The gag reel is short (2 minutes 15 seconds), and Jensen is in it maybe two or three times. Once he can't a door open and says with a smile, "It's really closed!"



There's another moment when his character Tom is popping pills and one doesn't make it into his mouth, and Jensen says, "Shit!" and the crew laughs.



And finally, there's a scene where he's walking through a mine corridor and there's a noise off-camera, and he runs away.

I also took screencaps of the behind-the-scenes featurette, "Deep Inside My Bloody Valentine." See those images, as well as the nice things the director said about Jensen, behind the cut.

( Screencaps of the featurette and a quote from director Patrick Lussier )

Y'all, I got this even before TVonDVD.com! WHOO. They always get shit earlier than I do (they got some mad connections, and I'm in the biz. WTH?). Dammit. Well, at least I have them high-res from the source. Take that!

Here are two high-res images (1224 x 1176) of the Battlestar Galactica Complete Series box set, scheduled to street July 28th. The Blu-ray version of the box is the same according to what I've heard.

Feel free to visit the TVonDVD post about special features and such so I don't have to format them here from the Universal e-mail press release, because it's a pain.

So, on to the images!!! (Click the thumbnail for full size)





Feel free to link friends here.

I haven't seen Watchmen yet, and since I'm up to my eyeballs in moving boxes, it'll probably have to wait until DVD. But most of you already have, and I wanted to give you a sneak peek into the DVD tie-in Tales of the Black Freighter which streets March 24.

To put it simply for those who don't understand what the heck this might be: Tales of the Black Freighter is the comic book inside the Watchmen comic book. Got that? It's a "mirror and an allegory" for what's going on during the Watchmen storyline itself, about a captain shipwrecked after the mysterious Black Freighter pirate ship smashes his ship to smithereens.

Here's a first look at the animation:






( More images behind the cut, including screencaps from Under the Hood, also included on the DVD )

I guess you'd like to know when the DVD is coming so you can watch the vampires sparkle over and over, hmmm? Some of the below info may change, but this is direct from the distributor press release.

'kay.

Sink your teeth (see what I did there?) into this:

Street Date: 03/21/09 (Saturday)

TWO-DISC SPECIAL EDITION DVD
SRP: $32.99
DVD Cat # / UPC: 66109318 / 025192022272

SPECIAL FEATURES – DISC ONE
- Five extended scenes with director introductions
- Audio commentary (Catherine Hardwicke, Robert Pattinson & Kristen Stewart)
- Three music videos (Muse, Paramore, Linkin Park)

SPECIAL FEATURES – DISC TWO
- Five deleted scenes with director introductions
- Seven-part documentary: "The Adventure Begins: The Journey from Page to Screen"
- Comic-Con Phenomenon featurette
- And more!

Gym Teacher: The Movie (starring Christopher Meloni of course) is coming to DVD February 3. I have the press release and three stills the studio released for you!

Here's some high-res box art for the February 19, 2009 release of SVU Season 8.

Also...I won't be home tonight to upload the teaser for next week's SVU, but I am recording it on the computer and will get it uploaded first thing when I get home tomorrow night.

I didn't make it through the whole thing, mainly because I spent almost 2 hours on it and had to record my podcast this afternoon. And I need to do laundry. Also, no major spoilers here.

I mentioned this in my podcast (where I seem to have developed a lisp since I'm trying to keep it under 3 minutes), but whatever you thought of the film, props to Harrison Ford. In the production diary, we see them filming in the behind-the-scenes moments, and damn if that man is in every single shot they showed, even the moment where he's on the back of a motorcycle and it is purposely turned on its side.

I actually rewound certain moments of the featurette, using slow motion and the zoom feature on my DVD player to see if that was really him in all the stunts. Damn, he's 65 and it's really unbelievable the amount of sheer physicality the role takes, even throwing fake punches. There's no faking it when he's in the scenes.

Ford says the new technology of suspension wires under the costumes allowed him to be in all the close-ups, because they just remove the wires later in post-production. Still -- that moment we see in the trailer of him swinging through the warehouse holding on to his whip? That was him.

Now I wonder what it was that he *didn't* do, since we know he likes to do his own stunts. Amazing.

The other highlight of the production diary was the retracting steps scene from the Akator pyramid. You won't believe what it took for that short minute or so scene to get all the steps to retract at the same time. They had to build this immense steel frame with cables and pulleys and devices. It's amazing to hear that the writers come up with these ideas that would "look really cool" and then discover what it actually takes to make stuff happen.

On the first disc are two short featurettes where Spielberg talks about what it took to return Indy to the big screen, and a short on pre-production. Both are interesting.

For you Netflix renters, remember that since this is 2 discs, you'll have to get the special features disc separately in your queue.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull comes to DVD on Tuesday the 14th, and if you were planning on buying the DVD I've got a summary of the different retail-specific items that come with the 2-disc special edition.

From Best Buy

Gift set with replica crystal skull from Sideshow Collectibles and a $25 gift card to Sideshowcollectibles.com



( More retail bonus items behind the cut )

Just got this press release from FOX...both XF movies are being released (and re-released, for Fight the Future) on the same day, Dec. 2, in Blu-ray.

X-Files: I Want to Believe will be released in SD (standard definition) DVD and Blu-ray.

The versions of this are:
1. Single disc, standard DVD for $29.98 U.S. / $43.48 Canada
2. Three-disc Special Edition standard DVD with Digital Copy for $34.98 U.S. / $45.98 Canada
3. Blu-ray Disc with Digital Copy for $39.99 U.S. / $49.98 Canada

( Click here for all the specs )

FOX is also releasing the first movie, X-Files: Fight the Future on Blu-ray on the same date.

The versions of this disc are:
1. Blu-ray disc (no digital copy) for $29.99 U.S. / $32.99 Canada
2. Blu-ray Disc two-pack offer featuring both X-Files movies (Fight the Future and I Want To Believe) together for $59.98 U.S. / $69.98 Canada

There are numerous Blu-ray exclusives for the first movie. Details behind the cut.

( Fight the Future Blu-ray exclusives )

I noticed Amazon has only one version of I Want to Believe available for pre-order, so you may want to wait to be sure you get the right disc, if you're so inclined (Rhyme reserves judgment). The easiest way to determine which version is which is to go by price. I don't have UPC codes yet, nor any images.

I think I will buy the Fight the Future Blu-ray for my DVD library, even though I don't even own a Blu-ray player yet. I did the same thing when X-Files Season 1 came out on DVD in 2000. I bought the box set and didn't even own a DVD player!

I noticed blackchaps was squeeing about this, so I thought I'd give you high-res DVD box art, along with the disc breakdown:






( Entire set breakdown behind the cut, including extras )

This just in this morning...Torchwood Season 1 (Region 1, U.S. and Canada) menu screens for all seven discs of the set, due to be released January 22.

Menu screen, Disc 1



( More Torchwood Season 1 behind the cut )