Warner Home Video have announced that an extended version of Argo will be released on December 3.
The longer version of the film will include nine additional minutes that, according to the announcement, “delve deeper into CIA specialist Tony Mendezs personal relationships with his wife and son.”
In addition, the Argo: Extended Edition will also include some previously unavailable extras.
Scream Factory have announced that they will release The Vincent Price Collection — which presents six of the horror icons movies on Blu-ray for the first time — on October 22.
The four-disc set will include 1960’s The Fall Of The House Of Usher, 1961’s The Pit And The Pendulum, 1963’s The Haunted Palace, 1964’s The Masque Of Red Death, 1968’s Witchfinder General, and 1971’s The Abominable Dr. Phibes.
For big fans of the show, deciding whether to buy The Walking Dead: The Complete Third Season is a no-brainer (no pun intended; or was it?). But if you haven’t seen it, and you’re not much for macho bravado influencing people’s decisions, well…
Available on DVD, Blu-ray, and in a special version of the Blu-ray that comes with a fish tank full of zombie heads, The Walking Dead: The Complete Third Season augments its sixteen episodes with deleted scenes, commentaries on select episodes, and making-of featurettes.
For avid viewers of this zombie drama, the eight behind-the-scenes minidocs show how they make the show, while the five commentaries provide some insightful tidbits. But the extras that really puts the “special” in “special feature” are the half-dozen deleted scenes. Granted, they don’t change anything greatly, and in some cases you’ll probably be glad they were cut, but it’s kind of like getting a little more of that fix.
If you haven’t seen the episodes, however, this season might be problematic. Or right up your alley. Either way, though, it was never boring.
At the beginning of the season, our heroes take us residence in a prison, which provides them with security from the zombie horde. Unfortunately, it’s also right near a walled-in town that’s run by a man called The Governor. As a result, much of the season is spent with these two outposts dealing with each other.
And therein lies the problem. Without spoiling too much, suffice it to say that much of the drama this season comes about because certain people on both sides don’t act reasonably or responsibly and instead let ego, especially macho bravado, dictate their decisions.
Some of which doesn’t make a damn bit of sense. Now, I can’t cite one without ruining things, but imagine if you lived in that world and came across a truck full of food but, instead of taking it, you destroyed it because bringing it home would make someone else in your group look good. Again, that’s not something that happened, but something along those lines did, and, watching it unfold, it was hard not to let such stupidity slide.
The irony, of course, is that if everyone acted reasonably and rationally, the season would’ve only been one episode long, and it would’ve been a dull one. But as someone who prides himself on trying (and often failing) to be practical and without macho ego, it did make this season kind of frustrating to watch.
What did help redeem things was the introduction of Michonne, a favorite from the comics who’s played perfectly by Danai Gurira. Granted, you probably wouldn’t want to be stuck in a prison or walled-in town with her, but watching her slice up zombies, while also dealing with the other stuff in a calm and intelligent though sometimes skeptical manner, more than made up for any frustration born of stupid people making stupid decisions.
SCORE: 8.0
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Scream Factory have announced that the original Assault On Precinct 13 will be released on Blu-ray on November 19.
Directed by John Carpenter of Halloween fame, the movie was originally released in 1976, two years before Carpenter made Halloween. It is described in the release thusly: “Isolated and cut off from the city inside a soon-to-be-closed L.A. police station, a group of police officers and convicts must join forces to defend themselves against the gang called Street Thunder, who have taken a blood oath to kill someone trapped inside the precinct.”
Along with the film, the Assault On Precinct 13 Collector’s Edition Blu-ray will come with a collectible and reversable cover that, on one side, features new but retro-style artwork.
It will also feature other extras, but in the release it says, “Bonus extras for this collection are still in development. Final bonus features will be announced as they become available.”
Assault On Precinct 13 Collector’s Edition Blu-ray is currently available from Amazon for preorder for $24.99.
Scream Factory have announced that they’ll release John Carpenter Presents Body Bags, a 1993 horror anthology film in the spirit of Creepshow, in a special edition DVD/Blu-ray combo pack on November 12.
According to the press release, the movie, “features John Carpenter as a creepy-looking coroner introducing a trilogy of blood-curdling tales: “The Gas Station” directed by Carpenter and starring Robert Carradine (Revenge of the Nerds) and Alex Datcher (Passenger 57); “Hair” also directed by Carpenter and starring Stacy Keach (The Bourne Legacy); and “Eye,” directed by Tobe Hooper (Poltergeist) and starring Mark Hamill (Star Wars).”
“Young college student Anne ( Datcher) works the late shift at “The Gas Station” while a killer is on the loose. Then, middle-aged business man Richard Coberts (Keach) can’t stand the thought of losing his “Hair” and he’ll do anything to keep it. And finally, Brent Matthews (Hamill), a baseball player submits to an “Eye” transplant after he loses an eye in a car accident. After going through the revolutionary eye surgery, he ends up getting more than just his eye sight back.”
Along with the movie, the John Carpenter Presents Body Bags Collector’s Edition Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack will include the original trailer commentary by Carpenter and Carradine on “The Gas Station,” commentary by Carpenter and Keach on “Hair,” commentary “Eye” by producer Sandy King, and interviews with Carpenter, Keach, Carradine, and King.
John Carpenter Presents Body Bags Collector’s Edition Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack is currently available for preorder from Amazon for $26.94.
Universal Studios Home Entertainment have announced that the first season of the sci-fi, er SyFy show Defiance will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 15.
Along with the 13 episodes, Defiance: Season One will also include deleted scenes, a gag reel, digital copies of the episodes, two self-explanatory featurettes titled “Behind The Scenes With Jesse Rather” and “Making Definace,” and a third featurette, “Defiance: A Transmedia Revolution” about how the TV show and Defiance video game came together and work together.
Both the DVD and Blu-ray will also, for a limited time, come with collectible lenticular packaging.
While the announcement did not mention pricing for either edition, Amazon currently has the DVD available for preorder for $41.93 and the Blu-ray for $48.93.
BBC Home Video have announced that two vintage Doctor Who episodes will be released on DVD on September 17.
For fans of the old Doc, specifically the second one, Patrick Troughton, Doctor Who: The Ice Warriors has the spacey shamus landing on Earth to find its in the grips of a second ice age. But when scientists try to stop it, they discover an alien frozen in the ice and, of course, set him free (because, let’s be honest, if they hadn’t, this would’ve been a really short episode).
Criterion have announced that they will release Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman — a massive DVD/Blu-ray boxed set with the 25 Zatoichi films made between 1962 and 1973 — on November 26.
The collection, which will span 18 DVDs and 9 Blu-rays, marks the first time all 25 of these classic Zatoichi movies have been available in a single collection. It is the longest-running action series in Japanese film history (though this just begs the question, why did we never see Zatoichi Vs. Godzilla? Or Gozilla Vs. Zatoichi? Or Gozilla & Zatoichi Vs. The Smog Monster?).
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment have announced that the Will Smith sci-fi movie After Earth will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 8.
Along with the film, both the DVD and Blu-ray editions will include “A Father’s Legacy,” a featurette on stars Will and Jaden Smith; “1,000 Years In 300 Seconds,” an on-set featurette with the cast; “The Nature Of The Future” featurette, which looks at the environment and creatures in the movie; a digital copy of the film; and the winning video in the “XPRIZE After Earth” challenge, which, according to the release, had “teams from around the world submitted video proposals to address the global challenge of promoting a more sustainable way of living, as well as the steps they would take when using an unmanned rover to assess whether Nova Prime, mankinds potential new home, is inhabitable.”
In addition, the DVD/Blu-ray combo pack will alsoa previously unseen version of the film’s opening, a featurette on how the world was created, a look at how the action scenes were constructed, and a featurette with previously unseen animatics and storyboards.
No price was listed in the announcement, but Amazon currently has the DVD available for preoder for $27.89 and the DVD/BD combo pack for $32.39.