Men in Black is finally coming to blu-ray! Sony has announced it will come out on June 17^th. The disc will be profile 2.0 compatible and will have an exclusive interactive game (Intergalactic Pursuit) via BD-Live. NOTE: Only profile 2.0 compatible players will be able to enjoy this feature! But if you don’t have one, don’t worry, there are many other features for you to play and enjoy!

The picture to the left is from an ad that will come out on ‘Home Media Magazine’ next week. It is great how they used the neat tagline “Blu is the new Black!”. Sony has a suggested retail price of $28.95 for the Blu-ray-YEAH YEAH we know…it is not cheap! Stop complaining! New technology is never cheap.

The disc will come with all the extras from the 2001 standard DVD release including “Telestrator Commentary” (with director Barry Sonnenfeld and Tommy Lee Jones), second “Technical Commentary” (with Sonnenfeld, effects artist Rick Baker, and the Industrial Light & Magic Team), deleted and alternate scenes, the “Metamorphosis of Men in Black ” vignette, visual effects scene deconstructions with optional technical commentary, character animation studies, storyboards, two still galleries (with concept art and production photos), a “Scene Editing Workshop,” the “Men in Black ” music video with Will Smith and Mikey, and theatrical trailer.

This was a huge blockbuster and I am sure most people know the movie but for those who have been space traveling or in deep coma for the last 10 years, we have a small synopsis:

In present-day America, Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) is a member of an organization that has been keeping track of extra-terrestrial aliens on Earth for over 40 years. When K finds himself in need of a new partner, a brash NYPD detective, James Edwards (Will Smith) fills the position, becoming Agent J. Armed with space-age technology (which J barely understands) and their razor-sharp wits, J and K investigate a newcomer who is bad news for Earth. He is searching for a super energy source called “The Galaxy”. Now, Agents J and K must stop the bug before it can escape with the “Galaxy”.

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Technical Specs

• Blu-ray
• BD-Live Enabled
• Region A

Video Resolution/Codec

• 1080p/AVC MPEG-4

Aspect Ratio(s)

• 1.85:1

Audio Formats

• English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround
• Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles/Captions

English SDH, subtitle options including French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Thai.

Disc Features

• Telestrator Commentary with Director Barry Sonnenfeld and Tommy Lee Jones
• Technical Commentary with Barry Sonnenfeld, Rick Baker, and Industrial Light & Magic Team
• Vignette: “Metamorphosis of Men-in-Black“
• Extended and Alternate Scenes
• Visual Effects Scene Deconstructions (w/Technical Commentary)
• Character Animation Studies
• Storyboard Comparisons
• Conceptual Art Gallery
• Still Gallery: “Production Photos”
• Scene Editing Workshop
• Music Video:”Men-in-Black” by Will Smith and Mikey
• Theatrical Trailers
• Easter Egg: “Frank the Pug”

HD Exclusive Content:

• Interactive Game: “Intergalatic Pursuit: The Men-in-Black Multi-Player Trivia Game” (BD-Live)

Popularity: 16% [?]

Based on the best selling science-fiction novel by Steven Gould, Jumper is a movie with a new theme, something not over explored by Hollywood. It has something new and cool every five minutes. A journey through space and time, Jumper stars Hayden Christensen from “Star Wars”, the great Samuel L. Jackson and Diane Lane from “Untraceable”. David Rice (Hayden Christensen) is a young man who discovers he has the ability to teleport himself anywhere in the world by visualizing his destination. Loving his new gift, he starts enjoying to the fullest until he discovers that he is not the only person with those abilities. There are other “Jumpers” and all of them are pursued by a group of fanatics who sworn to destroy those with that gift because they beleive only God should have the power to be everywhere. David then forms alliance with another young Jumper named Griffin (Jamie Bell; King Kong, Flags of our Fathers) and becomes a key player in a thousand year-old war between jumpers and those who hunt them down.

Jumper was directed by Doug Liman the same Director from Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Bourne Identity and brings some very nice special effects. The Blu-ray is scheduled to be released June 10th.

Blu-ray Specs:

• BD-50 Dual-Layer Disc
• Bonus View (Profile 1.1)
• Region A

Video Resolution/Codec

• 1080p/AVC MPEG-4
• Aspect Ratio(s)
• 2.40:1

Audio Formats

• English DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 5.1 Surround (48kHz/24-bit)
• English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround

Subtitles/Captions

• English SDH
• French Subtitles
• Spanish Subtitles
• Cantonese Subtitles
• Korean Subtitles
• Mandarin Subtitles

Extras

• Audio commentary by director Doug Liman, writer-producer Simon Kinberg and producer Lucas Foster
• 6 Deleted Scenes
• Previsualizations
• Animated graphic novel: “Jumpstart: David’s Story”
• Digital Copy
• Featurettes
  • “Jumping From Novel To Film: The Past, Present & Future of Jumper”
  • “Jumping Around The World”
  • “Making an Actor Jump”
  • “Doug Liman’s Jumper: Uncensored”

Exclusive HD Content

• Profile 1.1 “Jumping Around the World” Picture-in-Picture

Popularity: 18% [?]

Robert Neville is a brilliant scientist but even he could not contain the terrible man-made virus that changed the world as we know it. For three years, Neville is trying to discover a cure for this disease and to find out if any other people might have also survived. Somehow immune Neville is now the last human survivor in what is left of New York City and maybe the world. However, he is not alone! Mutant victims of the plague — The Infected — lurk in the shadows… watching Neville’s every move… waiting for him to make a fatal mistake. Perhaps mankind’s last best hope Neville is driven by only one remaining mission: to find a way to reverse the effects of the virus using his own immune blood. But he knows he is outnumbered… and quickly running out of time.

While I wouldn’t call I Am Legend an instant classic, it sure had me engaged. The movie is based on a classic novel by Richard Matheson, Legend is a doomsday movie (Like so many others!) mixed with frightening chills, a reliable performance from Will Smith.

Legend is hardly considered a blockbuster by any means. While it has Smith, guns, and special effects, this isn’t “Men in Black” meets 30 Days of Night. It focuses on top-notch horror sets (much like “Resident Evil: Extinction” and “30 Days of Night”, the shocks come quick rather than being cheap), a sense of claustrophobia.

And concerning the creatures, Francis Lawrence (Director) also outdid himself. Since this is a big-budget film, unlike “30 Days of Night”, the blood-sucking creatures are rendered in full CGI, and have little to do but scream and snarl. Not a happy choice, in my opinion, as you can clearly see that they aren’t real!

Video:

Warner presents the film in a stunning 2.40:1 widescreen transfer at 1080p/VC-1 on a dual-layer BD50 disc. This is a very detailed film and the VC-1 transfer does its job providing a near perfect presentation. This is a very dark film, and thusly, it’s not a very sharp looking presentation, however, compression grain and artifacting are nowhere in sight during the film’s more detailed shots. The city landscapes are amazing to look at. Black levels are also perfectly tuned. My only real issue with the transfer, and it’s not really an issue with the transfer itself, but the film looks a bit soft at times, particularly the CG elements which lack the sharpness of the human element. I imagine that this was a technical decision, but it’s surprising given how sharp CG effects often look.

Audio:

Warner provides a reference quality Dolby TrueHD tracks for fans to enjoy. Surrounds are frequent and well mixed. The center channel is perfectly tuned as well giving the listener a truly three dimensional experience. The film is both subtle and aggressive when need be, particularly during the opening of the film, when Smith drives through New York City in search of a pack of deer roaming the cityscape. It’s an amazing scene with dazzling visuals and perfectly mixed audio to match it.

Extras:

Warner delivers a decent special edition for fans to peruse, but unfortunately, the usual special edition supplements–commentaries, deleted scenes and bloopers, are absent. Special features include:

• Theatrical and Alternate Version — Honestly, i like both versions of the film, but I do prefer the Alternate version slightly, if only because it adheres, a little more, to the ultimate point of the novel. Plus it ties elements that were given out earlier in the film, a little better.

• Featurette: “Cautionary Tale: The Science of ‘I Am Legend’” — Running roughly twenty minutes, this featurette is less a making-of featurette and more of a featurette exploring the science of the film. It’s quite creepy and well worth a view, but ultimately, it’s a bit overlong and imbalanced.

• Documentary: “Creating ‘I Am Legend’” — Running nearly an hour and broken into several smaller featurettes, this is a fascinating, but equally imbalanced look at the making of “I Am Legend”: from concept, to pre-production, to post. Fans should definitely give this feature a spin.

• Animated Comics - Four animated comics, all worth watching, are a bit of an oddity. My guess is that these were designed for a website or something. None of them really connect to the story and ultimately, they feel like a bit of a waste. It would have been nice to see this tie together with the film a little better. The artwork and design of the comics is quite nice though. The four comics are: “Death as a Gift,” “Isolation,” “Sacrificing the Few for the Many,” and “Shelter.”

HD Content:

Nothing really, but the extensive documentary and featurette found on the Blu-ray disc are not actually on the two-disc DVD set. They are available via a DVD-ROM link to the “I Am Legend” website. So technically, while not exclusive, the fact that you don’t have to download these features is an added bonus.

The comics and the featurette are presented in 1080p high-def.

Click here to buy “I Am Legend” directly from  Amazon.com.

Enjoy the trailer!

Popularity: 14% [?]

Coming out on Blu-ray this July, “Point Break” was not a huge success when it was first released but its popularity has been increasing ever since. Today, it is considered a cult film, which appeals to a lot of people because of the idea of lifestyle and freedom that we all would like to enjoy.

“Point Break” tells the story of the cop John Utah (Keanu Reaves) hunting a bunch of bank robbers camouflaged with masks of the former U.S. presidents. His investigations lead to a group of surfers and extreme sports worshipers, and the cop becomes fascinated by the lifestyle philosophies and adrenaline rushes of the gang around the charismatic leader Bodhi (Patrick Swayze). Their close friendship changes to a hard-fought rivalry at the end when cop and gangsters face point blank.

Kathryn Bigelow (Director) uses American surf beach settings for this unusual and very stylish action thriller with great stunts like parachuting scenes, bank robberies, a car chase, police raids, martial arts, breath-taking chases and brilliantly photographed surf sequences. Watch out for the Red Hot Chili Peppers as a gang of brutal surf Nazis beating up Keanu Reeves and being captured by him during a hard-fought police raid.

But “Point Break” is even more than that - it also shows the lifestyle of the nineties in many ways. Bodhi and his gang are a group of New Age-like grunge guys reaching out for the most extreme adrenaline experiences. They stand for the new style of extreme/fun sport worshipers, ravers and new spiritualists of the post-yuppie era in the nineties who don’t care about wealth and status symbols but for fun, action, breaking the limits and finding the sum of all senses. “Point Break” is not only a well-done example of modern action entertainment without computer-generated special effects but also a very philosophical and spiritual study of society in the nineties.

We do not have many details on the technical specs of this Blu-ray besides these:

Video Resolution/Codec

• 1080p/MPEG-4 AVC

Aspect Ratio(s)

• 2.35:1

Audio Formats

• English DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 5.1 Surround
• English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• English Dolby Digital 4.0 Surround
• French Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
• Spanish Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono

Subtitles/Captions

• English SDH
• French Subtitles
• Spanish Subtitles

Extras

• 4 Featurettes
• 8 Deleted Scenes
• Still Gallery

Popularity: 14% [?]

Fox will release Mrs. Doubtfire-Blu-ray on May 13th, they obviously are not superstitious about the date and have no reasons to be as Mrs. Doubtfire was a great blockbuster and probably will sell very well. As the movie is a lot of fun.

I am sure most of you already know this classic but for those who don’t. Here a short synopsis:

Daniel Hillard (Robin Williams) is a struggling actor and no ordinary father, so when he learns his ex-wife (Sally Field) needs a housekeeper and he applies for the job. With the perfect wig, a little makeup and a dress for all occasions, he becomes Mrs. Doubtfire, a devoted British nanny who is hired on the spot. Free to be the “woman” he never knew he could be the disguised Daniel creates a whole new life with his entire family.

The Tech specs are:

• 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 video
• English DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 5.1 Surround track (48kHz/16-bit)
• French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround dubs and subtitle options

The only disappointment on the Blu-ray is the lack of more HD content as the features will be practically the same as the DVD re-issue.

• Featurettes: “From Man to Mrs. The Evolution of Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Aging Gracefully: A Look Back at Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Meet Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Original 1993 Featurette”
• 18 Deleted Scenes/4 Alternate Scenes
• Still Galleries: “Behind the Scenes,” “Publicity,” Theatrical Posters” Animation Studio
• 3 Theatrical Trailers / 2 TV Spots

Popularity: 12% [?]

This June Blu-ray will get a great new release: The Recruit. The film stars Colin Farrell, Al Pacino and Bridget Moynahan. Its Video will be presented as 1080p AVC and sound as 5.1 PCM soundtrack. The Extras will be the same as the DVD release.

A story about a brilliant young man who is approached while working at a night club by Walter Burke (Al Pacino), a CIA recruiter. He is asked to join the elite branch of American intelligence but later discovers how complex and dangerous the job can be. James Clayton (Colin Farrell) who graduated at top of his class at MIT and is pondering his next move while he works as a bartender. Walter Burke (Al Pacino) describes himself as “a scary judge of talent” and believes Clayton is just the sort of man the CIA needs. Clayton accepts the offer as he also suspects his father (whom Burke claims to have known) worked for the Agency. Clayton is then sent CIA’s secret training camp and soon becomes obvious that Burke’s intuition has not failed him. While training in the secret camp, Clayton develops a special interest at one of his fellow students, Layla (Bridget Moynahan), a beautiful woman whose skills equal his own. In spite of the clear attraction Clayton tries to keep in mind Burke’s dictum that “nothing is as it seems,” especially when Clayton is given a special assignment — find the mole within the Agency’s training program who is actually feeding information to America’s enemies.

This is a great movie that catches your attention from beginning to end. It has a great plot and now we will see if the high definition will add even more to this successful movie.

Special Features
-”Spy School: Inside the CIA Training Program” — never-before-seen look inside the CIA
- Deleted scenes with optional commentary
- Feature commentary with director Roger Donaldson and Colin Farrell
- Director’s original 1.77:1 aspect ratio shows more of the film than was presented to theaters
- Widescreen enhanced for 16 x 9 televisions
- DTS 5.1 Digital Surround Sound
- Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
- THX-certified
- French-language track
- Spanish subtitles

Popularity: 14% [?]

Batman Begins will be released on Blu-Ray on July 8, the same day as the animated fFeature, Batman: Gotham Knight will hit the shelves, and just before The Dark Knight hits the big screen on July 18.

The buyer can choose from two editions. The single-disc edition selling for $28.99, the limited edition gift set for $49.99. The set will include first six minutes of the film of the newest Batman movie The Dark Knight, postcards, script pages, storyboards, exclusive photos, a motion art lenticular and movie cash good for $7.50 towards a ticket to the new movie. They will also release a repackaged standard DVD Batman Begins gift set for $39.92 that will include a Batman flash drive, the postcards and movie cash. The DVD special features will be the same from the 2005 DVD release.

Special Features:

• Confidential Files: Go beyond the movie and discover facts and story points not in the film - MTV’s Tankman Begins: A Batman Begins spoof
• Theatrical trailer
• Saving Gotham City: The development of miniatures, cgi and effects for the Monrail Chase scene - Batman-The Journey Begins: Concept, design and development of the film as well as the casting of Batman himself
• Shaping Mind and Body: Observe Christian Bale’s transformation into Batman
• Batman - The Tumbler: The reinvention of the Batmobile
• Inner Demons Comic: Explore the special features through an exclusive interactive comic book
• Gotham City Rises: Witness the creation of Gotham City, the Batcave, Wayne Manor and more
• Genesis of the Bat: A look at the Dark Knight’s incarnation and influences on the film

Popularity: 12% [?]

‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe’ for Blu-ray will be released on May 13th, just in time for the theatrical release of ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’. The movie will be presented, utilizing a 2.35:1 1080p AVC video encode accompanied by a 5.1 24-bit audio track, in its theatrical form, and not in the 147 minute extended form as offered on the 4-disc DVD release.

Extras on this two disc release are ported from the 2-disc special edition DVD, which includes two audio commentary tracks, a seven-part “Creating Narnia” documentary, a three-part “Creatures, Lands, and Legends” featurette, and a “Bloopers of Narnia” gag-reel. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release will be a BD-J game entitled “Battle for Narnia”.

Previously Disney mentioned that they would include a PIP track for this release, but this announcement makes no mention of that feature.

Popularity: 15% [?]