[Adam Gregorich]

May 31, 2007

On July 24, films by Grammy Award®-winning artist Prince and one of the world’s top action hero’s Steven Segal collide with the high definition debuts of the Academy Award®-winning (Best Original Song) Purple Rain and Out for Justice. Both films make their simultaneous HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc debuts from Warner Home Video.

All bonus materials on the Standard Definition version will be included on the high definition versions and will be available for $28.99 SRP. Order due date is June 19.

Purple Rain (1984)
A young man (Prince) with a talent for music has begun a career with much promise. He meets an aspiring singer, Apollonia, and finds that talent alone isn't all that he needs. A complicated tale of his repeating his father's self destructive behavior, losing Apollonia to another singer (Morris Day), and his coming to grips with his own connection to other people ensues.

Out for Justice (1991)
Out for action? You found it! Steven Seagal hits the target like nobody else in this pounding police thriller. Brooklyn-born cop Gino (Seagal) has seen many changes in “the neighborhood.” One sad one is that boyhood adversary-turned-criminal scum Richie (William Forsythe) has turned local streets into war zones. He’s a mad dog unleashed and Gino and his world-weary partner (Law and Order’s Jerry Orbach) must hunt him down before the body count multiplies.

[ppltd]

Ah, a Steven Segal movie from a time when his films were actually fun to watch. Thanks for the update.

[Craig_Ehr]

HighDefDigest.com is reporting that 'Purple Rain' has only a DD 640kbps track. I'm sorry but I am just not interested in listening to anything less than a high-def (i.e. lossless) soundtrack on a high-def BD of this film.

[Dave>h]

Agree on the Lossless or at least less lossy sound for Purple Rain. The music on that film deserves nothing less!

Dave

[Paul Arnette]

I know this is selfish, but sometimes I wonder what these studios are thinking? I mean, I would consider myself to be a good representation of the target demographic for a HD optical media early adopter, so why is it that so few of these latest announcements do anything for me? Maybe I'm not so 'target' afterall.

[Jim_K]

I'm with you Paul.

I know the "different strokes" and "one mans trash, another mans treasure" and all but I'm not a Prince fan and Steven "beer-gut" Seagal in HD?!

How about some quality action films, now where's that Dirty Harry set Warner?

[BrettB]

So Purple Rain has the same audio as the dvd I finally got last Christmas?

No thanks.

[Brian Kaz]

What's sad is, you know these transfers will be akin to Christmas Vacation in that WB will see no reason to clean up the masters and be content to just give them to us in HD resolution and leave it at that. I realize these aren't even out yet, so who knows? But it's a trend I've been seeing on the "lesser" films from the studios.

The popularity and acceptance of HD discs will live or die by their image, so what's the point if you don't do everything you can to bring out these films in the best image quality possible? And if they feel like the movie isn't worth the effort to clean up, than it has no business being put on an HD disc. Otherwise, it's just another way for them to dupe you into spending money (sometimes again) on an old title.

Sorry for the rant, but I have a bad feeling about Purple Rain, as it's a title I'd love to have.

[Grant H]

WB is coming around to true neutrality.

They're trying to destroy both formats now!

[Mick Hyperion]

Given the shoddy way Warner handled the last Purple Rain dvd release (poor menu graphics, no apparent Prince involvement for special features), I wouldn't expect any better this time. Prince and Warner Bros. hate each other so WB won't be doing anything special for his movies ever, other than just making them available to continue their cash grab.