New Warner SEs Coming in May! (1 Viewer)

[Alistair_M]

Well I'll be getting these three:

Heat: Two-Disc Special Edition
Blazing Saddles: 30th Anniversary Special Edition
Around the World in 80 Days

But come on Warner - let's have more Special Editions of the classics (pre-1950)! You have the best classic catalogue out there.

 

[Mark_vdH]

Just Heat for me.

Another vote for Fearless. Probably won't sell enough though. It even hasn't been released anywhere in Europe yet.... :frowning:

 

[RobertCharlotte]

I'm already in line for Blazing Saddles and Purple Rain. If the sale's good enough and the reviews speak highly of it, I might pick up Heat as well.

 

[Neil_Duffy]

I'm going to way in and say Fearless please. Pity I won't be able to make the chat.

Great list of special editions - I'll be all over them.

 

[PaulBigelow]

Could "Blazing Saddles" be mixed to stereo? Sure would like to hear the opening credits in stereo.

 

[ZacharyTait]

I don't mean to rain on anyone's parade but isn't Around the World in 80 Days generally considered by critics and experts to be one of the worst, if not the worst Best Picture winner of all time?

I vaguely remember reading Roger Ebert's Answer Man column in which he was asked this and answered with Around the World in 80 Days along with Gladiator (I don't agree with him there) and some other ones.

 

[Eman_Ramos]

Give me Blazing Saddles!

"Where the white women at?"

 

[Dane Marvin]

Even a film considered "the worst Best Picture of all time" is still a good bet to be entertaining (unless it's the "English Patient" -- and I agree that "Gladiator" is not all that impressive). "Around the World in 80 Days" is great eye candy -- very entertaining because of the way it was made and with all the cameo appearances. You're not raining on my parade. I'll be glad to see this on DVD, especially in Warner 2-Disc style. Release day purchase for me.

 

[Patrick McCart]

You must of read that in the Evening Standard. You never would have read that in the Times.

Around the World in Eighty Days is far from being one of the worst BP winners...

It's an overall fun film... everyone is great in the film. David Niven is perfect as Phineas Fogg, Cantinflas steals scenes as Passparteau, Robert Newton's Inspector Fix is great (his last role, sadly), and Shirely MacLaine glows as Princess Aouda. Cantinflas actually did his own stunts for the film, including the bullfight sequence. While some of the cameo actors only get a shot or two in the film... Charles Boyer, David Carridine, Buster Keaton, and Jack Oakie get some nice screen time.

What's amazing about the film is how well it was made... despite being a low-budget film (only $6 million) and being shot almost entirely on location (save for a few special effect shots). The cinematography is excellent in terms of composition and movement. Victor Young's score (sadly, his last) is beautiful. The screenplay is also suprisingly good for the film.

"Eighty Days" is one of the overlooked masterpieces of the 1950's. Sure, years of bad presentation has somewhat tarnished it, but the DVD version will fix it somewhat (it still looks best in theaters, most likely).

 

[Dick]

Re: Undeserving Oscar winning movies, AROUND THE WORLD is a better film than, say, THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH, in my opinion. It has tremendous scope, and although it literally is a travelogue, it is a marvelously entertaining one. I saw this at age 6 when first released, and it was my second theater experience (the first being LADY AND THE TRAMP the previous year). I had a crush on Shirley MacLaine's character for months. The whole India sequence left a lasting impression on me, and I love jungle movies to this day in large part because of it. The American prairie sequence is pretty thrilling, too. The movie certainly takes its time and has none of the staccato editing of more recent films, but that is part of its great charm. It creates an atmosphere and remains true to it throughout. The Victor Young score is iconic - the soundtrack has never gone out of print since 1956. I can't wait to own this film on DVD in its proper form. Thanks, Warner, for redressing the horror that was the pan and scan VHS/laser release!

 

[ZacharyTait]

Now that I think about it, Roger Ebert may have mentioned Greatest Show on Earth, not Around the World in 80 Days. I'll have to take a trip to the local bookstore or library to look in his Movie Yearbooks to see which ones he talked about specifically.

 

[george kaplan]

When it comes to worst best picture you need to consider films like Cimarron (though for myself Titanic
is even worse, though I realize that's not a popular opinion).

 

[Mark Bendiksen]

Looking forward to the Heat SE. That is one of those special films that only improves with repeated viewings.

George (regarding Titanic):
I agree. That movie has not aged well. I still think the closing scene is so wonderful that it partially redeems some of the schlock before it, but not completely. Moreoever, after that sublime final shot the Celine Dion song suddently kicks in over the closing credits. Talk about ruining a great moment!

 

[Dave H]

Heat has a very good soundtrack. However, the video quality has that typical "early DVD" look to it. It definitely needs a new transfer.

 

[Dane Marvin]

I don't think it has aged too well either. I recently bought it and watched it for first since about 1998. I found a lot of the dialogue to be clunky and gimmicky, and found most of the frame story (involving the older Rose and Bill Paxton's character) to be almost unbearable due to poor acting and writing. But the 1912 stuff is still mostly good, especially from the sinking onward. I hope that sentence wasn't a spoiler for anyone.

 

[James Lambert]

Heat is a must buy.

Sorry to go back to an earlier discussion in this thread, but regarding the American President, is this WB in R1. I ask as it's always been universal in region 2. I would have liked a special edition of it until I saw the SE of A few good men! Great film but Reiner's and Sorkin's wit and intelligence unfortunately do not extend to the supplemental material.

Also stick me down for an immediate purchase of an OAR Fearless.

 

[Patrick McCart]

DavisDVD is now saying all 5 of these will be 2-disc special editions!



BTW... I think it was mentioned in an interview that Warner is releasing about 200 catalog titles this year. That being said, they're eventually going to get to all the titles people want.

 

[oscar_merkx]

very sweet news indeed

 

[ShawnDCarter]

Nice, very excited to hear of the Blazing Saddles SE.

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

Before everyone gets too carried away with this 'news', so far all that is known for certain is that an employee of Suncoast was told (by an unknown source) that all of those titles would be released in May.

Then Zack reads this thread and then apparently passed on this information to Davis DVD who promptly report it as being a scoop.

The original author of this 'news' has been asked to clarify the specifics of his post and has yet to do so. Until then, or until a more reliable source can confirm this report, I think it is irresponsible of Davis DVD (or any other DVD news site) to report this as a scoop, when it is only a rumor from a single source, who has not responded to their own post. These facts do not lend themselves to this rumor being terribly credible.

I’m not trying to be a nay-sayer, and it would be great if this rumor turns out to be true, but in the meantime I think it is only reasonable to consider this story as a rumor and not a ‘scoop’.

I suspect we will get the 'real' scoop during the Warner Chat hosted by HTF on Monday, March 8th.

Personally, I'll get more excited about what George Feltenstein, Michael Radiloff, and Michael Crawford have to say on the subject of upcoming releases then a rumor from a Suncoast employee, but maybe that’s just me.


BTW: Another thing that troubles me about the news report from Davis DVD is that even as a rumor, the editor should have given credit to the original source, not from someone passing the info on. In other words they simply reported hearsay as fact. Perhaps Zach didn’t tell Davis DVD where he received this so-called ‘scoop’ from, but as an online news site I would hope they would make an effort to do some fact checking before reporting information like this.