There’s no fate but what we make for ourselves >>>
Friday, May 29
Harlan Ellison, celebrated sci-fi writer behind one of Star Trek’s greatest episodes, passes
A major contributor to sci-fi pop-culture >>>
Aliens & Terminator star Michael Biehn announced for MCM London
Come with me if you wanna live >>>
Aliens star Michael Biehn signs up for Brummie bug hunt
Biehn there, done that >>>
The Terminator Is Back – As Are Die Hard, Hannah And Her Sisters and Sleeper on Remastered Blu-ray
Die Hard 25th Anniversary Collection, Hannah And Her Sisters, Sleeper and a remastered Terminator all coming to Blu-ray in the US…
20th Century Fox has announced new treats for US Blu-ray owners, with high-definition versions of four classic films arriving early in 2013.
Woody Allen’s Hannah And Her Sisters and Sleeper have both been given a polish, although as with DVD releases the director doesn’t believe in adding bonus features. Even so, cleaned up prints of both of these films should look amazing.
Two action heroes also get a scrub (or should that be a bed bath given their ages now?), as the Die Hard 25th Anniversary Collection comes to Blu-ray and James Cameron’s The Terminator is remastered for the HD format.
Die Hard celebrates 25 years of Bruce Willis playing John McClane with a five-disc collection featuring the first four Die Hard films and an all-new bonus disc, ‘Decoding Die Hard’.
Hannah And Her Sisters and Sleeper are both released on 15 January, 2013, Die Hard follows on 29 January, 2013, while The Terminator is released on 19 February, 2013. Pre-orders for the two Woody Allen films start tomorrow, with Die Hard available to be reserved from 19 December, 2012 and The Terminator on pre-order from 9 January, 2013.
The full details of each title are below…
Hannah And Her Sisters Blu-ray
The eldest daughter of show-biz parents, Hannah (Mia Farrow) is a devoted wife, loving mother and successful actress. A loyal supporter of her two aimless sisters Lee (Barbara Hershey) and Holly (Dianne Wiest), she’s also the emotional backbone of a family that seems to resent her stability almost as much as they depend on it. But when Hannah’s perfect world is quietly sabotaged by sibling rivalry, she finally begins to see that she’s as lost as everyone else, and in order to find herself, she’ll have to choose – between the independence her family can’t live with… and the family she can’t live without.
Screen Format: Widescreen 1.85:1
Audio: English DTS-HD-MA 1.0 / Spanish: Dolby Digital 1.0 / French: Dolby Digital 1.0
Subtitles: English SDH/Spanish
US Rating: PG-13
Total Run Time: 107 minutes
Closed Captioned: Yes
When cryogenically preserved Miles Monroe (Allen) is awakened 200 years after a hospital mishap, he discovers the future’s not so bright: all women are frigid, all men are impotent, and the world is ruled by an evil dictator…a disembodied nose! Pursued by the secret police and recruited by anti-government rebels with a plan to kidnap the dictator’s snout before it can be cloned, Miles falls for the beautiful – but untalented – poet Luna (Keaton). But when Miles is captured and reprogrammed by the government – to believe he’s Miss America! – it’s up to Luna to save Miles, lead the rebels, and cut off the nose…just to spite its face.
Screen Format: Widescreen 1.85:1
Audio: English DTS-HD-MA 1.0 / Spanish: Dolby Digital 1.0 / French: Dolby Digital 1.0
Subtitles: English SDH/Spanish
US Rating: PG
Total Run Time: 87 minutes
Closed Captioned: Yes
Die hard 25th Anniversary Collection Blu-ray
It’s the ultimate tribute to the tough-as-nails cop with a wry sense of humour and a knack for explosive action. Wrong place. Wrong time. Right man. Yippee ki yay!
Special Features:
- Modern-Day Hero — Casting, evolution and legacy of John McClane
- Along For The Ride — Engaging sidekicks who have teamed up with McClane
- Bad To The Bone — McClane’s well-armed and formidable foes
- Punishing Blows — Creating the intense action sequences, fistfights and stunts
- Explosive Effects — Role of groundbreaking visual and special effects including some of the biggest explosions on screen
- Reinventing The Action Genre — Development of the franchise from concept to character to story
- The Right Hero For The Right Time — Appeal and influence of Die Hard films on pop culture
Screen Format: Widescreen
Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD-MA / Spanish: 5.1 Dolby Digital / French: 5.1 Dolby Digital
Subtitles: English/Spanish/French
US Rating: Not Rated
Closed Captioned: Yes
The Terminator, Remastered Blu-ray
In this newly remastered film, Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as the most fierce and relentless killing machine ever to threaten the survival of mankind!
An indestructible cyborg — a Terminator (Schwarzenegger) — is sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), the woman whose unborn son will become humanity’s only hope in a future war against machines. This legendary sci-fi thriller from pioneering writer/director James Cameron, written with Gale Anne Hurd, fires an arsenal of action and heart-stopping suspense that never lets up!
Special Features:
- 7 Deleted Scenes
- Creating The Terminator: Visual Effects & Music
- Terminator: A Retrospective
Screen Format: Widescreen 1.85:1
Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD-MA / Spanish: 5.1 Dolby Digital / French: DTS 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH/Spanish/French
US Rating: R
Total Run Time: 108 minutes
Closed Captioned: Yes
Looper: Review
Matt Chapman finds that watching Jo Gordon-Levitt become Bruce Willis is time very well spent…
“This decade’s The Matrix,” says the UK’s second biggest film mag*. “I respectfully disagree,” says Thatfilmthing’s screening buddy, “I’d call it ‘this year’s The Omen’.”
He’s got a point. But the bigger surprise is that Looper is, basically, every time travel movie you’ve ever seen. And you’ll still come out at the end and think it’s a cracker.
Where some films would be afraid to dip their toes in the already murky waters of previous time-bending flicks, Looper practically drowns itself. It manages to – we have to assume consciously – allude to so many other works in this genre that it is almost more of a mash up than a gentle homage.
The plot sees Joseph Gordon-Levitt (the man crush continues) as a heartless killer, blowing away people sent back in time by future mobsters who are finding it a little difficult to get rid of bodies. Only problem is this gig has a life expectancy and when the loop is closed the assassin kills his future self and gets a big payoff – all in the knowledge he’ll be sent back in 30 years’ time as a victim of his own gun. Understandably, Bruce Willis (the older version of Gordon-Levitt) is unhappy with this turn of events and decides to do a runner.
Willis himself must feel the familiar turf beneath his boots as he plays a man from a messed up future stepping back into a past he’s not sure he can save (a la 12 Monkeys). Even the diner he chows down in with his younger incarnation recalls The Kid, when a younger Willis met the older version of himself and was appalled at what he saw. It all sounds very familiar.
Throw in the fact that one of the actors tracking down Willis and Gordon-Levitt is Garret Dillahunt, who played The Terminator in the short-lived TV series, and the knowing winks are starting to look like someone having a stroke.
If all that sounds like you won’t see anything new in Looper, think again. While it borrows some of the well-worn plotting of previous time-twisters it still has plenty of fresh ideas of its own. One of those – and we won’t say which but trust us you’ll know when you see it – is one of the best uses of time travel we’ve ever seen.
And that’s all we’re going to say. Because this is one of those films it is much better to see not knowing where the twists in the road lead. We’re thinking about your future here people – and we don’t want to kill it.
Verdict: 9/10
* Although weirdly this quote doesn’t actually appear in the Looper film review itself.