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Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music Director’s Cut (40th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition)

Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 06/09/2009This director’s cut of Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music, released to coincide with the 40th anniversary of that legendary concert event, has to be one of the most impressive DVD releases of 2009 or any other year–and that’s even before you put the discs in your player. The box is designed to resemble a faux fringe jacket (with an iron-on patch attached), and inside are all manner of shiny bells and whistles, including a lucite paperweight with images from the event, a reprint of LIFE Magazine‘s original festival feature, and reproductions of various Woodstock memorabilia, right down to notes left by concertgoers (“Please meet me in front of stage. I have your insulin pills”) and a three-day ticket to the event.

The movie itself now weighs in at nearly four hours long, and is presumably the way director Michael Wadleigh wanted it in the first place. The transfer is definitely an upgrade, as is the soundtrack, which was originally recorded on 8-track tape under less-than-ideal conditions. (Using modern digital technology, audio engineer Eddie Kramer, who was hunkered down in what passed for a recording booth at the Woodstock site, has painstakingly restored the soundtrack–even bringing in some of the musicians to re-play their original parts, as on Santana’s “Evil Ways,” one of the previously unreleased bonus performances. Considering that the event is something of a sacred cow by now, this trick may strike some as blasphemous. Then again, this is hardly the first time that a live concert recording has been sweetened, re-recorded, or otherwise enhanced. In fact, it’d be hard to find one that wasn’t. And the additions would have gone largely unnoticed if we hadn’t been told about them.) In the end, though, there’s only so much improvement possible, and Woodstock was never about technical brilliance anyway. Nor was it mostly about the music, either. Nor was it mostly about the music, either. There are some terrific performances, from acoustic numbers by Richie Havens and Crosby, Stills & Nash to powerful electric contributions from Santana, Sly & the Family Stone, and Joe Cocker. But the truth is that Monterey Pop, which happened two years earlier, was the more exciting concert, and of the several artists who appeared on both bills (including Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Who, Jefferson Airplane, and others), all of them made better music at the California festival. But Woodstock was always less a concert than an overall cultural happening, and Wadleigh and his crew, often employing an effective split-screen technique, do a superb job of corralling and conveying the remarkable atmosphere and spirit of it; you didn’t have to be there to recognize that this was the zenith of the Age of Aquarius (it was also the twilight; with Altamont looming, things would never be this peaceful and idealistic again).

Of principal interest on the bonus discs will be two hours of additional musical performances, including both additional tunes by those who are in the main feature and appearances by five artists who for various reasons (ego, money, quality, time) never made it into the film at all; of the latter, Creedence Clearwater Revival is excellent, Paul Butterfield and Johnny Winter are good, Mountain is mediocre, and the Grateful Dead, with an interminable (38 minutes!) “Turn on Your Love Light,” are awful. Meanwhile, “From Festival to Feature,” a new, hour-long look at the making of the movie, is absorbing and minutely detailed. –Sam Graham

Product Description
1969 was a year unlike any other. Man first set foot on the moon. The New York Mets won the World Series against all odds. And for three days in the rural town of Bethel, New York, half a million people experienced the single most defining moment of their generation; a concert unprecedented in scope and influence, a coming together of people from all walks of life with a single common goal: Peace and music. They called it Woodstock. One year later, a landmark Oscar®-winning documentary captured the essence of the music, the electricity of the performances, and the experience of those who lived it. Newly remastered, the film features legendary performances by 17 best selling artists.

Stills from Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music Director’s Cut

Rating: (out of 274 reviews)

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Tron (20th Anniversary Collector’s Edition)

A masterpiece of breakthrough CGI ingenuity, Disney celebrates the 20th anniversary of TRON, a dazzling film at the flashpoint of a continuing revolution in its genre. This special collector’s edition showcases an epic adventure inside a brave new world where the action is measureed in microseconds. When Flynn (Jeff Bridges) hacks the mainframe of his ex-employer to prove his work was stolen by another executive, he finds himself on a much bigger adventure. Beamed inside by a power-hungry master control program, he joins computer gladiators on a deadly game grid, complete with high-velocity “light cycles” and Tron (Bruce Boxleitner), a specialized security program. Together, they fight the ultimate battle with the MCP to decide the fate of both the electronic world and the real world!The surprising truth about Disney’s 1982 computer-game fantasy is that it’s still visually impressive (though technologically quaint by later high-definition standards) and a lot of fun. It’s about a computer wizard named Flynn (Jeff Bridges) who is digitally broken down into a data stream by a villainous software pirate (David Warner) and reconstituted into the internal, 3-D graphical world of computers. It is there, in the blazingly colorful, geometrically intense landscapes of cyberspace, that Flynn joins forces with Tron (Bruce Boxleitner) to outmaneuver the Master Control program that holds them captive in the equivalent of a gigantic, infinitely challenging computer game. Disney’s wizards used a variety of cinematic techniques and early-’80s state-of-the-art computer-generated graphics to accomplish their dynamic visual goals, and the result was a milestone in cyberentertainment, catering to technogeeks while providing a dazzling adventure for hackers and nonhackers alike. Appearing just in time to celebrate the nascent cyberpunk movement in science fiction, Tron received a decidedly mixed reaction when originally released, but has since become a high-tech favorite and a landmark in special effects, with a loyal following of fans. DVD is a perfect format for the movie’s neon-glow color scheme, and the musical score by synthesizer pioneer Wendy Carlos is faithfully preserved on the digitally remastered soundtrack. –Jeff Shannon

Rating: (out of 261 reviews)

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Stargate 15th Anniversary Edition [Blu-ray]

Professor Daniel Jackson, a specialist in Egyptian hieroglyphics, joins an Air Force team in deciphering the symbols on a mysterious artifact which al

Rating: (out of 25 reviews)

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The Goonies (25th Anniversary Collector’s Edition)

You may be surprised to discover that the director of the Lethal Weapon movies and scary horror flick The Omen, Richard Donner, also produced and directed this classic children’s adventure (which, by the way, was written by Donner’s screen-wizard friend Steven Spielberg). Then again you may not. The Goonies, like Donner’s other movies, is the same story of good versus evil. It has its share of bad guys (the Fratelli brothers and their villainous mother), reluctant-hero good guys (the Walsh bothers and their gang of friends), and lots of corny one-liners. Like in an old-fashioned Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew plot, the Goonies need to solve a problem: a corrupt corporate developer has bought out their neighborhood and plans to flatten all their homes. Luckily, the beloved gang stumbles on a treasure map. In the hopes of finding the treasure to buy back their houses, the Goonies embark on their quest through underground passages, aboard pirate ships, and behind waterfalls. This swashbuckling and rollicking ride was also a great breeding ground for a couple of child actors who went on to enjoy numerous successes in adulthood: Sean Astin (Rudy, Encino Man) and Martha Plimpton (Pecker, 200 Cigarettes). –Samantha Allen Storey

Rating: (out of 517 reviews)

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Pumping Iron (25th Anniversary Special Edition)

In 1977, an independent documentary movie shone a light on the world of bodybuilding, becoming a huge box office hit and creating an international sensation. It launched one man’s multi-million dollar career and changed the world of bodybuilding and physical exercise forever: PUMPING IRON. Starring five-time Mr. Olympia, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the movie followed the 28-year old bodybuilder as he competed for his 6th title.

DVD Features:
Biographies
Documentary
Interviews
Outtakes
Photo gallery

Arnold Schwarzenegger works the crowds, plots strategies for defeating multiple opponents, shares his parents’ values with the press, and inspires legions of admirers with his resolute optimism about the future. And all of this long before he decided to run for governor of California, in 1977′s hit documentary, Pumping Iron. Larger than life, though not necessarily larger than his rivals for the Mr. Universe and Mr. Olympia bodybuilding titles (especially a young Lou Ferrigno, hot on Arnold’s competitive trail but much less interesting), Schwarzenegger still comes across, at age 28, as a consummate politician, smart, likable, and crafty about exploiting others’ psychological weaknesses. The film still feels redundant (there’s only so much beefcake the human eye will tolerate), but the emotional dramas–the unrewarded hard work, the unanswered hopes–are compelling. Complete with a revealing 2003 interview with Schwarzenegger and a reunion of the film’s bodybuilders and director. –Tom Keogh

Rating: (out of 215 reviews)

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Space 1999 – 30th Anniversary Edition Megaset (17DVD)

All 48 episodes of this acclaimed space adventure are contained in this complete collection, digitally remastered from the original 35mm film, plus bonus footage, featured extras, and much more! With its progressive plotlines, an outstanding cast, and astonishing special effects from Oscar® winner Brian Johnson (Alien, The Empire Strikes Back), SPACE: 1999 has secured its place as one of the most thought-provoking series of the 21st century—and beyond. When it was first broadcast in 1975, there had never been a more lavishly produced science fiction TV series than Space: 1999, a British production whose budget for the first of its two seasons ran an astounding £3.25 million. What keeps us fans enthralled after all these years has only partly to due with the first-rate production values, the plausibly constructed spaceship models, and expert special effects. The tone of the show is one of scientific dispassion, setting it apart from its TV sci-fi predecessors such as Star Trek, whose mood was more convivial. Our heroes here are in dire circumstances that require cool heads as a survival trait. Those circumstances: the 311 crew members of Moonbase Alpha experience a cataclysm that causes the moon to break away from Earth’s orbit and travel endlessly through space, turning our heroes into unintentional explorers. No TV series has created a more palpable feel of hard science fiction than this.

Of course the show is not without its detractors; it has been soundly lambasted for its many scientific errors. No less august a figure than Isaac Asimov criticized the show for its premise in the opening episode, “Breakaway,” which had nuclear explosions on the “dark side of the moon” somehow propelling it out of Earth’s orbit and flying through space without regard to any physical laws. In “Earthbound,” aliens traveling to Earth state it will take them 75 years to reach their destination, making one wonder why it didn’t take the moon that long to encounter the aliens. While these are serious complaints, fans tend to remember the scientific seriousness of the series and the sense of awe created by the many strange creatures and phenomena that the crew members encounter on their journey through the galaxy.

The Space: 1999 30th Anniversary Mega Set collects all 48 episodes broadcast over the show’s two seasons, contained on 17 DVDs that include vintage interviews, production stills, TV promotional spots, and interactive menus, and some material that was not seen in the original U.S. broadcasts has been restored. The episodes do not use the 2005 high-def remasters, so this is essentially the same as the 2002 Mega Set, but at a fraction of the shelf space (the Thinpak packaging is nicely compact) and a fraction of the price. –Jim Gay

Rating: (out of 66 reviews)

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Price: $ 35.83

Brideshead Revisited (25th Anniversary Collector’s Edition)

25th Anniversary Collector’s Edition

“Extraordinary” —The New York Times
“Visually ravishing” —Time

A special silver anniversary edition of the British classic called one of the best series in TV history. Based on the novel by Evelyn Waugh, two years in the making, and the equivalent of seven feature films back-to-back, this epic drama tells a story of romantic yearning and loss in the glittering but fading world of the British aristocracy between the wars. Winner of 17 international awards and starring Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews, Diana Quick, Sir John Gielgud, Claire Bloom, and Sir Laurence Olivier in an Emmy®-winning role. Bonus features on this edition include the 50-min. featurette Revisiting Brideshead, produced by British television to celebrate the anniversary and featuring retrospective interviews with Irons, Andrews, Quick, director Charles Sturridge, and many more. Also includes a 20-page program guide, production notes, and photo gallery.Fill a bowl with alpine strawberries, break out the Château Lafite (1899, of course), and bask in this benchmark 1981 British miniseries based on Evelyn Waugh’s classic novel. Adapted for the screen by John Mortimer (Rumpole of the Bailey), this impeccable, nearly 11-hour production mesmerized American viewers during the course of its PBS run in 1982. In his breakthrough role, Jeremy Irons stars as Charles Ryder, a disillusioned Army captain who is moved to reflect on his “languid days” in the “enchanted castle” that was Brideshead, home of the aristocratic Marchmain family, whose acquaintance Charles made in the company of an Oxford classmate, the charming wild child Sebastian. Anthony Andrews costars as the doomed Sebastian, whose beauty is “arresting” and “whose eccentricities and behavior seemed to know no bounds.” The “entitled and enchanted” Sebastian takes Charles under his wing (“Charles, what a lot you have to learn”), but vows early on that he is “not going to let [Charles] get mixed up with [his] family.” But mixed up Charles gets. He becomes a friend and confidante, not to mention a lover, to Sebastian’s sister Julia (Diana Quick). Meanwhile, the self-destructive Sebastian’s life spirals out of control. Brideshead Revisited boasts a distinguished ensemble, including Laurence Olivier in his Emmy Award-winning role as the exiled Lord Marchmain, Claire Bloom as Lady Marchmain, and the magnificent John Gielgud as Charles’s estranged father. Grand locations and a haunting musical score make this a memorable revisit of an irretrievable bygone era. For those who scheduled their weeks around the original Monday-night broadcasts or those visiting Brideshead for the first time, this boxed set release will be, as Charles rhapsodizes at one point while strolling the castle grounds, “very near to heaven.” –Donald Liebenson

Stills from Brideshead Revisited (click for larger image)

Beyond Brideshead Revisited

The Novel

The Original Score (Soundtrack to the Movie)

The Movie in Theaters Now

Rating: (out of 123 reviews)

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Mary Poppins (45th Anniversary Special Edition)

Experience the extraordinary animation, dazzling special effects and award-winning music of Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins in this restored and remastered 2-Disc 45th Anniversary Edition! Join the practically perfect Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews) for a Jolly Holiday as she magically turns every chore into a game and every day into a whimsical adventure. Along the way, you ll be enchanted by unforgettable characters such as the multitalented chimney sweep Burt (Dick Van Dyke). Unpack Mary’s magical carpetbag full of bonus features, including all-new bonus from the Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Broadway production of Mary Poppins. You won’t need a Spoonful Of Sugar to love every moment of this timeless Disney classic!

There is only one word that comes close to accurately describing the enchanting Mary Poppins, and that term was coined by the movie itself: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! Even at 2 hours and 20 minutes, Disney’s pioneering mixture of live action and animation (based on the books by P.L. Travers) still holds kids spellbound. Julie Andrews won an Oscar as the world’s most magically idealized nanny (“practically perfect in every way,” and complete with lighter-than-air umbrella), and Dick Van Dyke is her clownishly charming beau, Bert the chimney sweep. The songs are also terrific, ranging from bright and cheery (“A Spoonful of Sugar”) to dark and cheery (the Oscar-winning “Chim Chim Cher-ee”) to touchingly melancholy (“Feed the Birds”). Many consider Mary Poppins to be the crowning achievement of Walt Disney’s career–and it was the only one of his features to be nominated for a best picture Academy Award until Beauty and the Beast in 1991. –Jim Emerson

Stills from Mary Poppins (Click for larger image)

Rating: (out of 386 reviews)

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Price: $ 15.55

Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music Director’s Cut (40th Anniversary Two-Disc Special Edition)

Genre: Music Video: Documentary
Rating: R
Release Date: 9-JUN-2009
Media Type: DVDThe three-day Woodstock music festival in 1969 was the pivotal event of the 1960s peace movement, and this landmark concert film is the definitive record of that milestone of rock & roll history. It’s more than a chronicle of the hippie movement, however; this is a film of genuine historical and social importance, capturing the spirit of America in transition, when the Vietnam War was at its peak and antiwar protest was fully expressed through the liberating music of the time. With a brilliant crew at his disposal (including a young editor named Martin Scorsese), director Michael Wadleigh worked with over 300 hours of footage to create his original 225-minute director’s cut, which was cut by 40 minutes for the film’s release in 1970. Eight previously edited segments were restored in 1994, and the original director’s cut of Woodstock is now the version most commonly available on videotape and DVD. The film deservedly won the Academy Award for Best Documentary, and it’s still a stunning achievement. Abundant footage taken among the massive crowd (“half a million strong”) expresses the human heart of the event, from skinny-dipping hippies to accidental overdoses, to unpredictable weather, midconcert childbirth, and the thoughtful (or just plain rambling) reflections of the festive participants. Then, of course, there is the music–a nonstop parade of rock & roll from the greatest performers of the period, including Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Canned Heat, The Who, Richie Havens, Joan Baez, Ten Years After, Sly & The Family Stone, Santana, and many more. Watching this ambitious film, as the saying goes, is the next best thing to being there–it’s a time-travel journey to that once-in-a-lifetime event. –Jeff Shannon

Product Description
1969 was a year unlike any other. Man first set foot on the moon. The New York Mets won the World Series against all odds. And for three days in the rural town of Bethel, New York, half a million people experienced the single most defining moment of their generation; a concert unprecedented in scope and influence, a coming together of people from all walks of life with a single common goal: Peace and music. They called it Woodstock. One year later, a landmark Oscar®-winning documentary captured the essence of the music, the electricity of the performances, and the experience of those who lived it. Newly remastered, the film features legendary performances by 17 best selling artists. Bonus content includes: • NEW retrospective The Museum at Bethel Woods: The Story of the Sixties & Woodstock.

Stills from Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music Director’s Cut

Rating: (out of 57 reviews)

List Price: $ 24.98

Price: $ 11.49

Schoolhouse Rock! (Special 30th Anniversary Edition)

Conjunction Junction, what’s your function? In the 70′s and 80′s, the catchy Schoolhouse Rock tunes taught millions of children the fundamentals of math, grammar, science, history and money. Relive the pop culture sensation with the SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK SPECIAL 30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION DVD, which includes every song from the landmark series in a collectible 2-disc DVD. Among the over 50 tunes are such classics as “Conjunction Junction,” “Three is a Magic Number,” “I’m Just A Bill” and “Electricity, Electricity.” The DVD features an all-new song about the Electoral College, “I’m Gonna Send Your Vote To College” written by the show’s original creators.It’s a good bet that any American kid growing up in the ’70s or ’80s learned some elementary lesson from the seminal musical series Schoolhouse Rock!. Airing from 1973 to 1984 (and often revived), the ABC Saturday morning shorts effortlessly introduced kids to grammar, science, multiplication, money, and American history–three minutes at a time. In one smart, comprehensive 2-disc set, all 46 songs and plenty of extras are collected. The four creators developed the series slowly, a welcome diversion from their advertising agency jobs, and ended up taking home four Emmys over the years. The background material includes 10 audio commentaries and a making-of feature for the new song, “I’m Gonna Send Your Vote to College.” The DVD subtitle option is a great bonus for those who need to know every word from such favorites as “Three Is a Magic Number,” “Interjections,” “I’m Just a Bill,” and “Conjunction Junction.” (Ages 3 and older) –Doug Thomas

Rating: (out of 613 reviews)

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Price: $ 12.50

The Wizard of Oz (70th Anniversary Two-Disc Special Edition)

Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 09/29/2009 Run time: 101 minutes Rating: GWhen it was released during Hollywood’s golden year of 1939, The Wizard of Oz didn’t start out as the perennial classic it has since become. The film did respectable business, but it wasn’t until its debut on television that this family favorite saw its popularity soar. And while Oz‘s TV broadcasts are now controlled by media mogul Ted Turner (who owns the rights), the advent of home video has made this lively musical a mainstay in the staple diet of great American films. Young Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland), her dog, Toto, and her three companions on the yellow brick road to Oz–the Tin Man (Jack Haley), the Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr), and the Scarecrow (Ray Bolger)–have become pop-culture icons and central figures in the legacy of fantasy for children. As the Wicked Witch who covets Dorothy’s enchanted ruby slippers, Margaret Hamilton has had the singular honor of scaring the wits out of children for more than six decades. The film’s still as fresh, frightening, and funny as it was when first released. It may take some liberal detours from the original story by L. Frank Baum, but it’s loyal to the Baum legacy while charting its own course as a spectacular film. Shot in glorious Technicolor, befitting its dynamic production design (Munchkinland alone is a psychedelic explosion of color and decor), The Wizard of Oz may not appeal to every taste as the years go by, but it’s required viewing for kids of all ages. –Jeff Shannon

On the discs
The 2009 Wizard of Oz Two-Disc Special Edition DVD has the sharp 2005 restoration using Warner’s Ultra Resolution process and an accompanying featurette on how it’s done. The technicians also discuss how the sound was remixed, though that would have been more effective had it included surround-sound demonstrations (the featurette is in 2.0). Other features include a commentary track by critic John Fricke supplemented by vintage cast interviews (he offers a lot of trivia, and debunks the myth that Shirley Temple was ever close to getting the Dorothy role); profiles of nine cast members and clips of other movies they appeared in (including Toto); a lightly animated 10-minute storybook narrated by Angela Lansbury; and the original mono track and a music-and-effects track. New for 2009 is a sing-along track that you can turn on as you watch the movie or you can select from 10 numbers to sing along with karaoke-style subtitles. The second disc has the Lansbury-hosted documentary The Making of a Movie Classic; outtakes and deleted scenes, including Judy Garland’s “Over the Rainbow” reprise and the home-movie recording of “The Jitterbug”; sketches and stills and composer Harold Arlen’s home movies; audio underscores and radio programs; 1979 interviews with Margaret Hamilton, Ray Bolger, and Jack Haley; 2001 and 2005 behind-the-scenes featurettes; a 1950 Lux Radio Theater broadcast; and other items too numerous to mention. –David Horiuchi

Rating: (out of 977 reviews)

List Price: $ 24.98

Price: $ 12.95

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (30th Anniversary Ultimate Edition) [Blu-ray]

No Description Available.
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: PG
Release Date: 13-NOV-2007
Media Type: Blu-RayAnybody who has written him off because of his string of stinkers–or anybody who’s too young to remember The Goodbye Girl–may be shocked at the accomplishment and nuance of Richard Dreyfuss’s performance in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Here, he plays a man possessed; contacted by aliens, he (along with other members of the “chosen”) is drawn toward the site of the incipient landing: Devil’s Tower, in rural Wyoming. As in many Spielberg films, there are no personalized enemies; the struggle is between those who have been called and a scientific establishment that seeks to protect them by keeping them away from the arriving spacecraft. The ship, and the special effects in general, are every bit as jaw-dropping on the small screen as they were in the theater (well, almost). Released in 1977 as a cerebral alternative to the swashbuckling science fiction epics then in vogue, Close Encounters now seems almost wholesome in its representation of alien contact and interested less in philosophizing about extraterrestrials than it is in examining the nature of the inner “call.” Ultimately a motion picture about the obsession of the driven artist or determined visionary, Close Encounters comes complete with the stock Spielberg wives and girlfriends who seek to tether the dreamy, possessed protagonists to the more mundane concerns of the everyday. So a spectacular, seminal motion picture indeed, but one with gender politics that are all too terrestrial. –Miles Bethany

Rating: (out of 334 reviews)

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Price: $ 13.60