Looking Forward

Welcome to the first Looking Forward of the year! I can’t get over the fact that it’s 2009 already. Last year came and went quickly, thanks to a lot of great DVDs and Blu Rays. January is a pretty interesting month in terms of releases. At a brief glance, horror, cult, and TV own the month, as well as some of last year’s films getting released. Look for Righteous Kill, RocknRolla, The Wackness, Saw V, Pride and Glory, amongst other releases.

On the DVD side of things, like I said horror and cult own this month. I’m eager to tackle the new special edition of the original My Bloody Valentine as Lions Gate releases it for the first time in its uncut form, filled with extras just in time for the release of the remake. After the insane fun that was Machine Girl, Nobori Iguchi is back with Tokyo Gore Police. The footage on You Tube looked crazy and if it’s anything like his first film, fans of over-the-top Asian films will be delighted. Our own Serena didn’t care too much for it, but I’m eagerly awaiting it.

I think the DVD everyone is looking forward too is Pineapple Express. Apatow usually loads the discs up with a ton of material so expect this DVD to be a lot of fun. It was a good year for comedies last year, but they didn’t stay with me like I thought they would. Maybe now for home use, I can be in the right mind set to enjoy it…cough…cough.

To me and everyone at Killer Film, the disc to own in January is the Blu Ray of Repo! A Genetic Opera.Everyone who reads this site regularly knows the amount of love we have for this flick and the use of the Genesis camera Bousman shot it with, should make for a spectacular looking disc. Even after all the interviews I did for the film, I’m still excited to hear Bousman and the crew on the disc’s three audio commentaries. The film is truly unique so it’ll be fun to hear them dissect it. Maybe we’ll get more into the reasons why Lions Gate damn near dumped it. As great as the film is (it’s a party movie), it needed to be seen with like-minded crowds, so bring everyone over to see Repo!

Speaking of Blu Ray, there are some hot titles coming out on the format this month. Appaloosa, Max Payne, King Kong (2005), Zodiac, and the Bourne Trilogy are all great titles. As we move forward I think 2009 will be a pivotal year in the acceptance of Blu Ray into the mainstream. I feel it’s almost there and titles this year like the fore-mentioned and Lord of the Rings, Gone with the Wind, and Raging Bull will definitely help. All of those mainstream films will sell, but it’ll Blu Ray’s handling of cult titles that fuel the interest in collectors would have not yet adopted the format, will be an under-appreciated selling point. How will a high def transfer of Friday the 13th, Akira, or Dead and Buried look? Will it be a huge improvement over the DVD?

The market is funny right now. There’s little revenue anymore in DVD, even though the studios and stores still make money off of it, it’s not like it was a handful of years ago. Regardless, people still like to own movies so people will flock to pick of the titles they want. Stores and studios will promote Blu Ray even more as 2009 moves on. For those who haven’t made the leap yet, let me tell you from a film fan to another, it’s a great format. There are a few hiccups that need to be ironed out, mostly player prices as Blu Ray discs are getting lowered in price, the education of the technology by most people isn’t fully understood yet, and it’s just one piece to the high def puzzle. You got to own a 1080p TV and even a good surround sound system to fully enjoy Blu Ray, but it’s a good format. Don’t be scared. Follow us as we here at Killer film trust the format.

So enjoy this month’s release and follow what’s coming out each and every week with our New Release Tuesday list as those will be more in-depth. I’ll see you all next month with Looking Forward for February and until then…Press Play.