Savant's new reviews today are
I've reviewed the new movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory just because the flow of DVDs is slowing up and I thought the film very enjoyable. Although I filed my mini-review of the new theatrical War of the Worlds at DVDTalk a couple of weeks ago, I've just added it to my main page now ...
A slightly depressing note - the opening promo on the Mike Hammer: Private Eye disc from Tango has clips of other company product, and one was a shot of Burt Lancaster from Zulu Dawn, which is to Savant a very important release. The movie played one theater out in the Simi Valley when released in 1979, and Savant has never even seen it in Panavision, let alone Dolby Stereo sound. The short clip on the Mike Hammer DVD was flat, grainy and looked just as ragged as the old pan-scanned and squeezed Image laserdisc, the one I still play even though it's a snow-blizzard of laser rot. Let's hope that if Tango is indeed behind the release, that it has something better in mind for the DVD premiere of Zulu Dawn.
I've gotten a lot (exactly 14) emails approving of the last chapter of my The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit review, a paragraph where Savant vented a bit on the crummy Anti-Piracy spots that keep showing up. So even haters of gray flannel can get the benefit, I hereby proudly reprint it here:
The disc starts with the annoyingly loud anti-piracy ad that accuses us all of being thieves. I couldn't skip it on my player. I'd like to see a 'public service spot' that accuses movie companies of gross abuse against paying customers by jamming their theaters and DVDs full of unwanted advertising and insulting, self-serving institutional messages.
Hear, hear .... Thanks, Glenn Erickson
Posted by DVD Savant at July 23, 2005 10:13 AM