Transformers Do Blu

Paramount Home Entertainment has revealed the specs for the upcoming Blu-ray release of Michael Bay's blockbuster hit 'Transformers' (link to my review), due to hit store shelves on September 2nd.

On this two disc special edition, video will be presented in 2.35:1 1080p AVC and be accompanied by both a 5.1 PCM and 5.1 Dolby TrueHD lossless soundtracks.

Extras for the release are exhaustive, and include:

* Commentary: Commentary by Director Michael Bay
* Featurette: OUR WORLD:
* Featurette: The Story Sparks HD
* Featurette: Human Allies HD
* Featurette: I Fight Giant Robots HD
* Featurette: Battleground HD
* Featurette: THEIR WAR:
* Featurette: Rise of the Robots HD
* Featurette: Autobots Roll Out HD
* Featurette: Decepticons Strike HD
* Featurette: Inside the AllSpark HD
* Featurette: Transformers Tech Inspector (TBD) HD
* Trailers: TRAILERS (will play after the feature via a menu)
* Trailers: Iron Man Trailer HD
* Featurette: MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE
* Trailers: Transformers Teaser Trailer HD
* Trailers: Rise of the Autobots HD
* Other: Transformers H.U.D. (Heads Up Display)
* Other: BD-Live Features (TBD)
* Featurette: From Script to Sand: The Skorponok Desert Attack HD
* Featurette: Concepts HD
* Trailers: Trailers HD:
* Trailers: Teaser Trailer 1 HD
* Trailers: Theatrical Trailer 2 HD
* Trailers: Theatrical Trailer 4 HD
* Easter Eggs: EASTER EGGS:
* Easter Eggs: Michael Bay Cameo HD
* Easter Eggs: Girl in Dress HD
* Easter Eggs: Bay Bot HD
* Easter Eggs: Casting Mojo HD

Although no official announcement has been made by Paramount, Transformers is a prime candidate for the D-BOX Motion Code™ system! Jumper (Blu-ray) showcases the feature to dazzling effect.

Transformers is going to be a system seller this upcoming holiday season! You'll be able to pre-order Transformers from my Blu-ray Shop and support my blogging. Your support is very much appreciated and, most importantly, at no additional cost to yourself! Thank you.

Candy Girl

I have to profess that Hard Candy is my favourite Madonna album since Ray of Light (1998)! That said, she's pretty much guest starring on cool cuts produced by Timbaland, Neptunes and friends! At times Madonna sounds like Timbaland muse Nelly Furtado and one-time rival Paula Abdul on Candy Shop!

Hard Candy is more a sequel to Justin Timberlake's awesome Future Sex / Love Sounds, which, in my view, is a good thing, even if it doesn't push the envelope and Madonna is a trend follower in this instance!

Is Hard Candy as good as Mariah Carey's blockbuster E=MC²? I'd suggest not!

Reluctant Spice World

When I began my tenure at Reuters in 1996, the Spice Girls appeared on the pop scene and, mentored by their manager Simon Fuller, sold the ideological premise of "Girl Power!" wholesale to the masses.

This equated to a license to print money and, whatever you may think of the Spice Girls musical oeuvre, there's no denying Fuller's conquest of the retail aisles! From CDs to posters and toys to sweets, the Spice Girls foreshadowed the arrival of Bratz and the brand dilution of Barbie!

Incidentally, Victoria Beckham (then Adams) AKA Posh Spice, allegedly auditioned for a Bournemouth University BAMP production prior to the Spice Girls! Please don't ask me for details as I don't have any further information!

In anticipation of their upcoming tour...

I’M RELUCTANT SPICE, MEL C TELLS GRAHAM NORTON THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW

10.00 pm, Thursday 25 October 2007 (repeated Sunday), BBC TWO

MELANIE ‘Sporty Spice’ CHISHOLM confirms she was slow to sign up for the Spice Girls’ forthcoming world tour when she joins GRAHAM NORTON this week.

‘I was Reluctant Spice’ she says, ‘I was the last to make my decision because it was a hard decision to make .. I was scared we couldn’t do it again. It was a weird time of my life, I had a lot of personal s**t to get over after the Spice Girls.’ But she denies press rumours that she was bullied; ‘I never said that. How can they quote you? I wasn’t bullied at all. .. I just love the British tabloids, they’re so imaginative! In America they’re more of a joke.’

About the forthcoming single she says they all share the singing honours; ‘We all sing the chorus, we all have an equal part in the song .. it’s a very ‘Spicey’ ballad, it’s lovely to hear all our voices again, I love doing that kind of stuff.’

Mel also comes out in support of troubled Britney Spears. ‘Poor Britney, I feel bad for her. She used to be looked after. Obviously she’s not happy, she really needs someone to step in.’

And she also reveals she’s been round to the Princes’ for tea; ‘I met them a while ago. We [the Spice Girls] were invited to Highgrove for high tea. Some of us didn’t like cucumber sandwiches and we made this known to our hosts, and we were made peanut-butter on toast by Prince William (but) the kitchen was rubbish, like MFI!’ she said.

Graham is also joined by Hollywood royalty JOSH HARTNETT whose latest blockbuster 30 Days of Night is released in the UK next week; and RUFUS WAINWRIGHT performs his new single Tiergarten live in the studio.

Watch the interview clip (iTunes required).

The Graham Norton Show is a So Television production for BBC TWO.

LEGO Star Wars Blockbuster

As predicted earlier this month, Lucasarts has officially confirmed the release of LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga this holiday season. If you're going to nickel and dime your audience, there's worse ways!

Game Info
Building on the success of both LEGO® Star Wars™ "block-buster" videogames, LEGO® Star Wars™: The Complete Saga enables families to play through the events of all six Star Wars movies in one videogame for the first time ever. Developer Traveller's Tales takes full advantage of the unique capabilities of all three next-generation consoles, while also adding new characters, new levels and new features. Players can build and battle this fall on the Wii™, PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and Xbox 360™ videogame system from Microsoft. Traveller's Tales is also creating an entirely new Nintendo DS™ version, developed brick by brick from the ground up.

Features
*Families can commemorate the 30th anniversary of Star Wars by playing through the events of all six Star Wars movies in one videogame for the first time ever.
*Solve puzzles that encourage creative thinking through the use of teamwork and unique building situations only possible in a LEGO galaxy far, far away.
*Adds new levels, new characters and new features to the fun, creativity and tongue-in-cheek humor that made LEGO® Star Wars™: The Video Game and LEGO® Star Wars™ II: The Original Trilogy such huge hits.
*New levels, such as Episode II's never-before-played high-speed pursuit of bounty hunter Zam Wessell, further complete the entire Star Wars story.
*New playable characters like Watto, Zam Wessell, Boss Nass and more bring the total count to over 160.
*The upgraded Character Customizer includes all Prequel Trilogy characters for the first time, while also expanding its customization options well beyond those in LEGO Star Wars II, for millions more possibilities. Create cross-Trilogy mash-up characters like Han Windu and Lando Amidala.
*New game features include enhanced Force powers, new power-ups, and a new Challenge Mode.
*Levels from the original LEGO Star Wars are revamped to meet the gameplay evolutions of LEGO Star Wars II.

For the first time, every Prequel Trilogy character -- even those without the Force -- can build, as well as jump into and out of the vehicles they create.

Redesigned "Mos Espa Podrace" and "Gunship Cavalry" levels now encourage the open vehicle gameplay of LEGO Star Wars II.

New bonus levels and 10 additional Bounty Hunter Missions offer new challenges in the Prequel Trilogy.

Enhancements for every platform
Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3: The LEGO Star Wars premiere of online two-player co-op lets families play together from anywhere in the world for the first time.
Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3: New high-resolution LEGO models and characters, along with new environment graphics and special effects, create visuals unparalleled by any other LEGO galaxy far, far away.
Wii: Motion-sensitive inputs give you exciting new ways to control your LEGO Star Wars characters.
Nintendo DS: Created from the ground up by Traveller's Tales, this version incorporates exclusive touch-screen action and challenges.
Peek behind the scenes with the bonus video "The Building of LEGO Star Wars."

Of all the platforms, the Wii affords, potentially, the most compelling play paradigm.

"Do a Barrel Roll!"

Haven't had much sleep due, in part, to the debut of Lylat Wars (AKA Star Fox 64) on Virtual Console!

This blockbuster N64 title hasn't lost any of its 3D allure and it's perplexing that Nintendo never transfered the franchise to arcade as it has done with Mario Kart!

Despite the omission of Rumble Pak emulation. The Triforce is with this one!

August already!

...And, aside from template tweaks and seeing to affiliate business, I've had virtually no time to post! Apologies.

A friend asked me whether or not I've seen Superman Returns yet (or any other blockbuster for that matter)? The answer is no! The notion of going to the cinema is increasingly unappealing and it makes more sense, for me, to wait for the DVD release or, perhaps, more conveniently, the sky movies premiere. Why compromise, eh? What have I been watching?

*House of Wax
*Explorers
*Batman Begins
*The Italian Job
*Ghost World
*Die Hard With A Vengeance
*Robots
*Hitch
*King Arthur
*Domino

With the advent of 'free' Film 4, there's another reason not to make the journey to the Exeter Odeon or Picture House.

Westward Ho!

Once again I'm safely ensconced back in the South West of England following a most excellent week with relatives. The PSP arrived safely sans dead pixels. The only fly in the ointment is Sony's inexplicable decision not include a PC to PSP USB mini cable! The latest firmware update will have to wait.

Our trip to Blockbuster AKA "Blocky Buster" culminated in hiring Flightplan and The Island.

Flightplan is a stylish hodgepodge of poorly executed ideas and aspirations that exceeded the director's abilities. A claustrophobic, Hitchcockian thriller. A bereaved woman and her daughter are flying home from Berlin to America. At 30,000 feet the child vanishes and nobody admits she was ever on that plane. File under sub-Hitchcock and Spielberg.

The Island was an altogether improved experience. The chemistry between Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson is intense and they look like they're having fun, an ingredient that is in short supply in post Star Wars Hollywood.

Much has been made of the abundant advertising in The Island. However product placement is nothing new in commercial movies for example Back to the Future II and Minority Report. I smiled at the Apple Computer and MSN Search logos. Incidentally, unlike Google's fluctuating search engine antics, MSN Search still lists my portfolio site in pole position. Thanks Bill. The Calvin Klein commercial self consciously embraced post postmodernism as Jordan Two Delta admired her 'true' self Sarah Jordan (Scarlett Johansson lends her likeness to Calvin Klein amongst others).

Look East

Currently enjoying a break in Colchester, Essex, and savoring the charming delights of Rowhedge and Fingringhoe villages! If you're ever in this picturesque region of the UK, may I suggest a pub meal at the Whalebone public house? Their tuna and cheese melts are truly delicious!

Wonder if my Ceramic White PSP has arrived safely back home?

Time to visit Blockbuster (with one of my cousins). This will be a novelty as I haven't hired a movie in years!

Another World

Beautifully cinematic, impressively coherent, challenging and elegant; Another World (known as Out of this World in the States) is a stellar example of nineties game design and was the brainchild of one Eric Chahi and his team at Delphine Software.

You play Lester, the young physics professor, who suddenly finds himself in a strange alien world after a lightning striked his particle experiment.

In 1991 Another World became the poster child of Gallic gaming and adoring magazine editorials in C&VG and the official Nintendo magazine elevated it to blockbuster status. I first played this on the superlative Super Nintendo, which was, somewhat astonishingly, eclipsed by Sega's Mega Drive console port. Too late, I'd already sold the latter to a College friend who was trying to kick the console habit to no avail. Its stylistic cousin, Flashback, arrived in 1992, but never distilled the mood of its predecessor nor its downbeat ending. The Macintosh version was ported by Mac Play and requires Classic to run or there's the Windows version that runs in DOSBox.

The look and feel of Another World is unique to this day. Oddworld's developers clearly derived insperation from Delphine. The game's creator, Eric Chahi, has made the Game Boy Advance (GBA) ROM legally available here.

The Red Carpet treatment

Sony has announced the first films from its movie subsidiary Columbia TriStar to be released on UMD. Hellboy, xXx and Resident Evil 2. Not exactly critically acclaimed or blockbuster titles (aside from the bundled Spider-Man 2), but clearly outlining Sony's intention with the PSP. However, PSP users can downsample a two hour DVD onto a 512MB Memory Stick. Will UMD share a similar fate to its proprietary predecessors Betamax and MiniDisc?

Laguna chic

The North American release of Sony's PSP will indeed be a blockbuster package. The PSP Value Pack contains an unprecedented added-value package of accessories and entertainment content, including 32MB Memory Stick Duo, headphones with remote control, battery pack, AC adaptor, soft case and cleaning cloth, movie/music/game video sampler UMD disc including multiple non-interactive game demos, and for the first one million PSP Value Packs shipped, a special UMD video release of the feature film Spider-Man 2 from Sony Pictures Entertainment.

In light of shipping to Japanese and North American markets sans chip capacity. The highly anticipated European PSP launch remains unclear according to Bloomberg (a world class financial news service). Although I'm eager to get my hands on a PlayStation Portable, the 'quality control' problems - from stuck buttons to dead pixels - are an area of concern for a high value product and it's preferable to see these resolved in a timely fashion.

Sony is a vertically integrated global company and can leverage a formidable hardware (electronics) and software (film, music and television) portfolio. Clearly the PlayStation is now an integral part of their business model, which has suffered a fall in profitability with the success of online and a decline in offline markets. The masstige brand is being repositioned as a digital lifestyle product - a concept pioneered by and synonymous with Apple. PSX (DESR-7000) and PSP may intimate Sony's plans for PS3. Doubtlessly there will be future interoperability between the portable and home consoles. Think of the Mac mini and iPod as a good analogy.

Mini size me

E4 will be showing the first of two The OC specials before the UK premiere of S2 tonight. And Warner Bros is set to release the show on Mini-DVD in Q1. Mini-DVD was originally developed for the US children's market and intended to compete with Hasbro's VideoNow. The idea has caught-on and mainstream electronics companies are releasing players for a wider customer base. The 3" discs (remember CD singles from Japan?) and Gameboy Advance SP scale hardware is the epitome of an always-on-the-move lifestyle! The format will also go head-to-head with Sony's proprietary PSP.



Today's Macworld Keynote from Steve Jobs may be considered historic in years to come. The feted 'headless' iMac emerged as Mac mini. A miniature marvel with a pedigree that matches the coveted Cube (2000) sans confusing marketing and prohibitive price! The SuperDrive option, coupled with Airport Express and Bluetooth, equates to a scalable A/V blockbuster beneath your TV (via Mini DVI to Video Adapter).

The zealous emulation community has dubbed the Mac mini a 'super console' when used in conjunction with MacMAME, SNES9x and PCSX (amongst others). From this Mac User's perspective the Mac mini evoked memories of the Apple/Bandai Pippin (1995) games console. The Pippin was essentially a stripped down computer (see Microsoft's XBOX) and predicted the popularity of online play (repeat income from subscription services).

The petite package includes iLife '05 (iDVD 5, iMovie HD, iPhoto 5, iTunes 4.7 and Garageband 2) and Mac OS X 10.3 Panther. I'd recommend considering iWorks if your budget precludes Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac (further upgrades are imminent and I'll post any significant changes).

In summary. It's easy to envisage these selling like hot cakes on Amazon UK and I'll most certainly purchase a Mac mini sometime this year.

And don't get me started on the ubiquitous iPod franchise. The iPod shuffle is the perfect impulse purchase and birthday gift (casual hint to family and friends). How long before both show up in hit television dramas and pop videos? Apple is the new Sony...

Although there was no official announcement regarding the release date of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. 10.3 Panther continues to reap the rewards of further development as Apple begins seeding 10.3.8. This has ignited speculation that existing hardware (PowerBook, iBook and iMac G5) will be refreshed later in the month or early February.

A mini blockbuster

At long last Apple Europe has officially announced that the iPod mini is to be released to retail at the end of July! Boasting a superior design to the award-winning 3G iPod, the mini is the quintessence of compact and bijou chic. You can pre-order now.

Where will you be?

On what has been the hottest day of the year (thus far). A friend and me were holed up at our local "flea-pit" (Odeon screen 2) enduring The Day After Tomorrow. Witnessing Roland Emmerich's CGI carnage was cathartic. His direction vastly improved since the turkey that was Godzilla (the teaser trailer was a work of genius and lampoon).

Douglas Quaid's performance was a pitch perfect pastiche of Harrison Ford, and Sela Ward lent gravitas to a role that could have easily slipped into over sentimentality. The only caveat is that wolves are no substitute for the taut tension of velociraptors! The denouement following the 'Imperial speech' was surprisingly sombre!

TDAT is fun "fast food" and the perfect start to the summer blockbuster season.

You're going to need a bigger boat

With the premiere of Troy at Cannes, the season of the blockbuster is underway! There appears to be considerable hubbub surrounding the press junket Lollapalooza for DreamWorks Pictures' Shark Tale! Apparently the press are excluded from previews of the unfinished movie!

It will take more than a Finding Nemo clone and Shrek 2 to dislodge PIXAR's crown IMHO! Watch the new trailer from Disney/PIXAR The Incredibles in iTunes 4.5 (available for Mac and PC).

To set the mood, I watched Spielberg's seminal Jaws and Bay/Bruckheimer bombast Bad Boys. Bad Boys is a great demonstration disc and a timely reminder of Bay's skill before the bloated efforts of Armageddon and Pearl Harbour!

Roland Emmerich's The Day After Tomorrow promises an antidote to the flag waving of ID4, and clones The Poseidon Adventure albeit on a global scale! You can read Empire magazine's online review at your leisure/peril!

Of all the big budget summer movies, Spider-Man 2 is the one to watch! The first sequel to Spider-Man (2002) promises further character development, improved CGI and Doctor Octopus.

Whether or not James Cameron's Spider-Man treatment (ultimately mired in litigation) would have surpassed Sam Raimi's is now a moot point. Raimi can tell a compelling story (A Simple Plan and The Gift) even if the action scenes, like in the first Spider-Man, are serviceable!

I'm currently debating which new edition of the Spider-Man DVD to purchase? Do I go for the 'triple disc' pack or the Superbit release? I'm more interested in the quality of the movie, and therefore most likely will buy the latter as it includes DTS audio, which I consider superior to Dolby Digital! Panic Room (David Fincher) also receives the three disc treatment from Columbia TriStar later this summer.

If you're a regular reader of IMDb. Read my comments page for film reviews and showbiz ramblings!

In the wake of the MP3Concept Trojan and Mac OS X security fears/moral panic/hype. Mac Users may want to download this new freeware utility from The Iconfactory! Prevention is better than cure! According to various Mac rumour sites, it appears that the release of Mac OS X 10.3.4 is imminent.

Sony Style, one of my favourite sites, is sporting a new look.