I'm actually skipping the blu-ray and already ordered the DVD for the first one. I think blu-ray is well and good for recent blockbusters, but we're really destroying the illusion of a lot of older cinema by putting things into high def that were never intended to be. The reviews I've read of the blu-ray transer for Friday the 13th say that it only highlights the flaws in the makeup FX and the general low budgetness of the production. You know, I've defended blu-ray on here and I may be retracting a lot of those remarks soon. Is it a superior technology to DVD? Sure, in technical terms and in sheer storage capacity. But why do you want to destroy the illusion of film so badly? Why this trendy push towards high def that's taken over every single thing in the lives of people who otherwise can't comprehend what high def even means? Outside of an elitist, niche home theater market, blu-ray - like laserdisc before it - offers truly little in the way of expanding cinema. I was watching one of the Pirates flicks on blu-ray the other day. I don't need to see the makeup lines on Keira Knightley or stare at the pores on Johnny Depp's nose. I think someone jumped the shark here. Spielberg once held the argument that film should be preserved as just that, film, and was largely against the growing digital trend of the time. Since then, he's been won over, but his basic argument of film existing as this grainy-upon-closer-look artform still holds true. It's taken over a decade for many of the horror and generally whacked out indie videos of my video collection to make their way to DVD. Many were lost in the transition. More still will be lost in a transition to a format that most indie distributors can't afford and that there's no market hunger for. I'm sorry for the rant, but I just spent some time really kicking myself about which version to order and just finally threw my hands up. I think despite what the studios want to desperately push to boost the (for the first time since DVD's debut) lagging sales of home video, standard DVDs will win out because they are more compatible, portable, affordable, and simply good enough for the demands of 99.999% of the films being released as well as their intended audiences.

Sorry will be off this round with This I Love the next (if they don't tie). Then, as usual, it's down to Better and TWAT. TWAT has the advantage amongst the fans on these boards and will narrowly edge it out. So it has been predicted and so it shall be.

As I unfold the mystery
I change the course of history
With premonitions from the void
Will you live, will you die
Will your worlds collide?

As a Terminator fan, some of my fears for this latest installment are laid to rest because the simple casting of Christian Bale leads me to believe there's SOMETHING redeeming about this project. I've been a fan since Velvet Goldmine, and Bale's not one to go for crap. An actor of his caliber signing onto a McG flick...the script must be damn near impeccable. All that said, the media's had it wrong with this guy from the get go. He's not media friendly, that much has always been clear. They drove him away as a child after Empire of the Sun, and after achieving cult icon status he went "mainstream" with the Bat flicks and the mainstream press is right there to pretend they've been along for the ride the whole time. First it was the shit about his mother that was blown way out of proportion last summer. Now this. Let the man be.

Sorry

But I didn't vant to do eet.

And just like that, the Estranged video makes so much more sense.