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September 13th, 2000
Not Too Much New
Another weekend has passed... onto another boring
week.Well, we're in the middle of it now. I'm still in the
process of hiring additional staff members, so if you're
interested, please feel free to try out. Info is in the
Staff
section, as always. I've been getting a good amount of
applications, however, I'm still looking... so if you're
interested, be sure to try out!
Before I introduce two new additional members to this
site, it's time for my weekly box office run down. It was a
pretty weak weekend at the box office, and surprisngly, the
Keanu Reeves clunker "The Watcher", which opened to terrible
reviews, came in first with a little over nine million
dollars. Not bad. I heard Reeves was a little unhappy with
the movie. It was supposed to be an indie thriller, but
Universal became involved and tripled the budget, and there
were drastic script changes. Reeves did it as a favor to his
friend, the film's director, Joe Charbanic.
"Nurse Betty", which opened to mixed reviews, came in second
with 7.3 million. And the only other new release, Academy
Award® winning writer Christopher McQuarrie's directing
debut "The Way Of The Gun", came in ninth with a dismal 2.2
million. I guess the "exclusive Blair Witch 2" preview
didn't attract audiences as Artisan hoped.
Anyhow, this week's DVD releases aren't too exciting.
"Mission To Mars", last Spring's Brian De Palma sci-fi film,
was critically panned and a decent box office draw. I saw
the film, and I really couldn't stand it. The DVD sounds
pretty decent, so I'm sure I'll rent it and give you my run
down sometime soon...
Anyhow, I'm proud to introduce two new staff members on
the site, and I'm sure they will be worthy additions to the
DVDlaunch team.
Ren C. is a college student, who is hoping to
break into the entertainment industry. He also enjoys
cliches (as you can read in his
Staff
profile). Check out his spiffy review of the original
Austin
Powers.
Eric Dale, who is a big movie fan, is an aspiring
writer and director, and pretty big with home theaters and
the DVD format. He currently lives in Washington stage. Be
sure to read his excellent review of
Being
John Malkovich.
Also on some more bright notes, DVDlaunch is now
associated with the world's number one online bookchain,
amazon.com! Buy books
from them and save... and such. Yes, that will do. Be sure
to use the search thing on the bottom when looking or making
any purchases... it does help this site out in a big way!
Expect some more Amazon stuff on this site in the future...
so if you hate ads and such, tough luck.
I've also just gotten word the announcment that the
rumored date for "Chicken Run" (one of my favorite
films this year, especially since I'm a huge "Wallace and
Gromit" fan) is now official. The disc will be released on
November 21st (pretty early for a Dreamworks animated
film... "Prince Of Egypt" and "The Road To El Dorado"
(scheduled for 12/12) bowed/is bowing a good nine months
after the original theatrical release). This disc is a
special edition, and will include an anamorphic widescreen
transfer, DTS ES 6.1 (!) AND Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks as
well as surround. Also included is a commentary
(Participants TBA, I'm hoping it's Peter Lord and Nick
Park), the trailer, NBC's featurette which aired around the
time of the film, as well as the "HBO First Look". There are
also some nifty DVD ROM features including weblinks, fun
facts and a read along. The retail price will be a very nice
$26.99. I can't wait!
Well, that does it for now. I welcome our new staff
members, and until next time... be safe and uh... uh...
damn, I need a good catchphrase to end these updates.
- Zach B.
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