Christopher Nolan

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Batman Begins explores the origins of the Batman legend and the Dark Knight’s emergence as a force for good in Gotham. In the wake of his parents’ murder, disillusioned industrial heir Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) travels the world seeking the means to fight injustice and turn fear against those who prey on the fearful. He returns to Gotham and unveils his alter-ego: Batman, a masked crusader who uses his strength, intellect and an array of high tech deceptions to fight the sinister forces that threaten the city.

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Steven Soderbergh

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Bluray Disc

View More about Ocean’s Trilogy (Ocean’s Eleven/ Ocean’s Twelve/ Ocean’s Thirteen) [Blu-ray]

Ridley Scott

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Director Ridley Scott’s triumphant Gladiator is an unparalleled combination of vivid action and extraordinary storytelling that earned five Oscars® including Best Picture. The Blu-ray presentation will include both the original theatrical version of the film as well as the extended version in 1080p High Definition with English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, French 5.1 Dolby Digital and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, as well as English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Korean subtitles. The two-disc set also will feature over four hours of bonus material including, but not limited to, the following:

• Audio Commentary—Two separate commentaries accompany the original theatrical version and extended version of the film.

• The Scrolls of Knowledge—The original trivia track has been newly enhanced with focus points allowing viewers to access a series of new behind-the-scenes featurettes exploring key scenes and how they relate to the historical accuracy depicted in the film. The extended version of the film also includes a deleted scene marker.

• Visions From Elysium: Topic Marker—Viewers can tag moments of interest throughout either version of the film, allowing them to create “shopping lists” of topics to learn more about. Thanks to the Blu-ray player’s memory, the topics will automatically be loaded when Disc 2 is inserted, giving viewers immediate access to featurettes and galleries of interest.

• Strength And Honor: Creating The World of Gladiator—The definitive documentary on the origin, production and impact of the Oscar®-winning classic. The documentary includes an all-new Enhanced Viewing Mode allowing viewers access to additional interviews and behind-the-scenes material.

• The Making of Gladiator—HBO First Look special.

• Gladiator Games: The Roman Bloodsport—Learning Channel special.

• Hans Zimmer: Scoring Gladiator—An exploration of the rousing soundtrack.

• My Gladiator Journal—Personal diary of the young actor who played Lucius.

• Image & Design—Featurettes and galleries covering the production design, storyboards, costumes and more.

• Abandoned Sequences & Deleted Scenes

• VFX Explorations: Germania & Rome—Shot deconstruction with the visual effects artists.

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Winner of five Academy Awards® including Best Picture, the exhilarating epic Braveheart is one of the most anticipated films on Blu-ray and continues to be beloved by fans and critics alike. The film will be presented in 1080p High Definition with English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD, French 5.1 Dolby Digital and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital and English, English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles. Among the more than two hours of new special features to be included on Braveheart are:

• Interactive Timelines—Three distinct timelines featuring a combination of video, images, text and audio that can be accessed linearly or randomly. o Production: A comprehensive chronology of the motion picture from conception through theatrical release, from a behind-the-scenes point of view. o Historical: Chronological modules feature Scotland’s greatest patriot, along with historical places, figures and events surrounding his life and struggle. o Fiction: A comprehensive timeline identifying the chronological events of the film.

• Braveheart: A Look Back— Features new interviews with members of the cast and crew reminiscing about their experiences making the film and its enduring impact on cinema.

• Smithfield: Medieval Killing Fields—Relates the remarkable history of Smithfield, which for centuries was regularly filled with the roars of crowds, regal fanfares and rowdy games. Smithfield is also known as the site of William Wallace’s execution, along with other terrifying spectacles when heretics, rebels and criminals were put to death. • Battlefields of the Scottish Rebellion— Two major Scottish battlefields, Falkirk and Bannockburn, will be presented as 3D models that can be explored for further investigation into the military strategies and timetables employed in each. Topography, weapons, troop movements, and leadership data can also be accessed. An alternate playing mode will allow the story of each battle to unfold in an “automated” fashion, much like the interactive dioramas displayed at historical site museums around the world.

View More about Braveheart [Blu-ray]

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Bonus Features:
In Movie Experience
Commentaries
Written Introduction by The Wachowski brothers (20 cnt.)
Philosophers Commentary by Dr. Cornel West, Ken Wilber
Critics Commentary by Todd McCarthy, John Powers, David Thomson
Cast and Crew Commentary by Carrie-Anne Moss, Zach Staenberg and John Gaeta
Composer Commentary by Don Davis with Music Only Track
The Matrix Revisited
Behind The Matrix
Making The Matrix
The Dance of the Master: Yuen Wo Ping’s Blocking Tapes
The Bathroom Fight and Wet Wall
The Code of the Red Dress
The Old Exit: Wabash and Lake
Agent Down
But Wait- There’s More
Take the Red Pills [2 selections]
Follow the White Rabbit [9 selections
Audio
The Music Revisited [41 audio tracks]
Marilyn Manson Music Video Rock is Dead
Trailers
The Matrix Teaser
The Matrix Trailer
The Matrix TV Spots

View More about The Matrix 10th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray Book [Blu-ray]

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View More about Action Hero Collection (The Day After Tomorrow / I, Robot / The Terminator) [Blu-ray]

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Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 12/02/2008 Rating: Pg13

View More about The X-Files Movie 2-Pack (I Want to Believe / Fight the Future) [Blu-ray]

Michael Wadleigh

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This director’s cut of Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music, released to coincide with the 40th anniversary of that legendary concert event, has to be one of the most impressive Blu-Ray releases of 2009 or any other year–and that’s even before you put the discs in your player. The box is designed to resemble a faux fringe jacket (with an iron-on patch attached), and inside are all manner of shiny bells and whistles, including a lucite paperweight with images from the event, a reprint of LIFE Magazine’s original festival feature, and reproductions of various Woodstock memorabilia, right down to notes left by concertgoers (”Please meet me in front of stage. I have your insulin pills”) and a three-day ticket to the event. And hey, if you’re looking for subtitles in Finnish, Thai, or Polish, you’ve come to the right place.

The movie itself now weighs in at nearly four hours long, and is presumably the way director Michael Wadleigh wanted it in the first place. The Blu-Ray transfer is definitely an upgrade, as is the soundtrack, which was originally recorded on 8-track tape under less-than-ideal conditions. (Using modern digital technology, audio engineer Eddie Kramer, who was hunkered down in what passed for a recording booth at the Woodstock site, has painstakingly restored the soundtrack–even bringing in some of the musicians to re-play their original parts, as on Santana’s “Evil Ways,” one of the previously unreleased bonus performances. Considering that the event is something of a sacred cow by now, this trick may strike some as blasphemous. Then again, this is hardly the first time that a live concert recording has been sweetened, re-recorded, or otherwise enhanced. In fact, it’d be hard to find one that wasn’t. And the additions would have gone largely unnoticed if we hadn’t been told about them.) In the end, though, there’s only so much improvement possible, and Woodstock was never about technical brilliance anyway. Nor was it mostly about the music, either. Nor was it mostly about the music, either. There are some terrific performances, from acoustic numbers by Richie Havens and Crosby, Stills & Nash to powerful electric contributions from Santana, Sly & the Family Stone, and Joe Cocker. But the truth is that Monterey Pop, which happened two years earlier, was the more exciting concert, and of the several artists who appeared on both bills (including Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Who, Jefferson Airplane, and others), all of them made better music at the California festival. But Woodstock was always less a concert than an overall cultural happening, and Wadleigh and his crew, often employing an effective split-screen technique, do a superb job of corralling and conveying the remarkable atmosphere and spirit of it; you didn’t have to be there to recognize that this was the zenith of the Age of Aquarius (it was also the twilight; with Altamont looming, things would never be this peaceful and idealistic again).

Of principal interest on the second disc will be two hours of additional musical performances, including both additional tunes by those who are in the main feature and appearances by five artists who for various reasons (ego, money, quality, time) never made it into the film at all; of the latter, Creedence Clearwater Revival is excellent, Paul Butterfield and Johnny Winter are good, Mountain is mediocre, and the Grateful Dead, with an interminable (38 minutes!) “Turn on Your Love Light,” are awful (a special Blu-Ray-only feature lets users organize this material as they see fit). Meanwhile, “From Festival to Feature,” a new, hour-long look at the making of the movie, is absorbing and minutely detailed. The Amazon-exclusive content (included on disc 2) is an additional 20 minutes of never-before-seen performance footage in high definition from Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe and the Fish plus three bonus featurettes. –Sam Graham

Product Description
1969 was a year unlike any other. Man first set foot on the moon. The New York Mets won the World Series against all odds. And for three days in the rural town of Bethel, New York, half a million people experienced the single most defining moment of their generation; a concert unprecedented in scope and influence, a coming together of people from all walks of life with a single common goal: Peace and music. They called it Woodstock. One year later, a landmark Oscar®-winning documentary captured the essence of the music, the electricity of the performances, and the experience of those who lived it. Newly remastered, the film features legendary performances by 17 best selling artists. Bonus content includes: • Customize your own Woodstock playlist!• BD Live Enabled Features Including Media Center, My Commentary, & Live

Blu-ray UCE feature list:

• Amazon-exclusive bonus content (included on disc 2) with never-before-seen performance footage in hi-def from Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe and the Fish plus three bonus featurettes
• 40th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition includes:
• -Lucite display with images from the festival
• -60-page commemorative LIFE Magazine reprint
• -Iron-on Woodstock patch
• -Woodstock fact sheet
• -Reproductions of festival memorabilia, including handwritten notes and a three-day ticket
• New retrospective: The Museum at Bethel Woods: The Story of the Sixties and Woodstock
• Woodstock: Untold Stories: Over two hours of never-before-seen musical performances by Joan Baez, Paul Butterfield, Canned Heat, Joe Cocker, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Mountain, Santana, Sha Na Na, the Who, and Johnny Winter (Exclusive to Blu-ray: customize your own Woodstock playlist)
• Woodstock: From Festival to Feature: comprehensive featurette gallery chronicling the festival and the filming from start to finish, interwoven with interviews from Martin Scorsese, Grace Slick, director Michael Wadleigh, Woodstock Festival executive producer Michael Lang, and more
• Enhanced BD-Live bonus features

Stills from Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music Director’s Cut

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Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 11/18/2008 Rating: Nr

View More about Marvel Blu-ray 3-Pack (Fantastic Four / Fantastic Four - Rise of the Silver Surfer / Daredevil) [Blu-ray]

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cafeblu-ray.com says: Who you gonna call?

Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis wrote the script, but Bill Murray gets all the best lines and moments in this 1984 comedy directed by Ivan Reitman (Meatballs). The three comics, plus Ernie Hudson, play the New York City-based team that provides supernatural pest control, and Sigourney Weaver is the love interest possessed by an ancient demon. Reitman and company are full of original ideas about hobgoblins–who knew they could “slime” people with green plasma goo?–but hovering above the plot is Murray’s patented ironic view of all the action. Still a lot of fun, and an obvious model for sci-fi comedies such as Men in Black. –Tom Keogh

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