Of Tone Magazine’s 50 “must own” blu-rays 13 are not actually available in New Zealand legally, or won’t play on NZ purchased players due to region coding. Which is a bit of a waste of time, don’t you think? They also manage to spell Criterion incorrectly right the way through article which adds insult to injury.
After the jump, the list (the article itself is not online):
I bought a second hand Blu-ray player the other day on TradeMe. Now I know why:
Ron Frick’s 1992 masterpiece Baraka. Every home should have one.
UPDATE: Evidently this is a Region 1 release only at the moment and the Blu-ray region coding has yet to be broken. NZ is Region 2.
Dave Kehr reviews the new Godfather Trilogy Blu-ray restoration (a restoration in consultation with original cinematographer Gordon Willis) for The New York Times:
The effect is not unlike that of a pristine 35-millimeter print projected in perfect focus — a rare enough phenomenon in a movie theater and, until quite recently, inconceivable in the living room.
This is a Holy Grail moment. With Criterion about to start releasing on Blu-ray before the end of the year, I going to have to make the leap. Curses.
