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If you mean the film on Blu with those extras, it does sound a very good deal. Especially for £11, considering I imported the making of documentary on DVD all by itself for around £15! Though the main issue will be to do with the changes to the soundtrack - all DVD releases and the US Blu have had some changes to one of the songs, so it would be interesting to know if this release will be the same.

If you mean the film, it is much more tongue in cheek than a Romero film (wonderfully so) and performs a difficult balancing act of being both funny and surprisingly horrifying, even haunting in parts (the sequence of the captured zombie describing the pain of living death, only satiated by eating live "Braaains!" is quite powerful, and the puppetry excellent). Also the opening sequence of one of the young punks leaving his gang behind, seeming to be eager to learn the ropes of his 9 to 5 job and being shown around by a colleague, which is the plot element that starts off all of the horror, strikes an eerie note in this age of the 'Big Society'!

I guess it depends how much you like punk rock, revived split dogs, lots of people screaming and arguing, naked graveyard dancing, large explosions and crematoriums!

For me, it's right up there with An American Werewolf in London, The Evil Dead, ReAnimator and Basket Case as a film that manages to combine effectively gut-wrenching horror with knowing humour* and get the balance pretty much perfect. That said, I haven't seen it in about 25 years, so I might feel differently about it now, but I'll almost certainly be buying this out of nostalgia. Oh, and where did they get all those skeletons with perfect teeth?

*After someone attempts to dispose of a zombie by the time-honoured Romero method of bashing its head in: "It worked in the movie! You mean the movie lied?"

Second Sight originally announced Farewell to the King for DVD release last year, but it's now coming out on 14 May and has just been certified by the BBFC.

The running time is about three minutes shorter than you'd expect from PAL speed-up - 109:25 for the DVD, 116:57 for the film release in 1989, with previous video releases at 112:19 or 112:56. It's also been uprated to a 12 certificate when all previous BBFC submissions were PG. I did a little digging and it seems that the US release was a different and slightly shorter edit from the UK one, so it seems that Second Sight have got hold of the US version for their DVD.

As for the film, I saw it in the cinema in 1989, but that's about all I remember of it.

The Les Enfants du Paradis Blu-Ray appears to have been delayed.

What is the new date then?

Maybe "delayed" was the wrong word - there is no new date, I'm just presuming/hoping that it hasn't been cancelled outright. I've sent them an e-mail to enquire.

Good news, Return of the Living Dead will include the original soundtrack as one of the audio options.

dwk wrote:Good news, Return of the Living Dead will include the original soundtrack as one of the audio options.

If I understood correctly, they are not releasing original MUSIC soundtrack on a separate channel but there's going to be two different audio options.1.original audio with slightly different dialogue and some altered music mixes.2.Theatrical audio.Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

Main selling point of the music soundtrack is of course Surfin dead by The Cramps,unavailable elsewhere.

JPJ wrote: If I understood correctly they are not releasing original MUSIC soundtrack on a separate channel but there's going to be two different audio options.1.original audio with slightly different dialogue and some altered music mixes.2.Theatrical audio.Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

Yes, that is what I meant. (I probably should have been clearer, but if it were an isolated music track I'd have said that.) The inclusion of the original audio is a nice surprise because the early word from Second Sight was that MGM would not authorize its use.

Thanks dwk,ROTLD on blu is good news indeed!

The new date for Les Enfants du Paradis is October 24th

With the Region-B locked "Return Of The Living Dead", if you have a non region B player and enter this disc, a "This is a region B" screen appears.

Apparently on some players, if you press the top menu button on the remote, it'll get bypassed...

Les enfants du paradis is now scheduled for 17th September, in a limited edition packaging.

BONUS FEATURES:

• Birth of Les Enfants Du Paradis - a new 55 minute documentary film about the making of Les Enfants Du Paradis and the collaboration of diretor Marcel Carne, writer Jacques Prevert and set designer Alexandre Trauner
• Once Upon A Time...Les Enfants Du Paradis (52 mins)
• The Restoration
• Restoration - Before and After
• Limited Edition Packaging

Walter Hill's SOUTHERN COMFORT has been submitted to the BBFC and also confirmed on Second Sight's new Facebook page. Looks like it may be DVD only.

edit: No, it will be Blu-Ray as well as confirmed by Second Sight to a Blu-Ray.com member. Good Stuff!

Fantastic news. One of his 2-3 best films, and endlessly re-watchable. Now, if only someone will put out Hard Times and The Driver on blu...

The Driver is getting a Japanese BD this autumn but it's 1080i.

Do you have a link for that, with a release date etc.?

check blu-ray.com and the international - Asia subforum, should still be on their front page.

Second Sight have said on Facebook that they're "looking into" releasing Possession on Blu-Ray

Second Sight on FB

Another classic we're currently working on is Walter Hill's cult favourite SOUTHERN COMFORT, scheduled for UK Blu-ray and DVD release by the end of the year. Walter Hill very kindly granted a rare interview for us and will feature in a 40 minute documentary, 'Who Will Live, Who Will Die' in which he talks about the making of this legendary film.

Sweet!

How can over 2 hours of documentary extras be called "strong yet slight"?
What does 'strong yet slight' mean anyway?

Approximately the same thing as 'tall yet short', 'stupid yet intelligent' and 'meaningful yet meaningless.'

Sounds like the reviewer is just using words they've seen used in other reviews, with no idea what they mean.

Is the reviewer doing a quantity versus quality argument? Such as there being lots of extras but they all skim the surface or are just promotional pieces? Something like that?