Reeling

The best movie of the year - I hope

Here is the red-band (i.e. R-rated) trailer for the Coen Brothers' No Country For Old Men, which is my blind pick for being my favorite movie of the year (blind because I haven't seen it yet, but I can feel it in my gut). If you've read Cormac McCarthy's novel, tell me if the movie doesn't look like the Coens nailed it.

Oops. Never mind.

After pitching a fit over the decision by Paramount Pictures/DreamWorks to stop releasing all their movies on the Blu-ray format (including the upcoming Transformers), Michael Bay has changed his mind and decided he will direct Transformers 2 after all. Literally overnight, he has also become a fan of HD-DVDs.

The price of war

Yesterday's surprise announcement by Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation that they would immediately stop releasing films on Blu-ray discs and go exclusively with the HD-DVD camp is starting to have repercussions.

Director Michael Bay, whose smash hit Transformers is due on home video in December, has posted an angry message on his personal blog, saying that there will be "no Transformers 2" for him due to Paramount's decision to snub the Blu-ray crowd.

Interestingly, Bay threw no such tantrums when the Walt Disney Co. released Pearl Harbor on Blu-ray last year but not on HD-DVD. Oh, the hypocrisy.

Kubrick, uncensored

Warner Brothers is finally going to release Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut in an unrated (i.e. uncensored) version in the U.S., after having released it in pretty much every other country in the world.

A two-disc special edition DVD of Kubrick's final film, which was not universally adored but I loved, will hit stores on Oct. 23, along with new editions of 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Full Metal Jacket and The Shining.

The discs, which will also be available on HD-DVD and Blu-ray, will feature a slew of brand new supplements, such as an audio commentary by Malcolm McDowell on Clockwork. If you're a Kubrick fan, I don't have to tell you how exciting all this is.