Hello Verdict readers. Some of you may recognize my name from various reviews or the random and occasional post in the Jury Room. I was an active Judge from 2002 to 2007 but then needed to take a break and attend to other matters. After feeling that itch bubble up recently (most likely in conjunction with the upgrades to my home theater system), Chief Justice Stailey was kind enough to accept my request to return back to the Verdict after my prolonged sabbatical. I wanted to take a quick minute and say hello to everyone, it's a pleasure to be back, and I look forward to sharing my thoughts with you for another five years. I hope my style will have improved and that my reviews - the few that I do (never been all that prolific) - will tickle your fancy. As we all do, I welcome your feedback and look forward to some lively discussions.

"We got a live one!" The Ghostbusters make their Blur-ray debut June 16, as Sony unveils a 25th anniversary edition with three BD exclusive features, as well as a porting over of the bonus materials from their 2005 gift set release.

All-New Exclusive Special Features include...

* Slimer Mode: Picture-in-Picture Graphical Viewing Experience with an examination of the spook-hunters’ firehouse headquarters, an in-depth exploration of the creatures in the Ghostbusters mythology, behind-the-scenes discussions of making the movie, new interviews with cast, crew, and special effects artists interviews, and "much more." Note: That last tag means they're still working on adding stuff to the mix, or whatever else they plan to include isn't worth much at all.
* Featurette: Ecto-1: Resurrecting the Classic Car
* Ghostbusters Garage: Ecto-1 Gallery

Additional Previous Released Special Features include...
* Commentary with Ivan Reitman, Harold Ramis, and Joe Medjuck
* The Making of Ghostbusters (1984)
* Interviews with Cast and Crew
* SFX Team - Includes Before and After Multi-Angle Explorations
* 10 Deleted Scenes
* Storyboard Comparisons

This release is timed to coincide with the premier of Atari's GHOSTBUSTERS video game, which was demo'd at the 2008 Comic Con. Honestly, it looked impressive, with a story by Ramis, Landis, and Aykroyd. Now, if they can actually get GHOSTBUSTERS 3 into production, that would be something worth shouting about.

Warner Home Video has just announced the release of several high profile DVD and BD releases for 2009.

Mar 10
The Batman Anthology (Blu-ray) ($129.95)
The first four films -- Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Forever, Batman and Robin -- available for the first time on Blu-ray. Includes 18 hrs of bonus material and a digital copy of Batman.

Apr 14
Skins: Volume 2 ($39.98)
On the heels of the Jan 13 release of Series 1 (aka "Volume 1"), BBC Video follows up quickly with Series 2 (or "Volume 2"). This is truly one of the most compelling series to grace television and not to be missed. It's a show about teens written by twenty-somethings, not forty year olds trying to recall what life was like for them as kids. Special features include bonus footage, behind the scenes, and more. BTW, Series 3 moves forward without the original cast, save for Tony's sister Effy and her new friend Pandora.

Apr 21
Squidbillies: Volume 2 ($29.98)
The Adult Swim takeover continues with the second release in the series.

May 5
Doctor Who: The E-Space Trilogy ($49.98)
Another great Tom Baker arc is remastered for DVD. Adric arrives, Romana and K-9 depart, and the Doctor battles vampires in this three disc collection which includes Full Circle, State of Decay, and Warriors Gate.

Disney has just announced their Blu-ray lineup for 2009. This is only a partial list with "more to follow," but it shows they're making a concerted effort to release titles across all their many properties. The other important aspect is that many of these releases will also contain a digital copy and/or standard DVD copy, to "future proof" consumer collections. Interesting. We'll see how long this lasts.

NORTH AMERICA
Space Buddies (Feb 03)
Miracle at St. Anna (Feb 10)
Pretty Woman (Feb 10)
High School Musical (Feb 17)
High School Musical 3 (Feb 17)
Beverly Hills Chihuahua (Mar 03)
Pinocchio: Platinum Edition (Mar 10)
Snow White: Platinum Edition (Oct)
Monsters Inc. (TBD)
A Bugs Life (TBD)
Rounders: 10th Anniversary (TBD)
Lost: Seasons One and Two (TBD)
Sin City (TBD)
Microcosmos (TBD)
Greatest Game Ever Played (TBD)
Miracle (TBD)
Sling Blade (TBD)
Pulp Fiction (TBD)
Good Will Hunting (TBD)

EUROPE
Space Buddies (Feb)
High School Musical 3 (Feb)
Pinocchio (Mar)
Beverly Hills Chihuahua (Apr)
Monsters Inc. (TBD)

JAPAN
Pinocchio (Mar)
Tinker Bell (Apr)
WALL-E (Apr)
High School Musical 3 (TBD)
Beverly Hills Chihuahua (TBD)
Monsters Inc. (TBD)

Another survey suggestion was for Verdict to provide more up-to-date DVD news, as it becomes available. You can always find television and movie news at TV Verdict and Cinema Verdict respectively, but we haven't been doing DVD news in quite a while. So, we're going to play with this for a while and see if people find it valuable.