BACK ONLINE...

Well, it's certainly been a while since I posted here last.  Eleven months, to be precise. It's been a strange and trying time for all of us, and I thought it was about time I started getting back into the habit of posting on my blog again.

Actually, to tell the truth, it was the arrival through my letter box of a nice package of blu-ray contributor copies that really got me thinking about writing on my blog again.

Since we last spoke I've been working on several projects - some are still being worked on right now as I type this, while others have been finished and sent out into the world.

I've recorded a few more audio commentaries for various blu-ray releases in the last year or so - including the little league baseball comedy The Bad News Bears (1976) and its sequel The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training (1977); the racing comedy Let It Ride (1989) starring Richard Dreyfuss; crime thriller Double Jeopardy (1999) starring Tommy Lee Jones and Ashley Judd; stylish neo-noir thriller House of Cards (1968) starring George Peppard and Orson Welles; and comedy sequel The Odd Couple II (1998) starring Walter Matthau and Jack Lemon.

Incidentally, The Odd Couple II is part of a beautiful 3-disc box set called The Odd Couple Collection which includes the original 1968 classic movie, the 1998 sequel and 10 episodes of the classic 1970s series starring Jack Klugman and Tony Randall (full specs below)

THE ODD COUPLE

Special Features and Technical Specs:

• 1080p high-definition transfer by Paramount Pictures
• Audio commentary by Charlie Matthau and Chris Lemmon
• Audio commentary by film historians Nathaniel Thompson and Howard S. Berger (2021)
• In the Beginning – featurette
• Matthau & Lemmon / Lemmon & Matthau – featurette
• Memories from the Set – featurette
• Inside The Odd Couple – featurette
• The Odd Couple: A Classic – featurette
• Isolated audio track featuring Neal Hefti’s score
• Theatrical Trailer
• Film and Production Photo Galleries

THE ODD COUPLE II

Special Features and Technical Specs:

• 1080p high-definition transfer by Paramount Pictures
• Audio commentary by film historian Scott Harrison (2021)
• Two Grumpy Men: Directing The Odd Couple II – interview with director Howard Deutch (2021)
• Promotional interviews with actors Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Jean Smart, writer Neil Simon and director Howard Deutch
• Jack Lemmon, America’s Everyman – 1996 documentary
• Walter Matthau, Diamond in the Rough – 1997 documentary
• Theatrical Trailer
• Photo Gallery

THE ODD COUPLE ON TELEVISION

Special Features and Technical Specs:

• 1080p high-definition transfers
• Audio commentary by series executive producer Garry Marshall on “They Use Horseradish, Don’t They?”
• Two Original Series Promos
• Gag reel with audio introduction by producer Garry Marshall
• Opening titles without narration
• Isolated music and effects audio track on every episode
• Series Photo Gallery

Collectible hard-box packaging on the first 1500 units.

As they're international labels and have only just been released in this last week or so, I'm still waiting for my contributor copies of The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training and The Odd Couple II, but they're on their way to me and I can't wait to get my grubby mitts on them and add them to my HD film collection.

I've written a few film essays for blu-ray collectors booklets and for boutique label websites - including 101 Films and Arrow Video, and I have some more lined up including for the BFI (the British Film Institute).  I also have more audio commentaries in the pipeline (in fact, I'm working on my next one right now and should be recording it some time next week), and I'll have more information on those as and when I can spill the beans.

I also recently wrote a piece for another of the Outside In anthologies - this time the second volume in their The X-Files series also covers Millennium, The Lone Gunmen and Harsh Realm. My piece is on the two-part story Sein Und Zeit / Closure. 5% of the retail price of each copy sold goes to the Avert HIV/AIDS charity.

I'm also working on a couple of novels and a couple of audio dramas...but more about those a little later.

For now, it's great to be back and I'll be posting on here several times a week from now on, so make sure you keep coming back regular to keep updated.