Tag Archives: iTunes

The War of the Worlds red title frame. From the 1953 version on iTunes in HD.

The War of the Worlds (1953) iTunes HD Review

The 1953 adaptation of H.G.Wells science-fiction classic The War of the Worlds produced by George Pal has been long absent from Blu-ray, I thought I’d do a quick review of the 1080p iTunes HD version.

After Paramount purchased the rights to the book in the mid 1920s the project went though a number of false starts. After being offered to Cecile B. DeMille, Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, it finally landing in the lap of George Pal, who was by that point a science-fiction veteran with Destination Moon and When Worlds Collide already under his belt.

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Auntie Mame - opening title

Auntie Mame – iTunes HD Review

Auntie Mame is a 1958 classic camp-comedy staring Rosalind Russel. It has yet to be released on Blu-Ray, so I thought I’d give the iTunes HD version a look.

Not well known outside the US, I came across it when I heard an interview with Elizabeth Banks, who described her portrayal of ‘Effie Trinket‘ in the Hunger Games films as being heavily influenced by the Rosalind Russel version of Auntie Mame.

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Elysium Title Frame

Elysium – iTunes 1080p Review

Elysium is a dystopian science-fiction thriller written and directed by Neill Blomkamp. Blomkamp comes from a generation of film-makers who are intimately familiar with PC based special-effects tools, and he very competently wrings a two hundred million dollar movie from a one hundred and fifteen million dollar budget. I hadn’t managed to catch this yet, and thought it might be good to checkout the iTunes 1080p rental.

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