HD-DVD Hits Stores Today

The first format war of the 21st Century is launched today as HD-DVDs hit stores ahead of the Blue-Ray DVDs being supported by Sony and others. Unquestionably, the movies in either format will look terrific, with all sorts of smoothly integrated extras that will make today's DVDs seem dowdy in comparison. Oddly, Universal is releasing ONE title today: the fun sci-fi movie "Serenity." Next Tuesday comes "Apollo 13" and the ridiculously awful "Doom." Two weeks later comes "Cinderella Man," "Jarhead" and "Assault On Precinct 13" and finally on May 23 we get "The Chronicles of Riddick" and "Van Helsing" (two more godawful movies), U-571 and "The Bourne Supremacy." Why dribble these out over the first few weeks? Why include such utter dogs that only someone desperate for a movie to play on their new HD-DVD player would buy it, but still hate you for the lack of options? And why would anyone commit themselves to one format over the other until this war is over? When it comes to Blue-Ray versus HD-DVD, I suggest you be Switzerland.