Once again I am back with a look at three more titles from Buena Vista and as they have promised we have special features on two of these to add to the value of these expensive UMDs. Yup, I said expensive, and cost is going to be my first thought of this edition since I haven't really broached the subject to date. I have steered clear of the topic primarily because these videos do look phenomenal on the PSP screen, and the sound is excellent through the supplied ear buds, but something has to be said. What they are charging for these things is a bit ridiculous.

The three titles I am looking at this time are Kill Bill: Volume 2, From Dusk Till Dawn and Armageddon. Yeah, three nice titles and perfect for a road trip or an airplane flight, but if you wanted to pick up all three at Amazon.com right now you are going to be spending a minimum of $67.47, and that is before tax. Now, let's say you wanted to pick up the DVD editions of these three films from Amazon, that is going to run you only $35.25 before tax… CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!?!?

Now, I own a PSP, I love these movies on the PSP and I think they are great when I know I am going to need something to occupy my mind for a few hours of downtime, but I would have a hard time convincing myself, or anyone I know for that matter, that spending and additional $32 on a format that can only play in a handheld videogame system is worthwhile despite the clarity and quality of the presentation.

Yeah, you heard me, these damned things look and sound phenomenal. Also, Buena Vista has one upped the competish by adding special features to From Dusk Till Dawn including a making of featurette, deleted scenes, a look on the set and a couple of music videos. Along with that, Kill Bill: Volume 2 also offers up the deleted scene featuring David Carradine and Michael Jai White, it is a damn cool scene. Armageddon does not offer any additional features, but I am just a sucker for that movie so I enjoyed previewing it as well.

All of that said, if I were to recommend any of these films for purchase I would certainly tell you to buy From Dusk Till Dawn, only because it is one of my guilty pleasure films. Clooney is awesome in the first half of this feature and then Salma Hayek brings you to your knees in the second half. On top of that there are vampires and Cheech Marin, where can you go wrong? Then there is Kill Bill 2, which goes right along with the earlier release of Kill Bill: Volume One on UMD, these are two great features and the way they are chaptered out it makes for a perfect "on the road" viewing schedule as you can just fast forward to your favorite part and check that out alone or the whole feature if you have the time.

Armageddon is a toss-up, I could do with or without it in my collection, I enjoyed the movie but a purchase may be a bit too much of a commitment, especially at these prices. I would probably rather purchase the Criterion Collection DVD first.

I hope my ranting and rambling will help you decide what is the best way to go here. The PSP seems to be the latest and greatest thing, but once something new comes out where are you going to be left with all these movies that only play on one format? That question probably wouldn't even need to be asked if stores would simply charge reasonable prices for these things, I am sure they would fly off the shelves if they were something like $10 each, but at almost $23 it hardly makes it worth it.

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It has been a little while since I last brought up Sony PSP movies and I am now back with a look at six more

titles as well as mention of a whole slew of new UMDs added to the database.

First off let's chat about a few of the UMDs that hit shelves recently starting with

href="http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/umddvd.php?id=1780">King Arthur (The Director's Cut).

Buena Vista Entertainment didn't even waste their time releasing the theatrical version of King Arthur

on UMD, and I am still unsure why they opted to go for the watered down version in theaters when it was

obviously far inferior to the Antoine Fuqua's original bloody vision.

I for one am a huge fan of epic war tales and Fuqua as well, which left me disappointed at the

theaters with the tame version Touchstone released but highly satisfied with the much bloodier and vicious

version found on unrated DVD, the version you will see here on the PSP and it loses none of its flare or gusto in

the mini format transition. Blood still flies and Arthur still reigns, this is certainly a title I would recommend to

your PSP collection.

On top of blood and medieval action you also get Keira Knightley scantily clad in leather straps, an excellent

performance by Clive Owen and a very cool look at Lancelot turned in by Ioan Gruffudd who will be featured in

the Fantastic Four later this week.

As for features this one has none, which is not commonplace with Buena Vista's releases, but it is previews

only for this title.

King Arthur was released on UMD format on June 21st,

href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/external-search/102-0977828-7300162?keyword=B0009KQOKQ&

mode=blended&tag=ropeofsilicon-20&Submit.x=13&Submit.y=7&Submit=Go" target="_blank">click here

to buy it now from Amazon.com.

src="http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/Images/stories/2005/jul/psproundup/t2.jpg" alt="Terminator 2" border="0"> src="http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/Images/stories/2005/jul/psproundup/punisher.jpg" alt="The Punisher" border="0"> src="http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/Images/stories/2005/jul/psproundup/vanwilder.jpg" alt="Van Wilder" border="0"> src="http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/Images/stories/2005/jul/psproundup/saw.jpg" alt="Saw" border="0"> src="http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/Images/stories/2005/jul/psproundup/openwater.jpg" alt="Open Water" border="0">

If you couldn't tell from the above images, we are now moving into the first batch of UMDs released by Lions

Gate Films and what an array they give us with

href="http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/umddvd.php?id=1719">Terminator 2,

href="http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/umddvd.php?id=1720">Saw,

href="http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/umddvd.php?id=1721">Van Wilder,

href="http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/umddvd.php?id=1718">Open Water and

href="http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/umddvd.php?id=1717">The Punisher.

These titles were obviously carefully chosen to ensure they hit home with a specific audience, and while I

applaud Lions Gate for their selections, I think the selective movie watcher will be turned off by most of these

choices, but I did enjoy a couple of them.

First off Lions Gate has not yet added special features to their PSP movies. All of these releases come with

previews of their soon to come UMD releases, but as for bonus goodies there are none to be found. It is a small

detail, but a detail nonetheless.

Next up, the movies themselves. Personally I enjoyed all five of these films the first time I saw them, and some

the second, but only a couple of them anything beyond that. I can watch Terminator 2 any time, day or

night, and even The Punisher is a satisfying flick in my opinion and Van Wilder I can watch

when my funny bone needs a jolt, but Open Water and Saw have pretty much run their course

with me.

As I was previewing both of these movies I slid them into the player and after about 10-15 minutes found

myself fast-forwarding through the features trying to find something good… Funny thing was… I couldn't. The

shock and intrigue Saw had on me the first couple of times was gone, and as for Open Water,

it just didn't have any kind of lasting impression as it barely did the first time.

As for video and audio quality these all reign supreme as did King Arthur, and as I have said in past

Round Ups PSP movies are always best watched with the ear bud headphones in place as the onboard

speakers just don't do the sound quality justice.

Overall, out of these five titles a definite purchase is Terminator 2, and secondary choices would be

Van Wilder and The Punisher, but I would steer clear of Saw and Open Water,

they just don't have the multiple viewing mojo you would like in this type of a format. Click on any of the cover

art above to order yourself a copy of any of these titles.

At the beginning of this segment I told you there was a whole slew of new PSP movies added to the database,

and I wasn't lying, check out the list of new flicks coming your way in July and August below and click on each

one for additional info, a look at the artwork and Buy Now links.

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