Got the BD release here in my sweaty palms.
All of the extras are as reported & that review is pretty spot-on.

Shok! makes an appearance as a rather nice, arty booklet accompanied by some interesting notes by Kim Newman. The last page is a great test-shot of Mark 13.

There's also a sealed set of illustrated art cards.

I was hoping for a bit more oomph from the audio but it sounds pretty darned good!

Blu-Ray arrived yesterday. First impressions:

- print light-years away from anything you've seen so far; the fact that Hardware has never received a decent home release so far becomes rather apparent

- the downside: like with those restored Chaplin films, where you can spot the outlines of his makeup, MARK13's duck-ish appearance becomes all the more evident with a more crisp image

- typical Optimum treatment with the additional scenes; no seamless branching, rather than minutes of footage around the few excluded moments. Interestingly, I personally found the refridgerator scene rather haunting with mere production sound.

- Incidents in an Expanding Universe plays out like a French Scifi movie from the 60's, and that's a good thing. Some very direct lifts to Hardware, even if the characters are given a completely different space to operate within. In terms of the sheer human element and the mood within those scenes, Incidents may even be superior to Hardware.

- the exclusive commentary track by Stanley & producer Paul Trijbits is amusing and informative; Trijbits appears to be sincerely enthusiastic about the film as well as the opportunity.

- Sea of Perdition is included, and it's certainly nice to be able to see the film in something better than Myspace. A very beautiful film, frankly.

- Rites of Passage gets its second token release, following the near-obscure inclusion to 99€ Films 2 -DVD.

First impression: A fine release is destined to become the second-best version in the market as Hardware storms into the Blu-Ray medium.

it still seems a little surreal to finally have Hardware out as such a good DVD, let alone on Blu-Ray!



I guess Stanley wasn't having to deal with a certain pair of actors forced on him in Hardware either. hope all these extras get included on the Severin release.

and it's funny you mention the quality of SEA OF PERDITION. wasn't til I was reading a review of the disc that I realised it'll be good to see it in something more than MySpace resolution, annamorphic no less!

Is anyone having any trouble with Sea of Perdition?
After the reveal of the fish cosmonaut there should be music right?
On my DVD it's completely silent