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The great opportunity with new presentation formats for established forms of entertainment is that newcomers can be introduced and experience them for the very first time; the burden with them is that longtime fans have to forage through multiple editions and decide which one is best. Enter "Making The (Up) Grade," Cinematical's examination of these new, alternate, special editions of films that have long since become favorites. This week's selection, Easy Rider, is one of those cases where people may or may not have purchased the film before, but because it's been so thoroughly discussed and dissected in cinematic culture for the past forty years, it seems almost a redundant choice for any person who considers him- or herself a cinephile.

Is this new 40th Anniversary Blu-ray really better? Let's take a look and see.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox run for their lives as Michael Bay's giant robots trample onto the home video scene on DVD (single-disc or two-disc special edition) and Blu-ray (two-disc special edition). The special editions includes audio commentary by Bay and writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, deleted / alternate scenes, a music video, and additional features, such as "A Day With Bay: Tokyo," "Giant Effing Movie," and "The Matrix of Marketing." To approximate the theatrical experience, play really, really loud, and sit as far back from the screen as you possibly can. Resistance is futile. Rent it.

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Blood: The Last Vampire
Chris Nahon's live-action adaptation of an anime series features a half-human, half-vampire samurai battling an infestation of demons. "the result is so laughably awful that it easily qualifies for so-bad-it's-good status," wrote Jeffrey M. Anderson. "As you may expect, the English-language dialogue is ultra-serious and absurd, the action is inept and shaky, and the visual effects look like they might have been generated on an old Atari video game." Also on Blu-ray. Skip it.

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Chéri
Michelle Pfeiffer's reunites with her Dangerous Liaisons director (Stephen Frears) and scripter (Christopher Hampton) for a movie based on a novel by French writer Colette about a passionate affair. "For some reason," Jeffrey M. Anderson wrote, "Chéri is dead on arrival, a cold fish. It just lies there, too lethargic to be funny and too timid to be sexy, but not deep enough for any real drama." Skip it.

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After the jump: Indies on DVD, Blu-ray Picks, and Collector's Corner!

People have been talking about a possible sequel to Easy Rider for decades, but no one ever took it seriously. It seemed like one of those hilarious fake ideas you come up with, like a musical version of Saw III, or an all-midget version of Hoosiers. In fact, in the 1980s, Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda kept talking about doing a sequel set in the future, with the original characters being brought back to life and going on a road trip through post-apocalyptic America. As recently as 2002, a different sequel, called Easy Rider A.D., was about to begin production ... and then never did.

But now it looks like an actual sequel has actually been produced -- with no involvement from the people who made the seminal 1969 classic, and featuring none of the same characters (for reasons that should be obvious to anyone who has seen the original -- although they managed to make a sequel to The Blair Witch Project, didn't they?). The sequel, called Easy Rider: The Ride Back, is an independent film set for a small theatrical opening in September, and some of the cast and crew were in Cannes last week for a photo opportunity, which is how we caught wind of the film's existence. (In the photo are Phil Pitzer, who produced, co-wrote, and stars in the film -- and who bears a resemblance to Peter Fonda -- and Sheree J. Wilson, a cast member of TV's Dallas and Walker, Texas Ranger who co-stars.)

It apparently has nothing to do with any of the previous sequel ideas that floated around Hollywood, but instead focuses on the Peter Fonda character's brother, who followed in his sibling's footsteps and rides the same patriotically decorated Harley Davidson motorcycle.

Summertime seems to be movie list-making time in just about every publication. I imagine it's because once you slap Chris Pine or Christian Bale onto a summer magazine cover, you're stuck waiting for the fall buzz to kick up ... or anxious film writers out there are hoping to remind audiences that they can ease the pain of mindless blockbusters with meat-and-potato classics. Either way, we get a lot of lists.

Esquire has a particularly interesting one up, though. They've compiled a collection of 75 movies they feel every man should see in his lifetime, and go so far as to suggest they've all shaped American manhood in some fashion. Some of the choices are obvious classics: In the Heat of the Night, 12 Angry Men, Chinatown, The Godfather, North by Northwest, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, The French Connection. Some are a little more on the forgotten side, like Fitzcarraldo and Run Silent, Run Deep.

But some of the choices are a little questionable. Iron Man? Three Kings? Runaway Train? Lone Star? Enjoyable sure, but are they must watch classics? Did Lone Star really shape modern manhood? I'm pretty sure Iron Man didn't considering it came out oh, exactly one year ago. Surely Easy Rider or Death Wish should have two of those spots. Doesn't John McClane deserve a rank above Johnny Dangerously? No Goodfellas? Why only one John Wayne (The Searchers) and no Jimmy Stewart or Gregory Peck?

Check out the list and ponder whether you think watching all 75 of these makes (or has made) a true man, as Esquire's version has me a little worried. Then come back and tell us what films you think are more essential than these.

*And no, clearly no one thinks there's an essential list for women. We may have to put that one together here on Cinematical.

• Paul Scofield (1922-2008) - British actor (pictured) who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Sir Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons and who was nominated again almost thirty years later for his supporting role in Quiz Show. He also co-stars in Frankenheimer's The Train, Branagh's Henry V, Zeffirelli's Hamlet, Hytner's The Crucible and Michael Winner's Scorpio, and he played the title role in Peter Brook's King Lear. He narrated the documentaries London and Robinson in Space and voiced the part of Akira Kurosawa in the documentary Kurosawa. He died of leukemia March 19, in West Sussex, England. (NY Times)
• Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008) - Oscar-nominated screenwriter of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Best known as a science fiction author, he wrote the novel-turned-film 2010, and his novels Rendezvous with Rama and Childhood's End are also currently being adapted. See Richard's full post for details of his death.
• Hugo Claus (1929-2008) - Belgian filmmaker, novelist and playwright. He wrote the screenplay for the 1958 Oscar nominee Dorp Aaan De Rivier and his directorial work includes the Berlin Film Festival nominee Vrijdag and an adaptation of his play De Verlossing. He died March 19 in Antwerp, Belgium. (BBC)

Over the weekend I watched the last half of the World War II home front drama Since You Went Away in the background while I did some work. There's a sequence in a train station that is so stunningly dramatic it fills in the narrative gaps -- the black and white photography tells the story -- and it made me stop what I was doing and watch it again.

Cinematographer László Kovács worked at the opposite end of the spectrum. His most memorable work from the late 1960s through the 1970s (Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Shampoo, F.I.S.T.) doesn't steal attention from the narrative or make you gasp at its unusual beauty. Instead, Kovács gracefully grappled with reality, using what other photographers would call "mistakes" (lens flares and the like) as a means to integrate the imperfections of life into the varied cinematic visions of the many directors with whom he collaborated. Even when the film as a whole falls short, the art of Kovács is consistent.

The latter part of his career (1980 to 2006) is filled with more populist fare (Ghostbusters, Say Anything..., My Best Friend's Wedding), but Kovács never treated any film as a "cash for hire" proposition, as a 2002 interview with ICG Magazine revealed. He was a consummate professional, always putting the aim of the story ahead of the art of the camera. He passed away on July 21 of this year; Jette Kernion wrote a lovely appreciation of his work.

Kovács will be honored by the Consulate General of the Republic of Hungary in Los Angeles today. Ray Pride at Movie City Indie has all the details. Kovács' friend and fellow cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond is scheduled to speak. Kovács will also be honored with a screening at AFI Fest next month. Torn From the Flag, on which he and Zsigmond served as executive producers, documents Hungary's struggle for national identity.

I haven't picked up an issue of Premiere Magazine in quite some time, but a friend of mine recently recommended I visit the publication's newly refurbished website. So I did. Pretty solid content across the board, I'm happy to opine -- but one particular article caught my eye, tickled my fancy, and squatted in my brain long enough to recommend it here.

Basically, a bunch of the Premiere writers were asked to come up with their picks for Most Overrated Film of All Time -- and while most of the sacred cows slaughtered here are pretty darn obvious ones, the opinions and explanations as to why each film was chosen, well, I thought they were fairly compelling. Frankly, I'm thrilled to see someone call Field of Dreams "just too on the nose," because it absolutely is.

Fully prepared for the onslaught of How Dare YE!! hate mail, the Premiere posse has wisely decided to add an equally pithy rebuttal in defense of each movie. So when someone has the audacity to impugn The Wizard of Oz, we sane people have a defender who'll say Dude, Please. I've placed the 20 titles under the jump, just to help spark discussion, but do not let that stop you from reading through the whole article. It might make you think a little differently about some of those Unquestioned Classics that everyone's afraid to admit they don't really dig. (Yep, 2001: A Space Odyssey is overrated; I said it and I'm proud.)