Bitter Dregs

Well, here we are in that week between holidays when everyone's (well nearly) out there cashing in those gift cards and exchanging their loot. Lucky for you that the movie studios have some new DVDs to buy... like these:

2046 (2004) Has anyone seen this? It sounds interesting and got some good reviews...into the queue with this one.

American Pie: Band Camp Hopefully this flop will signal the end of this franchise...but if you're actually picking this up, there are rated and unrated versions.

Attack of the 60 Foot Centerfolds What a great film for the whole family to enjoy this holiday season!

Caged Heat (1974)

Dark Water You can get this in rated and unrated versions.

A Girl, Three Guys, and a Gun (2001)

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977)

Nowhere Man: The Complete Series

The Shield: Season Four

Toy Story 2: Woody’s Roundup Edition A new 2 DVD set with some new bonuses and everything from the previous "Ultimate Toy Box" special edition set, which is a lot of stuff. The video/audio quality is said to be better than before with a DTS track. The old DVD was great so you may need a good sytem to see/hear the difference. Still a good set if you don't have this better-than-the-first-one sequel.

Posted by John Knowles at 6:46 PM | Permalink

Today, just a quick update in the midst of all this holiday wackiness...

I'm going to try and make another list in the next few weeks of the DVDs that have been, IMO better than average. There are so many "OK" discs out there today that the really good ones sometimes have to be looked for closely. Certainly the overall technical quality of releases has improved over what we used to get. In the meantime, I'd highly recommend checking out DVD Savant's annual "Most Impressive DVDs of 2005" article, especially if you're into classic film. He also has a good look at one of the latest Disney "Treasures" collections, Disney Rarities: Celebrated Shorts for you Disney fans.

That'll do it for me...I hope you all have a nice and stress-free (as possible) holiday; take your pick... and I'll check in again next week.

Posted by John Knowles at 10:16 AM | Permalink

So here we are at Christmas week (oh, sorry, that's Baby Jesus Day). I don't know about you all, but this one kinda snuck up on me. I'm looking forward to catching up on some DVDs I haven't had time to watch during the Fall and hopefully a few first run films as well. We'll see how that goes..

Since I probably won't have time to post again this week, here are a couple of DVD items of note I just heard about. Paramount has officially confirmed that they'll release what is now the only chunk of the franchise to remain unavailable (though it was on VHS some time back), Star Trek: The Animated Series. No date, but I'm sure the hardcore fans will snap it up. Also coming is Newsradio Season 3. After the somewhat long time between the last set and now, I was wondering if they weren't going to do any more, but it's set for 2/28 with similar features to the existing set including commentaries (the ones on the first set are really good).

In any case, we have more DVDs this week heading our way, so let's take a look, shall we?

The Amazing Race: The Seventh Season Seven seasons...uh, OK.

Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.0

The Brothers Grimm Terry Gilliam's latest arrives on disc...I may have to give this one a rent as Gilliam's films always have something interesting in them even if they don't work.

Chicago: The Razzle Dazzle Edition It's double-dip time again for the fans! Essentially, this new 2 disc DVD set has the same well-done picure/sound as the old disc, but adds a lot of new bonus content. Worth it for the fans or those who didn't get it before, but for me the old DVD does it fine.

ER: The Complete Fourth Season

The Exorcism of Emily Rose This one comes in Theatrical and Unrated Editions

Four Brothers

The Great Raid

Must Love Dogs

Party of Five: The Complete Second Season

Serenity The Firefly film makes it to DVD. I must say that while I think it would have been better to have continued the series on TV as it seemed to take good advantage of the longer form of a series, rather than the conventional 2 hour movie slot, this film was really good and it's even better if you know the characters from the TV series prior to watching it (not essential though). Without some background, the film can come off a bit on the conventional side of sci-fi/action, though it's far better done than most in the genre. One bummer, besides the uncertainty of its future, is the DVD. The USA release is a one disc with some OK features, including a Joss commentary, the Australian DVD will include a second disc with more bonuses...(out in February). Either Universal couldn't license the extra stuff or they were cheap and are going to release it again to further soak the fans. A review of the USA disc can be found here and the Aussie movie site, which was loading very poorly when I tried it, is here.

Posted by John Knowles at 7:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Happy (?) Monday all,

A good number coming out this week, so let's get started with this week's DVD hi-jinx:

The 40-Year-Old Virgin Judd Apatow's latest comes out as either R-rated or unrated versions.

Airplane! - The "Don't Call Me Shirley" Edition The old DVD of was pretty featureless. If you didn't get it before, you can get the new version for the same dough. The film transfer is probably about the same as the old disc, but the new features look pretty good. DVD Savant has a good review here.

Death Race 2000: Special Edition You know how when you're driving and crack a joke about point values for pedestrians? Well, here's a movie about it...and as a bonus, it has a character called Matilda the Hun!

Gallipoli: Special Collectors Edition Peter Weir's WWI film gets an upgrade; one of the better Mel Gibson films.

Gilmore Girls: The Complete Fifth Season Anyone out there besides Shades and me who are into this show? I continue to be impressed on how good this show is and highly recommend it (don't let the "chick" thing throw you)...give it a rent at least. Very good TV, especially if you value good characters/dialogue writing.

The Island Proof that Michael Bay doesn't always score...

King Kong: Peter Jackson’s Prod. Diaries Think of this as a DVD bonus feature...before the DVD or the theatrical film comes out. Obviously for real fans and Jackson says this won't be included in the Kong DVD.

The Last Days of Pompeii (1935) That's Pom-pee-eye!

Miami Vice: Season Two

The Producers: Deluxe Edition MGM's essentially re-released the old SE DVD to plug the remake. Same DVD as before...

Rock 'N' Roll High School: Rock On Edition

Roll Bounce

The Simpsons: The Complete Seventh Season This time, the season's available in regular and "Collectible Marge Head" packaging...

Sin City: Recut, Extended, Unrated Boy, that one didn't take very long!

Posted by John Knowles at 7:19 AM | Permalink

Wow, December already and the DVDs keep piling up. Who has time to watch all this stuff? This is sure a contrast to the early days of DVD when good discs were few and far between. So let's see what goodies are on for this week.

24: Season 4

Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Volume 4

Belle of the Yukon (1944)

Cinderella Man The Ron Howard boxing film comes out in single disc or 2 disc versions.

The Dukes of Hazzard (2005) This one comes out in both PG-13 (!) and unrated versions...gee, which one's gonna sell better?

Everybody Loves Raymond: The Complete Fifth Season

The Fantastic Four (2005) As is the trend, basic or deluxe editions are being sold.

Full House: The Complete Second Season Eight years of this craptastic show...here's a choice comment from the IMDB boards: " While the last 1-2 seasons were borderline horrific, in my opinion, it wasn't that bad a show."

Green Acres: The Complete Third Season At the risk of offending fans of this show, not everything old is a "classic."

Imagine: John Lennon - Deluxe Edition

He-Man and She-Ra: A Christmas Special Wow, I was blissfully unaware of this forgotten 80s TV gem...c'mon George, can't you just release the Star Wars Holiday Special now that this one is out????

MacGyver: The Complete Fourth Season

M*A*S*H: Season Nine

Fox in a Box Featuring Pam Grier Yes, the Pam Grier box set has arrived (did you know she did a film in 1971 called Women in Cages?!). This set includes Coffy, Foxy Brown, and Sheba Baby.

The Rockford Files: Season One "...watch the Rockford Files and call to see if Paul can score some weed."

Shoot the Piano Player (1960) Criterion releases the Truffaut classic and DVD Savant has a review here.

Star Wars: Clone Wars Vol. 2

Star Wars Original Trilogy This is the same set as before, but without the 4th bonus DVD...but it's cheaper.

Walt Disney Treasures - Disney Rarities - Celebrated Shorts, 1920s - 1960s I haven't read any reviews of this latest round of Disney tins, but the previous ones have all been very good. And as before, these really do go out of print so if they interest you, it pays to get them soon.

Walt Disney Treasures - Elfego Baca and The Swamp Fox: Legendary Heroes

Walt Disney Treasures - The Adventures of Spin & Marty - The Mickey Mouse Club

The West Wing: The Complete Fifth Season

Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950) Not the children's book! Another installment in the Fox Noir series...and DVD Savant has a good look at it here.

Posted by John Knowles at 7:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)