The DVD list is starting to taper off some, as many
people will have already started their Christmas
shopping. I’ve pre-written these columns for the rest
of the year; do you want them posted early, to plan
your own Christmas shopping, or would you prefer I
stick to the “one a week” schedule?
First, the genre releases:
- Cowboy
Bebop
Remix 3: I’m not familiar enough with the series
to know what’s
special about a remix edition, but here it is. - Death
Race
2000 – Special Edition: Somehow, given where
reality TV has been,
this doesn’t seem so far off. - Farscape
–
Season 3, Collection 1 (Starburst Edition): The
lower priced sets
just keep coming. I’m still holding out for a boxed
set of the
Starburst packages. - Godzilla
–
Final Wars: The 50th anniversary project. - The
Golden Age
of Cartoons: Attack of the 30’s Characters: I’m a
sucker for
animation, especially in the formative years. - The
Island: I wanted to see this, but never got around
to it. - King
Kong –
Peter Jackson’s Production Diaries: This was quite
the
undertaking, but I’m not sure I want to watch a two
disk “making of”
set before I’ve seen the finished product. - Popeye:
Original Classics From The Fleischer Studio: This
is another one
that’s hard to resist.
Now, the non-genre releases:
- 40
Year Old
Virgin: I didn’t see the movie in theaters because
of the ads, but
if I’m bored and it’s on TV I might give it a shot,
based entirely on
Steve Carell’s former work with The Daily Show
With John
Stewart. - Airplane!
–
The “Don’t Call Me Shirley” Edition: This is a
great movie. It’s
the first and debatably best of the Zucker
comedies. - Bad
News
Bears: This is the remake. - Big
Bad Mama –
Special Edition: William Shatner and Roger Corman
collaborate
again. - Dukes
of
Hazzard – Complete Fifth Season: This was the Coy
and Vance
season, if I recall correctly, which is probably why
Daisy is the only
character to appear on the cover… - Sin
City –
Recut and Extended Edition: This clocks in a 147
minutes, 23
minutes longer than the theatrical release. - Gallipoli
(Special Edition): One of the better war movies.
Also, if you
look carefully, you can catch a glimpse of Mel
Gibson’s digital watch
at one point… - Gilmore
Girls
– Complete Fifth Season: This WB series was
renewed for a sixth
season, after Whedon and company were told that the WB
“didn’t want to
be the kind of network that ran the same show for more
than five
years.” I’m thinking the Angel cancellation
may have had
more to do with spite for taking Buffy and
Firefly
to different networks than anything else. - Miami
Vice –
Season Two: Pink shirts and techno theme songs are
back! - The
Newsroom –
The Complete First Season: A fantastic Canadian
comedy. - The
Producers
(Deluxe Edition): The Zero Mostel / Gene Wilder
version. - Reba
– Season
Two: I admit that the ads have amused me, though
I’ve never
bothered to watch an episode. - Rock
‘N Roll
High School: The Ramones help suppressed students
rebel. - The
Simpsons –
Complete Seventh Season: Also available in Marge’s
head. - Sundance
Film
Festival Collection: Celebrating 25 Years: This
collection very
nearly became the pick of the week. However, most
people are aware of
some of the products in this collection, so I went
with an option that
hasn’t had as much visibility.
Finally, the pick of the week. The Newsroom
was a great
series, that wasn’t intended to last more than a
season. There’s a
fabulous parody of Federico Fellini, and an incredible
amount of
subtle humour, centred around the head of the
Newsroom. There’s a
news anchor who is a complete and utter idiot, and a
number of other
interesting characters. Canadian comedy tends to be
offbeat, but this
hits the offbeat mark and is still highly
entertaining. The lines of
dialogue that end the season are some of the funniest
I’ve ever
heard. Highly, highly recommended.
Death Race 2000!!!
Man what a horrible movie. And it’s been out of print forever! I’ll probably end up getting this, I’m almost embaressed to admit…
Minor correction: Zucker/Abrahams first comedy was “The Kentucky Fried Movie” rather than rhe renamed “Airplane”. And yay, another Special Edition of somehting I already have. Frankly the only reason I’d get a Special Edition is if it includes better sound and video from the old release, and I think this one does.
Still waiting for a better “Spies Like Us” release…
I, for one, would love the entire list now.
Oh and I know I’m getting Simpsons Season 7 (;
About the Remix editions
What makes the Remix editions worth getting are the remastered video, the fact that the DVDs have actually been moderatly hard to come by for a while, and it had the extras from the “Session 0” release (interviews with the Japanese cast and staff among other things), promos, trailers, all that good stuff. In other words, if you don’t have Cowboy Bebop already, it’d probably be more worth your money to get the Remix editions.
POTW
Oh, I forgot to say that my pick of the week is that Serenity is coming out next week! (:
The Newsroom
Oddly, The Newsroom – The Complete Series was released on DVD in 2004. It’s no longer available from Amazon but if you search for it you’ll see that Season 2 will be coming out soon.