I’m posting this a day early as tomorrow will be a busy day.
First, the genre releases:
- The Addams Family – Volume One: They’re creepy and they’re cooky, mysterious and spooky. They’re altogether ooky. They’re just in time for Halloween.
- An American Haunting: More horror.
- Batman Beyond – Season Two: He’s Batman, but he’s not Bruce Wayne. The first season wasn’t bad.
- Bewitched – The Complete Fourth Season
- Creature Comforts – Merry Christmas Everybody
- Creature Comforts – The Complete Second Season
- Greg the Bunny – Best of the Film Parodies: Had I known I’d be getting new episodes of Greg the Bunny, I’d have signed up for IFC a long time ago.
- Justice League Unlimited – Season One: This is “Season One” as produced, not as promoted, which means it includes the entire Cadmus arc that made it, in my opinion, the best written show on TV that year. Don’t knock it because it’s animated, buy it because it’s done better than most live action entertainment in any genre.
- Krypto the Superdog Vol. 2: I may be a sucker for superheroes, but I’m not that much of a sucker. I’ll pass.
- MacGyver – The Complete Final Season: Man, was that Angus a smart guy.
- Mission Impossible III: This is the widescreen edition. Also available in HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.
- Monster House
- Nightmares and Dreamscapes: Based on Stephen King short stories.
- S-Cry-ed: Anime Legends Complete Collection.
- Sesame Street – Old School Vol. 1: Five hours of material from 1969 – 1974.
- Slither: Nathan Fillion and Elizabeth Banks. That’s a pair with geek appeal.
- Witch Hunter Robin: Anime Legends Complete Collection
- The World According To Sesame Street: I really wish Amazon had a product description. This sounds like it would be an interesting perspective, though perhaps not quite as entertaining as a similarly titled release from “The Daily Show With John Stewart” would be.
Now, the non-genre releases:
- Astaire and Rogers Collection, Vol. 2: Includes “Flying Down to Rio,” “The Gay Divorcee” (which, if remade, will have a massive change in either title or script), “Roberta,” “Carefree,” and “The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle.”
- Baywatch Season One: The most popular syndicated series worldwide. The fact that the series gets better ratings in locations where viewers can’t understand the dialogue says a whole heck of a lot about it. Note that there are unspecified music replacements here, and missing episodes in cases where Lion’s Gate still owns the rights.
- Baywatch Season Two: Much like season one, complete with replaced music and a missing episode.
- Body Heat: A new deluxe edition.
- Degrassi The Next Generation – Season Four
- Essential Art House – 50 Years of Janus Films: There is an incredible list of movies included here. They include 50 films available in the Criterion Collection, but without the extras or the Criterion price tags. Among them are M, my all time favourite movie, as well as Seven Samurai, Rashomon, The Lady Vanishes, The Third Man, The 39 Steps, The Seventh Seal, Grand Illusion, The Virgin Spring (which will be very favourably reviewed on a Saturday in early November), The Rules of the Game (often regarded as the greatest movie of all time) and a huge number of others.
- The Facts of Life – Complete Third Season
- Hands of the City – Criterion Collection: A political flick.
- The L Word: Hint – it’s not “Labrador.”
- Little House on the Prairie – Special Movie Boxed Set
- Nacho Libre
- Porky’s: This was the highest grossing Canadian film on record for more than a decade. I don’t know which, as a Canadian, I find more depressing; that this made the record, that it held the record for so long, or that the record was finally broken by “Johnny Mnemonic.” (That record was later beaten by “Ginger Snaps.”)
- Reservoir Dogs (15th Anniversary Edition): And it seems like only five years ago they released the tenth anniversary edition.
- The O.C. – The Complete Third Season
- Saw 2
- SCTV – The Best of the Early Years
- Slings and Arrows – Season Two: This seems to be the week for Canadian productions. This one, unlike some of the others, is very well received by critics.
- Sweetie: Another Criterion Collection release.
- That’s My Bush! The Definitive Collection: A spoof of the White House family, starring a pre-She Spies Kristen Miller.
- Wings – The Complete Third Season
Finally, the pick of the week. In spite of the rave reviews I’ll give the JLU set just as soon as I can watch it, I’ve got to pick the “Essential Art House – 50 Years of Janus Films” set. I somehow missed this when looking ahead at the releases over the past few months, and have just redrafted my entire budget for the next four months to make room for it. There are some absolutely fantastic titles in that collection.
Porkey’s
You know, I never actually watched that movie until very recently when TiVo decided I might like it.
And while it has it’s Teen Movie parts, it has a LOT more substance than most teenage movies, especially the crappy ones that are out recently. Deals with some complex/real issues likes violence, antisemetism, etc.
I hope tomorrow’s busy day includes the discussion for the BEST EPISODE OF BSG EVER!
180 Degrees on Animated DVD Philosophy
After selling Justice League story arc by story arc, a police which I abhorred, DC/Warner has gone entirely in the other direction. They could easily have released their first (of two) JLU package as two separate sets and even I, someone previously bitter about the way they were releasing animation, wouldn’t have complained. So, big ups for them not trying to gouge the fans quite as much.
My pick out of this week’s release list is unquestionably the JLU set (which I do believe I’ll pick up next Friday) if for no other reason than it contains my absolute favorite "one-off" episode of the entire JL/JLU run: "This Little Piggy." Kevin Conroy will forever be the voice of Batman to me, and this episode (which I believe should be on a disc one) is an absolute must-watch for any fans of his. I won’t give too much away, but there’s a song and it’s awesome. Buy it or borrow it, and you won’t regret it. :)
degrassi
i know that everyone on this site is probley gonna hate me after i post this, but iam addicted to that degrassi show. me and my friend both are. its like a teenage soap opra. but soap operas are lame, this degrassi has drama but teenage drama, i dunno, i just love it i would like to know what everyone else thinks.