Weekly Digital Disk Picks for September 13th, 2011

Ladies and gentlemen, the fall market blitz is upon us.

 

 

 

 

Title Available Formats
Action
Avenging Eagle
Dragon Dynasty Release of a Shaw Brothers film. The film follows an orphen raised by a clan of assassins to kill for them, who decides he wants out.
Blood Brothers
Dragon Dynasty release of a Shaw Brothers film. This movie was later remade into 2007’s “The Warlords”
The Count of Monte Cristo
Golden Swallow
Dragon Dynasty release, sequel to the earlier Shaw Brothers wuxia film “Come Drink With Me”. One of the characters from the earlier film (Golden Swallow) has retired from the martial world, but is drawn out of retirement when she’s framed for several murders.
Killer Clan
Dragon Dynasty Release of a Shaw Brothers film. This wuxia film’s plot is about, basically, a mob war.
True Legend
Alex: One of the last films made with David Carradine, directed by Yuen Woo Ping, and starring Michelle Yeoh, and is a Wuxia film.
Anime
Dragon Ball Z Kai – Part 6
Alex: The remake of DBZ enters the Cell Saga.
Emma: Victorian Romance Limited Edition Complete Collection
Bundle of seasons 1 and 2 of Emma: Victorian Romance (which is, basically an original anime based on Victorian romances like Pride & Prejudice and Wuthering Heights).
Kekkaishi Set 2
K-On Vol. 3
MM! Complete Collection
Alex: This is an anime series about a high school student who discovers he likes S&M (and is a Sub), and wants to be cured of this, so he joins a club which he thinks will help him – that’s lead by a Dom. “Hilarity” ensues.
Mobile Suit Gundam – Complete Collection (Pt. 1)
Alex: At long, long last, we’re getting boxed sets for the original Mobile Suit Gundam TV series.
Twelve Kingdoms Set 1
Alex: Blu-Ray release of the anime series that adapts the novels that Blaine started to review earlier.
Xenosaga – S.A.V.E Edition
Alex: This adapts the first Xenosaga game (the game which dared to answer the question – “How do I make my Nietzsche quotes more pretensious?” with “By putting them in the original German!”). To my knowledge, there are no anime adaptations of Xenosaga 2 or 3.
Vandread – Ultimate Collection
Contains Seasons 1 & 2, and the OVAs
Art House
3 Women (Criterion Collection)
Hesher
My Life as a Dog (Criterion Collection)
Classics (Cult)
MST3K: Manos, The Hands of Fate
Classics (Traditional)
Citizen Kane
  • 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition DVD only: Amazon
  • 70th Anniversary Ultimate COllector’s Edition Blu-Ray only: Amazon
The Gazebo
Stars Glenn Ford, Debbie Reynolds and Carl Reiner. September 16 release date.
It Started With A Kiss
Stars Glenn Ford and Debbie Reynolds. September 16 release date.
Comedy
The 10th Victim
Imagine “The Running Man” as an Italian comedy made years before Stephen King took the pseudonym Richard Bachman.
The Apartment
The Big Bang Theory
  • Complete Fourth Season DVD only: Amazon
  • Complete Fourth Season Blu-Ray only: Amazon
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
This is the movie starring Kristy Swanson, Donald Sutherland, Paul Reubens and Rutger Hauer.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Digital episodes are available in the DVD product listing, but not the Blu-Ray listing.
The Lucille Ball RKO Comedy Collection: Volume 1
Includes “Go Chase Yourself,” “Next Time I Marry” and “Look Who’s Laughing.”
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Outsourced: Season One
Rescue Me
Documentary
Drama
Blue Bloods
  • Season One (DVD only): Amazon
Grey’s Anatomy
  • Season Seven DVD only: Amazon
Private Practice: The Complete Fourth Season
Individual episode digital downloads are available from the DVD listing.
Family
C.O.P.S. Volume 2
The second half of the animated series about “fighting crime in a future time.”
Fantasy
Camelot: The Complete First Season
Blaine: I’ve never seen this, but I’ve enjoyed BBC’s Merlin via Netflix. How do the two compare?
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
This is the 1980s incarnation, with J. Michael Straczynski as Executive Story Editor.
Spartacus: Gods of the Arena
Horror
Child’s Play
Halloween II
Lake Placid 2
  • Unrated Blu-Ray only: Amazon
Misery
Poltergeist II: The Other Side
Return of the Living Dead
Supernatural
Digital downloads are available for each episode in the DVD and Blu-Ray listings. Blaine: I felt this season was weaker than seasons four and five. However, the season appears to have been designed to set up a pretty spectacular season seven, so it’s definitely worth checking out before the new season starts on September 23.
Music / Musical
Glee
  • Season 2, Volume 2 DVD only: Amazon
  • Complete Season 2 DVD only: Amazon
  • Complete Season 2 Blu-Ray only: Amazon
The “complete season” listings also have individual episode and complete season episode purchase options.
Motown Gold from the Ed Sullivan Show
Includes performances by The Jackson 5, Diana Ross and The Supremes, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye
Motown: The Best of the Supremes on the Ed Sullivan Show
22 performances are included
Mystery
Manhunter
C.S.I.’s William Petersen stars in the first adaptation of Red Dragon. The sequel novel, Silence of the Lambs, is far better known, and the movie far more popular.
Reality
Ghost Hunters: Season Six, Part One
Mythbusters: Collection 7
Wishful Drinking
Carrie Fisher’s autobiographical Broadway show
Romance
Science Fiction
Doctor Who: Day of the Daleks
Episode 60, with Jon Pertwee as the Doctor.
Robocop 2
Sanctuary
  • Season Three DVD only: Amazon
  • Season Three Blu-Ray only: Amazon
Individual episode downloads are available in the DVD listing, but not the Blu-Ray.
Star Wars
  • Episodes I-III Blu-Ray only: Amazon
  • Episodes IV-VI Blu-Ray only: Amazon
  • Episodes I-VI plus 3 bonus disc Blu-Ray only: Amazon
Note the Friday, September 16 release date.
Sports
Masked Republic Presents – Viva La Lucha: Revolution
Alex: It’s been a while since we’ve had any wrestling DVDs that weren’t WWE, and especially not any that were lucha libre related.
WWE Summerslam 2011
Featuring the rematch between John Cena and CM Punk to determine who the real WWE Heavyweight Champion is (answer – Alberto Del Rio, cashing in his Money In The Bank briefcase after CM Punk beat Cena again).
Superhero
Thor
  • DVD only: Amazon
  • Digital rental only: Amazon
  • Digital purchase only: Amazon
  • DVD/Blu-Ray/Digital combo: Amazon
  • DVD/Blu-Ray/3D Blu-Ray/Digital combo: Amazon
Thor and Loki: Blood Brothers
The motion comic based on the very well reviewed miniseries.
Suspense
Kalifornia
Indie thriller starring Brad Pitt, David Duchovny, Michelle Forbes and Juliette Lewis
War
Western

Finally, the picks of the week. Blaine says, “we’ve got three serious contenders this week. Take your choice of either Star Wars box including episodes IV-VI, Thor, and the latest season of Supernatural.” Alex says, “While I haven’t seen Thor yet (though I’ll be renting the DVD), I’m definitely giving the thumbs up to the Star Wars Blu-Ray release. If you’re waiting to find out if the rumors of the new changes are true, there’s always the DVD release of the original Mobile Suit Gundam to check out.”

12 replies on “Weekly Digital Disk Picks for September 13th, 2011”

  1. I know eventually I’ll get the new SW sets, mainly because the DVDs I have now are a mix of different versions (and one of them full screen… ick. it was a gift, and opened before I noticed that…)

    At least they are broken up into two sets, making it more affordable to pick them up individually rather than as one really expensive purchase. It also makes choosing which set to buy first an easy decision.

    Side note on the format of this list: It would help if the comments were indented or set apart in some way. As it is the comments and movie titles run together and makes it hard to scan through the list for titles.

    • On the format, I’ve been playing. If we pull out the width restrictions then different browsers make different formatting decisions which may or may not be easy to read. I’ve been tempted to put the comments below the format options, also on the right hand side. I’ve also been tempted to try and adjust the genre formatting, perhaps putting each genre into its own table. I may even make the genre tables collapsible if I can figure out the Javascript, so you can ignore all westerns, all romance, etc. according to personal taste.

      • That isn’t terribly hard to do with JS/CSS. Especially if you cheat and use a library like prototype/jquery.

        A simple blockquote around the comments would probably be enough to set them off and make them more readable.

    • I noticed the format change, too. I can see that the shift was needed. The DVD/Blu-ray columns were not cutting the mustard anymore.

      It is a little harder to see what is a title, and what is a comment. Maybe cell background colors? Titles in bold? Comment text in a different color?

      I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

  2. Camelot is better than Merlin, but in my mind that’s not saying much as Merlin’s extremely silly. The Merlin character in Camelot was very interesting, but Arthur and Morgan were a bit too goody two shoes and gloating, respectively. It’s like Merlin for adults, I suppose, without all the ridiculous getting away with blatant magical acts. The characters who can use magic use it very sparingly in Camelot – it always seems to carry a horrible price tag.

    • I referred to the BBC “Merlin” as “Camelot 90210”, aka The Teenage Adventures of Merlin. In that context it’s a fun show.

      Camelot, to my understanding, has a lot more naked people in it.

  3. “Day of the Daleks” is some pretty good old skool Who.

    I’m staying away from SW until Han shoots first again. You know you know you know that we’re going to get the original versions as an option, just as soon as Lucas runs out of remarketing ideas, as has already been noted somewhere around here

    • Yeah but until it comes out on HoloCubeXD with the option to self-edit the raw footage, we can still enjoy some upgraded eye candy on Blu-Ray.

    • Kane wasn’t deliberately genre, of course. It was expensive and needed jungle footage with wildlife. The person who inserted that footage used the only footage available for the drop screen technique at RKO: backgrounds from King Kong.

      • I think it was Son of Kong, but yes, you’re quite right. Kane was made on a limited budget, and Welles reused everything he could find at RKO.

        I just like making that reference. I’ve always found that scene just a bit hilarious.

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