There aren’t a lot of interesting titles out this
week, but some are very good.

First, the genre releases:

• Close
  Encounters of the Third Kind: This single disk
  collector’s edition
  of the film may have been released before, but it’s
  still a good
  movie. This may just be a rerelease scheduled to tie
  into Spielberg’s
  latest big screen effort.
• Fantastic
  Four
  – The Complete Animated Series: This is the series
  from the 1990s,
  no doubt released in time to cash in on the upcoming
  movie’s
  popularity.
• Roughnecks
  –
  The Starships Troppers Chronicles – The Complete
  Campaigns: This
  is the CGI TV series that was spawned from the
  movie.

Now, the non-genre releases:

• Bride
  and
  Prejudice: A Bollywood remake of Jane Austen that
  received great
  reviews.
• Monk
  – Season
  Three: This should keep you busy until the third
  season of Columbo
  is released on August 9.
• Prozac
  Nation: Christini Ricci in a more grown up role
  than she’s done
  before.

Finally, the pick of the week. Film
Noir Classic
Collection Vol. 2: Warner Brothers has done a
great job with these
themed sets, and we’ve got some quality films to start
off with in
this set. The first volume is wonderful. The movies
aren’t arranged
chronologically, though, so the first set was probably
the five that
WB thought were the best, and this will be the next
five on the list,
so we can expect a slight dip in quality from the
first to the second,
but given how high the quality of the first was, I’m
not concerned.
With directors like Godard and Lang, I’m sold.