Another week, another round of DVDs. As usual, the
number of major releases drops relative to previous
and coming weeks when a new Star Wars movie
hits the shelves. One of the reasons they sell so
well is because nobody wants to compete with them.
First, the genre releases:
- Chrono
Crusade
– Complete Collection: No relation to the
Squaresoft game. - Farscape
–
Season 2 Collection 3 (Starburst Edition): This
completes the low
cost collections of season two. The first volume of
the season three
collections has been announced. - Jar
Jar Binks
– The F True Hollywood Story: It’s a spoof that’s
been released
before. - The
Outer
Limits (The New Series) – Season One: The complete
and unedited
first season of the 1995 incarnation, released by MGM.
(Koch Canada
released a best of
seasons
one and two compilation, and have told me they
plan to release the
rest of the episodes from these seasons later on.
Koch only has the
edited releases, though.) - Star
Trek:
Enterprise – Complete Fourth Season: Notice how
they slipped the
Star Trek name back on for the video
releases? I wonder if
that works better for the collectors, or if they just
want people to
know why they’re paying so much. - Star
Wars,
Episode III: Revenge of the Sith: And the highest
selling DVD
release of the week (month?) is… - The
War of the
Worlds (1953) Special Collector’s Edition: We’ve
already
reviewed the
non-special release of this title. - War
of the
Worlds – The Complete First Season: This series
was a sequel to
the 1953 movie. I can’t help but wonder why this and
the previous
title are out this week; the Tom Cruise/Steven
Spielberg version that
they’d want to be tying in with isn’t out until
November 22, 2005.
Why go up against Star Wars instead of tying
in with that on
either November 15 or November 22?
Now, the non-genre releases:
- The
Brat Pack
Collection: This includes The Breakfast
Club (great),
Sixteen Candles (I haven’t seen it) and
Weird
Science (not bad.) Get at least the first
title. - Courtroom
Pack: This includes Class Action,
Runaway Jury,
The Boston Strangler and Star
Chamber. - Crime
Pack: This includes Entrapment,
Romancing the
Stone, and True Lies. - Disney
Channel
Holiday Compilation: Holiday episodes of
Lizzie McGuire,
That’s So Raven, Even Stevens,
Kim
Possible, and The Suite Life of Zack and
Cody. - Disney
Princesses – Christmas of Enchantment: All of the
Disney
princesses appear in this holiday compilation. - Fame
–
Complete First Season: The series starring Irene
Cara. If you
don’t know the show, you probably know the theme
music. - Fox
Film Noir
Collection: Amazon.com is the only retailer that
combines these
individual releases into a single package. It’s a 9
DVD set of their
film noir. The only title I’ve seen from this group
is the rather
impressive Laura, though I’ve been keeping an
eye our for
Call Northside 777 from some time, as I’d
love to see Jimmy
Stewart in a Film Noir title. The other titles are
House of
Bamboo, House on 92nd Street,
Nightmare Alley,
Panic in the Streets, Somewhere in the
Night, A
Street With No Name, and Whirlpool. - Fox
Studio
Classics Collection: This is another Amazon.com
exclusive
packaging. The description give the disc count at 37,
though it
doesn’t name them. The product picture reveals
The Day The Earth
Stood Still, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir,
My Darling
Clementine, Anastacia, The Three
Faces of Eve,
Peyton Place, The Song of
Bernadette, Orchestra
Wives, How Green Was My Valley, The
Prime of Miss
Jean Brodie, The Diary of Anne Frank,
The Grapes of
Wrath, Gentleman’s Agreement, All
About Eve,
two more with titles I can’t make out, and several
more so obscured I
can’t identify them. They also have a Zorro movie in
the bunch. - Office
Space –
Special Edition with Flair: This was a great
movie. - The
Police
Action Giftset: This includes Die Hard,
Speed,
and The French Connection. When
Speed is the worst
movie in a set, you know it’s a good set. - Sex
and the
City – The Complete Series: This is a 20 DVD set
of the show’s
full run. - Western
Four-Pack: This includes The Bravados,
Buffalo
Bill, Drums Along the Mohawk, and In
Old Arizona.
Finally, the pick of the week. Star Wars: Episode
III,
originally reviewed in
May, was the best of the prequels, and wraps up
George Lucas’
direct contributions to the saga. The second volume
of Clone Wars
won’t be out for a whole month, so I hope this will
hold you folks
until then.