As Christmas approaches, these lists get longer. Wait
until the December 6 list, which is probably the most
prolific DVD release date of the year.
First, the genre releases:
- Aeon
Flux –
The Complete Animated Collection: The full serial
that inspired
the Charlize Theron movie due out early next
month. - Astro
Boy
Collection Box Set (1980): This is the series I
grew up with. I
can still quote Geronimo as he asks for Astro’s report
at the end of
the episode. - Dark
Shadows
Collection 21: The vampire soap opera is still
coming out on DVD.
It may be the only soap opera planning to release
every episode on
DVD, because it had a relatively short run, yet
they’re still
up to volume 21 and aren’t finished yet. - Evil
Dead 1 &
2 Limited Edition: This includes the Book of the
Necronomicon
editions of the first two films in the series. - Ghost
In The
Shell: Stand Alone Complex – 2nd Gig, Vol. 2: The
series marches
on. Also available in a special
edition. - Invader
Zim 3
Pack: No details on contents are available. - King
Kong
(1978): I wasn’t thrilled with this remake. - King
Kong
(1933) – 2 Disc Special Edition: This, on the
other hand, is a
great film. There are several other editions
available, listed
below. - King
Kong
(1933) – Collector’s Edition: This includes a 20
page souvenier
booklet, movie poster offer, and more. Definitely the
pick of the
week. - King
Kong
Collection: This has the 2 DVD edition of the 1933
film, as well
as Son of Kong and Mighty Joe Young. - Mighty
Joe
Young: Also available outside the box set. - Neon
Genesis
Evangelion Platinum Collection: For the anime
fans. - The
Polar
Express (Two-Disc Widescreen Edition): This is not
a bad movie.
The CGI humans are less convincing than those in
Final Fantasy:
The Spirits Within, but it’s a fun family holiday
flick. Also
available in a gift
set
including a snow globe and toy train. - Son
of
Kong: This was released in 1933, making it one of
the first
big-budget fast-track sequels. I’ve never seen it, so
I don’t know
how it compares to the original. - Spike
and
Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation –
Contagious: I’ve
never been in a position to attend a Spike and Mike
festival, but I’d
love to go. - Trigun
–
Limited Collector’s Edition I: For the anime
fans. - War
of the
Worlds (2-Disc Limited Edition): An extremely well
made film that
was a huge hit at the box office this summer. It felt
a bit like
Jurassic Park to me, with some incredible
visuals and genuine
tension that may not hold up when viewed repeatedly on
a small
screen. - Warner
Classic
Mega Collection: This is the other way to get
King Kong,
with the lowest per-movie cost of anything here. It
works out to less
than $7.50 per title, but the total cost is still
$1499.98. This
includes:- 42nd Street
- The Adventures of Robin Hood: Special Edition
- Advise and Consent
- Alice Adams
- An American In Paris
- The Americanization of Emily
- Anchors Aweigh
- Angels With Dirty Faces
- Anna Christie
- Anna Karenina
- Annie Get Your Gun
- The Asphalt Jungle
- The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer
- Bad Day at Black Rock
- The Band Wagon (Two Disc SE)
- The Barkleys of Broadway
- Bells are Ringing
- Ben Hur 4-Disc Edition
- The Big Sleep
- Billy Rose’s Jumbo
- Blackboard Jungle
- Blood Alley
- Born To Kill
- Boys Town
- Brigadoon
- Bringing Up Baby
- Butterfield 8
- Camille
- Captain Blood
- Casablanca (2 Disc SE)
- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
- Chaplin Revue
- Christmas Carol (1938)
- Christmas In Connecticut (1945)
- The Cincinnati Kid
- The Circus
- Citizen Kane (2 Disc SE)
- City Lights
- Clash By Night
- Courage of Lassie
- Cowboys
- Crossfire
- The Curse of Frankenstein
- The Damned Don’t Cry
- Dark Passage
- Dark Victory
- A Day At The Races
- Days of Wine and Roses
- Designing Woman
- Destination Tokyo
- Dial M For Murder
- Dillinger
- Dinner at Eight
- Doctor Zhivago
- Dodge City
- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
- Dracula Has Risen From The Grave
- East of Eden (2 Disc SE)
- Easter Parade (2 Disc SE)
- Face In The Crowd
- Father of the Bride
- Finian’s Rainbow
- Follow the Fleet
- For Me and My Gal
- Foreign Correspondant
- Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed
- Freaks
- Friendly Persuasion
- Fury
- Gaslight
- Giant (2 Disc SE)
- Gigi
- Glass Bottom Boat
- The Gold Rush
- Gone With The Wind (4 Disc SE)
- Goodbye Mr. Chips
- Grand Hotel
- The Great Dictator
- Great Ziegfeld
- Gun Crazy
- Gunga Din
- The Harvey Girls
- High Sierra
- Horror of Dracula
- House of Wax (1953)
- Humoresque
- Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
- I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang
- I Confess
- I Remember Mama
- In The Good Old Summertime
- Jezebel
- Key Largo
- The Kid
- Kim
- King In New York / A Woman In Paris
- King Kong (2 Disc SE)
- King of Kings
- Lassie Come Home
- Libeled Lady
- Limelight
- Little Ceasar
- Love Finds Andy Hardy
- Love in the Afternoon
- Love Me or Leave Me
- Lullaby of Broadway
- The Maltese Falcon
- The Master of Ballantrae
- Mata Hari
- McQ
- Mildred Pierce
- Mister Roberts
- Modern Times
- Monsieur Verdoux
- Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941)
- Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House
- Mr. Skeffington
- Mrs. Miniver
- The Mummy (1959)
- Murder, My Sweet
- Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
- My Fair Lady (2 Disc SE)
- My Favorite Wife
- Narrow Margin
- National Velvet
- Never So Few
- Night and Day
- A Night at the Opera
- A Night in Casablanca
- Ninotchka
- North By Northwest
- Now Voyager
- Objective Burma
- Ocean’s Eleven (1960)
- On The Town
- Operation Pacific
- Out of the Past
- Petrified Forest
- Philadelphia Story (2 Disc SE)
- Please Don’t Eat The Daisies
- Posessed ’47
- The Prince and the Pauper
- The Prince and the Showgirl
- Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
- Public Enemy
- Queen Christina
- Random Harvest
- Rebel Without a Cause (2 Disc SE)
- Rio Bravo
- The Roaring ’20s
- Robin and the Seven Hoods
- Scaramouche
- The Sea Chase
- The Sea Hawk
- The Searchers
- The Set-Up (1949)
- Shall We Dance (1937)
- Shop Around the Corner
- Show Boat
- Singing In The Rain (2 Disc SE)
- Son of Lassie
- Stage Door
- Stage Fright
- Stagecoach
- The Star (1953)
- A Star Is Born (1954)
- Story of Sea Biscuit
- Strangers On A Train: Special Edition
- Suspicion
- Swing Time
- Take Me Out To The Ballgame
- Tall In The Saddle
- Tarzan Collection
- Taste the Blood of Dracula
- TCM Archives: Buster Keaton
- TCM Archives: Long Chaney
- That’s Entertainment I
- That’s Entertainment II
- That’s Entertainment III
- Them!
- They Died With Their Boots On
- They Drive By Night
- The Thin Man Collection
- To Be or Not To Be
- To Have and Have Not
- Top Hat
- The Train Robbers
- The Treasure of the Sierra Madre: Special
Edition - The Unsinkable Molly Brown
- Where The Boys Are
- White Heat
- The Wizard of Oz (2 Disc SE)
- The Women
- The Wrong Man
- Yankee Doodle Dandy: Special Edition
- The Yearling
- Young Man With A Horn
- Ziefeld Girl
That’s one whole heck of a lot of movies. (Note that
some of those
entries are box sets.) Consider what I did: find
people to split the
cost with and divvy them up later. There’s some great
stuff here at
very low per-item prices. - The
X-Files
Mythology, Vol. 4: This gets into the
supersoldiers from season
8. If memory serves, there will be five of these sets
when the
collection is complete.
Now, the non-genre releases:
- Andy
Griffith
Show – Complete Fourth Season: This is, in my
opinion, the only
sitcom from that decade that still holds up
today. - CSI:
Miami
Season Three: I’ve only seen the pilot that was
included in the
original CSI, and I wasn’t impressed enough to track
down the other
seasons. - Cheaper
By The
Dozen Special Edition: Yes, a sequel is on the
way. - Golden
Girls –
The Complete Third Season: This amused me when I
was very young. - Home
Improvement – Season Three: Just in case you
aren’t getting enough
grunting in your life. - King
of the
Hill – The Complete Fifth Season: A show whose
popularity I don’t
understand. - Leave
It To
Beaver – The Complete First Season: The first TV
series to ever
show a toilet, though I don’t know if that episode was
in this season
or not. Also available in a Limited
Edition Gift
Set. - The
Man With
The Golden Arm: A very well respected movie that’s
almost sold out
as it is. - Ozzy
Osbourne’s Ozzfest 10th Anniversary: Ozzy fans
should be impressed
with the package. - Ran:
Akira
Kurosawa was one of the greatest directors the world
has ever seen,
and this is one of his best films. It was very nearly
the Pick of the
Week. - Ringers
– Lord
of the Fans: A documentary on the fans of Lord
of the
Rings. Created by the creators of theonering.net. - Seinfeld
–
Season Five: The show about nothing that lasted
for years. - Seinfeld
–
Season Six: The multi-season simultaneous releases
continue. - Seinfeld
–
Seasons five and six gift set: This includes the
packages above, a
handwritten script, and a collectable puffy shirt
that’s probably too
small to wear. - Shirley
Temple
Collection Vol. 2: This includes three films, none
of which I’d
heard of before.
Finally, the pick of the week. As mentioned above,
the original
King Kong is the choice. The effects don’t
always hold up,
but that fact that even some of them do is incredible.
This was the
first big-budget genre blockbuster that made its money
on special
effects. It’s highly recommended to anyone with a
passing interest in
the evolution of film.
Correction – X-Files Mythology
The set above is the fourth and final mythology collection.
I was wrong when I thought there would be five of them.
Re: Correction – X-Files Mythology
thanks for doing these dvd picks. even though lots of folks don’t necessarily comment on them i do enjoy going through them.
Ditto
I use this list every week to reserve DVDs at the library—a very useful tool. Thanks for the hard work!
Check out Chad’s News
Re: Correction – X-Files Mythology
I use the list quite a bit as well though I may not comment. Thank you for the hard work.
Thanks
Thanks for the words of encouragement. It’s nice to know
these columns are appreciated, especially since they take
an hour to put together at this time of year.