The last week of the October glut is upon us, soon to be followed by the November glut. Later today: a Halloween review of “Them!” So much later today that it might actually be tomorrow: the “Spider-Man” chapter of the “History of the Marvel Universe” series.
First, the DVD releases:
- Air TV, Vol. 3
- The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard
- The Amicus Collection: Includes “Asylum,” “And Now The Screaming Starts” and “The Beast Must Die”
- Angel – Complete Series Collector’s Set: Like the Buffy set, this is a totally different set of packaging with a bonus disc unavailable in the individual releases.
- Avatar The Last Airbender Book 3 Fire, Vol. 1
- Barbara Stanwyck – The Signature Collection: Includes “Annie Oakley,” “East Side, West Side,” “My Reputation,” “Executive Suite,” “Jeopardy” and “To Please A Lady.”
- Benny Hill – Complete and Unadulterated Megaset
- Bleach – Season One Box Set (Original and Uncut)
- Captivity (Unrated)
- A Christmas Story: Time for the annual rerelease
- CSI Miami – The Fifth Season
- Dark Shadows: The Begining Collection 2
- Day Watch
- Edvard Munch – Special Edition 2-DVD Set
- Everybody Loves Raymond – The Complete Series
- Family Affair – Season Four
- Family Guy – Freakin’ Party Pack
- GTO Box Set – Semester 2
- Hell of the Living Dead
- In The Land Of Women
- The Initiation of Sarah
- Kingdom of the Vampire (Double Feature)
- License to Wed
- Looney Tunes – Golden Collection, Volume Five: These have been great so far.
- Looney Tunes: Spotlight Collection, Vol. 5: Similar to the Golden Collections, but these are two discs of unrestored cartoons instead of four discs of fully restored cartoons. They generally have the same cartoons, as well.
- Magnum P.I. – The Complete Seventh Season
- Miami Ink – Season 1
- My So-Called Life – The Complete Series (w/ Book): This was supposed to be great, but it was on opposite “Due South,” so I never watched it.
- Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Vol. 12: A four disc set, uncluding “The Rebel Set,” “Secret Agent Super Dragon,” “The Starfighters” and “Parts: The Clonus Horror.”
- Night Watch / Day Watch
- No End In Sight
- October Road – The Complete First Season
- The Outer Limits (The Original Series) – Volume 3
- The Real McCoys – Season 2
- Replikator: Cloned To Kill
- Scrubs – The Complete Sixth Season
- Spider-Man 3: The single disc widescreen edition.
- Spider-Man 3 (2-Disc Special Edition)
- Spider-Man – The Motion Picture Trilogy: All three of the movies.
- Spike Jones: The Legend
- Suspense: The Lost Episodes – Collection 2
- Talk To Me
- The Three Stooges Collection, Volume One: 1934-1936
- TV Animation Giftset: Includes all available releases of “Futurama,” “King of the Hill,” “Family Guy” and “American Dad.”
- Twin Peaks – The Definitive Gold Box Edition (The Complete Series): Fans have been asking for this one for a while.
- Wanted: Dead Or Alive – Season 3
- The Wendell Baker Story
Now, the Blu-Ray releases:
- License to Wed
- The Polar Express
- Spider-Man 3
- Spider-Man – The High Definition Trilogy: All three Spider-Man movies in the Blu-Ray format.
The HD DVD releases are as follows:
- Face Off
- License to Wed
- Talk To Me: A DVD/HD DVD combo edition.
Finally, the pick of the week. It says a lot about the quality of the series that I’m choosing the repackaging of Angel over Spider-Man 3, considering how big a superhero fan I am. (I’ve read every issue of Amazing Spider-Man ever published, for example.) Joss Whedon’s show was always entertaining, and was constantly revising and redefining its cast and status quo. Wesley Wyndham-Price went through more character development in five years than I’ve seen (outside of Londo and Garibaldi on Babylon 5.) If you haven’t seen the series yet, give it a try, even if you didn’t watch Buffy. Some of the early episodes refer a lot to Buffy, but it started to stand on its own long before Buffy went off the air. Plus, it’s a series about a demon hunting vampire that hits the market the day before Halloween.
Blue
I’m thinking I should just go ahead and get a bluray player. I have a moratorium on buying any new discs until that whole can of worms is resolved, but The Simpsons Movie is going to come out on bluray, and I did skip Spider-Man 3 in the theatres.
Re: Blue
If you’re worried about the ultimate resolution, pick up one of the HD DVD/Blu-Ray combination players out there, like the Samsung BD-UP5000 or LG BH1000. Who cares which format wins when you can play both? (Yes, this post ignores VMD. It had a late start and no major studio backers. Good luck to them.)
Re: Blue
I did just see an open box one at BB today, but they’re still ungodly expensive. I do that that ultimately that might be what wins – the player that can play both (;
I was thinking I should just wait a couple of months, see if one format kicks the other’s butt this xmas season, or I should get a PS3. Then, worst case, I have a PS3.
Or both (:
Re: Blue
I picked up a PS3 for that exact reason several months back. (I don’t remember exactly when, but it would have been the same week the high def titles started appearing in these columns.) Then I was given the HD DVD version of "Heroes – Season One" for my birthday (my parents knew I had a high def format, but didn’t know there were differences between them), and used that as an excuse to get a seperate HD DVD player. Two units are probably a lower total cost, as long as your receiver has enough inputs and you don’t need a component switcher or the like, but two units will take up more space in whatever you’re using to store the units.
"Angel" set already available
I just discovered that the <em>Angel</em> set hit shelves a week early as a Best Buy exclusive. So, if you shop that one particular chain, it’s already out. (This was a Canadian Best Buy, so the offer’s good on both sides of the border.)
DayWatch?
Has anyone seen Night Watch or Day Watch? I’ve been holding off watching them until they start on #3 as I hate getting into a story that I know hasn’t been finished.
then again, I could just get an english translation of the books..
Angel Boxed Set
There is no bonus disc included.