This week’s column just barely gets posted before the releases hit.
First, the DVD releases:
- Across The Universe
- Americanizing Shelley
- Anne of Green Gables: The Collection
- The Apartment (Collector’s Edition): I wasn’t as impressed with this as the American Film Institute seems to be. I enjoyed it, but I wouldn’t put it on any “Top 100 of all time” list, let alone three of them.
- Aristocats (Special Edition)
- The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford: Of the two movies filmed in the Edmonton area last year, this just has to be the better of the two. I haven’t seen it, but I’ve seen the other one.
- Beauty and the Beast – The Final Season: Fans of this series are few but devoted.
- Blackout
- Blonde and Blonder
- The Brave One
- Cowboy Bebop Remix: Anime Legends
- Descent
- The DL Chronicles: The Complete First Season
- Elizabeth – The Golden Age
- Feast of Love
- The Films of Sergei Paradjanov: Kino video generally does a nice job on this sort of thing. Includes “Color of Pomegranates,” “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors,” “Ambavi Suramis Tsikhitsa” and “Ashug-Karibi.”
- Fullmetal Alchemist – Season 2, Part 1 Box Set
- Imitation of Life (Two Movie Special Edition): Includes the 1934 and 1959 versions of the film.
- Ironside: Season 2, Volume 1
- The Jane Austen Book Club
- Jean-Luc Godard Box Set: Includes “Passion,” “First Name: Carmen,” “The Detective” and “Oh Woe Is Me.”
- The Jewish Americans
- Legend of the Suram Fortress
- Legion of Super Heroes Volume 2
- Magikano Vol. 2: Witch Hunt
- McLeod’s Daughters – The Complete Fifth Season
- My Favorite Martian: The Complete Third Season
- The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection – Volume 10.2: Includes “Giant Gila Monster,” “Swamp Diamonds,” “Teenage Strangler” and “Giant Spider Invasion.”
- Negima: Box Set
- Perfect Strangers – The Complete First and Second Seasons: Will I be spending my hard earned money on this? Of course not, don’t be ridiculous!
- Phantom Empire
- Romeo and Juliet Get Married
- Rosemary and Thyme – The Complete Series
- Slings and Arrows: The Complete Collection: I’ve heard fantastic things about this, but haven’t seen it myself. Given the price of this complete series set, I’ve ordered a copy for myself. I may come back here and comment on it, but it’s not genre, so I won’t be reviewing it in full. Anything costarring Don McKellar and Paul Gross has to be good, though. (Don McKellar also crops up in this edition’s Pick of the Week.)
- Snow Buddies
- Soul Food – The Third Season
- Third Watch – The Complete First Season
- Tootsie – 25th Anniversary Edition: Now this one does belong on AFI’s top movies list. I don’t know if I’d have placed it as the #2 all time comedy myself (behind “Some Like It Hot,” convincing me that the AFI thinks crossdressing is the funniest thing ever) but it would have been in the top 100. A strong contender for the pick of the week.
- When Night Is Falling: Great movie, great price.
- Wire in the Blood – The Complete Fourth Season
- You’ve Got Mail (Deluxe Edition)
Now, the Blu-Ray releases:
- Across The Universe
- The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
- The Brave One
- Breaker Morant
- Crimson Tide: A strong contender for the pick of the week.
- The Jane Austen Book Club
- Me, Myself and Irene
- Suburban Girl: I could swear I listed this a couple of weeks ago. Either it was delayed, or I’m remembering another format.
- Wall Street
The HD DVD releases are as follows:
Finally, the pick of the week. I’ve got to go with When Night Is Falling. This isn’t it’s first release, but it’s just plain good. For perspective, let me say this: of the 894 feature length films in my DVD/Blu-Ray/HD DVD collection, I have a grand total of 2 movies that are love stories before anything else. (The only genre with worse representation is the western, and the other romantic film is Amelie.) I was first exposed to this title in a film studies class at university. It features all of the aspects of a true art film, while still remaining completely accessible to mainstream audiences. One excellent aspect in particular is the use of the visual metaphor; pay close attention to the items that are between the two lovebirds, literally and figuratively, to see how the objects as framed on the screen represent the conceptual obstacles in their relationship. You can also rest assured that any movie costarring Don McKellar will have an effective yet twisted sense of humour. I should also give this warning; although this is a family friendly, all ages site, this is not an all ages movie. The two lovebirds involved are both female, and (as the DVD cover implies) there are some fairly explicit love scenes between them. (Pay attention to what’s physically between them and not between them in both of those scenes, too.)