There aren’t many releases this week, but there are one or two real gems in the bunch.
First, the DVD releases:
- Aquarion: Season 1, Part 2
- The Bank Job
- Birds of Prey: The Complete Series: All 13 episodes. I’ve heard the pilot was heavily edited, eliminating anything that might make the audience think, and leaving in the cheesecake. I reviewed each episode in the original broadcasts and was generally dissatisfied with the wasted potential, so I’m curious about where the creators wanted this to go in the pilot.
- Classic TV Commercials: What We Lusted For: 3 DVDs of commercials.
- Classic TV Commercials: Ones We Never Forgot: 3 DVDs of commercials.
- Dallas – The Complete Ninth Season
- Devil May Cry: Level, Vol. 3
- Eureka – Season Two
- Full Metal Panic, Vol. 2: FUMOFFU
- Jesse Stone 4-pack DVD Bundle: Tom Selleck was so impressed with the Jesse Stone novels that he bought the rights to make sure the adaptations were accurate. These are those adaptations.
- The Melancholy of Haruchi Suzumiya: Complete Collection
- New Adventures of the Lone Ranger / Zorro: Volume 2
- Penelope
- Reno 911 – The Complete Fifth Season
- Robbie Coltrane – Incredible Britain
- Saving Grace – Season 1
- Secretary
- Shutter
- Step Up 2 The Streets
- Swamp Thing: The Series Vol. 2
- Trafic – Criterion Collection: This is a M. Hulot movie, not the recent anti-drug movie or miniseries.
- TV Commercials – The Ultimate Collection: A 6 DVD set, likely a combination of the two “Classic TV Commercials” sets out this week.
Now, the Blu-Ray releases:
- The Bank Job
- One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest: This is a great movie.
- Shutter
- Step Up 2 The Streets
Finally, the pick of the week. This one is easy: One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. That’s a great movie, which not only garnered Oscar wins for Best Actor (Jack Nicholson), Best Actress (Louise Fletcher), Best Director (Milos Forman), Best Picture, and Best Writing (Adaptation, Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman), but Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Brad Dourif), Cinematography (Haskell Wexler and Bill Butler), Film Editing (Richard Chew, Lynzee Klingman, Sheldon Kahn) and Best Music, Original Score (Jack Nitzsche). Every one of those awards was earned, and I think some of the nominations should have won out over the competition. (I’m much more impressed by Dourif here than by George Burns in “The Sunshine Boys,” for example.) The “Juicy Fruit” scene alone is one I’ll never forget. The simple fact that would grow to sympathize with a character who should be, by definition, completely unlikeable is a major achievement. If you’re looking for a solid drama based on character interaction and abuse of authority, you’ll be very happy with this one.
Split on an anime standpoint
I’m torn right down the middle between "Full Metal Panic: Fumoffu", and "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya".
So – if you’ve seen Full Metal Panic, get Fumoffu. If you haven’t seen it yet, get Haruhi, and then give FMP a try.