The Christmas quality flood is definitely here. I’ll get back on top of the comic reviews this evening.
First, the DVD releases:
- 7th Heaven – The Seventh Season
- Black Blood Brothers Box Set
- The Cosby Show: 25th Anniversary Commemorative Edition: It’s a complete series package with loads of extras.
- Dragon Ball Z: Season Seven
- Dragon Ball Z: The Return of Cooler / Cooler’s Revenge
- Fast Track: Season One
- Father Knows Best: Season Two
- The General (Ultimate 2 Disc Edition): This is a great early comedy.
- Gurren Lagann Vol. 2
- Harry Potter Years 1-5
- Hellboy II: The Golden Army
- Hellboy II: The Golden Army (3 Disc Special Edition)
- Hellboy II: The Golden Army (Collector’s Set)
- Holiday Affair
- Hollywood Musicals Collection: It’s a 61 disk set with 50 titles, so I’m not going to list all of the titles here. One of the highest rated posts has the set well detailed. There are some good ones, and some that would only be of interest to musical lovers.
- I Dream of Jeannie: The Complete Series
- JFK – Director’s Cut
- JFK (Ultimate Collector’s Edition)
- Kujibiki Unbalance Premium Vols 1-3
- Little House on the Prairie: Complete Series
- The Lone Ranger: 75th Anniversary Edition: Seasons 1 and 2:
- The M Squad – The Complete Series
- Mister Peepers: Season 2
- Nadia, Vol. 1: Secret of Blue Water Collection
- Naruto the Movie 3: Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom
- Night Gallery: Season Two
- Off the Baa
- Off the Baa/Three Amazing Adventures: This seems to have two different identically priced releases.
- Off the Baa/Three Amazing Adventures: This seems to have two different identically priced releases.
- Quo Vadis (Two Disc Special Edition)
- Roman Holiday – The Centennial Collection
- Sabrina – The Centennial Collection
- Scrubs: The Complete Seventh Season
- Shogun Assassin: 5 Film Collector’s Set
- Shred
- The Sopranos: The Complete Series
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Single disc edition
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2 Disc Special Edition): The theatrical release.
- The Streets of San Francisco: Season Two, Vol. 2
- Studio One Anthology
- Sunset Boulevard – The Centennial Collection
- Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle Vol. 9
- Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles Season One Set
- Walt Disney Treasures: Dr. Syn: The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh
- Walt Disney Treasures: The Chronological Donald, Vol. 4 – 1951-1961
- Walt Disney Treasures: The Mickey Mouse Club Presents Annette – 1957-1958
- Warner Bros. and the Homefront Collection: Includes “Irving Berlin’s This Is The Army,” “Thank Your Lucky Stars” and “Hollywood Canteen.”
- Warner Bros. Holiday Collection, Vol. 1: Includes “A Christmas Carol (1938),” “Christmas in Connecticut,” “The Singing Nun” and “Boys Town.”
- Warner Bros. Holiday Collection, Vol. 2: Includes “All Mine To Give,” “Holiday Affair,” “It Happened on 5th Avenue” and “Blossoms in the Dust.”
- Why Be Good?
Now, the Blu-Ray releases:
- 3: The Dale Earnhardt Story
- Band of Brothers
- Chuck: The Complete First Season: This also hit DVD in September.
- Dragon Ball Z – Return of the Cooler / Cooler’s Revenge
- Firefly: Complete Series: Yes, now it’s on Blu-Ray. Let the rejoicing begin.
- Freedom
- Harry Potter Years 1-5
- Hellboy II: The Golden Army
- Hellboy II: The Golden Army Collector’s Package
- JFK
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars: The CGI theatrical release, not the TV serialized TV segments.
- Superhero Collection: Includes all three “Spider-Man” movies, two “Underworld” movies, “Ghost Rider” and the first “Hellboy.”
- Supernatural: Season Three: This hit on DVD in September. I stopped following it when a PVR glitch caused me to miss two episodes in season one, but I’ve been collecting the DVDs. I need to start reviewing the seasons; everything I’ve heard and seen promos for is great.
- This Christmas
Finally, the pick of the week. Firefly on Blu-Ray is probably the best quality product out this week. If you don’t have Blu-Ray yet, this is one of those titles likely worth upgrading for. If not, my pick of the DVD titles is The General. I once showed the single disc release to a group of friends, one of whom immediately reacted to the suggestion with “I expletive deleted hate expletive deleted silent movies and expletive deleted black and white movies.” Twenty minutes later, he was crying with laughter, and afterwards admitted he was wrong. I consider both titles to be “must see” titles this week.
Hellboy II was disappointing
I was very disappointed with Hellboy II – it was too jokey and there was too much deus ex machina in use. As an Irish ex-pat I was jumping for joy near the end, but that was just about it for the entire movie, when I had loved the first one. It really felt like Guillermo didn’t take his time with it to polish the story as much as with e.g. Pan’s Labyrinth.
Damien
Shawn The Sheep / Off The Baa
The Shawn The Sheep / Off The Baa DVDs are based around a spin-off from the Wallace And Gromit animations and are hilarious. Each of the eight episodes are 7 minutes of excellent comedy, for kids and adults alike. They’re mostly silent, other than occasional grunts from the various characters, so the animation team rely on their strong skills to tell the story rather than hiring named actors. I am confused why they’re selling two different packs with the same Wallace & Gromit episodes, it’s kinda odd. Still, the Shawn DVD is well worth picking up, especially if you have any kids in the family.
Damien
Sopranos: The Complete Series
While I don’t plan on buying this (maybe in the future, if I see it discounted), I recommend it to those who missed it the first time around, or have watched only the bowdlerized A&E version. The entire series makes a very compelling (if very long) movie.
About Kujibiki Unbalance
Just to let you know (since I can’t add the information myself to the article) – <i>Kujibiki Unbalance</i> is the Show-Within-A-Show from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genshiken"><i>Genshiken</i></a>, another anime series about anime fandom, based around a Japanese collegate "geek" club.
Re: About Kujibiki Unbalance
Gahh, I was in a HTML state of mind. Fixed!