Next week has a few choice items.

First, the DVD releases:

• 300 (Limited Collectors Edition)
• Abraham Lincoln / The Struggle
• The Avenging Conscience
• Bachelorman
• Bleach 13: The Rescue
• Bones – Season 3
• Burke’s Law: Season One Volume Two
• Cannibal! The Musical: 13th Anniversary Edition
• Charmed: The Complete Series
• Chrono Crusade, Vol. 2
• Columbia Best Pictures Collection: Includes “It Happened One Night,” “You Can’t Take It With You,” “All The King’s Men,” “From Here To Eternity,” “On The Waterfront,” “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” “Lawrence of Arabia,” “A Man For All Seasons,” “Kramer vs. Kramer,” “Ghandi” and “Oliver!”
• Complete Monty Pythons Flying Circus – Collectors Edition Megaset: This 21 disc set includes all content from the original 16 disc set (ie. all episodes and a bunch of live stuff) in addition to the “Personal Best” collections.
• D.W. Griffith: Father of Film
• Daniel Boone: Season 6
• David Lynch: The Lime Green Set: It’s a 10 disc collection of short films.
• Death Note Box Set 1: Includes volumes 1-5 of the individual releases.
• Doctor Who: The Infinite Quest: A serialized animated story set in the David Tennant era aimed at the younger set.
• Doctor Who: The Complete Fourth Series
• Fanfan La Tulipe – Criterion Collection
• Flowers for Algernon
• Forgotten Noir and Crime Vol. 4: Includes “Counterspy Meets Scotland Yard,” “Radar Secret Service,” “Motor Patrol,” “Mr. District Attorney,” “Western Pacific Agent,” “The Treasure of Monte Cristo,” “Roaring City,” and “Sky Liner.”
• Gene Simmons Family Jewels: The Complete Season Three
• Ghost Hunt: Season 1, Part 2
• The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
• The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (Limited Edition)
• Gospel at Colonus
• Griffith Masterworks 2: Includes “Way Down East,” “D.W. Griffith: Father of Film,” “The Avenging Conscience,” “Abraham Lincoln,” “The Struggle,” and “Sally of the Sawdust,” many of which are available individually. Griffith was a talented filmmaker, but often the content of his movies was very offensive. He’s probably best known for “Birth of a Nation,” available in the first box set from Kino, which was the first epic film and also the first to use film to convey a message. That message came through loud and clear: “America fought a Civil War, and the good guys lost.” His films are useful to watch from the film student’s perspective, but it may be best not to share them with those who haven’t developed independant critical thinking skills.
• Hanna Montana: The Complete First Season
• Hawaii Five-O – The Fifth Season
• Heathers – Limited Edition Box Set
• High School Musical: DVD Game
• Kiss Me Deadly: A movie I’ve never heard of, filled with stars I have heard of. Not a good sign.
• Jeff Dunham’s Very Special Christmas Special
• The Last Emperor – Criterion Collection
• McHale’s Navy: Season Four
• Monty Python Holy Trinity: Includes “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” “Monty Python’s Life of Brian” and “Monty Python’s the Meaning of Life.”
• Neon Genesis Evangelion, Vol. 2: Platinum Holiday Special
• The Odd Couple – The Final Season
• Paris, Je T’Aime
• Peach Girl: Box Set
• Philip K. Dick – The Penultimate Truth: This appears biographical in nature.
• Priceless
• Ramen Fighter Miki: The Complete Collection
• Sally Of The Sawdust
• The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
• Spongebob Squarepants – Season 5, Vol. 2
• Star Trek: The Original Series – Season 3 Remastered: I’ve got season 1 in the HD DVD edition. Man, does it look nice. They’ve cleaned the whole thing up very well, going right back to the original film elements, and completely revamping the special effects. I’ve heard the new effects don’t always mesh well (for example, changing colours from the original effect, even though the original colour was a part of the dialogue) but those problems haven’t happened in any of the episodes I’ve watched so far.
• Star Trek: The Original Series (Remastered) – Three Season Pack: This would be the complete series.
• Tropic Thunder (Single Disc)
• Tropic Thunder (Unrated Director’s Cut)
• Ultimate Death Trance (Deluxe Edition)
• Victor Borge Classic Collection: I saw Borge in a live performance a couple of decades back. Highly recommended.
• Wall-E (Single Disc)
• Wall-E (Three Disc)

Now, the Blu-Ray releases:

• Alpha Dog
• Alone in the Dark
• Black Christmas
• Blu-Cube 10-Pack Bundle: These are all low-profile titles.
• Blu-Cube 20-Pack Bundle: This includes the 10-pack, plus another 10 lower profile movies.
• Blue Streak: Blu-Ray must be doing well, if they’re releasing Martin Lawrence titles. It’s certainly grown past the “connaisseur only” market.
• Bruce Almighty: That’s a packaging image I didn’t need to see.
• Heathers
• Infernal Affairs: This was remade as “The Departed.”
• The Island
• Jeff Dunham’s Very Special Christmas Special
• Lucky Number Slevin
• Mad Money
• Mirrormask
• National Security
• Paris, Je T’Aime
• Priceless
• Revolver
• Scary Movie 4: One disk. $58.49. There’s something wrong with this picture, and not just the terrible, terrible movie franchise that simply refuses to die.
• Scary Movie 4: Also one disk, but this one’s $66.99.
• Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
• Tomb Raider: This is a single disc edition, listed by Amazon as DVD but with a Blu-Ray item picture and a $51.99 price tag. I’m thinking there are errors in the listing.
• Tropic Thunder (Unrated Director’s Cut)
• The Universe: The Complete Season 1
• Wall-E (Two Disc)
• Wall-E (Three Disc): This includes the 2 Blu-Ray edition, plus a single DVD copy so you can upgrade your movie collection before your viewing hardware.

Finally, the pick of the week. I’d go with the remastered Star Trek. Yeah, there are glitches when recreating the visual effects a few decades later, but the elimination of the distractingly bad original visual effects is totally worth it.