This column is early. Reviews of “Final Crisis: Revelations,” this week’s “Smallville,” the latest issue of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight” and the complete “Final Crisis #1-7” are still late, and may not be caught up by the end of the weekend.
First, AceCaseOR’s picks:
- Chocolate: Martial arts film out of Thailand. Also available on Blu-Ray.
- Dragonball Z Season 8
- Dragonball GT Season 2: Avoid
- Dragonball Z: Super Android 13/Bojack Unbound: Another DBZ Movie Double-Feature. Also available on Blu-Ray.
- The Enforcer: Dragon Dynasty release of the Jet Li film.
- Full Metal Panic!/Fumoffu?! Double-Pack: It’s described on Amazon as Volume 3 of Fumoffu, it’s actually a bundle of all of Fumoffu and all of the first Full Metal Panic series.
- Moritbito: Guardian Of the Spirit Part 1 – Volume 3
- Najica Blitz Tactics: Complete Collection: I don’t know a lot about this series except that it’s an action series with a boatload of fanservice.
- Naruto Uncut Vol. 12: DVD only edition. This is during the “filler arc” – the episodes after the Shippuden time skip are currently only available streaming through Hulu and Viz’s web page.
- Naruto Uncut Vol. 12: “Kitch” edition. This is during the “filler arc” – the episodes after the Shippuden time skip are currently only available streaming through Hulu and Viz’s web page.
- Pet Shop Of Horrors: Complete Collection: Horror anthology morality play kind of thing.
- Shin Chan, Season 2 Part 1
Then, Fiziko’s DVD picks:
- The 400 Blows: An individual release of a title from the “Essential Art House” set.
- An American In Paris – Special Edition: I’m not sure if anything but the packaging is “Special.”
- Back To The Future: Now available in individual releases instead of complete trilogy releases.
- Back To The Future Part II: Now available in individual releases instead of complete trilogy releases.
- Back To The Future Part III: Now available in individual releases instead of complete trilogy releases.
- Black Orpheus: An individual release of a title from the “Essential Art House” set.
- Blindness
- Clint Eastwood American Icon Collection: Includes “Play Misty For Me,” “The Eiger Sanction,” “Coogan’s Bluff” and “The Beguiled.”
- Death Note II: The Last Name
- Essential Art House Vol. 2: Criterion Collection transfers without the bonus features. This set includes “Black Orpheus,” “The 400 Blows,” “Ikiru,” “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp,” “Pygmalion” and “La Strada.”
- The Exterminating Angel – Criterion Collection
- Faerie Tale Theatre – Funny Tales
- Faerie Tale Theatre – Tales of the Brothers Grimm
- Friday the 13th: Season Two
- Gigi
- House: Season One: No new features compared to the original release in terms of content, but this season set was produced with anamorphic transfers this time.
- Ikiru: An individual release of a title from the “Essential Art House” set.
- The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp: An individual release of a title from the “Essential Art House” set.
- The Lodger: Classic British Hitchcock, finally restored and released individually. Until now, I’ve only been able to find it in the “Large N movies for only $small N price!” collections, and they look and sound terrible.
- Melrose Place – Season Five, Vol. 1
- My Name Is Bruce: Bruce Campbell and Ted Raimi, together again.
- One Foot In The Grave, Season Five
- One Foot In The Grave, Season Six
- Pan’s Labyrinth
- The Paradine Case: Classic British Hitchcock. Unlike the other releases this week, this hasn’t been included in the cheaply available packages. I missed its first individual releases, now long out of print, and was tempted by a $90 MGM box set last November, simply because I’d finally get my hands on this. (I’m trying to collect all of Hitchcock’s work.) The only thing that held me back was the announcement of this individual release. It stars Gregory Peck, Charles Laughton, Charles Coburn, Ethel Barrymore, and Ann Todd.
- Pygmalion: An individual release of a title from the “Essential Art House” set.
- Route 66 – Season Three, Vol. 1
- Route 66: Producer’s Picks
- Sabotage: Classic British Hitchcock, finally restored and released individually. Until now, I’ve only been able to find it in the “Large N movies for only $small N price!” collections, and they look and sound terrible.
- The Sam Elliot Western Collection
- Shawn The Sheep: Back in the Ba-a-a-ath: From the producers of Wallace and Gromit.
- Simon and Simon: Season Two
- Simon of the Desert – Criterion Collection
- Sliders – The First Season: The first two seasons of “Sliders” originally hit in August 2004, presented in a really nifty package that made the disks appear to float in midair within the transparent right half. The package did a great job of catching the eyes of customers in the stores. They tended to pick the set up and check them out, regardless of familiarity with the show, just because of the package. Then they saw the price tag that came along with the package and put the set right back on the shelf. This is a two disk, 440 minute release of season one for under $20, so I suspect the package (not pictured at the time of this writing) is much less fancy. I hope it sells well enough to get the rest back on track. The show ran five seasons, and they’ve only released four. Man, I hate it when I can’t complete a collection.
- Soul Men
- La Strada: An individual release of a title from the “Essential Art House” set.
- Street Fighter Extreme Edition: This movie suffers from two major issues. The first was trying to jam in every possible character; fans don’t like seeing characters included if they’ve been heavily modified just to squish them in, or if they’re only there for a few seconds. Mortal Kombat did a better job of this by picking a few characters and leaving the rest out entirely. The second main problem is that it couldn’t figure out its target audience. The script was written at an eight year old level, but it was violent enough to garner a PG-13 rating, which means most of the people who were young enough to truly enjoy it weren’t able to see it alone.
- Tales From The Darkside: Season One
- Terminal Invasion
- W.
- Wallace and Gromit: A Grand Day Out: A single episode for $9.98. I suggest spending $12.98 to get all three episodes and the complete “Cracking Contraptions” run instead with this release.
- Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers: A single episode for $9.98. I suggest spending $12.98 to get all three episodes and the complete “Cracking Contraptions” run instead with this release.
- Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave: A single episode for $9.98. I suggest spending $12.98 to get all three episodes and the complete “Cracking Contraptions” run instead with this release.
- Young And Innocent: Classic British Hitchcock, finally restored and released individually. Until now, I’ve only been able to find it in the “Large N movies for only $small N price!” collections, and they look and sound terrible.
Now, the Blu-Ray releases:
- Amadeus: This is a very well respected film in the eyes of most critics. My impression may be tainted by the fact that I was only 6 when I saw it in theaters, but it still remains one of the only two movies that has ever put me to sleep (along with Out of Africa.)
- Boondock Saints
- Donnie Darko
- Doom
- A History of Violence
- My Name Is Bruce
- Nights in Rodanthe
- The Pelican Brief
- Ping Pong Playa
- Pretty Woman
- Raging Bull
- The Rundown
- Soul Men
- Street Fighter Extreme Edition
- A Time To Kill
- W.
Finally, the pick of the week. AceCaseOr says: “As far a picks of the week go… I’ve got nothing. If you don’t have Full Metal Panic and Fumoffu already and want both, pick up the double-pack. Otherwise, there isn’t anything that screams “buy me now” this week.” Fiziko says: “Go with the “Essential Art House” collection if it fits in the budget; otherwise, get the individual title within that seems most appealing to you.”
My Name is Bruce
I have to second this one, it’s about as good as Bruce Campbell gets. Pity the non Blu-Ray is looking like it’ll be hard to find north of the border.
Fairy tales
Pan’s Labyrinth was truly magical, in a horrifying sort of way — although it was a blend of "real life" and fantasy, and the really horror stuff was all on the "real life" side. Any fans of the darker side of fairy tales should definitely see this if you haven’t already.
I assume Faerie Tale Theatre, on the other hand, uses the "children-friendly" versions. Could still be entertaining, especially given those casts. (Just try to ignore the highly superficial and/or sexist lessons these tales typically try to teach…) I mean, they’ve got The Three Little Pigs, starring Billy Crystal, Fred Willard and Stephen Furst (yay!) as the pigs and Jeff Goldblum (!) as the wolf. Heh. Anybody know if these are actually any good, or is it more likely the actors were looking for some easy work?
Re: Fairy tales
I haven’t seen Faerie Tale Theater, but it has a pretty strong reputation, and I’ve heard that the episodes leave some of the edge intact.
I doubt it’s Pan’s Labyrinth, however.