Studios get ready for Christmas shoppers in November, as you can tell by the flood of new collections and reprinted single volumes. This is the longest list we’ve had in a while.
First, the DVD picks:
- 3000 Miles to Graceland
- Afro Samurai: Complete Murder Sessions (Director’s Cut)
- Afro Samurai: Complete Murder Session (Spike Version) Alex: This one would have the blood, some of the profanity, and nudity removed.
- Aliens in the Attic
- Amadeus
- Any Given Sunday: Special Edition Director’s Cut
- Bleach Uncut Box Set: Season 4, Part 1 – The Bount Alex: Welcome to the filler.
- Boogiepop Phantom / Boogiepop and Others Alex: I haven’t seen these OVAs, but I’ve heard they’re pretty creepy
- Buck Rogers: The Buster Crabbe serial
- Christmas in Wonderland: Blaine: I reviewed this movie here a couple of years ago. Thankfully, it was not Patrick Swayze’s last job. If it had had higher distribution, it could have become the Plan 9 of Christmas movies.
- The Claudette Colbert Collection: Includes Three-Cornered Moon, Maid of Salem, I Met Him in Paris, Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife, No Time for Love and The Egg and I.
- The Client
- The Clint Eastwood Star Collection: Includes A Fistful of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Hang ’em High.
- Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics Vol. 1: Includes The Big Heat, 5 Against the House, The Lineup, Murder by Contract and The Sniper.
- Copycat
- Disclosure
- Disney Dogs Holiday 3-Pack: Includes Snow Dogs, Beverly Hills Chihuahua and Eight Below
- Disney Holiday Concert 3-Pack: Includes High School Musical: The Concert, Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus Best of Both Worlds Concert and Jonas Brothers: The Concert Experience.
- Disney Holiday High School Musical 3-Pack: Includes the three High School Musical movies.
- Disney Holiday Princess 3 Pack: Includes Enchanted, The Princess Diaries and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.
- Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
- Doctor Who: The Black Guardian Trilogy (Episodes 126-128): Includes Mawdryn Undead, Terminus and Enlightenment.
- Doctor Who – The War Games Alex: For those not already aware – this is the 2nd Doctor’s last serial. It’s also really long (even for older Doctor Who serials).
- The Donna Reed Show: Season Three
- Dragonaut: The Resonance, Complete Series Part 1
- Eight Legged Freaks
- Empire of the Sun
- The Exorcist II
- Forrest Gump: Chocolate Box Giftset
- Fraggle Rock: Merry Fraggle Holiday
- Fraggle Rock: The Complete Final Season
- Fraggle Rock: The Complete Series
- The Frank Sinatra Star Collection: Includes Guys and Dolls, Hole in the Head, The Manchurian Candidate and Sergeant’s 3
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero 1.2
- G.I. Joe: Resolute: The animated release serialized on the Cartoon Network this summer.
- G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra: Single Disc Edition
- G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra: Two disc edition. Also available on Blu-Ray
- The Gary Cooper Star Collection: Includes The Westerner, Man of the West, Along Came Jones and Pride of the Yankees.
- Here’s Lucy: Season Two
- House of Wax (1953): This also includes the original Mystery of the Wax Museum as a bonus feature.
- I Love You Beth Cooper
- Interview with the Vampire
- It’s a Wonderful Life: Two Disc Collector’s edition with tree ornament. The Blu-Ray edition has no ornament.
- The Jack Lemmon Star Collection: Includes Some Like It Hot, Avanti!, The Apartment and How to Murder Your Wife.
- The Jodie Foster Star Collection: Includes The Hotel New Hampshire, Silence of the Lambs, The Foxes and Little Man Tate.
- Just Cause
- Ki-Gai Alex: This is a live-action horror title, but I cannot find anything about it.
- The Last Samurai
- Little Shop of Horrors
- Message in a Bottle
- The Michelle Pfeiffer Star Collection: Includes Love Field, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Married to the Mob and The Russia House.
- The Mickey Rourke Star Collection: Includes Desperate Hours, Pope of Greenwich Village, Prayer for the Dying and Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man
- Mickey’s Magical Christmas
- Mission: Impossible – The Final TV Season: Also known as season seven.
- Mission: Impossible – The Complete Series
- Monster-in-Law
- Moribito – Guardian of the Spirit Volume 7
- Murder at 1600
- Murder by Numbers
- Murder in the First
- National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (Ultimate Collector’s Edition)
- The Neverending Story
- The Nicholas Cage Star Collection: Includes Valley Girl, Honeymoon in Vegas, Leaving Las Vegas, and Moonstruck.
- North by Northwest (50th Anniversary Edition): Blaine: This is one of Hitchcock’s better movies, and that’s saying quite a bit. Also available on Blu-Ray.
- Pay it Forward
- The Pelican Brief
- Playhouse Disney 3 Pack: Includes Tigger and Pooh’s Christmas Movie, Mickey Saves Santa and Little Einsteins Christmas Wish.
- Practical Magic
- The Reese Witherspoon Star Collection: Includes Legally Blonde, Legally Blonde 2, Man in the Moon and SFW
- The Replacements
- The Robert Downey Jr. Star Collection: Includes Charlie Bartlett, Back To School, Home for the Holidays and Richard III.
- The Rockford Files: Movie Collection Vol. 1
- Say Anything
- The Sean Connery Star Collection: Includes Never Say Never Again, Cuba, A Bridge Too Far and Shalako.
- The Shield – The Complete Series
- Six Sex Scenes and a Murder
- Sleepers
- Spies Like Us
- Spin City: Season Three
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Complete Season One
- Ruby Spears Superman
- Superman: The Movie
- Superman II
- The Susan Sarandon Star Collection: Includes Thelma and Louise, The January Man, Something Short of Paradise and Igby Goes Down.
- The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
- TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: Comedy: Includes Arsenic and Old Lace, A Night at the Opera, The Long Long Trailer and the original 1950 Father of the Bride.
- TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: Family: Includes The Incredible Mr. Limpet, Lassie Come Home, National Velvet and the 1963 edition of Flipper.
- TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: Hitchcock Thrillers: Includes Suspicion, Strangers on a Train, The Wrong Man and I Confess.
- TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: Holiday: Includes Christmas in Connecticut (1945), A Christmas Carol (1938), The Shop Around the Corner and It Happened on 5th Avenue.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Complete Season 7 Alex: Just for the record – this is the 90s cartoon series, with Shredder and Krang being generally semi-inept. If you’re expecting the more recent series that hews a little closer to the Mirage comic, consider yourself warned.
- Terminator Salvation: The Machinima Series
- Them!
- Three Kings
- A Time To Kill
- The Tower of Druaga: Part One – The Aegis of Uruk Alex: Anime series based on Namco’s arcade dungeon crawler.
- Twister
- Two Weeks Notice
- U.S. Marshals
- Under Siege 2: Dark Territory
- Walt Disney Treasures: Zorro, Complete Season One: This is the Guy Williams series.
- Walt Disney Treasures: Zorro, Complete Season Two
- White Christmas: Anniversary Edition. Blaine: I love the way they don’t specify the anniversary. It’s the 55th, which is not one typically celebrated. Pure marketing.
- Wings of Desire (Criterion Collection): Directed by Wim Wenders and starring Peter Falk. Also availabe on Blu-Ray.
- The Winona Ryder Star Collection: Includes Mermaids, Autumn in New York, Great Balls of Fire and 1969.
- Wolverine and the X-Men: Beginning of the End: Also available in a three disc box set.
- Wolverine and the X-Men: Volumes 1-3
- WWE: Hell in a Cell Alex: Reprint, though still notable due to this being the last DVD that Mick Foley hosted for the WWE before he jumped ship to TNA. Unless, that is, they re-shot the segments bracketing the footage with someone else just to spite Foley.
- WWE Survivor Series Anthology, Vol. 1 – 1987-1991
- WWE Survivor Series Anthology, Vol. 2 – 1992-1996 Alex: Presumably this would include the Montreal Screwjob.
- You’re Under Arrest: Season 2 – Collection 1 Alex: The second season of the police comedy series from the creator of “Ah! My Goddess”. There isn’t any genre elements though. It is a fun show.
- Young Guns II
- Zorro Generation Z, Vol. 5
Now, the Blu-Ray picks:
- Aliens in the Attic
- A Christmas Carol: The DVD release of this version was reviewed here.
- Forrest Gump
- Forrest Gump (Chocolate Box Giftset)
- G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra
- Howard’s End (Criterion Collection)
- I Love You Beth Cooper
- It’s a Wonderful Life
- James Bond 10 Pack: Includes Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, Live and Let Die, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day and Quantum of Solace. Collectors who already have the original three movie Blu-Ray releases and Quantum of Solace have this entire set already.
- Love Actually
- National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation Ultimate Collector’s Edition
- North by Northwest 50th Anniversary Edition
- Rocky: The Undisputed Collection: All six movies
- Say Anything
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars Complete Season One
- The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
- Transformers/Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
- Two Girls and a Guy
- Wings of Desire (Criterion Collection)
- Witchblade: The Complete Series Alex: While the is based on the Top Cow comic, they created a new protagonist instead of Sara Pezzini, and moded the setting to something more “30 seconds in to the future”.
Finally, the picks of the week. Blaine says, “choosing only from those titles I’ve seen, North by Northwest is a clear winner by a mile. By reputation, Wings of Desire might give it a run for its money.” Alex says “Also going with what I’ve seen (including fansubs) You’re Under Arrest Season 2 is definitely worht picking up. It has a lot of the things I liked about the first Patlabor OVA and the TV series, without the sci-fi elements (which is okay too). I don’t particularly have anything I can pick for Blu-Ray, as the only show on the list I’ve seen was Witchblade, and only in part.”
“Wings of Desire” is a fantastic movie, and could pretty much be considered genre.