First, the DVD picks:
- AK 100: 25 Films of Akira Kurosawa: The usual Criterion deluxe box treatment: essays by those who know what they’re talking about, linen-bound packaging and book detailing each film, and four movies never before released on DVD. Includes (in chronological order) “Sanshiro Sugata,” “The Most Beautiful,” “Sanshiro Sugata Part Two,” “The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail,” “No Regrets for Our Youth,” “One Wonderful Sunday,” “Drunken Angel,” “Stray Dog,” “Scandal,” “Rashomon,” “The Idiot,” “Ikiru,” “Seven Samurai,” “I Live in Fear,” “Throne of Blood,” “The Lower Depths,” “The Hidden Fortress,” “The Bad Sleep Well,” “Yojimbo,” “Sanjuro,” “High and Low,” “Red Beard,” “Dodes’ka-dan,” “Kagemusha” and “Madadayo.” Surprisingly, it does not include “Ran” or “Dreams.”
- Asian Action Extreme: Alex: Contains 4 movies – “Yakuza Graveyard,” “Hit Man File,” “Cops vs. Thugs,” and “3 Seconds Before Explosion.” None of these sound promising – but they’re subtitled only – which could just mean that it’s just the translated titles that sound bad.
- The Brigette Bardot Classic Collection: Includes “The Night Heaven Fell,” “Plucking the Daisy” and “Don Juan.”
- Clannad After Story Collection 2
- Coraline: Limited Edition Giftset
- The Dog Who Saved Christmas
- Friday: The Complete Animated Series
- The Fugitive: Season Three, Volume Two
- Get Smart: Season Five: This is the series’ last season.
- Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone (Ultimate Edition)
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Ultimate Edition)
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Two Disc Edition): Alex: We did our first (and thus far, only) podcast on the film – if you want to hear more about our thoughts on the film, feel free to listen.
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Single Disc Edition)
- Harry Potter Giftset: Years 1-6
- Home Movie
- Hooking Up
- Inalienable: Blaine: I’ve never heard of this, but it stars Richard Hatch, Walter Koenig and Marina Sirtis.
- The Jerry Lewis Show Collection
- The Judy Garland Show Collection
- Julie and Julia
- Julie and Julia (with shopping bag)
- Legendary Gangsters Collection: Includes “Public Enemies,” “American Gangster,” “Casino,” “Carlito’s Way” and “Scarface.”
- Lost: The Complete Fifth Season
- Lost: The Complete Fifth Season Dharma Initiative Orientation Kit
- McLeod’s Daughters: The Original Movie
- Monster: Box 1: Alex: The anime series currently running on the Sci-Fi Channel-er-Syfy, sorry. Basically, the series is a suspense thriller about a doctor who chooses to save the life of a child who only he can save, over the mayor of the town the hospital he works at is in. The mayor dies and the doctor’s life starts to become hell, until the child comes out of a coma and everyone who was tormenting the doctor turns up dead. He later learns (several years later), that the child has grown up to become a violent sociopath and he decides to repair the damage he did several years prior. From the description, the premise sounds like The Fugitive meets Osamu Tesuka’s Black Jack – which makes sense because the creator of this show did another show titled Pluto which is an adaptation of an arc from Astro Boy but told from a different perspective. Lots of good buzz around this show.
- Moonlight Serenade
- Moritibo: Guardians of the Spirit vol. 7 & 8
- Moritibo Collector’s Box: Alex: Did you not buy the collector’s edition of Vol. 1 with it’s attractive box to display your disks in? Well, now you can buy an empty box to display your disks. I’d actually heavily mock this… except on occasions I’ve found myself wanting to buy a collector’s box for series that I own all the disks of, but don’t have a box for (like Geneon USA’s releases of Captain Harlock: Endless Odyssey and Trigun).
- Naruto Shippuden, Vol. 4
- Paperback Dreams: Alex: This documentary just happened to catch my attention while browsing – it’s a documentary following 2 independant booksellers in the San Francisco area. As someone who often supports one major Oregon bookseller (Powell’s) and supports one significantly less major bookseller less often than he’d like (The Reader’s Guide to Recycled Literature in Salem), I have a particular attachement to the subject matter of the documentary – though I haven’t seen it (yet).
- Perry Mason: Season Four, Volume Two
- Public Enemies (Single Disc Edition)
- Public Enemies (Two Disc Edition)
- Rescue Me: Season Five, Volume Two
- School Rumble: The Complete Series: Contains seasons 1 and 2 and the OVAs.
- The Skeptic
- Soupy Sales: In Living Color
- Soupy Sales: In Living Black and White
- Soupy Sales: The Complete Collection
- TNA Bound for Glory 2009
- The Wizard of Oz (Collector’s Edition): Yet again, no image for this release. It may be an error.
- Wild Women of Wongo
- World’s Greatest Dad
- Zorro: Return to the Future
Now, the Blu-Ray picks:
- AC/DC: No Bull: Concert movie from the band’s most recent tour
- The Alphabet Killer
- The Arnold Schwarzenegger Blu-Ray Collection: Includes “Commando,” “Predator” and “The Terminator.”
- The Ben Stiller Blu-Ray Collection: Includes “There’s Something About Mary,” “Night at the Museum” and “Dodgeball.”
- The Bruce Willis Blu-Ray Collection: Includes “Siege,” “Die Hard” and “Hart’s War.”
- Coraline Gift Set
- Cyclops
- The Denzel Washington Blu-Ray Collection: Includes “Siege,” “Man on Fire” and “Out of Time.”
- THe Gene Hackman Blu-Ray Collection: Includes “The French Connection,” “Hoosiers” and “Behind Enemy Lines.”
- Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone (Ultimate Edition)
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Ultimate Edition)
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
- Julie and Julia
- The Keeanu Reeves Blu-Ray Collection: Includes “Street Kings,” “Point Break” and “Speed.”
- Lost: The Complete Fifth Season
- Lost: The Complete Fifth Season Dharma Initiative Orientation Kit
- Lost Treasure of the Grand Canyon
- Lower Learning
- The Mark Wahlberg Blu-Ray Collection: Includes “Max Payne,” “The Happening” and “Planet of the Apes.”
- Public Enemies
- Red Mist
- Rush: R30: A concert from Rush’s 30th Anniversary tour, recorded in Germany.
- Sands of Oblivion: Alex: Direct-to-video (I think) film about film historians discovering that Cecil B. DeMille actually made The 10 Commandments to imprison an ancient Egyptian god – after they accidentially release it while looking for the original film reels of the movie.
- The Sean Connery Blu-Ray Collection: Includes “Never Say Never Again,” “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” and “Entrapment.”
- Walled In
- While She Was Out
- World’s Greatest Dad
Finally, the picks of the week. Blaine says, “The Akira Kurosawa box may be lacking an expected title or two, but it’s still an incredible set, currently at a very good price (about $11 each for Criterion titles.)” Alex says, “Going with what I’ve seen before, I’ll be reccomending R30 on Blu-Ray. As far as DVD goes, I haven’t watched most of what’s coming out this week – though I will be adding Monster to my Netflix Queue. I’d also like to take a moment to offer my sympathies to the family of Eddie “Umaga” Fatu, who passed away on 12/4/2009. As of this writing – shortly after his death, the cause of death is unknown.”
So is “Lost” over or is it still going on? I vowed not to start watching it till I can watch the whole thing
Also the Kurosawa box looks awesome.
The sixth and final season of “Lost” starts February 2.
Then I know what I’m doing in 2011!
Or sooner. The December release dates they’ve used are really, really late compared to others, and were set up to hit the shelves in time for Christmas so people can watch the season in a marathon between Christmas and New Year’s Day in time for the next season. When there is no next season, they might get them out faster.
I’m not in a huge rush. Plus I have a whole buncha other things in my To Watch queue (: