Weekly Digital Disk Picks for December 14th, 2010

Be warned: some of this week’s releases are hitting on Friday to better maintain visibility during that pre-Christmas buying season.

Title DVD Release(s) Blu-Ray Release(s)
Action
24 Season Eight, complete series Season Eight
The A-Team Amazon.com Amazon.com
Hard Boiled Amazon.com
Chow Yun-Fat stars, John Woo directs.
Hawaii Five-O: Tenth Season Amazon.com
Anime
Dragon Ball Z Kai – Season 1 Part 3 Amazon.com, rightstuf.com Amazon.com, rightstuf.com
Gun X Sword: Complete Boxed Set Amazon.com, rightstuf.com
A post-apocalyptic super robot series. Sort of like Trigun meets Mazinger.
Guyver: The Complete Series – Veridian Collection Amazon.com, rightstuf.com
Naruto Uncut Season 4 V. 2 Amazon.com, rightstuf.com
Nyan Koi: Complete Collection Amazon.com, rightstuf.com
Queen’s Blade Collection Amazon.com, rightstuf.com
Alex: As advance warning – while this show isn’t precisely porn, it is very fanservice heavy and does contain nudity and near nudity. Be warned.
Sands of Destruction: The Complete Series – Veridian Collection Amazon.com, rightstuf.com
A tie-in anime to the Nintendo DS game of the same name.
Tower of Druaga: The Complete Boxed Set Amazon.com, rightstuf.com
Contains both seasons – Aegis of Uruk and Sword of Uruk.
Art House
Christmas
Honeymooners Christmas Special Amazon.com
Classics (Cult)
Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus / Mega Piranha Amazon.com
Classics (Traditional)
America Lost and Found: The BBS Story Amazon.com
Includes Head, Five Easy Pieces, Drive, He Said, The Last Picture Show, The King of Marvin Gardens and A Safe Place, just as the Blu-Ray release did a couple of weeks ago.
The Black Pirate Amazon.com
Blaine: This is exactly the kind of release Kino does so well.
Comedy
The General Amazon.com
Blaine: I’ve never heard of this company, so I don’t know how the quality of the film compares to the Kino releases, but the movie itself is fantastic.
The IT Crowd: Season Four Amazon.com
Leave it to Beaver: Season Five Amazon.com
The Other Guys Theatrical edition, Unrated edition Unrated edition, Unrated combo edition
Trailer Park Boys Say Goodnight Amazon.com
Documentary
Double Take Amazon.com
A fictional documentary about Hitchcock.
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work Amazon.com Amazon.com
Drama
Army Wives: Season Four Amazon.com
Cyrus Amazon.com Amazon.com
Harsh Times Amazon.com
Mother and Child Amazon.com Amazon.com
Family
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Amazon.com
Blaine: No, it’s NOT supposed to be “fathoms,” despite the popular misconception started by SNL. 20,000 fathoms is over 36 km, 25 km deeper than the deepest known point in any ocean. Either way, it’s one of Disney’s best classic live action flicks, even if it’s not an accurate adaptation.
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’hoole Amazon.com Two disc combo edition, Three disc combo
Nanny McPhee Returns Amazon.com Amazon.com
An Ultimate Gulliver Collection Amazon.com
Blaine: Includes the Fleischer film, some “Beyond the Moon” movie I’ve never heard of, the 1902 Melies version, and 7 Gabby shorts that launched from the Fleischer film. Also, whoever put the article “an” in front of “ultimate” needs to learn what “ultimate” really means.
Horror
The Fishmen and their Queen Amazon.com
Italian Post Apocalyptic horror film.
Resonnances Amazon.com
Some friends vacationing in france are attacked by a Tentacle Monster.
Straight To Hell Returns Amazon.com
Alex: A Bazarre psudo-western from the director of Sid and Nancy
Szamanka Amazon.com
Limited print run release of a horror film by Polish director Andrzej Zulawski
Vampire Circus DVD/Blu-Ray Combo
An odd little horror film from Hammer Films.
Romance
The Town Amazon.com Combo edition
Alex: Being that this is a movie about bank robbers in Boston, I find it slightly amusing that it’s put under “Romance”. Considering some of the details of the film’s plot, I can understand why it’s here. But still…
Science Fiction
Dark Metropolis Amazon.com
Alex: All I was able to find out about this independant Science Fiction film is that it’s an indy Sci-Fi film.
Sports
WWE Summerslam 2010 Amazon.com
WWE Presents the Top 50 Superstars of all time Amazon.com
3 Disk Set highlighting some of the WWE’s top stars.
Superhero
Despicable Me Single DVD, Two disc DVD Three disc combo edition, Four disc combo edition
Western
Gunsmoke: Season Four, Volume Two Amazon.com
True Grit Amazon.com
Alex: Coming out just in time for the remake by the Coen Brothers

Finally, the picks of the week. Blaine says, “it’s hard to go wrong with The General, but if my advice was all it took to get people to buy it, our readers would own about five copies each by now.” Alex says, “Hard Boiled is one of John Woo’s best films, and Dragon Dynasty puts out releases almost on par with the Criterion Collection. If you have a Blu-Ray player, it’s definitely worth picking up.”

3 replies on “Weekly Digital Disk Picks for December 14th, 2010”

  1. Disney did a decent job with Leagues, cute pet seal notwithstanding. If it’s included as an extra (probably is), check out the first version of the giant squid attack. (more at the bureau review of the DVD).

    “Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys,” on the other hand, is a Trailer Park Boys low point, a mediocre special that reset status quo after the series ended, in order to set up for the Countdown to Liquor Day movie. It has a few laughs, but if you’ve never seen the show, this is not the place to start.

    Of course, TPB is not for all tastes.

  2. “Hard Boiled” is my favourite John Woo/Chow Yun-Fat movie. It has some of the absolute best action sequences I’ve ever seen, literally edge-of-your-seat-going-woooooo stuff.

    Course it helps to ignore the plot, but if John Woo can do it, so can I.

  3. How funny! I literally just watched The General this morning for the first time. Some of the stunts are pretty neat, especially since there are absolutely no special effects — everything is real. But the film is still pretty dated in some of the humor (think Three Stooges). Certainly it was a landmark for its time, but I’m not sure I’d give it such high marks for modern viewers.

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