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.”
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.
“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.
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.