Upon further review, this week doesn't hold much excitement, but anyway here now are the 289 DVD, Blu-Ray and HD DVD releases Amazon coughed up for you for the week beginning Tuesday, May 29.
For those of you who haven't endured one of these lists before, it works thusly:
Hovering over links should provide you with Amazon's current price.
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Because Amazon sometimes can't come correct with the information, you will see some exposition from me (or, more likely, a bad joke) in addition to the listing along with IMDb icons (which can be clicked to take you to a movie's IMDb listing) or tv.com icons (which can be clicked to take you to the relevant episode list from tv.com)
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Gentlemen, start your engines...
PICK OF THE WEEK: After consultation of the entire list, it could only be Circle of Iron (2-Disc Special Edition) (The W at Amazon) (1978) Oooh... David Carradine, Jeff Cooper, Christopher Lee, Roddy McDowall, Eli Wallach - TWO discs! TWO!
NOTABLE DIRECT-TO-DVD RELEASES OF THE WEEK: Free Zone (Israel/Belgium/France/Spain, 2005) Natalie Portman Loveless in Los Angeles (2007) Dash Mihok, Brittany Daniel
The Andy Griffith Show - The Complete Series Hope you didn't buy the earlier season sets - all eight seasons PLUS the original pilot PLUS the 1986 movie "Return to Mayberry" - 40 discs - FORTY!
CANADIAN TV OF THE WEEK: Starhunter - The Complete Series (2000-4) all 22 episodes of edgy Canadian Sci-Fi series, in widescreen...hmm, I first reported this one for 1/16...4 discs and "unrated bonus features" which hopefully means MORE BOOBS
Above the Law (Zhi Fa Xian Feng - Hong Kong, 1986) Shanghai Express (Foo Gwai Lit Che - Hong Kong, 1986) SAMMO of the week
Forbidden City Cop (Daai Laap Mat Taam 008 - Hong Kong, 1996) Forbidden City Cop I dunno, cover of THIS one is for "Pushing Hands" (Tui Shou - Hong Kong, 1992) , an Ang Lee film
Resistance (2003, USA/Netherlands) Bill Paxton, Julia Ormond
Able Edwards (2004) Homage to "Citizen Kane" made with a single MiniDV cam, a green screen, and a Mac Rapid Fear (Australia, 2004) Thriller Illusion (2004) Kirk Douglas
The Foursome (Canada, 2006) Kevin Dillon (isn't Canadian) and friends reconnect at a 20th Anniversary college reunion My Brother (2006) Vanessa Williams, Tatum O'Neal - directed by Anthony Lover Rain (2006) Brooklyn Sudano, Faye Dunaway, Robert Loggia, Khandi Alexander, Giancarlo Esposito - directed by Craig DiBona Be My Baby (2006) Woman kidnaps babies to con ex-lover into child support - probably as bad as plot sounds Be My Baby Same as above? The Hawk Is Dying (2006) Paul Giamatti Kill House (2006) "Escrow just closed." Kill House Full screen version, maybe?
Drive-Thru (2007) Burger place's clown mascot goes on a rampage - not Ronald McDonald, they swear Mexican American (2007) Damian Chapa
FOR FOLKS ON A BUDGET:
MAC FILMWORKS BRINGS THE CHEAPO DVDs: Time Pretty sure they mean "Tim" (Australia, 1979) Piper Laurie, Mel Gibson Lethal Victims (W.A.R.: Women Against Rape - 1987) FRANK STALLONE OF THE WEEK! Tim/Lethal Victims Loose Shoes (1980) Bill Murray leads a cast of, like, a MILLION people in a series of spoof movie trailers - this one's probably just worth the price Till the Clouds Roll By (1946) Biopic of Jerome Kern contains performances by lots of musical stars, most notably Frank Sinatra Loose Shoes/Till Clouds Roll By What an odd pairing
ST CLAIR ENTERTAINMENT *SUPER* MYSTERY RELEASE: St Clair Hmm, maybe it's the entire company
WHOA...JOHNNY LEGEND IS STILL ALIVE?: Johnny Legend's Deadly Doubles, Vol. 3 According to Diabolik DVD (diabolikdvd.com), set includes "Prehistoric Women" and Spies-A-Go-Go" Johnny Legend's Deadly Doubles, Vol. 4 Again, Diabolik (diabolikdvd.com) gives me the details: includes "Teenage Devil Dolls," "Teenage Confidential" Nympho Libre Well, Johnny Legend DID promote wrestling back in the day...by which I mean, whenever I saw those SFLL shows...
MOST TERRIFYING RELEASE OF THE WEEK: Little Hercules: Hollywood Workout - for once, I'm seriously glad that we don't have a cover 'cause that kid is CREEPY - for trailer and secret photos of Hulk Hogan and Big Show, head over to www.richardsandrak.com
Come back Monday for the inevitable changes to this list as well as Amazon's Top 24 pre-orders! With a field this lackluster, things could be BLOWN WIDE OPEN!
Man, this is a slow week, there's virtually nothing here that I have seen or want to see.
Originally posted by CRZThe Closer - The Complete Second Season (TNT, 2006) Kyra Sedgewick - hey, does ANYBODY actually WATCH this show? The Closer - The Complete First Two Seasons
With all the CRAP on this list you pick on Kyra? Yes I do watch this show, not enough though. I wouldn't buy the DVD. Don't like/obsess about Kyra that much.
I did just buy the 2nd seaon of Dead Like Me for $14.95 and the 4th season of The Pretender for $19.95. I don't have the first seasons, nor the time presently to watch them but at those prices it was kind of hard to pass them up.
Yes, I am an idiot.
Originally posted by CRZDo It for Uncle Manny (2002) Adam Baratta, Kari Wuhrer (!), Louie Anderson
Weird Accidental Wrestling Reference Number One.
Originally posted by CRZThe Backyardigans - Movers & Shakers (Nick Jr.)
Weird Accidental Wrestling Reference Number Two. What in the BLUE HELL are Backyardigans? Preppie Cardigan Wearing Backyard Wrestlers? (Who presumably wrestle on a trampoline while sipping tea with the pinkie finger extended?)
Originally posted by CRZDrive-In Double Feature: The Undertaker And His Pals (1966) / Carnival Of Blood (1970)
Weird Accidental Wrestling Reference Number THREE
Yes, I do like the number THREE
Have to say it THREE times, in fact.
WAIT! The Undertaker has PALS? SINCE WHEN? I mean even if we are not talking about the wrestling Undertaker, what kind of self-respecting Undertaker would have PALS?
(Unless of course that's how you refer to your small silver balls of churning death in which case carry on.)
Originally posted by CRZBasic Instinct [Blu-ray] (1992) With the stunning clarity of Blu-Ray you can actually count the hairs on Sharon Stone's chooch NOW HOW MUCH WOULD YOU PAY?!
I don't know, let's ask Mr. Owl...
A-one.. Two-HOO.. th-ree. *CRUNCH* Three.
Originally posted by CRZ, againChicago Cubs Legends - Great Games Collector's Edition Surprisingly, 8 discs - I anxiously await/hope Cubs will review the features listing
Speaking as *A Cub fan, This selection is fine for the stars, but what about some good old fashioned Wrigley Field madness, the stuff Steve Goodman wrote songs about?
Thursday, May 17, 1979 (D) at Wrigley Field "Ride the Wild Wind" game
Features Rick Reuschel, pinch-hitter scoring the winning run, a relief pitcher hitting a triple in the bottom of the first, and Bill Buckner making the play on a critical grounder to first.
Originally posted by TheOldManThursday, May 17, 1979 (D) at Wrigley Field "Ride the Wild Wind" game.
Highlights: Phillies pitcher Randy Lerch's HR, Donnie Moore's triple! Dave Kingman hits one of the longest homers in WF history, prompting Lou Boudreau to call "That one's in Milwaukee!"
Originally posted by TheOldManThursday, July 28, 1977 (D) at Wrigley Field.
Best part of this game: the Cubs had far too many OFs, so at the end we had the double-play combo of Jose Cardenal and Bobby Murcer. Fun for Strat-o-matic players!
Too bad they had to put any Mark Grace in there, I bet it was tough to find something that wasn't a double play or a walk-with-men-in-scoring-position.
Should've put in the Milt Pappas no-hitter, the wild-card play-in game...many more options...
As of 2/28/05: 101 pounds since December 7, 2004 OFFICIAL THREE-MONTH COUNT: 112 pounds on March 9, 2005 OFFICIAL SIX-MONTH COUNT: 142 pounds on June 8, 2005 OFFICIAL ONE YEAR COUNT: 187 pounds on December 7, 2005 As of 2/27/06: 202 pounds "I've lost a heavyweight" As of 7/31/06: 224 pounds
Originally posted by thecubsfanI read a review of this past week in a paper, but I don't remember which - ah, Daily Herald, yea, that review wasn't actually so good.
So, should I buy this?
I've never seen the Sandberg game ever, or any of the games from the eighties, actually. I think I used to have Sosa's 62 HR game on tape, but that's probably been dubbed over for awhile. The Wood game seems like it'd be a nice thing to watch when I'm feeling down and have liquor handy, and I missed going the Maddux game by a day on one side or the other (it was in SF, right?) Whichever game Wood pitched in that series was the first one I'd ever seen them lose in PacBell/SBC/AT&T, and I think also the first one he'd started and not struck out ANY one.) The Lee game seems kinda blah. I agree that there's probably a better Maddux game to pick, but this one has the big round number to go with it.
The list price of $85 is well too much for this - I know it's 8 discs, but it shouldn't cost $10 per game, especially some of those games (and a lot of the special features seem like old rain delay theater clips, back when we did better than the Fresh Prince of Bel Air.)
The actual price of $60 still seems a little too much, but I'm not one who buys DVDs that often. If it was $50, I'd get it.
Thinking about rain delay theater, what I really want is that 1984 retrospective they used to show all the time.
Only thing I watched from this week was Off Screen, a Dutch psychological suspense film starring Jan Declair (from the excellent film Character) and Jeroen Krabb (from the also excellent The Fugitive). It's okay if you like stuff like Memento -- and who doesn't? -- it isn't as good, but that's the general ballpark it's playing in.
I want to mention a couple of movies I forgot -- last week, as mentioned in this thread (The W), two really great films were released for the first time on DVD -- Straight Time and Prince of the City. If you like '70s crime films like Serpico or The French Connection, you really owe it to yourself to check these out.
Straight Time is based on the book No Beast So Fierce by Edward Bunker, a long-time convict who wrote novels about prison life (and also played Mr. Blue in Reservoir Dogs). It stars Dustin Hoffman as a parolee trying to go straight and failing -- Gary Busey and Harry Dean Stanton play his buddies and M. Emmett Walsh plays his parole officer -- so, clearly, you can't go wrong.
Prince of the City is about police corruption -- it's sort of the flip side of Serpico (both were directed by Sidney Lumet). It stars Treat Williams and Jerry Orbach -- I don't think I've seen them better in anything else, ever.
Finally, I watched a documentary called Whole, as mentioned in CRZ's thread here (The W). As he mentions, it's about people who want to be amputees, and a couple of people who have taken that step and become amputees -- one using dry ice, another a shotgun. They all have deep feelings that one of their limbs does not "belong" to them; that it's a foreign object that isn't part of them. A phrase that comes up several times is that they, paradoxically, feel "more complete" without the offending limb. It doesn't come across like a weird sexual fetish thing -- these people are totally normal except for the fact that they have a mental disorder that tells them that they would be happier without one of their limbs.
It's not a particularly well-made documentary from a technical standpoint, but the subject matter is so singularly bizarre -- this is something that never, ever occurred to me before -- that it's worth watching. There's no graphic footage, but there are some graphic descriptions, and some will find the subject matter extremely disturbing.
--K
(edited by Karlos the Jackal on 30.5.07 0347) Last 5 movies seen: Whole *** - Off Screen **1/2 - To Catch a Thief ***1/2 - Fay Grim *** - Henry Fool n/a
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