New Releases, 24 Oct 2006
Some highlights/lowlights:
- Batman Beyond: Season Two (4-disc set)
- Justice League Unlimited: Season One (4-disc set)
- Krypto the Superdog: Vol. 2
I sense a theme there.
- Body Heat: Deluxe Edition (1981)
More Brian DePalma goodness.
Lawrence Kasdan directs.
- Creature Comforts: Season Two (2-disc set)
- Creature Comforts: Merry Christmas, Everybody!
Lotsa animation this week, but who can deny the charm and hilarity of Aardman Animations?
- Monster House (widescreen) (2006)
It’s a big week for animation, isn’t it?
- Nacho Libre (2006)
Have I previously mentioned my distaste for both Jack Black and Mexican wrestling? I don’t know where the sudden popularity of the latter comes from. This movie never stood a chance from me.
- The O.C.: Season Three (7-disc set)
Also known as: The season everyone gave up on it.
- The Road to Guantanamo (2006)
Wait, is there an election coming up? Must be a coincidence.
- SCTV: The Best of the Early Years (3-disc set)
In case the music rights issues kept you from being able to afford all the episodes, just buy the best of… In case you didn’t hear, by the way, a boxed set of the complete first season of SNL was recently announced. All episodes, 90 minutes each.
- Slither (widescreen) (2006)
- Slither (full-frame) (2006)
If only they had slithered on a plane, someone might have blogged about it.
- Porky’s: Special Edition (1982)
- Reservoir Dogs: 15th Anniversary Edition (1992)
- Saw II: Uncut Edition (2005)
There are plenty of movies out there that haven’t been released to DVD yet, but the format is now old enough that it’s more lucrative to keep re-releasing last decade’s movies in better and better formats. I just don’t think people are buying the same movies multiple times anymore. We’ve caught on to you, movie companies. Give it up!
Next week features new DVDs from Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, and Barry Manilow, not to mention a 14 disc megaset collecting the entire ELLEN series! And a little low-budget production named MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: III.
October 24th, 2006 at 3:15 pm
I also thought Nacho Libre would never stand a chance with me until I had a few friends tell me it’s one of the funniest movies of the year. Now that it’s on DVD, I’m a little curious even though my fondness for Jack Black has hit an all time low.
October 24th, 2006 at 3:56 pm
Jack Black has a romantic comedy coming out soon where he woos Kate Winslet from TITANIC.
What’s next: Johnny Knoxville nailing Emma Thompson?
October 24th, 2006 at 3:58 pm
Eh, the only film I liked out of Depalma’s repertoire was Mission Impossible, and it had some issues.
I am excited about the Justice League and Batman Beyond releases, though. Justice League Season 2 was the best-written nonhumor cartoon I’ve ever seen, and I hear that they stepped it up even further for Justice League Unlimited. Batman Beyond was actually my introduction to the Batman TAS universe, and I still hold that BB is a better show than TAS (mainly because they didn’t have to tone down the fights as much, and the writing’s more consistent). That said, all the clunkers are in season 2. Some painfully bad stuff. I really wish the soundtrack to this show would get released. Monster House never really got enough respect. There was a lot of abuse heaped on it by the animation community due to some uneducated comments made by an early reviewer (ironically, those who did see it had nothing but praise). And, honestly, the ad campaign didn’t make up the movie to look like much. But it’s really a well-written film that bucks the trend of mediocre CGI product and, for once, doesn’t talk down to the audience ( or barrage us with potty humor, or hammer us with politically correct moral platitudes). Best of all, while the film does make some cultural references (mainly to horror films), it doesn’t deluge the viewer in them. Monster House is more of a loving homage to classic horror, gently poking but still coming up with its own ideas for the most part. I had a blast at the theater with this one.
Now is it PIXAR? No. Is it better than most of Dreamwork’s output? Absolutely!
Next week, I’m up for Mission Impossible 3. More on that then.
October 24th, 2006 at 4:56 pm
I think I’ll at least give Nacho a rental from Netflix, but I don’t think I’ll be buying that one. I thought Monster House looked really fun, but there have just been too many animation movies to take in lately. I am a big animation fan, and the market seems to get swamped every now and then by them. So, I’ll definitely have to rent that one too.
October 24th, 2006 at 7:19 pm
Body Heat isn’t DePalmer, it’s Lawrence Kasdan (with William Hurt and Kathleen Turner). Might have been his directing debut.
The DePalma movie you might be thinking of is Body Double.
October 24th, 2006 at 7:57 pm
Justice League Unlimited was even better than Justice League Season 2 although JL S2 was still good. I just think the writers and artists had more fun dealing with a larger cast of characters. It seems like they had particularly great fun with The Question, Supergirl, Green Arrow, Black Canary, and Vixen in JLU. The characters haven’t been done half as well in the comics for years!
The upcoming releases of JLU should see the equally great episode featuring a great drag-down fight between Superman and Captain Marvel (Billy Batson). There are more than a few nods to “Kingdom Come” in that episode to be sure!
Definitely passing on the SNL sets. I’d rather get the “Best of…” cast member discs to be frank. I saw reruns of the original season on E! when it was recently rebroadcast there and the 90-minute originals have NOT aged well.
Most variety/sketch comedy series do not hold up well 20 years later.
October 24th, 2006 at 10:18 pm
Simon — I seem to get one DePalma fact wrong every week in this posting. UGH! Thanks for the correction.
October 25th, 2006 at 3:32 am
Interesting how tastes differ: I love Aardman animations but also love Jack Black’s stuff (in general — somehow I never got around to seeing “Nacho Libre” in theaters).
And I found “Monster House” to be a fun film, if not as great as most Pixars.
October 25th, 2006 at 8:56 am
As far as buying movies multiple times: I try not to. I learned my lesson from buying my favorite CD titles again and again — you know, every time a new remaster came along.
With DVDs, I limit re-buying to titles that previously were non-anamorphic. Or if the original looks really lousy.
October 26th, 2006 at 12:23 am
While I have no intention of buying the SNL Season 1 set, I’m definitely giving it a rental because of the Jim Henson “Land of Gorch” sketches.