Welcome back! Did you all have a good long weekend? While we’re back to work today, things are looking pretty slow in Blu-ray land.
Here’s the list of what’s being released today:
- ‘13 Assassins‘ (Magnolia)
- ‘Arakawa Under the Bridge: Complete Premium Edition‘ (NIS America)
- ‘Be Cool‘ (MGM/UA)
- ‘Beyond the Darkness‘ (Shriek Show)
- ‘Crack in the World‘ (Olive Films)
- ‘The Cutting Edge‘ (MGM/UA)
- ‘Damage‘ (20th Century Fox)
- ‘Das Boot: The Director’s Cut‘ (Sony)
- ‘Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood‘ (Echo Bridge)
- ‘A Fish Called Wanda‘ (MGM/UA)
- ‘Florida’s State Parks‘ (Topics)
- ‘From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman’s Daughter‘ (Echo Bridge)
- ‘Gettysburg / Gods and Generals: Limited Collector’s Edition‘ (Warner Brothers – July 4th)
- ‘Grand Canyon Serenade‘ (Topics)
- ‘A Guy Thing‘ (MGM/UA)
- ‘Hannie Caulder‘ (Olive Films)
- ‘Hellraiser: Hellworld‘ (Echo Bridge)
- ‘Hobo with a Shotgun‘ (Magnolia)
- ‘I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell‘ (20th Century Fox)
- ‘It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World‘ (MGM/UA)
- ‘K-On! Vol. 2‘ (Bandai)
- ‘Katanagatari: Volume 1 – Premium Edition‘ (NIS America)
- ‘Legally Blonde‘ (MGM/UA)
- ‘Master Harold … and the Boys‘ (Image)
- ‘Mobile Suit Gundam 00: Wakening Of The Trailblazer‘ (Bandai – July 6th)
- ‘Of Gods and Men‘ (Sony)
- ‘Overboard‘ (MGM/UA)
- ‘Throw Momma from the Train‘ (MGM/UA)
- ‘Wedding Daze‘ (MGM/UA)
- ‘When Harry Met Sally‘ (MGM/UA)
As you can see, there’s not a whole lot going on today. The most interesting day-and-date title would be ‘13 Assassins‘, a samurai action flick from crazily prolific Japanese cult director Takashi Miike (‘Audition‘, ‘Sukiyaki Western Django‘). Aaron raved about it in his review (linked above), and it sounds like a lot of fun.
In other exploitation news, we also get ‘Hobo with a Shotgun‘, starring Rutger Hauer as a… well, as a hobo with a shotgun. Do you need more of a plot than that? This film was originally spawned from a fake movie trailer contest. You can find the original trailer (sans Rutger Hauer) on the ‘Grindhouse‘ Blu-ray. Apparently, someone thought it was funny enough to make a whole feature out of it.
The best catalog title of the week is Wolfgang Petersen’s terrific WWII submarine thriller ‘Das Boot‘, which was originally scheduled for release a few weeks ago but got pushed back to today. The Blu-ray contains both the 1981 theatrical cut (145 minutes) and the 1997 Director’s Cut (210 minutes). Unfortunately, it does not include the 293-minute TV miniseries version, which is currently only available on DVD, but it’s a great movie in any of its forms.
Catalog releases are otherwise dominated by ’80s comedies such as ‘A Fish Called Wanda‘, ‘Overboard‘, ‘Throw Momma from the Train‘ and ‘When Harry Met Sally‘. I love all of these movies, but I’ve also seen them each so many times that I don’t know that I need to rebuy them. I’ll probably break down if I find them cheap enough, though.
We can also jump back a couple of decades to the 1963 all-star madcap caper ‘It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World‘. “X” marks the spot, baby.
That’s about all I see of interest. Does anything catch your fancy?
William Henley
The Gettysburg / Gods and Generals boxed set should be in today when I get home. I’m on the fence about Mobile Suit Gundam – not my favorite anime, but its okay. I may pick it up next time Amazon does one of their famous anime sales.
That’s it for me. Still trying to work my way through LOTR from last week, then I got these Gettysburg movies to watch, which are pretty much just as long.
William Henley
BTW, this is a completly blind buy for me – I haven’t seen Gettysburg or Gods and Generals yet
Tim Tringle
Gettysburg is pretty much a great movie and really, really helps you to understand what exactly went down during that battle. Which is saying alot because it’s a fairly complex battle and could have easily been overly confusing. Alot of great actors in that film, but Jeff Daniels is awesome and his charge with his men is truly Epic and worth the price of the movie alone. I actually worked for Turner Broadcasting Sales at the time of the movies release and saw the movie hosted by Ted Turner himself.
The sequel is unfortunately not as good as the original, but that’s not exactly bad since Gettysburg is as good as it is.
Trond Michelsen
Actually, in ‘It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World‘, “W” marks the spot.
Tim Tringle
A big dubya!! Classic movie and I may just have to pick that up. I love watching it and since I no longer have cable (Suck it Comcast!!!) I won’t be able to catch it on reruns any more unless they wizen up and put it on Netflix.
I so wish for a good remake of this movie, but actors and studios are so greedy these days you could never get the quality cast this movie would deserve. The best our generation has come up with was “Rat Race” and I like that movie, but it can’t hold a candle to IAMMMMW in my opinion, even though Lovits has one of the funniest movie moments in the last two decades in that.
vihdeeohfieuhl
Absolutely nothing for me this week.
That’s the first time I can say that in a very long time!
Shayne Blakeley
Already picked up Hobo. Very sad to see that Don’t Be A Menace is from Echo Bridge, I’m probably better off holding on to my vhs copy.
Tim Tringle
Seriously, MGM UA felt it was necessary to release “Be Cool” on Blu-Ray before some of their other releases? I know MGM went bankrupt but who the hell is running the show over there. That’s just shameful.
Kevin
Lots of movies out this week. Not a single new release I’m in any hurry to pick up. So… I took the opportunity to FINALLY order the “King Kong” digibook.