It’s a big week for TV and cult movies on Blu-ray. The new day-and-date movies are much less exciting, but that’s OK. You’ll have plenty else to spend your money on anyway.
Here’s the release slate:
- ‘$5 A Day‘ (Image)
- ‘2:22‘ (Inception Media Group)
- ‘Abandoned‘ (Starz/Anchor Bay)
- ‘Ajami‘ (Kino)
- ‘The Back-up Plan‘ (Sony)
- ‘Black Label Society: Doom Troopin’ Live – The European Invasion‘ (Eagle Rock)
- ‘City Island‘ (Starz/Anchor Bay)
- ‘Death Note Collection‘ (Warner Brothers)
- ‘Dorian Gray‘ (National Media)
- ‘The Great Rift‘ (BBC)
- ‘The Long Good Friday‘ (Image)
- ‘Lost: The Complete Collection‘ (Disney/Buena Vista)
- ‘Lost: The Complete Sixth and Final Season‘ (Disney/Buena Vista)
- ‘Machine Gun McCain‘ (Blue Underground)
- ‘Mona Lisa‘ (Image)
- ‘The Pixies: Acoustic & Electric Live‘ (Eagle Rock)
- ‘Shogun Assassin‘ (AnimEigo)
- ‘The Simpsons: The Thirteenth Season‘ (20th Century Fox)
- ‘The Square‘ (Sony)
- ‘Survival of the Dead: Ultimate Undead Edition‘ (Magnolia)
- ‘Time Bandits‘ (Image)
- ‘Tom and Jerry Sherlock Holmes‘ (Warner Brothers)
- ‘The Universe: Our Solar System‘ (A&E)
- ‘Withnail and I‘ (Image)
The “must buy” of the week is of course (from my perspective, at least) the final season of ‘Lost‘. Sure, you may have heard some whining that the finale episode didn’t tie up each and every nit-picky loose end. (“OMG, what happened to that teddy bear that the kid whose face we never saw dragged through the jungle in Season 2? How dare they not address that? I’ll burn Damon Lindelof’s house down for wasting the last six years of my life without answering this critical question!”) Never you mind all that. The season is just as good as all the others, and I’m certain that the finale will be better regarded with time, once the fanboy rage has worn off. ABC is issuing both the Sixth Season on its own or a fancy “Complete Collection” box set with deluxe packaging and an extra disc of supplements. Both editions include a new 12-minute epilogue scene called ‘The New Man in Charge’ that attempts to wrap up some of those final lingering mysteries. I’m sure that I’ll be reviewing this set eventually, but the studio didn’t send a screener in advance this time, so it will take me some time to dig through it.
Also on the TV front comes ‘The Simpsons: The Thirteenth Season‘. That seems kind of random. The show is about to start its 22nd season on broadcast. Previously, only the 20th season was issued on Blu-ray. I haven’t watched ‘The Simpsons’ in I don’t know how long. So tell me, fans, is there something special about the 13th season that stands out from the rest?
For day-and-date movies, we have two horrorshows: ‘Survival of the Dead‘ and ‘The Back-Up Plan‘. The former is George Romero’s latest low-budget zombie embarrassment. I find it kind of sad that Romero has been a professional filmmaker for over four decades, and yet, for the last couple of those, each of his movies has gotten more and more amateurish than the last. ‘Survival’ looks more like a fan tribute film shot in someone’s back yard than a real movie. And as for ‘The Back-Up Plan’, that’s the alleged romantic comedy in which J-Lo inseminates herself. I find the thought of that terrifying.
Image unleashes a batch of noteworthy cult films all at once. Bob Hoskins stars in both Neil Jordan’s early thriller ‘Mona Lisa‘ and the British gangster flick ‘The Long Good Friday‘. Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann are drunk and disorderly in the dark (very dark) comedy ‘Withnail & I‘. Perhaps best of all is the Terry Gilliam fantasy classic ‘Time Bandits‘. Unfortunately, Image isn’t exactly renowned for the quality of its Blu-ray releases, and I hear that ‘Time Bandits’ in particular looks pretty poor.
William Henley
I think The Simpsons was discussed previously in the release section of the forums. If I remember correctly, the previous 12 have been released on DVD, so 13 is the next number. Many are debating as to if this will be a true HD transfer from the original film, or an HD upconvert. The series did not go HD until halfway through, i think it was the 20th, season (which is why it was previously released). It was also stated that, I think it was season 17, was when they went to compter aided painting rather than hand painted cells. So 13 is still hand-drawn / hand painted, and was only ever available in SD. I would like to see ya’ll’s review of it before I plop down money for it.
Dail Whiteley
time bandits but if its not good , then i’m going to have to skip this week.
Michael S. Palmer
LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST (inhale, breath, exhale) LOST. That was my purchase this week. Am now desperately awaiting the wife to join me so that we may watch The New Man in Charge.
mlemaire
Simpsons Season 13 picks up where the last DVD release left off before they released Season 20. The reason why season 20 was released so seemingly out of nowhere is because they felt it was a good idea to release it and capitalize on the 20th anniversary, thus why it was a bare bones release that simply included the episodes. If you notice, all of the other seasons released so far are (what some may see as) packed with extras, unlike the 20th season release. I figure that they see an opportunity to gouge some people with BD releases of older seasons, so that’s what they did this time around. Either way, the numbering is not as weird in this context.
Other than that, LOST without a doubt. Now the collection is complete, sir.