As if September hadn’t already been an expensive enough month, this week brings us at least two more of the biggest Blu-ray releases of the year, plus several more potential titles of interest. It’s time to pull out those wallets again, folks. You don’t need to eat for the rest of the year, do you?
Loading ...Bond, James Bond
As should be obvious from my posts over the past week, the ‘Bond 50‘ collection is my most anticipated Blu-ray of the year. To celebrate the franchise’s 50th anniversary, this huge box set contains all 22 of the official James Bond films, plus an open slot for the upcoming ‘Skyfall’ (which hits theaters this November, and should makes its way to Blu-ray next year).
I love this movie series so much that I don’t even mind rebuying the 13 titles that were previously released on Blu-ray a few years ago. I need the whole deal, fancy packaging and all. Fans who are perhaps a little less obsessive than myself can expect individual releases of the remaining nine titles to appear as retailer exclusives on October 2nd, broken out as follows:
Best Buy
Target
Walmart
New Releases
After carefully laying the groundwork with individual movies for each character, Marvel’s superhero team-up ‘The Avengers‘ was a smash hit and the biggest blockbuster of this summer. I had some quibbles with the movie (the first hour is kind of boring, honestly), but once it finally builds up some steam, it turns out to be great fun. By and large, writer/director Joss Whedon delivers the goods. The Blu-ray comes in both 2D or 3D options. Because it was a post-conversion, I avoided the 3D version in theaters. However, after being pleasantly surprised by ‘Thor’ in 3D, I’ll give this one a shot in that format too.
If huge, bombastic comic book movies aren’t your thing and you’re looking for a little counter-programming, you might prefer Whit Stillman’s latest talk-fest, ‘Damsels in Distress‘. Stillman is a director I’ve never warmed to, but I feel like I ought to. Maybe one of these days I’ll give his movies another look.
Fans of the ‘Resident Evil’ videogames tend to hate the live action movies starring Milla Jovovich. To cater to that audience, Sony has produced a couple of CG animated spin-offs that follow the game continuity. The latest, ‘Resident Evil: Damnation‘, goes direct-to-video today. Personally, I enjoy the silly Jovovich movies, and I thought that the last one of these (‘Resident Evil: Degeneration‘) was pretty lousy. Is this one better? I don’t know that I want to pay to find out.
Catalog Titles
Has the real Presidential race put you in the mood to watch some movies about fictional Presidents? A couple of pretty decent political-themed romantic comedies hit Blu-ray today: Rob Reiner’s ‘The American President‘ (starring Michael Douglas, scripted by Aaron Sorkin) and Ivan Reitman’s ‘Dave‘. The latter has, in my opinion, one of the worst movie titles of all time (seriously, no one could come up with a better title for this thing than ‘Dave’?!), but it’s a rather funny and good-natured movie.
Looking for something a little less intellectual? Fox is quite happy to oblige your baser instincts with a high-def release of the… ahem… classic ’80s sex comedy ‘Porky’s‘.
Even the Criterion Collection indulges the lowbrow this week with Paul Bartel’s cult comedy ‘Eating Raoul‘.
Other notable titles include Disney’s release of the 1990 horror comedy ‘Arachnophobia‘, and Flicker Alley’s “Smilebox” restoration of two Cinerama pictures: ‘This is Cinerama‘ and ‘Windjammer‘. This actually marks the first time that either of the Cinerama movies has been released on home video.
Television
My favorite new TV series of last year, the outrageous ‘American Horror Story‘, comes to Blu-ray in a Complete First Season collection. Meanwhile, IFC brings out the second season of the quirky comedy ‘Portlandia‘, which is not at all one of my favorite shows.
As much of a G.I. Joe fanboy as I’ve been since I was a kid, you’d think that I’d be all over The Hub’s new cartoon series, ‘G.I. Joe: Renegades‘. Yet something about the artwork and character design really puts me off it. I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch an episode. In his Blu-ray review, Aaron says that it’s an OK way to waste a lazy afternoon.
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I have both ‘Bond 50’ and ‘The Avengers’ on order and expect them to arrive shortly. I’m tempted by ‘American Horror Story’ but, as much as I enjoy the show on broadcast, I’ve really pared down my TV box set collecting on Blu-ray. I’ll hold off on that one for the time being. I’m also curious about the two Cinerama flicks, so those will go on my wish list for later.
Which titles will you break open your piggy banks for this week?
Drew
You forgot to discuss ‘Batman: The Dark Knight Returns – Part 1’. This is a hugely anticipated adaptation of Frank Miller’s 1986 four part graphic novel.
A lot of people have been salivating over it, as much as ‘Bond 50’ or ‘The Avengers’.
Josh Zyber
AuthorFair enough. I haven’t paid much attention to these animated DTV comic book adaptations.
Isn’t this the one where fans have been complaining that the artwork and animation style don’t look anything like the original graphic novel?
William Henley
Bond for me, although I am thinking about buying the titles individually. While Amazon has a great deal this week, I am torn between that and car repairs. As I already own like 9 movies on Blu, I may just pick up the rest one at a time. I am more interested in the movies than having them in one gigantic collectors case. There are many movies I do get the collector’s editions of, but this is just too many movies to justify a double dip on.
Drew
This one isn’t just another run-of-the-mill DTV comic book adaptation. The main goal of this one was to separate itself from the lesser works that you’re referring to.
No, this is the one in which the artwork and animation style look like they’ve been ripped right from the pages of Miller’s graphic novel.
Drew
Did anybody receive their ‘Bond 50′ yet?
The ’50 Years of Movie Posters’ book is terrific! I’m in love!
The set is also one of the classiest blu-ray sets to date! It must be applauded!
Drew
By the way, I got fucked in the ass by Best Buy, again today. I pre-ordered ‘Batman: The Dark Knight Returns – Part 1’ and got the email saying that it was ready to be picked up. I show up at the store to pick it up today, and I’m told they didn’t receive any, and that it was a mistake that an employee marked it as ready to be picked up.
Why do we even shop there at all anymore?!
William Henley
I don’t. Even if they have an exclusive, I will get it from their website. Worst Buy really needs a corporate restructuring.
Drew
William,
This was it for me. The straw that broke the camel’s back, if you will.
The ‘E.T.’ digibook won’t ship. It has to be pre-ordered for in store pickup. After that, I will never buy a single additional item from them.
Even if they have an exclusive that will ship to a home address (Which I doubt they ever will, because making their exclusives available for in-store pickup, only, is another of their ways to eff their customers), I doubt I would consider ordering it from their website.
This is probably, at least, 25-30 times that I have been screwed over by them. I gave them more than enough time to get their shit together. I’ve had it!
Dan Jones
Best Buy’s website let me preorder and pay for the digi for $29 to have shipped to my home adddress. So we shall see!
William Henley
I remember I ordered the 3D versions of Harry Potter 7 and 8 from them, as the 3D versions were Best Buy Exclusives, and those shipped.
The Best Buys in my area are horrible, though. I have gone to their website, and something may be “in store only”, so I check which stores have it, and will go to one. We can’t find it on the shelf. The employees will go and pull it up in their system, and sure enough it shows in stock, but we can’t fidn the items. When I bought Star Trek: TNG on Blu-Ray, the guys kept trying to give me the demo disc instead of the season 1 package. They finally found the copy – an employee had hid a copy somewhere for himself.
It has bittered me from buying from Best Buy at all. I think I have been screwed by them maybe 5 times, and it was enough to keep me from wanting to go there again.
That being said, as I am looking at buying the remaining Bond movies individually, so I don’t have to double-dip, it looks like I am going to have to deal with Best Buy.
Drew
By the way, I’m only getting the E.T. digibook from them, because I already pre-ordered it, and paid for it, and I really feel the need to give ‘Jaws’ a companion.
Josh Zyber
AuthorHas anyone else gotten the Avengers 4-disc 2D/3D set yet? I opened the keepcase and there only appeared to be two discs inside. It turns out that the studio has actually stacked two discs to each hub with no protection at all between them. It’s ridiculous!
Good thing I have the Best Buy Steelbook to transfer three of the discs to. (I don’t really care about the Digital Copy.)
William Henley
Thinking of ordering it, as its $20 on Amazon. However, if the case is that bad, I may just throw out the Digital Copy and DVD.
Drew
Josh,
Yep. My thoughts echoed your own.
At first, I believed there were only two discs in the case. When I found out what was actually going on, I don’t know that I was any happier than if they would have just left out the other discs.
Thank God I was able to ascertain a steelbook from Worse Never Buy, through some miracle.
The steelbook has slots for 3 of the discs, and I don’t really care about the imaginary girlfriend disc.