Transformers: Bay-Spielberg Collaboration Yields Action Flick With Heart!

If you didn’t see Transformers in a theatre, you missed one of the biggest treats of this last summer’s crop of blockbusters. Simply put, Transformers is the best live action film to have been based on a line of toys, or an animated TV series.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer; The TV Set; Pittsburgh by Joseph Crowley

 

Hey there, True Believers! Joltin’ Joe Crowley here with three incredible new DVD releases to brighten your Merry Marvel Marching Society day! We’ve got Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer [2-Disc Edition]; The TV Set [I’m told the reality behind getting a TV series on the air is uncannily like this], and Pittsburgh – a mockumentary that incorporates real events from the life of Jeff Goldblum. Crazy, no? Well, Onweird and Excelsior!

Death Proof: Extended and Unrated; Resident Evil/Resident Evil: Apocalypse Resurrection Edition; 3:10 To Yuma; The Dark Crystal: 25th Anniversary Edition

 

Okay, kiddies… We’ve got all manner of strangeness for you, today. First up is Quentin Tarantino’s fusion of cars & babes flicks with slasher movies, Death Proof – in it’s extended [by which we mean full] version. Then there’s the new repackaging of the first two Resident Evil movies in what they’re calling the Resurrection Edition. Hey! Zombie dogs! Next we’ve got the original 3:10 To Yuma – a much different version than the recent, excellent film – but just as twisted. Finally, Jim Henson’s first full length feature with only puppets, the amazing The Dark Crystal – in this spiffy 25th Anniversary Edition!

Dragon Dynasty Kicks: D.O.A.: Dead Or Alive; The City of Violence: Two-Disc Ultimate Edition; Hard Boiled: Two-Disc Ultimate Edition

Dragon Dynasty is onto something good: Asian action movies with and without martial arts – and even non-Asian martial arts movies. D.O.A.: Dead Or alive is an unlikely hybrid of Charlie’s Angels and Enter The Dragon; The City of Violence is the latest action movie from Korea’s Ryoo Seung-wan, whose work is being compared to Quentin Tarantino; and Hard Boiled – the classic John Woo cop drama. Whether you’re looking for flashy fun or action with substance, these movies bring it!

Animation: Doctor Strange: The Sorcerer Supreme; Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex – Solid State Society

Marvel’s Master of the Mystic Arts gets the Lionsgate straight-to-DVD treatment and Doctor Strange immediately becomes the best of the animated Marvel movies to date by staying true to the basics set out by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, forty years ago. The latest installment in the casefiles of Public Security Section 9 finds the team without the services of The Major in the movie, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex – Solid State Society – a situation that makes things even stranger than usual for the remaining members.

TVonDVD: Dexter: The First Season; Ugly Betty: The Complete First Season; The Dresden Files: The Complete First Season

Serial killers, homely executive assistants and the only wizard in the Chicago Yellow Pages are all available on the video shelves to delight and amaze. Dexter: The Complete First Season introduces the world’s first serial killer of other serial killers, spinning a deeply entertaining but disturbing series of novels into a deliciously macabre TV series. The Bettyfied Edition of Ugly Betty: The Complete First Season spins a charmingly goofy and more than occasionally entertainment that’s based on a Latin American telenovela. The Dresden Files: The Complete First Season [now cancelled] introduces a man who can advertise himself to be a wizard because he is one!

Serenity Collector’s Edition, The Dark Crystal 25th Anniversary Edition, Disturbia, Bubba Ho-Tep Limited Edition

Let’s look at some cool new stuff on DVD shelves this week: Serenity Collector’s Edition – we already know that the Browncoats will buy this one, but if you were waiting for a jam-packed DVD set, this would be the one to get; it’s hard to believe it’s been twenty-five years since The Dark Crystal was released, but here’s its 25th Anniversary Edition, with a hologram cover and several new features; disturbia is a slacker take on Rear Window that successfully weds teen romance and psycho-killer genres, and Bubba Ho-Tep Limited Edition gives the oddball indie flick some glitzy new packaging…

TVonDVD: The Fugitive: Vol. One; Two New Masters of Horror; The Tick vs. Season Two; Stargate SG-1: Season Ten

The long-awaited release of The Fugitive on DVD begins today with Season One, Volume One; the Masters of Horror adaptation of Clive Barker’s Valerie on the Stairs, and John Farris’ We All Scream For Ice Cream present two of season two’s best efforts; The Tick vs. Season Two continues the almost dadaistic adventures of The big Blue bug of Justice, and Stargate SG-1, Season 10 concludes the DVD release of the longest-running science fiction series in North American television history…

Taxi Driver, 20 Million Miles To Earth, Kung Fu Hustle – Scorsese, Harryhausen & Chow: Masters In Their Own Ways

No one gets the New York vibe better than Martin Scorsese, whose Taxi Driver remains one of the best Big Apple dramas ever made. Ray Harryhausen revolutionized movie effects work with his stop-motion animation – 20 Million Miles to Earth features some of his best work. Stephen Chow took his comedy instincts and turned them to martial arts comedies, of which Kung Fu Hustle is the best.

TVonDVD: The Fugitive: Vol. One; Two New Masters of Horror; The Tick vs. Season Two; Stargate SG-1: Season Ten

The long-awaited release of The Fugitive on DVD begins today with Season One, Volume One; the Masters of Horror adaptation of Clive Barker’s Valerie on the Stairs, and John Farris’ We All Scream For Ice Cream present two of season two’s best efforts; The Tick vs. Season Two continues the almost dadaistic adventures of The big Blue bug of Justice, and Stargate SG-1, Season 10 concludes the DVD release of the longest-running science fiction series in North American television history…