We’re here to let you know what’s out there for your entertainment dollar. Every week a new batch of DVD’s gets shipped out and thrown onto the shelves. This week we’ve got the entire first season of Robot Chicken, season sets of Six Feet Under, Northern Exposure, and Quantum Leap along with three (count ‘em three) of my worst films of 2005, and more. Take a peek inside for the full list.
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Here’s what is getting released today on DVD:
Film:
King Kong – Let’s just say no one here at RazorFine thought much of Peter Jackson’s 3-hour-plus take on King Kong. The first of three films from my worst of 2005 list released this week. Read our original reviews: review #1, review #2, review #3, and review #4. The movie is out in two different editions: a one-disc regular DVD and a two-disc special edition. The first is a more bare bones edition with only two short featurettes while the special edition contains and intro by Peter Jackson and his “post-production diaries,” and featurettes on 30’s New York and Skull Island.
Stay – Well here we go with another loser from 2005 (made my #3 worst film, and like Kong stars Naomi Watts). The film is about a psychiatrist (Ewan McGregor) afraid of a patient (Ryan Gosling) and his girlfriend (Watts) separtely killing themselves. Or is it? In one of those constantly changing plot twist films (I seriously believe not even the director or screenwriter knew what this film was actually about) that in the end makes absolutely no sense. The DVD contains “scene specific” commentary by director Marc Forster (see even he didn’t want to have to watch the whole thing!) and a couple of featurettes. Read the original review.
A Sound of Thunder – Believe it or not there were actually two films worse than Stay last year, one comes out next week and the other is the worst movie of 2005. Horrific adaption of the Ray Bradbury short story. This movie is stunningly bad. No one can defend it and the filmmakers don’t even try on this barebones DVD where the only extra is the trailer. Just how bad is it? Read the original review and find out.
Memoirs of a Geisha – The tale of a young girl’s journey into becoming a geisha is beautiful to look at (it won Oscars for Art Direction, Costume Design, and Cinematography). December liked it enough to include it on her top ten films of 2005. The two-disc special edition includes commentary by director Rob Marshall and producer John DeLuca along with a production commentary by costume designer Colleen Atwood, production designer John Myre, and editor Pietro Scalia. There is also a huge collection of featurettes on making the novel into a film, shooting in Japan, a look at the geisha life, the actresses training to become geisha, the music of the film and more. Read the original review.
Sliver (Unrated Edition) – Yeah you know I was just thinking how my world was incomplete without a director’s edition of this early 90’s crapfest with Sharon Stone and William Baldwin. Oh wait a minute, no I wasn’t!!! Obviously trying to pull in some of that Basic Instint 2 cash (all $6 of it) this “unrated version” is supposed to be better (did they replace William Baldwin with a sock puppet?) Don’t ask me folks; I don’t get this either.
Family/Animated:
A Boy Named Charlie Brown – Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang in their classic 60’s cartoons that involve a kite-eating tree, humiliation on the baseball field, a national spelling bee and more.
TV:
Robot Chicken – Volume 1 – All 20 episodes from the gold standard of Adult Swim are contained in this two-disc set which includes commentary for every single episode and tons of extras like a behind the scenes featurette and deleted and extended skits (including the originals from Sweet J Presents) packing the discs full o’ fun. Seth Green, you da’ man! Matthew Senrich, you rule! Read the full review
Six Feet Under – The Complete Fifth Season – Final season of the HBO acclaimed series includes all 12 episodes of the Fisher family including the series finale. The set also contains commentary by writers and directors for six of the episodes, three featurettes including a look back featurette, episode recaps and previews.
Northern Exposure – The Complete Fourth Season – The misadventures of Dr. Joel Fleishman and the townspeople of Cicely, Alaska continue. All 25 fourth season episodes are included on three discs with deleted and extended scenes and a gag reel.
Doctor Who – The Beginning Collection – Well folks this is where it all started back in 1963 with William Hartnell as the Doctor. Three of the first episodes (“An Unearthly Child,” “The Daleks,” and “The Edge of Destruction”) along with extras including a studio pilot, commentary by producer Verity Lambert and directors Waris Hussein, Chritopher Barry, and Richard Martin and actors Carole Ann Ford and Willaim Russell, and featurettes on the Daleks, the Doctor’s origins, and the T.A.R.D.I.S.
Quantum Leap – The Complete Fourth Season – Dr. Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) continues leaping through time in 22 episodes. The DVD set contains a featurette on the 80’s flashbacks and a special bonus episode from the fifth season.
Knots Landing – The Complete First Season – The long running drama got its start back in 1979 as a mid-season replacement. All 13 episodes are gathered together on five discs…five discs?? Wow trying to get your money’s worth aren’t you folks?! Yeah, you know a disc holds more than two hours right? Extras include cast commentary on two episodes and an interview featurette with Ted Shackleford and Joan Van Ark.
The greatest heroes of the planet band together to stop criminals…wait I remember this show, it had a monkey named Gleek right? Wrong. Unlike SuperFriends, Justice League takes the characters and situations they encounter seriously and does a pretty good job of adapting the comic version to the TV screen.
