DVD Headsup!

Every Tuesday, a vertiable slew of DVDs hit the streets. They all want your coin. Where in the hell can you go to find out what's what amongst the teeming masses? Look no further. Here's a brief rundown of some featured titles that will be hitting. We provide the information...what you do with it afterwards is entirely up to you.

Titles Streeting March 15, 2005

Widge's Personal Pick:

. Why pick this? As if you had to ask. It won the Oscar for Best Animated Film, but--more importantly--it racked up three Chazzie awards including Best Picture. So if that's not a glowing recommendation, I don't know what is. But, of course, you bastards want more. Fine. It's a Pixar release, which means the DVD is going to rock ass. And it does, but it does so in a very off-kilter way. We miss the grand chaos of a commentary with John Lasseter and the core Pixar folks, but you do get one with director Brad Bird and producer John Walker as well as one with a legion of animators. There's also a new short, "Jack-Jack Attack," which is freaking hilarious, bloopers and outtakes, deleted scenes including an alternate opening, a making-of featurette plus bonus making-of bits, the short "Boundin'" with commentary by creator Bud Luckey, a slew of NSA files on all the supers from the film, a ridiculous "Mr. Incredible & Friends" parody cartoon from the 60s with commentary by Mr. I and Frozone, plus an essay by Sarah Vowell, the voice of Violet. Je-sus. We told you the stackage was amazing. Now buy it. (UK) (CAN)

. Suffering under the weight of critical panning not to mention audiences staying away in drove (it barely made back half of its production budget worldwide), little was done to help this thing by Paramount blaming its box office fizzle on the so-called growing conserative groundswell in the U.S. Whatever. It's here, and if you haven't had enough of Jude Law being in every other movie recently, you can have him here too. There's also two commentary tracks, a roundtable discussion of the production, featurettes, deleted scenes and additional dance footage (both with commentary as well), and galleries. (UK) (CAN)

. Want some noir? Fox provides in this first of three releases for this week. A convicted cop killer's mom is convinced her son is innocent, and offers up five gees for any info that will get him out of the hoosegow. A reporter gets on the trail of said info, and may just be able to pull it off. Like Fox's other "branded" releases, this release comes with a decent array of features: an audio commentary by a pair of historians, James Ursini and Alain Silver, Fox Movietone News footage of the film's premiere, plus the theatrical trailer. (UK) (CAN)

. I've been looking forward to this ADV release since we received the press release in the mail, along with a full-blown album cover version of the cover art you see here. Yes, you're not seeing things: that's an anime show parodying the cover of Queen II. Sick, twisted and we love it. This comedy has our hero, Takashi, being transferred to the titular school and trying to come to terms with the environment he finds there. This volume comes with cultural notes and comments, clean opening and closing animation, and the original Japanese TV warnings. (CAN)

. In this series, it's 2040 and Tokyo is pretty much devastated. An organization called DC has stepped up to try and keep things under control if not make them better. Of course there's this giant robot who keeps showing up, named--three guesses--and so the DC folks start upping the ante to try and deal with these constant instrusions. Here, Cybuster is in need of repairs and Ken, who has become the defacto driver of the thing, is having to deal with the appearance of another bit of giant mecha...now what? No features on this Geneon release. (UK) (CAN)

. My first thought upon seeing this cover and the tagline "There are worse things than dying" is that, yeah, if Dindrane finds out you're the one that killed the birds, you're screwed. This Columbia-Tristar release is a horror flick set during the Civil War, when some Confederate soldiers-turned-bank-robbers decide to hide out on an abandoned plantation. Wrong answer! There's a reason it's abandoned...and it's not a nice one. Stars Henry Thomas and Patrick Fugit (so that's where they've been hiding). No features. (UK) (CAN)

. Nicolas is a guy who goes through the personal ads looking for lonely widows to seduce and then rip off. He meets his match--literally--in Coral. She's nuts about him, he falls in love with her--and together they come up with the basis of the real-life "Lonely Hearts Murders." He seduces them, just like before, only now Coral finishes them off for good. This Home Vision release comes with the French theatrical trailer as well as an essay by film guru Jorge Ruffinelli. (UK) (CAN)

. Sesame Street may have taught you to count to four, but it was The Ramones who taught you that doing so at a high rate of velocity meant that a punk onslaught was about to begin. Rhino brings this docu to DVD, complete with concert footage, a veritable slew of interviews with...well, just about everybody: band members, other musicians, just about anybody you would want to hear from. For bonus goodness, you get a deleted scene, a ton of interview excerpts, a "Who Wrote What" segment handled by Tommy, and the trailer. (UK) (CAN)

. Piloting mecha and keeping the star systems safe for truth, freedom and fast food chains, the fatimas are women who are androids and choose a particular master to serve. You get a good fatima, you get a decent amount of power. And, presumably, wicked mecha piloting. However, two fatimas who haven't yet been mind-zapped have been kidnapped...but to what purpose? Follow the money. Or in this case, the power. This ADV release comes with the Japanese trailer, staff profiles and a promo video. (UK) (CAN)

. Why grab this? Do you even have to ask? It's the adventures of the madmen at Stalag 13, for crying out loud! You get all thirty-two season one episodes plus the full-length pilot episode, presented here across five discs by Paramount. You get all of the POW camp craziness and thwarting of the Germans, but most importantly you get Colonel Klink and Sergeant Schultz. "I know nothingk!" Brilliant. All the episodes are remastered and look better than ever. And, thankfully, they come in the slim cases so they will fit perfectly on your shelf. (UK) (CAN)

. The beautiful Laura is immortalized in a painting in this second of our Fox noir titles this time around. It's from this painting that the detective in charge of her murder case takes a tremendous shine to her. This is unfortunate, since she took a shotgun blast to the face and all. This comes with two commentaries, one from composer David Raskin and film guru Jeanine Basinger. Then there's another from film historian Rudy Behlmer. There's also an extended version of the film, two Biography episodes (for Gene Tierney and Vincent Price) and the trailer. (UK) (CAN)

. More noir? Okay, just this last one. This Fox release concerns two criminals on the lam that must be stopped. Well, that's all well and good, but the felons in question are played by Zero Mostel and Jack Palance (!!), chased by Richard Widmark and Paul Douglas, and they really, really need to be stopped because they might just be plague carriers. Sweet. This one comes with an audio commentary by the aforementioned film knowledgable-types, James Ursini and Alain Silver, and comes with the trailer as well. (UK) (CAN)

Red Dwarf

& . Between these two BBC Home Video releases, we're talking twelve episodes of whacked out sci-fi comedy goodness. Each episode comes with cast commentaries and each volume comes with a fan commentary on a single episode. Each series comes with a nicely-sized overview docu that covers all six corresponding episodes. There's also deleted scenes, the requisite "Smeg Ups," a docu covering the attempt to bring this series to America (egh), featurettes covering the SFX, radio sketches from the radio show that inspired this one, behind the scenes footage, and a crapload more. (Series 5: UK, CAN) (Series 6: UK, CAN)

. Okay, sue me: I actually thought this Trek flick was one of the best in a long time. It was the last true breath before the franchise went on life support, but oh well. Paramount doesn't skimp on the features, par for the course for this series. You get two commentaries, one with the writers and one with helmer Frakes, the obligatory text commentary by Clan Okuda, and a crapload of featurettes dealing with effects, artwork, production and the Trek lore explored in the film. You also get the extensive scene desconstruction bit worked on three sequences. Nice. (UK) (CAN)

. Born in a time when, by law, a new show had to involve Aaron Spelling in some form or fashion (those that reportedly did not actually did, but in an uncredited fashion to comply with the law, even if Spelling was just doing craft services), this buddy cop show's third season, all twenty-three episodes of it, hits DVD thanks to Columbia-Tristar. Apart from some previews of other Columbia-Tristar offerings, there are no bonus bits, so you'll just have to take solace in guest star appearances by the likes of Pat Morita, John Carradine, Melanie Griffith and Danny DeVito. (UK) (CAN)

. Gotta love Roald Dahl. Well, you don't gotta, but if you don't, I'll thump you. This four disc set from Acorn Media contains twenty-three episodes from the British series. Features are scarce, with bios of Dahl and composer Ron Grainer, along with cast filmographies. But the cast for these things is impressive: Sir John Gielgud, Nigel Hawthorne, Eli Wallach, Telly Savalas, Joan Collins, and more. Almost ten hours of solid, creepy goodness. (UK) (CAN)

. Probably the scariest part of talking about this film is that...well, I can see the staff here trying this shit. Four co-workers live in an area of downtown where you literally never have to go outside. Everything's connected by tunnels and glassed-in bridges. So they all throw a month's salary into a pot and whoever stays in the longest gets the dough. Of course, none of them may have any sanity left to know how to spend the money. Um, just for the record, it's a comedy. This Home Vision release comes with behind-the-scenes footage and a trailer. (UK) (CAN)

. This crazed film that stars not only Marlee Matlin but also the teachings of a mystic from Atlantis and throws both New Age sentiments and quantum physics into a nice gumbo didn't fare too well with critics but, for a film of this type, got quite the following. If you don't mind getting your head messed with (and you're reading this site, so that answers that question), then you might want to give this a go. This Fox release backs up the film itself with a music video, a slew of interviews, and the trailer. (UK) (CAN)

. I know what you're thinking, that you need another film about school shootings like...um, never mind. But this Home Vision release is worth checking out regardless. Typical setup, with the two alienated teens who decide to kick their community's idea of normalcy to the curb, but it's gripping despite. This comes with an audio commentary by the director and one of the actors, a making-of bit, screen tests, home movie footage, the trailer, galleries, and an essay. (CAN)