• Street Fighter: Legend of Chun Li Before viewing Street Fighter: Legend of Chun Li, please make sure you have a bottle of your favorite hard liquor on hand, and a rubber nipple attached to the botle. Suckle the bottle at all points while the movie is on. Do this, and you might survive the experience.
• Stargate Atlantis: Complete Fifth Season Fifth and final, more specifically. Hopefully Stargate Universe fills the Stargate-sized holes in all you Stargate fans' hearts.
• Eureka: Season 3.0 The semi-popular Syfy show that wasn't BSG and isn't over. I think.
• The IT Crowd: Complete Second Season I caught the first season of this British nerd comedy on Netflix and highly recommend it. You fellow fans, tell the others what they're missing, please.
• Samurai Champloo: Complete Collection Like Cowboy Bebop but with hiphop samurai instead of jazz space-bounty hunters. Not qquite as good as Bebop, but that still means it's pretty damn good.
• Monster X Strikes Back A recent giant monster movie starring Beat Takeshi. The fact that I've not heard of it before today makes me think it's probably not very good.
• Transmorphers: Fall of Man A super cheap-o Transformers rip-off direct-to-DVD movie starring Bruce Boxzleitner? Where the hell do I sign up?
I had decided to give Blu-ray a pass. I love movies, but I've just invested too much in DVDs and the jump up in quality of Blu-rays was too little for me to justify re-buying 100s of movies. But now, thanks to my pals at The Blu-ray Blog, I am fucked -- witness the majesty of Watchmen's Maximum Movie Mode:
It's like a director's commentary on crack, with an extra dose of awesomeness. This is exactly what Blu-ray should be doing, and whether you loved or hated the Watchmen movie, I don't think there's a better way to showcase the film's incredible attention to detail or devotion to the source material. If any of you rich Topless Robot readers want to buy me a Playstation 3, I will very generously allow it.
Now consider this a rumor, because Paramount hasn't announced anything officially yet. But the Blu-ray Blog and others got ahold of an early press release of the DVD and Blu-ray versions of the new Star Trek mobvie, and goddamn is it full of awesomess (or "win," as the kids like to say). Check it.
▪ The Shatner conundrum ▪ The redshirt guy,
▪ The green girl
▪ Trekker alert!
◦ Casting
◦ A new vision ("Savage Pressure")
◦ Starships:
▪ Warp explained
▪ Painting work
▪ Accelerated bridge construction
▪ The captain's chair
▪ Operating the buttons ▪ Shuttle shuffle
▪ Accelerated Narada construction
◦ Aliens:
▪ The alien paradox
▪ The girl with the big eyes
▪ Big pro Quinto
▪ Klingons
▪ Drakoulias anatomy 101
◦ Planets:
▪ Additional businesses
▪ Confidentiality
◦ Equipment and costumes: Klingon costumes
◦ Sound
◦ Music
◦ Gene Roddenberry's vision
• Deleted scenes:
◦ Spock's birth
◦ Klingons capture Narada
◦ Young Kirk, Johnny and Uncle Frank
◦ Amanda and Sarek argue after Spock's fight
◦ Interrogation and escape from prison
◦ Sarek and Amanda
◦ Bedroom and Kobayashi Maru (original version)
◦ Kirk apologizes to the green girl
◦ Sarek sees Spock Prime
◦ Teaser trailer
◦ Theatrical trailer "The wait is over"
◦ Theatrical trailer "Prepare for the beginning"
◦ Theatrical trailer "Buckle up"
• Star Trek: D-A-C demo (trailer) for XBOX 360
• BD Live options
That's a hell of a lot, and for the first time in a long time, I'm genuinely excited about watching some deleted scenes from a movie, if only to Greg Grunberg as Uncle Frank belittle young Kirk and possibly throw corn at him (actually, I'd much rather see Diora Baird as the other Orion non-Slave Girl, but let's move on). Right now, the Trek home edition is set for October 8th, but write that in your calendars in pencil not ink.
However, this time, his head is full of DVDs -- including all four seasons of Futurama, plus the four DVD movies, for a total of 20 discs. You're looking at the special Bender head packaging, which was sent to me by sharp-witted TR reader Kelly S. Right now, you can pre-order it for $120 over at Amazon -- which seems a little pricey to me, even though the four movies run $20 each -- but whatever. I imagine the bigger sticking point is that now they've annunced 26 new episodes to air on Comedy Central, this thing is automatically incomplete. Still, it has a snazzy Bender head, and that alone is probably worth hocking your body for. After all, bodies are for hookers and fat people.
• Hobgoblins 2 If you're an MST3K fan, you've probably seen and were horrified by Hobgoblins, a low-budget Gremlins rip-off full of extra sleazy, unpleasant teens. Believe it or not, there is now a sequel and the little girl on the front cover hanging with the Hobgoblins is like my crack -- I know its bad for me, but I'm going to get it anyways. Ludicrously, the original Hobgoblins has a 20th anniversary DVD coming out today as well, if you want to watch it without the MST track. For some reason.
• Tom and Jerry: The Chuck Jones Collection I know Chuck Jones is a cartoon genius, but I have always, always hated Tom and Jerry. Give me Wile E. and the Roadrunner any day.
• Death Note Re-Light Vol. 1 Much like The Plan, this is a new version of Death Note seen through the eyes of Ryuk. Except that it's mostly old animation. I loves me some Death Note, but I can easily take a pass on this.
• The Monster Squad: The Complete Collection Not the awesome '80s movie but apparently a '70s Saturday morning TV series of the same name which I had no idea existed until 10 minutes ago.
• Dragon Hunters Some CG straight-to-DVD fantasy that has strange good reviews on Amazon. Admittedly, one of those reviewers called himself "Rockin' Dad," though, so we can probably just forget about it altogether.
Want pics of Shout Factory's complete G.I. Joe DVD set? Hush, hush little bear -- I know you do. I have to tell you I wasn't that excited about the idea of another Joe footlocker-themed package, but given this thing opens into an old-school military radio/communicator or whatever the hell it is, I'm officially excited again. The other extras are equally magnificent: toy commercials, interviews with the voice actors, the original '63 Hasbro Toy Fair presentation of G.I. Joe (!!!), a live-action Joe fan film, and more. Plus, there will be the temporary Arashikage and Cobra logo tattoos, but coolest of all is a 1-gig dogtag/USB drive. Sure, it's kind of small, but you have to remember that every single file on the Joe's computer system in 1985 would have been only 212 meg. There are plenty more pics and details over at TV Shows on DVD.
• Ghostbusters On Blu-ray. Not coincidentally, the Ghostbusters videogame also hits today. It's going to be a pricey day for some people.
• Burn Notice Season 2 The perfect summer show? I say yes. It's as cool and stylish and unflappable as Bruce Campbell's chin.
• Lost: Seasons 1 & 2 On Blu-ray as well. You know, I love Lost, but I don't think I need to own it. I'm honestly not sure that the final answers are going to be that satisfying, but man, the journey to get there has been incredible. So without thpse weekly surprises and shocks, I don't know how much I want to watch Lost again. Just a thought.
• Transformers: Complete First Season Three discs full of remastered episodes, original toy commercials and more. The only excuse for not getting it is because you're saving up for the complete series collection at SDCC.
• Spaceballs On Blu-ray. Spaceballs introduced me to the word "ludicrous," so I will always be eternally gratefull to it.
• Garfield's Pet Force I don't know what the fuck this is, but it shows Garfield and his cartoon-mates in superhero outfits. It scares the shit out of me.
Were you desperately hoping that the Watchmen DVD would come in an odd package shaped like a flat version of Rorschach's head? Of course not. no one would want that. Alas, that's exactly what Watchmen-loving Germans will be getting if they order the Amazon exclusive Watchmen special edition in August. Yes, the head slides in half to reveal the DVD, and yes, the head is plastic. Clearly, Ozymandias's mechandising team is behind this madness.
Worse, although Germany will be getting this "special edition" of Watchmen, they won't be getting the director's cut -- Paramount has the rights to worldwide release of the theatrical cut while Warner Bros. has the extended version, and they either are waiting to release it or still figuring out how to split the future sales with Fox or something. Point is, sucks to be nerdy and German at the moment. (Via Blu-ray Blog)
• Reaper Season 2 I'm so conflicted about Reaper. It was fun but frivolous, yet had an awesome master plot that it absolutely refused to deal with -- and now that it's canceled, I guess we'll never know. Damn you, Reaper! Why couldn't you have been more interesting?
• Care Bears: Tell-Tale Tummies Like I said, slow week. Although doesn't "Tell-Tale Tummies" sound like either a really confused porno title or a really depraved one?
• Law of Ueki: Complete Box Set My old anime buddies and I used to try to decide what anime titles best represented the utter failure of U.S. anime companies to understand the market or what American fans wanted. Law of Ueki was Geneon's -- a horrible shonen series about a boy who can turn garbage into trees. There was absolutely no chance of it appealing to American fans, and certainly played a part on Geneon's utter downfall. By the way, now Funimation is re-releasing it. Whee!
• Storm Riders Yes, the Hong Kong action-fantasy masterpiece -- whose sequel's trailer showed up just the other day -- is hitting Blu-ray today (it's $50, but well worth it). Suffice to say, this is the entire reason I even bothered with "DVD Day" today.
• WWE: Macho Madness Yeah, this isn't particularly nerdy, but it's the goddamn Macho Man! I sincerely hope that if he and WWE are finally getting along well enough to release this DVD set, he might still get a few dozen figures in Jakks' Classic Superstars line. And then a Spider-man Bonesaw McGraw fiogure. BONESAW!
• Amazon's going to have an exclusive collector's edition of the Watchmen movie which will include the Owlship seen above. Right now it's $84 for pre-order on Amazon, but it's still the Director's Cut Special Edition, not the rumored longer cut with Black Freighter or anything. (Via BluRay Blog)
• TV Shows on DVD says there's going to be a complete Futurama collection inside a Bender's head package. It'll includes all four seasons and the four DVD movies, and I'd expect te head to be fully 3-D and not like those Simpsons packages. No pics yet.
• The Blu-Ray Blog also reports that the super complete Battlestar Galactica complete series box set won't be so... er, complete. It'll actually be missing the "Face of the Enemy" webisodes which were on early DVD releases. Apparently, these were the episodes where Gaeta came out as gay, which is causing quite a kerfluffle. It's hard to imagine that anyone would be stupid enough to cut the "gay" webisodes in this day in age, no matter how he/she felt about them, so here's hoping it's just some kind of a mistake.
Shout Factory has done the fans right yet again, people. Here's what you need to know about the two releases. Transformers 25th Anniversary Matrix of Leadership Edition: Collector's Set • 16 DVDs, with all 98 G1 episodes • $140 plus shipping and handling • Available at SDCC or for pre-order here, to be delivered around July 13th • Includes a ton of extras, plus a collector's book and magnets
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero Complete Collector's Set • 17 DVDs with all 95 Sunbow episodes (I'm pretty sure) • Will come n a footlocker case (you can see a small, lo-res pic here) • $145, available at SDCC and can also be pre-ordered here (I know it's the Transformers page, but hit the pre-order button and it'll become an option) • Includes a ton of extras, plus a collector's book and temporary tattoos
That's officially good shit, people. It's not going to get any better than this. (Via TV Shows on DVD)
• Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete As an utterly insane FF7 fanboy, I thought Advent Children was awesome and refuse to admit that it had any flaws. That said, I'm actually kind of grateful the new "Complete" version is on Blu-ray only, as this would be the third time I'd bought the damn thing. This includes 30 more minutes of footage and a second anime based on the horrible Denzel short story from the book in the limited edition(even my fanboy-ism can only go so far).
• The Hunger: Complete First Season There was a Hunger TV series on Showtime?That was a horror anthology type thing? Starring people like Lena Headley and Daniel Craig? Bizarre. How did i not know of this?
• The Jetsons: Season 2, Vol. 1 The Jetsons make me really depressed, as does the idea that many people are buying these to watch and re-watch.
• Highlander: The Complete Animated Series Did anyone actually get beheaded in the Highlander cartoon? I can't imagine they did. How did Immortals defeat each other then, with love?
• Retardead I have no information on Retardead other than the pun in the title and that it comes from the creators of Monsturd. I figured you guys needed to be made aware.
• Road House The greatest movie ever mae finally comes to Blu-ray. That is all.
• Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus Apparently, this Debbie Gibson masterpiece didn't quite make it out the door last week, so here it is again. I normally don't list DVDs twice, but I wanted to show how much I support sharks and octopuses attacking Debbie Gibson.
• Saturday Morning Cartoons '60s and '70s Two separate Vol. 1 sets I refuse to list separately. '60s contains Top Cat, Atom Ant, The Peter Potamus Show, and Quick Draw McGraw, while '70s containsThe Jetsons, Hong Kong Phooey, Speed Buggy, and The Batman Tarzan Adventure Hour.
• Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves When I was 13, I thought this movie was the greatest movie ever made. Now thatit's 2009 and is coming out on Blu-ray, I realize that's not strictly true.
• The Sky Crawlers The latest movie from Mamoru Oshii, who made the first Ghost in the Shell and the amazingly awful Ghost in the Shell 2. Really, that whole movie was like he was trying to punish fans for enjoying the original by filming cartoon characters quote Paradise Lost at each other for two hours.
• Digimon Data Squad Collection 1 I know I have some Digimon fans reading, so here you go -- don't say I never did anything for you.
• The Guild Both seasons of the lovely nerd goddess Felicia Day's MMORPG comedy web series get an Amazon exclusive DVD release today.
• True Blood HBO's gothic southern vampires show is more or less the anti-Twilight, but mostly an excuse to see Rogue/Claire Danes Ann Paquin naked, so... there you go. (Cut me some slack, at least I knew it was Rogue.)
• Fanboys It wasn't especially well-reviewed, even among nerds, but I feel like we should all watch it, if only to support Kristen Bell in the Slave Leia bikini.
• Dragonball Z: Majin Buu The one where Buu turns the Devil into a cookie and eats him. Enough said.
• Outlander Vikings vs. aliens. I missed this in the theaters, but I'm immensely looking forward to seeing this madness on DVD.
• Terminator 2 Limited Edition Collector's Set This utterly absurd T2 DVD set costs $120 (on sale), comes in a T-800 skull, and contains both the Extreme Edition DVD and Ultimate Edition DVDs. Does that mean it has the movie twice?
• Batman The '89 version hits Blu-ray. I actually thought this came out already, but Amazon says it's new, so just in case.
• Invasion Iowa William Shatner's bizarre reality where he dupes a small Iowa town into thinking he's filming a big-budget sci-fi flick there. Sounds really, really awkward.
• Fist of the North Star: The Movie Looks like some little company grabbed a hold of the old Streamline dub of this hilarious anime flick which stars Ken, a guy who can make people explode by punching them. It's simultaneously awesome and awful, and features a ship stuck inexplicably through a skyscraper.
I'm not sure where this came from, but the gents over at The Blu-Ray Blog were kind enough to send over the trailer for DC's next next animated DVD movie, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies. It's not long, but it contains a great many of the villain cameos from the Jeph Loeb/Ed McGuinness graphic novel, a quick shot of the awesomest robot in the DC universe (and I understand that's saying something), and most of all, Batman and Superman punching and kicking things. Enjoy, and then make sure to head over to The Blu-Ray Blog to read a swell interview with director Lauren Montgomery on Green Lantern: First Flight, the next DC animated DVD movie.
