• Indiana Jones: The Adventure Collection
I'm not exactly sure why I'm bothering to list other DVDs, since we'll almost all be buying this pack of special editions of the Indiana Jones trilogy, despite have bought them previously. Still. if a few of you are strong enough to resist this callous play for more of our cash, your other options are below.
• Stargate Infinity: The Complete Series
This is the Stargate cartoon, not any of the live-action stuff. Are there Stargate fans who loves the shows but find the cartoon silly? That amuses me.
• Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection 1 & 2
This mega-pack of old, low-budget sci-fi includes Tarantula, Mole People, Incredible Shrinking Man, Monolith Monsters, Monster on the Campus, Dr. Cyclops, Cult of the Cobra, Land Unknown, Deadly Mantis, and Leech Woman.
• Tobor the Great
If you recognize that Tobor is Robot spelled backwards, you know everything you need to about this '50s sci-fi flick.
• Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers Vol. 1
Space cowboys animated in Japan for America. This DVD set is by the same folks who did all the He-Man DVDs, so it's loaded with extras. And the cover is kind of insanely awesome as well.
• Honey & Clover
A live-action version of the shojo manga, full of romantic triangles for the nerdy girls and cute Japanese girls for the nerdy boys.
• The Incredible Hulk Returns / Trial of the Incredible Hulk
Dudes—$9 will buy you two awesome Hulk TV movies with Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno! The first one stars Thor, who looks nothing like his comic counterpart, and the second stars Daredevil who I believe wears all-black pajamas. Fantastic!
• Naruto Uncut Boxset Vol. 7
I believe this set has the death of the Hokage and Naruto first training with Jiraiya, which means these weren't bad episodes, all truth be told. Enjoy it before VIZ starts releasing those fillers.
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie
Admittedly, this is hardly the best MST3K episode out there (for which we can eternally blame the studios). But it's been out of print for quite a while, and now I don't have to pay $100 for on eBay!
• Lucky Star Vol. 1
If you liked Haruhi Suzumiya, you've already been salivating about buying this and the massive amount of goodies in this limited edition. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, just move on.
• The Secret of the Sword
It's the He-Man and She-Ra movie! This thing rocked my world when I was young, not only because Adora was super, super hot. Here's how insane I am—even though I totally own the She-Ra best of 2-DVD set, which has this complete movie on it, I'm buying this one just because it has Secret of the Sword packaging, and I'd prefer that on my DVD shelf. Yep.
• Legend of Bravestarr: The Movie
Did you ever want to know BraveStarr's origin? Well, then this is the movie for you. I'd make fun of you, but I just bought a second copy of the She-Ra movie and thus have no room to talk.
• All Monsters Attack
This 2001 Godzilla movie, and I quote from Amazon here, "re-imagines the beast as a mythical creature harboring the souls of the Japanese victims of World War II." That is beyond fucked up. Regardless, this is one of those really nice Godzilla DVDs, as is, Terror of Mechagodzilla, which is also out today.
• Death Note Volume 4
I tell you, Death Note is good shit, and the best newanime I've seen in a long, long time. I wanted to tell you in case you're one of the five anime fans who didn't download it three years ago.
• Lone Wolf & Cub TV Volume 1
A '70s show from Japan about a samurai and his baby working as assassins? Yes, please!
• The Beast in Space
So I was actually sent a copy of The Beast in Space last week, so I wanted to let you guys know if you're looking for a beyond low-budget Italian sci-fi film full of full frontal nudity, insanity and '80s soft-core Italian sex, you're probably looking for The Beast in Space. There's a hero with a pencil thin mustache, a possibly gay Han Solo, several women in states of undress, a planet that makes people have sex, virtually no continuity, a crowd of gay male robots in blond Prince Valiant wigs, terrible special effects (they don't even try with the lasers; people just fall down), stock footage of horses having sex, and a woman having with both the titular beast and a robot. It was wonderful. My favorite is when the crew lands on the sex planet to be immediately menaced by a robot, run back into the spaceship, then exit again about 30 seconds later and the robot's gone and not even mentioned. Incidentally, despite the cover, there is no centaur, but the naked lady is pretty accurate.
There are very few movies on DVD I want to own at the point, and only one that isn't actually out: Kill Bill. Sure, there's the two separate bare bones version, but I refused to waste my money on those when a special edition will eventually be coming.
Of course, I've been waiting three years for that special edition DVD, but Uma Thurman finally justified my wait and gave me some good news to boot—Tarantino has ordered another Kill Bill anime sequence, to be used as an intermission for an upcoming special DVD, according to Thurman. She told MTV:
“Right now he’s putting the two films together with an intermission with an added anime sequence he had already written,” she said of the ongoing saga of Beatrix Kiddo. “So additional stories are in there, in animation.”
Astute nerds might remember that Tarantino said he had two anime ideas for more Bill, one being about the Bride, and one about Bill. Thurman says she's recorded no lines for the anime, meaning it looks like we get Bill. Hell, I'm just happy I'll finally be able to get the DVD.
It's a slow week for DVDs for some reason, which is fine, because I've still got some NYCC news to wade through.
• Cloverfield
Remember, you're supposed to hate the pretentious, self-absorbed douchebags who constantly put themselves and others in danger during this movie, and thus, it's pretty damned funny to watch them get killed. Still, it could have used more monster.
• Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job Season One
The guys at the Onion's A.V. Club say that the Tim & Eric Show is brilliant and hilarious, and I find the A.V. Club writers to be the best, most accurate pop culture reviewers on the internet, so I trust them on this. But I still can't stand to watch it.
• Alien vs. Predator: Requiem
Why have humans in these films? No one who buys a ticket wants to see humans talking. They want to see Alien-on-Predator action. Why not just make a whole film of that?
• Juno
A young generation of nerds is growing up, believing they will find and marry a girl who makes Thundercats references. THIS WILL NOT HAPPEN.
It’s human nature to want to know what happens after the credits roll in a favorite movie. That’s why stories used to end with, “And they lived happily ever after.” That was the author’s way of saying, “Nothing interesting ever happened to these people again, and there will be no sequel. Besides, I’m thinking of getting away from fairy tales in general and making my next story a kind of noir detective thing meets gothic romance. What do you think?”
Unfortunately, the drive to know the next part of the story is so strong that even some stories where we know they live happily ever after eventually get sequels. Poorly animated, slap-dash, blatant cash-grab sequels full of voice actors who have absolutely no business being in them. These are known as Disney Direct-to-Video films, and they’re enough to make you spin in your grave, never mind Walt Disney. These are the worst offenders, and if you’re lucky you never knew they existed. Read on. If you’ve got a favorite Disney film and you’re saying to yourself, “Well, surely they never made a sequel to that,” I can assure you that they probably did.
• Nana
The live-action flick of the hit Japanese girls' comic starring two wildly different girls named Nana, which I totally have to 'fess up to reading. I don't know why. I think I keep expecting them to make out.
And two miscellaneous notes from this week's DVD listings:
• There's a Blu-Ray edition of the old Space Ace laserdisc video game. Seriously? Is Blu-Ray really necessary for this?
• There's a Girls Gone Wild DVD titled Sex Race. That cracks me the hell up. Are they really timed? What do you win for first place? Do they have to wear numbers? Do they get water and orange slices at the halfway point?
News on the second Futurama DVD-movie has arrived, as well as the cover. Besides featuring voices of David Cross, Brittany Murph, Dan Castellaneta and world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking (quite the team, there), The Beast With A Billion Backs is coming June 24, and, well, the press release sums it up rather nicely:
In their latest extraterrestrial exploits, Bender, Fry, Leela and crew encounter a repulsive, planet-sized creature with billions of probing tentacles...and soon find themselves involved in a disturbing - yet sensuous - interplanetary love story.
I'm too lazy not gauche enough to copy/paste all the DVD extra,s but you can see them here. In other DVD news, one of our Most Wanted Cartoons has been announced—Freakazoid! Season 1 will have 14 episodes and be released on July 29, same day as Tiny Toon Adventures (which I know some of you have been waiting for).
Admit it: you sometimes skip to the deleted scenes when you first pop in that DVD. Sure, there’s an entire movie to be watched, but it can’t compare to the mystique of the stuff that didn’t make it in, the stuff that would be locked forever in film vaults if studios weren’t so desperate to pad out DVD “special editions.”
Well, some scenes are still lost to us DVD-buying peons. That’s often for good reason, but we’ve dug up ten that stir a certain fascination, morbid or otherwise, in our inner film nerd.
This is a trailer for Marvel's next direct-to-DVD flick, Next Avengers, and I hope I speak for most of us when I say, "You have got to be shitting me, Pyle." (Via Comic Book Resources)
• xxxHolic Vol. 1
I swear to god, any of you anime fans give me grief over my spelling of "xxxHolic" and I'll tan your hides but good.
• Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors Vol. 1
Here's your state of the U.S. anime industry—pre-orders for xxxHolic (#54 on Amazon, after a WWE Triple H video) are just barely ahead of Jayce (#57).
Update: Okay, so it looks like Haim is in this one, negating everything I said below. But the whole enterprise still makes me sad, as a grim, blatant reminder of the Coreys fall from fame.
If you had asked me a week ago if any movie could possibly be hurt by not starring Corey Haim...well, I'd have laughed in your face. And yet, here it is—Lost Boys 2: The Tribe—which is taking its lonely Corey Feldman-ian glory and heading straight to DVD, and that by bringing only one Corey back they've recreated that "Lost Boys magic" in any way, shape, or form. I defy you to watch the above clip and not just be sad for everyone involved—and especially sad that Corey Haim couldn't even get a role on this. Can someone put him on suicide watch, please? (Via My Blog Rules)
• Sam & Max: Freelance Police
FUCK and YES. I've been waiting years for this gem of a cartoon to hit DVD, and it's finally here, complete with terrifying puppet shows and explorations of the pancreas! In fact, as soon as I'm done writing this post, I'm heading to Best Buy.
• Stargate: The Ark of Truth
This direct-to-DVD Stargate movie appears to be the top-selling DVD of the day's releases, which is mildly terrifying to me, since...
• No Country For Old Men
...is also coming out today. I'm honestly not prepared to live in a world where there are more Stargate fans than people who want to buy the Academy Award-winner for Best Picture.
• Tin Man
This Sci-Fi Channel sci-fi miniseries aired to so-so acclaim, but it does star Richard Dreyfuss, so I refuse to watch it.
• Hitman
Timothy Olyphant shaved his head for this?!
• Appleseed: Ex Machina
The sequel to the CG anime movie from 2004, which I'm ashamed to say I kind of liked in a classically overwrought, old-school kind of way. And in some John Woo-style shoot-outs and I'm sold American.
• Wrestlemaniac
It's your basic slasher flick, except the killer wears a Mexican wrestling mask and is played by Rey Mysterio. It's no MEGA SNAKE, but I'm still highly pleased with the idea and the title.
Also, Lil Bush Season 1 comes out today; if you are thinking about buying it, please begin hitting yourself and never stop.
• The Hogfather
Based on the Terry Pratchett novel. Is this any good? Can anyone tell me?
• Doctor Who Episodes 81and 104
Two separate DVDs that I refuse to give separate listings. The former is "Planet of evil," the latter is "Destiny of the Daleks."
• Blood+ Part One
Did you like the original Blood anime? Well, this removes the cool bits and adds in a lot of angst-y nonsense.
• MEGA SNAKE
Oh my god. Please enjoy this Amazon description of this movie:
Because his father was killed by a poisonous snake bite, Les Daniels has a deadly fear of snakes. Chaos ensues when Les’ brother accidentally unleashes a rare, extremely deadly mythical snake. The snake escapes into Les’ small town and begins to grow at a terrifying rate. Now Les must overcome his paralyzing fear to help protect his small town against the growing, deadly MEGASNAKE, which is devouring anything in its path.
So this is neat. If you've read Alan Moore's Watchmen, you might remember there's an old EC-style comic in it that some kid is reading, called Tales of the Black Freighter. It's basically about a dude who lands on an island and goes crazy, much like one of the main Watchmen characters goes crazy at the same time.
Anyways, ICV2 saysWatchmen director Zack Snyder is having Tales of the Black Freighter animated, and plans to include it on the Watchmen DVD; the voice of the crazy person will be done by 300's Gerard Butler, who clearly still owes Snyder a solid for making him a star. ICV2 also says it will be an anime, but gives no reason for saying so. At any rate, this bonus is totally unnecessary, but rather impressive; frankly, fanboys should be on their knees kissing Zack Snyder's feet for his commitment to nerdery.
Animation World managed to snag six screenshots from the upcoming Batman: Gotham Knight anime DVD, and I can actually steal those, so I'm going to put them here. Ready to have your mind blown?
It's Batman throwing Batarangs!
It's Batman shooting that zipline gun of his!
It's Batman performing Tai Chi in an alley!
It's Batman wearing some kind of armor, standing in front of an exploding nuclear reactor!
It's Batman on fire!
It's Batman incredibly angry at his H&R Block agent for misfiling his tax return! Or something.
Hey, kids! Who wants to watch a quick preview of Justice League: The New Frontier, available on DVD today, with me? Here, fighter pilot Hal Jordan (better known as the Green Lantern!) flies home after an exciting and heroic mission! I bet this clip'll be full of awesome superhero action! Let's watch, shall we?
• Beowulf
Didn't see it, but I approve of digitizing Angelina Jolie's body for future generations.
• The Darjeeling Limited
Didn't see it, but I remember all that hub-bub about Natalie Portman possibly being nekkid in the short film that accompanies the flick. Anyone know for sure?
• 30 Days of Night
Based on the comic, but supposedly not as good despite starring Josh "Hot"-nett himself.
• Highlander: The Source
The hell did this come from? Apparently, even Adrian Paul is sick of this Highlander nonsense and tries to become mortal in the "movie."
Most of our treasured childhood cartoons were awful. Some people refuse to admit this. You’ll see these people commenting on YouTube videos of Bravestarr or My Little Pony Tales or Tom and Jerry Kids, proclaiming them to be “awes0me!!!” and asking why the hell they don’t make good cartoons like this anymore. These people are insane.
There are, of course, genuinely good cartoons from our youth, and most of them are available on DVD at our local consumerist outlets. Yet a few series are left foundering in obscurity or in the hands of bootleggers who’ll charge $80 for a season of M.A.S.K. Below, we’ve profiled ten cartoon series of our youth (a lot of them involving the word “Mighty”) that should be preserved in DVD box sets so we don’t have to rely on grainy YouTube and Google Video encodes. And no, M.A.S.K. isn’t one of them. Have you watched M.A.S.K. lately? It’s crap.
• He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Vol. 1
Not the old '80s one, but the newer 2002 one. I'm pretty sure I'm remembering it too fondly, but I have nothing but good memories about this cartoon. And BCI does some amazing extras.
• One Piece Movie 8
The first non-4Kids One Piece DVD you can buy, this movie recaps the Alabasta saga, which was mighty entertaining. The new voices are good, although Luffy still sounds like a girl, mostly because Japan insists on having a girl voice him no matter how stupid iit sounds.
• Rock & Rule
The bizarre, early '80s cartoon movie with the voices of Iggy Pop, Debbie Harry, Cheap Trick and others gets the digitally remastered collector's edition that I can't believe exists.
• Dragon Ball Z Season 4
Containing ther terrible Garlic Jr. Saga, the pretty good Trunks saga, and the less good Android saga.
• Love*Com
A live-action Japanese movie based on a Japanese manga I know absolutely nothing about.
• Girl Boss Revenge JAPANESE REFORM SCHOOL GIRLS IN TROUBLE
Ding dong, one of the next-gen video formats is dead. A mere month after Warner Bros. announced it was going Blu-ray exclusive, thus giving Sony’s Blu-ray format 70% of all movies, Reuters is reporting that Toshiba will totally halt HD-DVD production next week.
Of course, in this past month, more studios have either gone Blu-Ray exclusive or dropped their HD-DVD exclusivity, consumers have been returned their HD-DVD players bought over the holidays, major stores like Wal-Mart have stopped carrying HD-DVD and basically every movie studio executive and industry analyst has said Blu-ray won the war and that HD-DVD is doomed. And now it’s dead. Dead dead dead.
Goodbye, gentle HD-DVD. You really screwed up the next-generation of video technology, caused regular DVD sales to drop precipitously, and confused a lot of people, and but you will be missed…by the poor bastards who bought HD-DVD players.
Admittedly, this 10-minute preview for the Batman: Gotham Knight anime is mostly talking heads from DC Comics, including director Bruce Timm, who's overseeing the six separate Batman stories being created by Japan's greatest anime studios. However, the best of art and animation shown in the trailer is kind of awesome. I'm sorry to say that I'm hard-pressed to say anything shitty about it, and I'm now far more excited about Gotham Knight than I am about The Dark Knight. Sorry, guys—I feel I let you down.
Another slow week of DVDs, unless you've been patiently waiting for the HD skankery of Girls Gone Wild, which is available on Blu-Ray and the increasingly doomed HD-DVD today (the higher resolution really lets you see the lack of dignity). Anyways, to the things you might buy:
• Naruto Uncut Box Set 6
It has Gaara on the cover, so I'm guessing this includes the episodes where Naruto fight Gaara. I absolutely refuse to confirm this with research, however.
• Zapped!
Absolutely the finest film ever made jointly by Scott Baio and Willie Aames.
• Warner Bros. Academy Awards Animation Collection
If you like old cartoons, you should probably shit your pants over this set—it's got old Popeye, Superman, Bugs Bunny cartoons and more, all either Oscar winners or nominees.
• Batman Animated Double Feature
Containing Mask of the Phantasm and Batman/Mr. Freeze: Sub-Zero. Sub-Zero kind of sucks, but for my money, Phantasm is still the best Batman film ever made.
• Four Swords: Shaw Brothers Box Set
Containing four of the semi-classic Shaw Bros. wuxia flicks, including The Wandering Swordsman, The Water Margin, Have Sword Will Travel and the awesomely named Vengeance is a Golden Blade.
• Mystery Science Theater 3000 Vol. 10.2
Contains Swamp Diamonds, Teen-age Strangler, Giant Spider Invasion and The Giant Gila Monster (in place of the first colume 10's Godzilla vs. Megalon). This is the last Rhino MST3K release before Shout Factory picks it up, FYI.
• Devil May Cry Vol. 1
Looks like this thing came out anyways, but I don't know if that means any thing good for ADV, as the title has still been removed from their website. More likely these discs were pressed and shipped to retailers before the badness went down.
Also, I'm not mentioning Perfect Strangers because I'm a fan, but I figure if you want to buy a DVD of the show, you're obviously some huge nerd, which means it should be mentioned. So there. Please believe me.
• Aqua Teen Hunger Force Vol. 5
Anyone catch Sunday's "Sirens" episode with Neko Case? I had no idea the ex-Phillies outfielder John Kruk would be willing to be so damn weird.
• The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
This nerd-doc follows the current champion of the Donkey Kong arcade game, and one man who tries to de-throne him. It's been quite well reviewed, so it's worth checking out.
• GLOW: Greatest TV Moments
GLOW stands for the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, which aired in the 80s late at night. Most of what I learned about sex came from watching GLOW after my parents were asleep. Although the ladies never seem to appreciate the suplex.
Is it another new weekly post? It is, by god! Every Tuesday, I'll be profiling all the day's DVD releases that nerds should possible care about. Happily, for "DVD Day's" inaugural week, the offerings suck. Save your money for booze!
• Swamp Thing: The Series
The original USA series, to be exact. I recall watching back in 1990 that the show was a bit darker than the films, and nothing else, which means I'm probably repressing something about how terrible the show was.
• Confessions of a Superhero
I have no idea what this is, and can't be bothered to sit through the site's insanely long loading animation to find out. But by having "superhero" in the title, I figured I'd better mention it.
• Thunderbirds 40th Anniversary Megaset
100 bucks and 12 DVDs of nothing but wooden puppets talking strangely to each other. Are there people who have been holding out for this? Who need all 1664 minutes of puppet action? I both pity and fear them.
There's also a great deal of soft-core pornography being released today via Amazon, apparently. I still recommend the booze, however.
I thought you might want to know what new DVDs are hitting Best Buy shelves, Target shelves, and Amazon.com's non-existent cyber-shelves today, January 15th. You know, if case you had some money to burn.
• Dragonlance: Dragons of the Autumn Twilight
An animated adaptation of the high-school-nerd-classic Dungeons & Dragons novel, with the voices of Lucy Lawless and Kiefer Sutherland. Yeah.
• Bleach vol. 8
Anime on Adult Swim. Either you've been planning on buying it for a long time, or you don't care.
• Indiana Jones: The Adventure Collection
There are very few movies on DVD I want to own at the point, and only one that isn't actually out: Kill Bill. Sure, there's the two separate bare bones version, but I refused to waste my money on those when a special edition will eventually be coming. 
By Todd Ciolek
Ding dong, one of the next-gen video formats is dead. A mere month after Warner Bros. announced it was going Blu-ray exclusive, thus giving Sony’s Blu-ray format 70% of all movies, Reuters is reporting that 
I thought you might want to know what new DVDs are hitting Best Buy shelves, Target shelves, and Amazon.com's non-existent cyber-shelves today, January 15th. You know, if case you had some money to burn.