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Here’s what you’ll find new in stores this week:
NEW BLU
3: The Dale Earnhardt Story (Genius)
Band of Brothers (HBO)
Black Christmas (Somerville House)
Chuck: Season 1 (Warner)
The Colt (Echo Bridge)
Dragon Ball Z: Cooler Double Feature (Funimation)
Firefly: The Complete Series (Fox)
Harry Potter: Years 1-5 (Warner)
Hellboy II: The Golden Army (Universal)
JFK (Warner)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Warner)
Sukiyaki Western Django (First Look)
Supernatural: Season 3 (Warner)
This Christmas (Sony)
DVD
Beer for My Horses (Lionsgate)
The Boys in the Band (Paramount)
Classic Holiday Collection, Vol.1 (Warner)
Classic Holiday Collection, Vol.2 (Warner)
The General (1926) (Kino)
Hellboy II: The Golden Army (Universal)
The Kennedys: America’s Emerald Kings (Warner)
The Perfect Holiday (Sony)
Quo Vadis (Warner)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Warner)
Sukiyaki Western Django (First Look)
This Christmas (Sony)
Thomas Kinkade’s Christmas Cottage (Lionsgate)
TV-on-DVD
7th Heaven: Season 7 (Paramount)
The Cosby Show: 25th Anniversary (First Look)
Father Knows Best: Season 2 (Shout! Factory)
Dragon Ball Z: Season 7 (Funimation)
I Dream of Jeanie: Complete (Sony)
Little House on the Prairie: Complete (Lionsgate)
The Lone Ranger: Seasons 1 and 2 (Classic Media)
M*A*S*H: Seasons 1-11 (Fox)
Night Gallery: Season 2 (Universal)
Scrubs: Season 7 (Buena Vista)
Son of the Beach: Vol.2 (Shout! Factory)
The Sopranos: Complete (HBO)
Walt Disney Treasures: Assorted
Greg’s Pick of the Week
Firefly: The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
Fox | 665 minutes | Unrated | $89.98
With sub-$200 Blu-ray players now a reality – good ones, too! – and a holiday shopping season that’s fast approaching, get ready for a relentless stream of exciting, top tier high def releases that will carry us through the new year.
This summer’s blockbusters have been trickling out on disc – usually one per week – since Iron Man splashed down on September 30. This week, we’ve got two heavy hitters now on store shelves: Kung Fu Panda and Hellboy II: The Golden Army. Although I have yet to spin my recently-arrived copy of WALL-E, I have to say that Dreamworks’ Kung Fu Panda is my new favorite animated title on Blu-ray. The film looks and sounds absolutely wonderful on disc – and not only that, the movie is a ton of fun. As for Hellboy II, my wife and I actually managed to see this one in the theaters and Universal’s Blu-ray edition perfectly capture’s Guillermo del Toro’s bold and eclectic color palette. The film is a sumptuous visual feast and if you enjoyed the first film in the series – already available on Blu-ray from Sony – you’ll undoubtedly dig this bigger and badder sequel.
In addition to summer fare, this season plays host to several eagerly-anticipated catalog titles hitting the Blu-ray format. Oliver Stone’s Director’s Cut of JFK hit shelves this week and Warner has done a first rate job with it, giving the title their hard book treatment complete with a Stone commentary and lots more. Warner also has a new documentary out entitled The Kennedys: America’s Emerald Kings. That’s being sold separately, but it’s included in the 3-disc JFK “Ultimate Collector’s Edition” DVD.
Television fans have plenty to celebrate this week, with four new titles coming to Blu-ray. The third season of Supernatural will surely please fans, but I would have preferred to see Warner start with Season One for series rookies like me. Warner’s Chuck on the other hand is a Season One set that I’m quite eager to explore. I’ll have more to say about that and HBO’s Band of Brothers mini-series in my next TV-on-DVD Picks column, hopefully coming next week. I’ll say this though: what I’ve seen thus far in Band of Brothers has been truly incredible.
My Pick of the Week should be a no-brainer for anyone who knows me or has read my stuff for long enough. Whether you check out my first look at the packaging of the new Serenity: Collector’s Edition DVD, my review of said DVD or my April blog entry where I first talked about Firefly’s upcoming Blu-ray edition, one thing should be clear: I’m an unabashed Browncoat. Since I’ve already had plenty to say about Joss Whedon’s blissful Firefly/Serenity universe, let me just say that if you haven’t seen the show yet, you’re really missing out on something special. Fox’s new Blu-ray edition delivers a visible (albeit not huge) step up from the DVD’s video quality, but the big surprise is a much-improved soundtrack thanks to an impressive, new DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix. Fans will also enjoy a new roundtable discussion from Whedon and several cast members, but it’s too bad the whole gang could not participate. Like Chuck and Band of Brothers, I’ll have more to say about this one next week. And fellow Browncoats, mark your calendars: Universal brings Serenity to Blu-ray Disc on December 30!
EVALUATION SYSTEM
Sanyo PLV-Z700 1080p Projector
Philips BDP7200 Blu-ray Disc Player
Oppo DV-983H DVD player
Onkyo TX-SR805 A/V receiver
Definitive Technology ProCinema 1000 speakers
Datacolor SpyderTV PRO 2007 video calibration
Monster Power HTS5100 power center
BetterCables interconnects
UltraLink speaker wire
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