Home Video News 

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 Crash and Brokeback Mountain, along with an old eighties favorite starring a helicopter (nope, not Airwolf), my runner-up for worst film of 2005, and season sets of Knight Rider, The A-Team, and Magnum P.I., and more.  Take a peek inside for the full list.

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Here’s what is getting released today on DVD:

Film:

Crash (2-Disc Director’s Cut Edition) – The controversial Oscar chosen Best Picture of the Year gets a new two-disc DVD.  Admit it you either loved it or hated it; the film made my top ten list of 2005.  The new “director’s cut” contains four minutes of additional footage, an introduction by director Paul Haggis, commentary by Haggis, Don Cheadle, and co-writer Bobby Moresco, deleted scenes and a collection of featurettes on L.A., the making of the film, the director, storyboards, and a music video.  Read Aaron’s original review here and my review here.

Brokeback Mountain – Ang Lee’s love story between two cowboys (Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal) won at every major awards except the Oscars (though Lee did manage to steal Best Director from George Clooney).  Though the film didn’t make my top ten list it did turn up on both Aaron’s (check it out) and December’s (click here).  The DVD contains featurettes on the making of the film, cowboy style, and Ang Lee – but no commentary.  Read the original reviews here, here, and here.

Blue Thunder (Special Edition) – 1983 action flick with Roy Sceider and one awesome heliocopter gets the special edition treatment.  The DVD includes a remastered Dobly 5.1 track and commentary with director John Badham and editor Frank Morris.  The featurettes include making the film, building the chopper, and a 1983 promo.

Family/Animated:

The Chronicles of Narnia – The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe – This film barely, and I mean barely, missed being my #1 worst film of 2005 (click here for full list).  The most evil, offensive, subversive and intolerant “kids” film of all time teaching the nobility of the jihad and how war is always just and impossible to lose as long as you’ve got God on your side comes to DVD.  Yah.  Out today in a regular one-disc with bloopers and commentary from the stars and director and a two-disc special edition (NOOOOOOOOOOOO!) that also contains extras like a diaries from the stars and director (they’re all 9 year-old girls) and featurettes on C.S. Lewis, the creatures of the film, a Narnia time-line, special effects, and more.  Read the original review

Collections:

Mel Brooks Box Set Collection – The box set includes eight Mel Brooks films packaged together including Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, History of the World: Part I, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, The Twelve Chairs, To Be or Not to Be, and the new releases of High Anxiety and Silent Movie available for the first time on DVD.

Documentary:

Bob Dylan 1975-1981: Rolling Thunder and the Gospel Years – Documentary following Dylan’s 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue that included a benefit for Rubin “Hurricane” Carter and his “gospel years” in the late 70’s.  Included are interviews with Rubin Carter, Scarlet Rivera, Rob Stoner, Jerry Wexler, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, Ms. Jacques Levy, Regina McCrary, Spooner Oldham, Al Kasha and more,  concert clips and footage, and never before seen photographs.

TV:

Magnum P.I. – The Complete Fourth Season – Magnum, Higgins, Rick and TC in all 21 fourth season episodes plus the “Mac’s Back” episode from season five, and a TV flashback featurette.

Knight Rider – Season Four – Final 22 episodes, including the two-part opener, of the talking car and the “man who does not exist” The final season is memorable for the new “super-pursuit mode” and added character of RC3.  Extras include blueprints of K.I.T.T.

The A-Team – Season Four – Hannibal Smith and the gang return for 23 episodes from the fourth season of the show which introduces Robert Vaughn as General Hunt Stockwell and includes the two-part opener where the team is finally put on trial for those crimes “they didn’t commit.”

Dawson’s Creek – The Complete Sixth Season – Final season of the WB’s teen breakout hit contains all 23 episodes including the two-hour series finale with commentary by series creator Kevin Williamson and producer Paul Stupin.  Extras include a photo album, character bios, script pages, and trivia.

Star Trek Fan Collective – Time Travel – The top time travel episodes of Star Trek as chosen by the fans.  The set includes “Tomorrow is Yesterday” and “City on the Edge of Forever” (but not “Assignment: Earth”) from TOS, “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” “Cause and Effect,” “Time’s Arrow,” and “All Good Things…” from STNG, “Little Green Men” and “Trials and Tribble-ations” from DS9 (though sadly absent from this set are “The Visitor” and “Far Beyond the Stars”), and “Year of Hell” and “Endgame” from Voyager.  Extras include pop-up text commentary for three of the episodes.

Full House – The Complete Third Season – This set contains all 22 episodes of the thrid season adventures of the Tanner family along with a montage of Dave Coulier’s impressiions on the show.

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.

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 fourth installment in the Harry Potter series, some military drama in Jarhead and hijinks in Hogan’s Heroes, the anime Howl’s Moving Castle, and TV season sets of favorites like The Brady Bunch, The Flintstones, and The Cosby Show.

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Here’s what is getting released today on DVD:

Film:

Jarhead – Film version of Anthony Swofford’s experiences in Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm.  Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, and Jamie Foxx star in a film that shows the pointlessness (to the nth degree) of war.  The DVD contains commentary by director Sam Mendes, a second commentary track with screenwriter William Broyles, Jr. and Anthony Swofford, interviews with Mendes and editor Walter Murch, and deleted scenes.  Check out both the original reviews here and here.

Just Friends – Ryan Reynolds and Amy Smart star in this film about a man returning home and meeting his old friend and crush whose rejection of him in high school made him leave home and become a womanizing jerk.  DVD contains commentary from director Roger Kumble and producers, deleted scenes, bloopers, a Jamie Smiles music video, and a behind-the-scenes featurette.  Read the original review.

Prime – Romantic comedy about a therapist (Meryl Streep) whose patient (Uma Thurman) begins dating her son (Bryan Greenberg).  The DVD contains commentary from director Ben Younger and producer Jennifer Todd, and collections of deleted scenes and outtakes.

Family/Animated:

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – Harry takes part in the Tri-Wizard tournament (and never goes to class) in the fourth installment of the series.  The DVD is available in a single disc version or a two-disc special edition that includes interviews with the cast, featurettes, and games for kids based off the film.  Oddly enough both DVD’s are priced almost the same (within two dollars of each other).  Read original reviews of the film here and here.

Howl’s Moving Castle – Oscar nominated anime feature about a young woman cursed by a witch into an old hag, a wizard named Howl who can see her as she truly is, and a fire demon named Calcifer bound to Howl.  The DVD includes both an English track and English subtitles if you would prefer to watch it in the original Japanese.  There are interviews with Pixar execs and a featurette on the making of the film.

The Flintstones – The Complete Fifth Season – Yabba-Dabba-Doo!  The continuing adventures of this modern Stone Age family.  All 26 episodes on four discs with original commercials, an introduction by animation historian Earl Kress, a “Stone Age Parenting Guide” feature, and a short interview with Hanna and Barbara on the creation of the series.

TV:

Hogan’s Heroes – The Complete Third Season  – Hogan and his men are back fighting Nazis as undercover operatives serving as POWs in a WWII camp.  Read the DVD review.

Star Trek Fan Collective – Borg – We gave you our early review last week of this collection of the top ten fan chosen Borg episodes.  Check it out if you missed it.

The Cosby Show – Season 2 – The complete second season of the Huxtable family includes the famous lip synching scene to “The Night Time is the Right Time” among the 26 episodes.

The Brady Bunch – The Complete Fifth Season – Finally 22 episodes of the series about a lovely lady who was bringing up three very lovely girls and a man named Brady who was busy with three boys of his own.

Three’s Company – Season 6 – Come and knock on our door for all 28 episodes of the bumbling threesome, their nosy landlord Mr. Furley (Don Knotts) and their madcap hijinks.