NEW RELEASES
Blades of Glory
d. Josh Gordon
c. Will Ferrell, Jon Herder
Blades of Glory unites Napoleon Dynamite with Ricky Bobby. Will Farrell and Jon Herder play figure skating opponents who have a huge fight at the awards ceremony at the World’s Winter Sports Games and receive a lifetime ban from men’s singles competition. Jimmy McElroy (Herder) learns that he can still compete in pair skating but can find no female to skate with him. This leads him back to Chazz Michael Michaels (Ferrell) and his coach (Craig T. Nelson) convinces them to become the world’s first same-sex skating partner team. The fact that they are taclking figure skating proves that there is not much left in the way of competitive “sports” to explore in these type of comedies. When the underrated Kingpin tackled bowling, and I might have said the same thing. I also might have voiced the opinion when Ricky Bobby himself tackled the “sport” of auto racing. But, this time I’m serious. What could possibly be left? Ping Pong?
SPECIAL FEATURES
- Return to Glory: The Making of "Blades"
- Celebrities On Thin Ice
- Cooler Than Ice: The Super-Sexy Costumes of Skating
- Arnett and Poehler – A Family Affair
- 20 Questions with Scott Hamilton
- Hector: Portrait of a Psychofan
- Moviephone unscripted with Will Ferrell, Jon Heder and Will Arnett
- Deleted Scenes
- Alternate Takes
- Gag Reel
- Photo Gallery
- Music Video "Blades of Glory" by Bo Bice
- MTV Interstitials
THIS WEEK IN TELEVISION
Heroes, Season One
This week was pretty uneventful with the exception of Television DVDs. First up, is the first season of the hugely popular Heroes. I will admit to having never watched this, despite all the fan crazed reaction to the show. I love Lost and Supernatural, so maybe this show will be up my alley too, but with all the negativity I have read over weak story development and below average writing I have avoided it. However, it is one of the most popular shows on TV now, so it is a pretty big deal (Best Buy employees have been wearing Heroes Flair for weeks now). Even more special is that the DVD is STACKED. It will also be released on HD-DVD with even more extras.
SPECIAL FEATURES
- Unaired Pilot: The Tim Kring Cut with Audio Commentary (73 minutes of the original, unaired, extended pilot episode, as Heroes’ creator Tim Kring first envisioned it, with a character never seen.)
- The Making of Heroes
- Special Effects featurette
- The Stunts featurette
- Mind Reader tests
- Profile of Artist Tim Sale
- The Score featurette
- 50 Deleted and Extended Scenes
- Picture-in-Picture Video Commentary on 12 episodes show creator Tim Kring and executive producer Dennis Hammer [HD-DVD EXCLUSIVE]
- Interactive Character Profiles [HD-DVD EXCLUSIVE]
- Discover the hidden Helix symbol revealed throughout the series [HD-DVD EXCLUSIVE]
- Heroes Ability Test [HD-DVD EXCLUSIVE]
Friday Night Lights – The First Season
I had no aspirations at all that Friday Night Lights would be worth crap when I heard it was being made into a television program. Yes, I am a huge football fan and yes, I really enjoyed the movie. But movies adapted into television shows were usually crap. So I ignored the show. Then I was a member of an obviously large contingent who chose to ignore the show that was preached at by the converted. After reading much of the reviews and opinions on the show, I regret not giving it a chance sooner. I did the same thing with Supernatural when it replaced Angel and maybe I should just start watching things and making decisions based on the quality of the show and none of the other bullshit that influences people. I’ll just give some other people’s opinions from our very own message boards to clue you in on opinions of the show:
- “Best network show on television right now would be "The Office," but from what little I’ve seen, "Friday Night Lights" is a close second.” – RathBandu
- “This show is special. There is nothing "by the numbers" about it … It is obvious the writers and creative team have taken a lot of care in plotting out the arcs of each individual on the show.” – Fazer
- “I think it’s special and groundbreaking … the way the writers refuse to patronize the audience and the great, great direction (so often overlooked on television) easily makes it the most compelling network drama … it’ll be criminal if this show doesn’t come back for another season.” – Subotai
Well, the show is coming back for a second season and you have a chance to buy the first season CHEAP. If you scan down to the bargain bin, you see that Best Buy has it for UNDER $20 for the full season. That is almost $30 less than you would pay for most other television shows. Don’t even think about it – just buy it. If you don’t like it, the studio is offering a full money back guarantee. Wow.
SPECIAL FEATURES
- Deleted Scenes (on 19 of the episodes)
- Behind The Lights: Creating The First Season of Friday Night Lights
Masters of Horror: Season One Box Set
After telling you how freaking cool it is that you can get Friday Night Lights for under $20, I will now show you how a studio can rape it’s fans. Masters of Horror is a Showtime horror anthology show which takes the master (and not-so-master) directors of classic (and not-so-classic) horror films and has them create short films for the one-hour weekly television show. It is a cable network, so there are not (many) censors and the directors can give us whatever their demented minds think of. Well, it is a great idea that gave us some – but not many – great little films. Now, I will explain the parentheses above. In season one, we got legends such as Don Coscarelli (Phantasm), Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator), Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre), Dario Argento (Suspiria), Joe Dante (The Howling), John Landis (An American Werewolf in London), John Carpenter (Halloween) and Takashi Miike (Audition). Then we also get the mismash of directors who have not earned the title “Master” including William Malone (House on Haunted Hill), Lucky McKee (May), Larry Cohen (the writer of Maniac Cop), Larry McNaughton (Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer) and the show’s creator Mick Garris (The Stand). My problem with the lineup, is that they should have sprinkled the lesser directors in with the true masters, but the masters of horror were finished halfway through the series, leaving the rest to be filled by lesser mortals. There is one more parentheses I need to explain. Showtime was supposed to make sure that the films were the directors visions without the restraints of censors buttons. However, Takashi Miike’s Imprint was never shown on Showtime because it was deemed too horrific. What kind of crap is that?
Why do I say the fans of the show were raped? Every one of the episodes were releases separately, at between $9 and $15 a pop, depending on where you shop. If you avoid Wal Mart, you pay closer to the $15 number. Wal Mart sells them around $9 each. Many people, myself included, waited to see if they would be released in a full season set. When season two was underway, and that season’s episodes became for sale, it was decided by many it would not happen. Hell, the DVDs were a GREAT bargain. You got a one-hour movie, and at least two hours of special features, much of which looked at the director’s past work. Great packaging made these DVDs a great bargain. Well, this week all of season one is being released in a special box set – with an extra disc of featurettes – for $55 if you buy it at Amazon! That means if you bought every episode already, you spent between $130 and $200 for them all. Even the fans who would happily only buy the ones they want and ignored the rest still spent the same for five episodes as people spend who want the entire thing. That is why Showtime and the Masters of Horror have screwed their fans.
All the discs are the same as the individual ones with all the loaded features on them. Here is the episode listing, for those who only know the individual DVDs.
- Haeckel’s Tale (John McNaughton)
- Pick Me Up (Larry Cohen)
- Sick Girl (Lucky McKee)
- Fair Haired Child (William Malone)
- Cigarette Burns (John Carpenter)
- Deer Woman (John Landis)
- Homecoming (Joe Dante) – my favorite of the first season
- Chocolate (Mick Garris)
- Jenifer (Dario Argento)
- Dance of the Dead (Tobe Hooper)
- Dreams in the Witch-House (Stuart Gordon)
- Incident On and Off a Mountain Road (Don Coscarelli)
- Imprint (Takashi Miike)
Box Set Features
- Masters of Horror Director’s Dinner at L.A.’s famed Magic Castle Restaurant – a round-table discussion of horror by the Masters themselves!
- Series creator Mick Garris interviews horror and Hollywood’s elite
- Deleted Scenes
OTHER TELEVISION DVDs
The Odd Couple – The Second Season
Samurai Jack: Season Four
Dark Shadows: The Beginning, Collection 1
The Outer Limits (Original Series) – Season 1, Vol. 2
THIS WEEK IN HI-DEF
Dawn of the Dead: Unrated (2004) [HD-DVD]
Notting Hill [HD-DVD]
The Hurricane [HD-DVD]
Heroes, Season One [HD-DVD]
Blades of Glory [HD-DVD]
OTHER DVDs TO SPEND YOUR CASH ON
Return to Halloweentown (Ultimate Secret Edition)
Cracker: A New Terror
Diana: Last Days of a Princess
A Dance to the Music of Time
The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros
Horrors of Malformed Men
Teachers
Ski School
The Crocodile Dundee Triple Feature
Gideon’s Trumpet
Offside
Masseur
Kickin’ It Old Skool
Dave McKean’s Keanoshow
Air Guitar Nation
Guyana Tragedy: Jim Jones Story
Snake Woman’d Curse
Meatballs 4
The Blood Rose
Vanessa
The Hit
Cocaine Angel
THE BARGAIN BIN
BEST BUY
Heroes: Season 1 – $36.99, HD-DVD: $99.99
w/ BB Exclusive Comic Book.
Friday Night Lights: Season 1 – $19.99
Masters of Horror: Season 1 – $49.99
Kickin’ It Old School – $17.99
Year of the Dog – $19.99
The Outer Limits: Volume 2 – $19.99
Samurai Jack: Season 4 – $22.99
Blades of Glory – $16.99, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray – $29.99
w/ BB Exclusive Bonus Disc
2/$20 when you buy Blades of Glory with one of the following:
Team America, Anchorman, Old School, Zoolander
DVDs – 2/$20 or $14.99 each:
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Mickey’s Treat
Return to Halloweentown
The Suite Life of Zack and Cody: Sweet Suite Victory
Cory in the House: All-Star Edition
$12.99 DVDs:
The Fountain, Letters from Iwo Jima, Hot Fuzz, Breach, Daddy’s Little Girls, Norbit, Ghost Rider (1-Disc), Stomp The Yard
$9.99 DVDs:
The Devil Wears Prada, Stranger Than Fiction, X-Men: The Last Stand, Invincible
$3.99 DVDs:
Dirty Dancing: Ultimate Edition, The Doors: 15th Anniversary Edition, Crash (1-Disc), Lord of War (1-Disc), Reservoir Dogs: Ten Years Special Edition, The Devil’s Rejects, Saw (1-Disc), Saw II (1-Disc), American Psycho: Killer Collector’s Edition, The Invincible Iron Man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Volume 2, Sands of Iwo Jima, Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes To Jail, The Punisher (1-Disc), The Quiet Man: Collector’s Edition, Requiem for a Dream, The Running Man, King of New York: Special Edition, L.A. Story: 15th Anniversary Edition, Terminator 2/Total Recall Double Feature, Black Mask/New Police Story Double Feature, Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Family Reunion, Van Wilder, Ultimate Avengers, Ultimate Avengers 2, Category 6: Day of Destruction, House of 1000 Corpses, Young Guns, Monster’s Ball, Pi, Belly, In The Mix, Glengarry GlenRoss, Kids, National Lampoon’s Dorm Daze 2, Hard Candy, Bound, Audition, Cujo
TV on DVD
$19.99 DVDs
Justice League Unlimited: Season 2
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?: Season 3
$14.99 DVDs: (includes all seasons of all shows listed!)
Grounded For Life, Three’s Company, Gilligan’s Island, Doogie Howser, M.D., The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, 3rd Rock From The Sun, Reba, Roseanne, 21 Jumpstreet, Kung Fu, F-Troop, The Pretender, Knot’s Landing, The Greatest American Hero, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Invasion
Blu-Ray
Night at the Museum – $34.99
Eragon – $34.99
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest – $29.99
Bridge to Terabithia – $29.99
Wild Hogs – $29.99
The Fountain – $29.99
The Guardian – $29.99
Happy Feet – $29.99
Apocalypto – $29.99
March of the Penguins – $24.99
Terminator 2: Judgement Day – $24.99
HD-DVD
Shooter – $34.99
Hot Fuzz – $29.99
Smokin’ Aces – $29.99
Happy Feet – $29.99
The Fountain – $29.99
Shaun of the Dead- $24.99
March of the Penguins- $24.99
The Bourne Identity- $24.99
The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Unrated) – $24.99
TARGET
Heroes: Season 1 – $37.99
(buy with Exclusive Bonus with 45 minutes of footage and 4 miniature replicas of Isaac’s paintings for $44.99)
Blades of Glory –
Kickin’ it Old School – $16.99
Year of the Dog – $16.99
Last Day of Summer – $14.99
Shredderman Returns – $14.99
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Mickey’s Treat – $14.99
Friday Night Lights: Season One – $19.99
$4.88 DVDs: Sense and Sensibility, La Bamba, Big Daddy, About a Boy
$10 DVDs: Shrek 2, Marie Antoinette, Madea’s Family Reunion, Stranger than Fiction