Time for Part 2. Here’s yer DVD goodness…
TV DVD of the Week: South Park: The Complete Fifth Season. 162 times. That’s the number of times that the word “shit” is used in “It Hits the Fan,” the episode that opens this boxed set. And it’s an appropriate way to kick off this Paramount set, in which Trey Parker and Matt Stone continue their assault on…well, just about anything an everything. You get all fourteen episodes on this three-disc set and each one comes with a mini-commentary from the two head burritos themselves. Sick. And brilliant. (Buy it from Amazon.)
DVD of the Week: Get Shorty. Well, it looks like the sequel might have broken even, but if you’re trying to go back and check out the original–or you just were waiting for a decent DVD release–then here you go. MGM smacks this special edition together with a commentary from director Barry Sonnenfeld, three featurettes–included one on a deleted scene, a bunch of outtakes, a “party reel,” a look at the sequel, a Bravo “page to screen” special on the film, photo gallery and theatrical trailer. (Buy it from Amazon.)
Foreign Film of the Week: Deep Crimson. Meet Nicolas. As a chosen career, he scans the personals trying to find lonely widows that he can seduce and then steal their worldly possessions. When he runs into Coral, they fall for each for other for real. And Coral, nice lady that she is, has an interesting spin on Nicolas’ job: he handles the seduction, and Coral takes care of them…permanently. This film, based on the real-life “Lonely Hearts Murders,” comes to DVD courtesy of Home Vision, along with the French theatrical trailer as well as an essay by film guru Jorge Ruffinelli. (Buy it from Amazon.)
Anime DVD of the Week: Porco Rosso. It’s kinda hard to be on the run from the Italian Air Force when you’ve been cursed to have the face of a pig. I mean, anthropomorphic porcine individuals aren’t exactly inconspicuous if you know what I mean. But that’s the protagonist (voiced by Michael Keaton) of this Miyazaki flick, which has gotten a fairly righteous two-disc treatment from Buena Vista. Apart from the standard English vocal work featurette, there’s a short interview with producer Toshio Suzuki, Japanese trailers and the second disc has the movie again, but the whole thing in storyboard form. (Buy it from Amazon.)
Adverse Video of the Week: Elektra. Sadly, the studio was under the assumption that Affleck was the problem with Daredevil, and that they could further their marketing campaign (read: show lots of Jennifer Garner‘s cleavage) by just leaving him out of this spinoff. How do you cast Terence Stamp as Stick and have it suck? I don’t know myself, but if for some reason you do want to grab this thing (maybe out of sympathy for Garner, or…well, hell, I mean she does look good in those outfits), you’ll be treated to deleted scenes, a making-of, Garner at Comic-Con, and featurettes. (Buy it from Amazon.)
Animation DVD of the Week: Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, Vol. 1. A classic of twisted animation brilliance, this Adult Swim release is just…just so wonderfully wrong. This first volume contains thirteen episodes, including the classic Shaggy and Scooby episodes, the Bannon/Quest custody battle, and the Flintstones episode (whose opening is worth the price of the DVD set alone). This two-disc set comes with deleted scenes, a movie trailer, pencil test comparisons, commentaries on five episodes, galleries, “Casting What Ifs,” and more. Unabooboo? Priceless. (Buy it from Amazon.)
Docu DVD of the Week: The War of 1812. The History Channel cranks out docu releases on DVD, and for that we are grateful. Check out this one, centered around the program “First Invasion,” which explains how America, which just went to a lot of trouble to finish up a war that broke off from Britain, found themselves scratching their heads thinking, “Didn’t we just do this?” just a few decades later. You also get some related bonus bits, including a Biography episode on Andrew Jackson, bits covering the stars and stripes and ironclad warships, plus a crapload more. (Buy it from Amazon.)
Comedy DVD of the Week: Kaiju Big Battel: Shocking Truth. File this in the “Laughing So Hard I Couldn’t Even Say WTF” category. Studio Kaiju rocks ass. Anytime you can take live wrestling and mix it with rubber monster movies and create havoc…man, we respect the hell out of that. Here, you get a primer to the Kaiju Universe, the tragic true story of one of Kaiju’s greatest heroes, Silver Potato, plus a tremendous battle between good and evil in the Scottish highlands. As far as bonus stuff goes, there’s the necessary amount of fightos, extra videos, biographies of your favorite characters, trailers, trivia and lots more sickness. Here’s their website. Love these guys with money, lest they send some of their boys around to see you. (Buy it from Amazon.)
