Time for Part 2. Here’s yer DVD goodness…
TV DVD of the Week: Wonder Woman: The Complete Second Season. Hey, if you liked the show–and cheesy as it was, if you grew up around this time frame and were into comics, you liked the show–then this set from Warner Brothers will be right up your alley. Updating Wonder Woman to the modern day (um, as modern as the 1970s can be, we guess), this boxed set comes with all twenty-one second season episodes and the season premiere. There’s also a pretty sweet docu on adapting the comic book for television featuring a parade of comic book artists and comic book guru go-to guy, Andy Mangels. Check out the official site here. (Buy it from Amazon.)
DVD of the Week: Bambi. Disney‘s latest Platinum edition does not disappoint. We were looking forward to another stacked commentary, but instead we got a recreation of story meetings for the film, which is honestly pretty damn cool. There’s also a slew of interviews, plus a look into the Disney archives along with Golden Chazzie award-winning animator Andreas Deja. Plus there’s two deleted scenes, games and activities, a Disneypedia featurette, a mini-slew of featurettes, a look at the upcoming sequel (oh God please make them stop), art galleries, character design galleries, “The Old Mill” short, and a ton more. Nicely done. (Buy it from Amazon.)
HK DVD of the Week: Legacy of Rage. Yes, it’s Brandon Lee, early in his career. He plays a guy who gets sent up the river so that his supposed buddy can get an in-road with his girlfriend. After eight years, Brandon gets out and finally decides that hey, some payback might be tasty. So he does what any reasonable guy would do: goes and grabs a crapload of guns and starts laying waste. Now, bear in mind, there’s no whoopass in this, but mostly blow a fist-sized hole in your ass. See earlier comment about the guns. But this Fox release (sans features) is good if you just need to scratch that itch. (Buy it from Amazon.)
Anime DVD of the Week: New Getter Robo, Vol. 1: Rude Awakenings. Badass monsters are kicking mecha ass and causing much chaos. There’s a brand new type of mecha in town that can do the trick, but your usual mecha pilot (I didn’t know there were usual mecha pilots, but hey, rock on) just can’t hang with it. Therefore, the scientist in charge seeks out three wild cards who can step up and take on the job. This Geneon release comes with four episodes, plus clean opening animation and two music clips. (Buy it from Amazon.)
Adverse Video of the Week:Sasquatch Hunters. They went into the woods looking for Bigfoot…little did they know Bigfoot was looking for them! Yes, that’s right: it’s kinda like Predator, except, you know, bad. What CG there is is pretty laughable, and granted, we’re not expecting Oscar-worthy performances, but in something like this, you need the monster to do some respectable stompage in order to forget how bad it is and chew your popcorn. But that doesn’t happen nor is there even any nudity, which can also be used to save a film of this stature. The fear is primeval, sure, but the hilarity is what’s real. (Buy it from Amazon.)
Music DVD of the Week: VH1 Storytellers: Alanis Morissette. Alanis has always been a mixed thing with me. Jagged Little Pill was a great album, so much so that the backlash against it was intense. Some albums get so much play and popularity that it becomes cool to then turn around and hate them, but I don’t usually fall into that trap. Her stuff since then (with the exception of the City of Angels track “Uninvited”, which was better than the entire film) hasn’t really cranked my tractor, but there’s enough of the old stuff on this Rhino release to keep me happy. Nine tracks in all, including the two bonus bits. (Buy it from Amazon.)
Docu DVD of the Week: Empires: Martin Luther. Lot of focus on the Catholic Church these days. I hear they got a new Pope or something. Anyway, take a step back and check out the guy who did the equivalent of sticking a note up on a bulletin board and wound up causing all kinds of grief for the Church. Which, you know, we can’t ever argue with. This release from PBS’ Empires series is narrated by Liam Neeson, comes with bonus stuff: extra interviews plus a behind the scenes look at the program. (Buy it from Amazon.)
