DVD of the Week: Brokeback Mountain. A lot of people swooned over this Heath Ledger/Jake Gyllenhaal film. It spawned more parodies than any non-genre film in history, I don’t doubt. I even saw an ad in New York where a rough-looking cowboy was holding up a teddy bear and saying, “I wish I could quit you.” It was an ad for a storage service. That’s when you know you’ve gone beyond the pale. Anyway, this Universal release is obviously for those who dig it and can’t wait for the uber-edition that’s no doubt in the pipeline. It comes with three featurettes, and some interviews. (Buy it)
TV DVD of the Week: Sentinel: The Complete First Season. Our hero, played by Richard Burgi, is an ex-soldier, now cop, who learns that he has hyper-senses. He also finds out that he’s a Sentinel, a time-honored uber-warrior who must protect his people. Which means, in other words, he’s Daredevil, if Daredevil could see, and if he was being written by JMS…except this is, as you can imagine, much cooler. This Paramount release comes with all ten episodes across three discs. (Buy it)
Horror DVD of the Week: Incident On and Off a Mountain Road. Is it just me or does the cover art look like that dude is Crypt Keeper: The Early Years? Never mind. This is another in the series of TV movies made to capitalize on having access to a slew of great directors of the genre. Here we’ve got a Joe Lansdale story brought to life by the guy who was last seen making Bruce Campbell into Elvis. So that gives him points right there. This Anchor Bay release comes with a director/writer commentary, featurettes, interviews, and DVD-ROM bits as well. (Buy it)
Crime DVD of the Week: The Big Racket. Revenge? Sure! Blue Underground brings you an Italian flick that feels like it could have starred Bronson had it originated here in the States. When a small town is the victiom of a protection racket, there’s one cop who wants to break it up. But everything’s against him and the criminals go after those who try to help him, until he’s got to just go all Frank Castle on their asses with impressive results. Comes with a director’s commentary. (Buy it)
Anime DVD of the Week: Viewtiful Joe, Vol. 2. Joe’s girlfriend has been captured and he’s on the way across Movieland, bouncing from genre situation to genre situation, to save her now that he’s all powered up. Of course, he needs a sidekick as every superhero does, but his sidekick might just be a better hero than Joe. And he needs transportation, which he gets in this volume as well. This hits from Geneon and comes with character profiles and an art gallery. (Buy it)
Brit DVD of the Week: Red Dwarf: Series 8. The crew returns for another series because it’s British television and they can do that. Here BBC brings you the final ten episodes across three discs and if you thought the series thus far was weird, well, just wait. You get nanbots, odd voyeurism, prophecies, and death. Well, maybe. You get a commentary with cast and crew, a docu, some featurettes, deleted scenes, promo spots, radio sketches, and a blooper reel. Fans will want to gnaw on this and dream of the feature film. (Buy it)
Biography DVD of the Week: Catherine the Great. PBS gives you a two-hour docu on the woman who started off as a German princess and would go on to be empress of Russia for three decades and then some. Here Catherine is portrayed by Emily Bruni and isn’t going to light the documentary world on fire, but then again it’s not supposed to. You’ve got the standard dramatic presentations of events plus Bruni reading some letters and whatnot, but hey, if you want an in-depth study go read a book. You remember those, don’t you? Those seeking a quick overview will probably be fine. (Buy it)
