Big Love: The Complete Third Season
(2009) Four-disc set with 10 episodes, $59.99. (HBO Home Entertainment).
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Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
(2009) Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Andy Samberg, Mr.T, Neil Patrick Harris. Read more about "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" in the January Calendar. Available in a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack, two-disc DVD, one-Disc DVD. Extras: The one-disc DVD includes both widescreen and full-frame presentations of the feature,director's commentary with actor Bill Hader. The two-disc DVD adds behind-the-scenes featurettes "How Food Falls: The Making of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" and "Voice Off," a look at the voice cast and characters; deleted scenes; a music video and interactive sing-a-long for "Raining Sunshine" performed by Miranda Cosgrovel; "Food Fight" game. The Blu-ray/DVD combo pack adds a unique "Splat Mode!" feature that allows viewers to throw food at the screen while they watch the film. (Sony).
Super Friends! Season 1 Volume 1
(1973) Two-disc set with eight episodes, showcases some of the greatest DC super heroes of all time including Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman and Aquaman as they combine their special powers to save the world; $26.99. Extras: Extra footage, interactive trivia game. (Warner).
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January 12
Bugs Bunny's Cupid Capers
(1979) Twenty-four minute Valentine's Day TV feature, $14.97. Extras: Two bonus cartoons, puzzle game. (Warner).
ER: The Complete Twelfth Season
(2005-06) Six-disc set with 22 episodes, $49.98. Extras: Outtakes. (Warner).
Moon
(2009) Sam Rockwell, Kaya Scodelario, Benedict Wong, Matt Berry, Malcolm Stewart, Dominique McElligott, voice of Kevin Spacey. Read more about "Moon" in the January Calendar.Extras: Commentary by writer-director Duncan Jones, director of photography Gary Shaw, concept designer Gavin Rothery and production designer Tony Noble; commentary by writer-director Duncan Jones and producer Stuart Fenegen; "The Making of Moon" featurette; "Creating the Visual Effects" featurette; Science Center Q&A with director Duncan Jones; filmmaker's Q&A at the Sundance Film Festival. Also available on Blu-ray Disc. (Sony)
Robin Hood: Season Three
(2009) Five-disc set with 13 episodes from the final season of the popular BBC America series. $59.98Extras: "A Legend Reborn" behind-the-scenes featurette, "A New Look" costuming featurette, "Trebuchet: Creating Chaos" featurette, character profiles, video diary. (BBC/Warner).
Che
(2008) Dir.: Steven Soderbergh; Benicio del Toro. Far from a conventional biopic, Steven Soderbergh's film about Che Guevara is a fascinating exploration of the revolutionary as icon. Daring in its refusal to make the socialist leader into an easy martyr or hero, "Che" paints a vivid, naturalistic portrait of the man himself (with a stunning, Cannes-award-winning performance by Benicio
del Toro), from his overthrow of the Batista dictatorship to his 1964 United Nations trip to the end of his short life. Originally released in two parts, the first a kaleidoscopic view of the Cuban revolution and the second an all-action dramatization of Che's failed campaign in Bolivia, "Che" is presented here in its complete form (four-and-a-half hours). Extras: Commentary featuring Jon Lee Anderson, author of "Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life"; "Making Che," a new documentary about the film's production, featuring interviews with Soderbergh, producer Laura Bickford, actor-producer Benicio del Toro, and writers Peter Buchman and Ben van der Veen; new interviews with Cuban historians as well as participants in the 1958 Cuban Revolution and Che's 1967 Bolivian campaign; deleted scenes; booklet featuring an essay by critic Amy Taubin; more. Also available on Blu-ray Disc. (The Criterion Collection).
Dallas: The Complete Twelfth Season
(1988-89) Three-disc set with 26 episodes, $39.98. (Warner).
Eclipse Series 19: Chantal Akerman in the Seventies
Over the past four decades, Belgian director Chantal Akerman has created one of cinema's most distinctive bodies of work -- formally daring, often autobiographical films about people and places, time and space. This three-disc collection presents the early films that put her on the map: intensely personal, modernist investigations of cities, history, family, and sexuality, made in the 1970s in the United States and Europe and strongly influenced by the New York experimental film scene. Bold and iconoclastic, these five films pushed boundaries in their day and continue to have a profound influence on filmmakers all over the world. Included in this no-frills set is "La chambre," "Hotel Monterey," "News From Home," "Je tu il elle" and "Les rendez-vous d'anna."
Kingdom of the Spiders
(1977) William Shatner, Woody Strode, Tiffany Bolling, Roy Engel, Lieux Dressler. All-new anamorphic widescreen transfer of the cult film. An Arizona town infested with a horde of arachnids turn on the humans whose insecticides have depleted their natural food supply. Extras: All new interview with William Shatner; commentary by director John Bud Cardos, producer Igor Kantor, spider wrangler Jim Brockett and cinematographer John Morrill;
"Jim Brockett: Spider Wrangler" featurette; rare behind the scenes footage;
poster gallery. (Shout! Factory).
Law & Order: The Seventh Year
(1996-97) Five-disc set with 23 episodes, $59.98. (Universal).
Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics
(1977) Four episodes, $14.97. (Warner).
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January 26
MI-5 Volume 7
(2009) Four-disc set with eight episodes of the British spy series, Extras: Commentary, behind the scenes documentary, more. (Warner).
Paris, Texas
(1984) Dir.: Wim Wenders; Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, Dean Stockwell. German New Wave pioneer Wim Wenders brings his keen eye for landscape to the American Southwest in "Paris, Texas," a profoundly moving character study written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Sam Shepard. "Paris, Texas" follows the efforts of the mysterious, nearly mute drifter Travis (a magnificent Harry Dean Stanton, whose face is a landscape of its own) to reconnect with his young son, living with his brother (Dean Stockwell) in Los Angeles, and his missing
wife (Nastassja Kinski). From this simple setup, Wenders and Shepard produce a powerful statement on codes of masculinity and the myth of the American family,
as well as an exquisite visual exploration of a vast, crumbling world of canyons
and neon. Extras: Commentary featuring Wenders; interview with Wenders by German journalist Roger Willemsen; excerpts from the 1990 film "Motion and Emotion," featuring interviews with Wenders, actor Harry Dean Stanton, composer Ry Cooder, cinematographer Robby Muller, Samuel Fuller, Dennis Hopper, and Peter Falk; new interviews with filmmakers Allison Anders and Claire Denis; Cinema cinemas: "Wim Wenders Hollywood April '84," with Wenders and Cooder working on the score; deleted scenes and Super 8 home movies; gallery of Wenders's location-scouting photos; behind-the-scenes photos by Robin Holland; booklet featuring an essay by film critic Nick Roddick and interviews with Stanton, writer Sam Shepard, and actors Nastassja Kinski and Dean Stockwell.
Also available on Blu-ray Disc. (The Criterion Collection).
Roberto Rossellini's War Trilogy
Roberto Rossellini is one of the most influential filmmakers of all time. And it was with his trilogy of films made during and after World War II -- "Rome Open City," "Paisan" and "Germany Year Zero" -- that he left his first transformative mark on cinema. With their stripped-down aesthetic, largely nonprofessional casts, and unorthodox approaches to storytelling, these intensely emotional works were international sensations and effectively launched the neorealist movement. Shot in battle-ravaged Italy and Germany, these three films are some of our most lasting, humane documents of devastated postwar Europe, containing universal images that encompass both tragedy and hope. In a three -disc set loaded with features, $79.95. (The Criterion Collection).
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
(1985) Remastered deluxe edition. Extras: "Animating a Charlie Brown Musical." $19.98. (Warner).
All listings are based on information from
the home video studios. Some release dates may change and titles may come out
after a specified date (with no announcement from the studio). Additionally,
some titles may be released with little or no advance announcement. And since
all DVDs are priced at sell-through and are available for substantial discounts
at both online and brick-and-mortar stores, we only list suggested retail prices
for some special editions, box sets and collections.
All DVDs are screened on a reference system consisting of a
Rotel RDV-1060 DVD Audio/Video Player, a
Rotel RSX-972 Surround Sound Receiver, and Phase Technology 1.1 (front), 33.1 (center),
and 50 (rear) speakers and Power 10 subwoofer.
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