This week is certainly better than last week was for DVD’s, but it’s certainly not going to win any awards. I can’t wait until October gets here, so I can get flat broke buying up horror DVD’s. My TV DVD pick of the week is actually pretty easy this week. How can you go wrong with The Office: Season 5? My standard DVD pick goes to Rise of the Gargoyles… because I think it’s funny to see Eric Balfour in Paris fighting Gargoyles. As far as Blu-Ray goes, you have to pick up Crank 2: High Voltage. That shit is fun. Don’t forget to play the drinking game!

TV Show Releases:

Criminal Minds – Season 4

Fringe – Season 1: Available on Standard and Blu-Ray

Mr. Belvedere – Season 3

The Office – Season 5: Available on Standard and Blu-Ray

Parks & Recreation – Season 1

Standard DVD Releases:

Battle of the Warriors – A Dragon Dynasty flick about: “Story centers on a battle during China’s Warring States Period, a series of civil wars, which spanned from the 5th to the 3rd century B.C. Based on a popular Japanese manga, which was in turn based a Japanese novel inspired by Warring States history in China.”

Crank 2: High Voltage Click here to read The Vocabulariast’s Review! Click here to read Bobby Bless’ review! Click here to play the drinking game!

Harper’s Island: The DVD Edition – A mystery TV series that I missed when it was actually on TV. I have no idea if it’s actually good, but I may be checking it out.

Homicide – Criterion Collection – Policeman Bob Gold has to capture a murder that not even the FBI has been able to find. But before he can even start he is re-assigned to the murder of an old lady in a black area. The evidence points at a Jewish group and he discovers connections between them and his previous case.

The Human Condition – Criterion Collection – Masaki Kobayashi’s mammoth humanist drama is one of the most staggering achievements of Japanese cinema. Originally filmed and released in three parts, the nine-and-a-half-hour The Human Condition (Ningen no joken), adapted from Junpei Gomikawa’s six-volume novel, tells of the journey of the well-intentioned yet naive Kaji (handsome Japanese superstar Tatsuya Nakadai) from labor camp supervisor to Imperial Army soldier to Soviet POW. Constantly trying to rise above a corrupt system, Kaji time and again finds his morals an impediment rather than an advantage. A raw indictment of its nation’s wartime mentality as well as a personal existential tragedy, Kobayashi’s riveting, gorgeously filmed epic is novelistic cinema at its best.

Live Animals – A group of college kids must decide what price they will pay to gain their freedom after being kidnapped by a ruthless White Slave trader. Sounds fun.

Rise of the Gargoyles Eric Balfour fights gargoyles in Paris!

Universal Horror: Classic Movie Archive – Five Universal flicks that you’ve never heard of and don’t care about.

Blu-Ray Releases:

Catwoman Shit.

Crank 2: High Voltage – See Above

Creepshow – Classic Episodic horror anthology from George A. Romero. You should own this if you haven’t bought it already.

Dance Flick – Exclusively available on Blu-Ray usually means that they don’t expect to sell much… because it sucks.

Dead Calm – A mass-murderer kidnaps and seduces a young woman after leaving her husband to die on the vessel whose crew he’s just slaughtered. Stars Billy Zane, Sam Neill, and Nicole Kidman.

Freddy vs. Jason – Shit.

Friday – Classic stoner movie starring Ice Cube and Chris Tucker… before you knew he always talked like that.

Menace II Society – Classic urban drama.

The New World – Extended Cut – Colin Farrell poopy epic… no good.

Over the Top – The World’s greatest arm wrestling movie!

The Postman – Kevin Costner’s second failed attempt at post-apocalyptic gold… I still liked it for some reason.

The Quick and the Dead – Shitty cowboy movie starring Leonardo Di Caprio, Russell Crowe, Gene Hackman, and Sharon Stone. Surprisingly, it’s directed by Sam Raimi.

Requiem for a Dream – Everyone says this is a great Darren Aronofsky flick… I can’t watch it because of the Jared Leto/Marlon Wayans factor.

Set It Off – Four angry black ladies go out and get theirs… by robbing banks.

Silverado – Classically bad cowboy flick.

Sphere – Sharon Stone sucks underwater too.

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