Casino Royale
© N/A
Bond is back
By: Brian ThomasDate: Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Before Sam was murdered he told Molly he'd love and protect her forever. This week our Prize Closet contains 2 copies of Ghost: Special Edition. To be eligible to win one, just send an email to which includes your name and address to DVD Shopping List, and put the words “ODA MAE BROWN” in the subject line.
SPOTLIGHT OF THE WEEK
This week, our spotlight falls once again on Agent 007.
(O) CASINO ROYALE (Sony) The James Bond series gets an exciting, gritty reboot. It has some third act trouble (it doesn’t make sense), but otherwise the results are very positive. Definitely not to be confused with the farcical 1967 version. 2-disc widescreen & “fullscreen” editions include featurettes and music video, but no doubt a more deluxe edition is in the works (but please, no extended edition!).
NEW RELEASES
THE ED WOOD COLLECTION © Koch SUBLIME © Warner Bros
(O) BEAUTIFUL SWORDSWOMAN (Crash) 1969 Taiwanese action with Wong Ling (Zatoichi & the One-Armed Swordsman) as a spoiled debutante who is secretly a fearless hero.
(O) BLOOD TRAILS (Lionsgate) To assuage her guilt over a one night stand with another man, a woman takes her boyfriend on a weekend in the mountains. Psycho stalker tracks her down.
(O) BLOODY REUNION (Tartan) K-horror slasher flick, plus Making-Of featurettes, interview, deleted footage and more.
(O) BOSOM BUDDIES First Season (Paramount) Tom Hanks drag sitcom.
(O) BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA (Allumination) 1985 version of the fantasy story with Annette O’Toole.
(O) CRUEL WORLD (Indican) “Reality” TV show horror with Jaime Pressly and Edward Furlong.
(O) DUKES OF HAZZARD: THE BEGINNING (Warner Bros.) And hopefully The End. Cheap prequel tells of the early years of the Duke boys. Well, it worked so well with Dumb & Dumberer and Hannibal Rising. Also available I widescreen and “fullscreen” unrated editions with featurettes and more.
(O) EIGHT IMMORTALS (Inspired) 1971 Taiwanese kung fu action.
(O) GHOST (Paramount) Special edition of the 1990 hit in which Patrick Swayze is such a commitment-phobic dork that he can’t even tell girlfriend Demi Moore that he loves her until he’s dead. Hell, I’m happily married and I still don’t have any trouble telling Demi Moore I love her. Since Jennifer Love Hewitt was only 11, he has to ask Whoopi Goldberg for help. Includes commentrak, featurettes, and we’re giving some away up at the top of the column.
(O) GHOUL SCHOOL (Camp) High school students become zombies hungry enough to eat Jackie Martling and Joe Franklin. “Super Bloody Splatter University” edition of this 1990 zombie flick includes three commentraks, Making-Of, bonus shorts and more.
(O) THE HELLBENDERS (Anchor Bay) Sergio Corbucci’s wild 1967 western with Joseph Cotten trying to transport stolen money across the country to revive the Confederacy.
(O) HORROR BUSINESS (Image) Documentary on low budget horror filmmakers and why they do it, plus featurettes.
(O) KNIGHT OF OLD CATHAY (Crash) 1968 Taiwanese swordplay revenge action.
(O) KUNG FU THEATER COLLECTION Volume 1 (BCI Eclipse) Get ready to whip some with Ninja Thunderbolt, Invincible Hero, Attack of the Venoms, Men on the Hour, Land of the Brave, Great General, Chinese Dragon, Everlasting Duel, Chinese Hercules, Mantis Fists an Tiger Claws o Shaolin.
NATIONAL LAMPOON’S SPRING BREAK (Vivendi) Surprise! The latest in this seemingly endless direct-to-video series milking the name of a fine humor magazine of the past features a beer stein and a girl in a bikini on the cover.
(O) THE PRETENDER 2001 / THE PRETENDER: ISLAND OF THE HAUNTED (Fox) TV movies continue the Pretender TV series.
(O) RARESCOPE COLLECTION Volume 1 (BCI Eclips) Collects BCI’s series of quality widescreen presentations of vintage martial arts flicks. Includes The Lost Swordship, Showdown at the Cotton Mill, The Face Behind the Mask and Ninjas and Dragons.
(O) REPENTANCE (Maverick) Ultimate fighter Pete Spratt in an urban action flick.
(O) SHOGUN ASSASSIN 2 (AnimEigo) This second US feature (AKA Lightning Swords of Death) edited ad dubbed from the Lone Wolf & Cub movies isn’t as artfully put together, but here AnimEigo replaces the footage for each scene with the same cuts from the original films, so at least it looks good, along with providing soe great samurai action.
(O) THE SWORD (Crash) 1971 Taiwanese action flick in which nobleman Jimmy Wang Yu is lured into the king’s tournament to win a famous sword.
(O) TALES OF TERROR FROM TOKYO 3 Part 2 (Media Blasters) Second part of the third series of stories based on actual reports of the supernatural.
(O) WHIRLWIND KNIGHT (Inspired) 1969 Taiwan kung fu.
(O) WITHOUT A TRACE Complete Second Season (Warner Bros.)
BLU-RAY DISC CORNER
(O) CASINO ROYALE (Sony) Includes featurettes, music video
(O) LAYER CAKE (Sony) With commentrak, deleted footage, alternate ending, interview and featurette.
(O) MR. & MRS. SMITH (Fox) Includes commentrak, featurette and deleted footage.
NOT ON DVD CORNER
We welcome the input of Maniacs who want to share input on this section, where we highlight a different genre feature that has yet to come to digital disc format – just send your suggestions to DVD Shopping List in an email identified with “NOT ON DVD” in the subject line.
(O) THE TWONKY (MGM? Warner Bros.?) With The Last Mimzy due in theaters this month, it seems fitting to put the spotlight on on another adaptation of a work by largely overlooked science fiction author Henry Kuttner. Kuttner’s story concerned a radio possessed by an alien intelligence, but master of the radio play Arch Oboler (Lights Out), who had made the move to TV and movies in the late 1940s, recognized that by 1953 there was a new, more insidiously addictive invader in American living rooms. It may seem silly now, in an age when we spend almost no time during each day staring into a video monitor (well, not when we’re asleep), but the exploding popularity of television was viewed with as much alarm as excitement. Hans Conried (Disney’s Captain Hook in Peter Pan) stars as a befuddled college professor whose wife leaves him alone in the house on the same weekend that the new TV is delivered, and before long the little terror has taken over the household with its mysterious powers. Released initially by United Artists, I’m not sure whether The Twonky is still in the MGM library, was a part of the Turner catalogue that’s ended up in the hands of Warner Bros., or the rights ended up somewhere else, but though it used to be seen on TV now and then, this black comedy/sci-fi landmark never received a video release and is definitely NOT ON DVD.
Be sure to check back next week—and every week—for Mania’s DVD Shopping List! And don’t forget Anime Avalanche every Monday!
DVD Shopping List (© 2007 Brian Thomas) is our weekly DVD column. Brian Thomas is the author of the massive book VideoHound’s Dragon: Asian Action & Cult Flicks, available now!
Questions? Comments? Let us know what you think at DVD Shopping List.
Shogun Assassin 2???????? SA has been a guilty pleasure of mine for about 15 or 16 years now and As Al Gore has developed the internet, I was able to see where this movie came from. I wish they would just do a good release of the whole LW/Cub series. If you haven't seen SA, see it asap!! I also read that a US remake was in the works, what terrible, sad news.