AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
© Paramount

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Inconvenient DVD

Sony wants you to know: HD for girls, too! Yep, in a recent series of ads, Sony is trying to hawk its line of admittedly very nice Bravia HD televisions by telling us that these TVs were made for both men and women to enjoy. That’s good news for me, since I know that my wife – and every other woman in the world – can’t stand to watch most TVs because they’re designed to deliver good audio and video. But the Bravia is different because… um, it’s pretty! Gals will find it easy to design a room’s décor around it, while men will be impressed by it’s Full HD 1920x1080 native LCD panel resolution and 8ms panel response time. 
 
Incensed? Outraged? Ticked off? Well, knock it off. With my expectations lowered by the prevailing standards of marketing, I was not surprised that a company would release such a sexist ad. However, by going to the Sony website I found that it’s all tongue in cheek. There, you can view alternate endings to the Bravia commercial “for men” and “for women”, and they’re intentionally stereotypical and pretty funny. You can check them out yourself here. The endings for men have one in anime form and another mocking sports dramas. The ones for women give you a medical romance and a musical about shoes. Yeah, they got me, and once again I have to say that Sony’s got some brains. While I’m at it, I’ll predict that sales and rentals of Blu-ray Discs will shoot up with the release of the Playstation 3, which is expensive but includes a Blu-ray player.  

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With Thanksgiving (US version) arriving this week, I guess it’s okay to talk about “the holidays”. And when I say “the holidays”, of course I mean Christmas, the day when Santa Claus rewards us for being cool, we get another chance to fight with relatives, and incidentally, the birthday of little Baby Jesus. To celebrate, in our world famous Prize Closet this week, we’ve got 5 copies of Miracle On 34^th Street courtesy of MGM. To enter, just send an email to psycho@psychotronic.info which includes your name and address, and in the subject line put “MIRACLE34”. 
 
And for our Jewish friends, we’ve got 5 copies of A Fish Called Wanda, also courtesy of MGM. For this one, make the subject line “WANDAFISH?”. And don’t worry – gentiles can enter, too. 

SPOTLIGHT OF THE WEEK 

This week, I’m so tired of hearing about how important it is to watch this documentary that it’s turned into a chore. Hey, I just haven’t found a time to watch it that’s conveni- - … you know. Well, now it’s on my list of Things To Do, so I promise to get to it soon. Maybe after I get done burning that pile of tires out back.  

(O)  AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH (Paramount) Al Gore tries to get us all to knock it off with the global warming before its too late, with this documentary feature. Packaged in 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper, plus 2 commentraks, interview and music video. 

NEW RELEASES

 
(O)  ABBOTT & COSTELLO IN HOLLYWOOD / LOST IN A HAREM (Warner Bros.) Two of their lesser comedies. 
(O)  AIR RAID WARDENS / NOTHING BUT TROUBLE (Warner Bros.) Laurel & Hardy double bill. 
(O)  ALIAS Complete Fifth Season (Buena Vista) All 17 episodes of the final season on four discs, plus commentrak, featurettes, bloopers, deleted footage and more. 
(O)  ALIAS Complete Series (Buena Vista) A big box o’ Sydney. 

AMERICAN SLAPSTICK

© Image

(O)  DEVIL TIMES FIVE (Code Red/Media Blasters) 1974 drive-in legend about five escaped psychopathic children on a rampage. 
(O)  DISASTER ZONE: VOLCANO IN NEW YORK (Echo Bridge) Cheesy disaster TV movie. 
(O)  DISORDER (Vivendi) An innocent man does time for a murder, and returns home to be haunted by the real killer. 
(O)  FAMILY AFFAIR Season 2 (MPI) Answering all the questions left by the first seasons cliffhanger ending. With interviews. 
(O)   A FISH CALLED WANDA (MGM) Deluxe edition of the hit heist comedy starring John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and Michael Palin includes Cleese commentrak, annotation track, "Farewell Performance", deleted/alternate footage, featurettes and more. 
(O)  THE FOREST (Code Red/Media Blasters) 1982 psycho in the woods slasher flick. 
(O)  GRAND THEFT AUTO (Buena Vista) Corman Collection “Tricked Out Edition” includes a commentrak with producer Roger Corman and first time director/star Ron Howard. 
(O)  HOME ALONE (Fox) “Family Fun Edition”. As opposed to the previous hardcore adults only edition? Includes a commentrak with Chris Columbus and Macaulay Culkin, Making-Of, new & vintage featurettes, deleted footage, bloopers, games and more. 
(O)  ISLAND OF THE DINOSAURS / THE NEW INVISIBLE MAN (BCI Eclipse) Creature Double Feature of Mexican sci-fi. 
(O)  JUNGLE GIRLS PACK (Media Blasters) Includes Diamonds of Kilimanjaro, Golden Temple Amazons and Amazonia. 
(O)  THE LEGEND OF KING ARTHUR Box Set (Kultur) Includes the documentaries King Arthur, Merlin and Camelot, each sold separately.  
(O)  THE LIGHTNING WARRIOR (Alpha) 1931 Rin Tin Tin serial with Frankie Darro. 
(O)  THE MAN FROM BEYOND (Alpha) Legendary illusionist Harry Houdini stars as a man revived from suspended animation after 100 years trapped in a glacier in this 1922 adventure film. 

MIRACLE ON 34th STREET

© Fox

(O)  MIRACLE ON 34^th STREET (Fox) Special edition of the 1947 classic contains the original black & white and digitally colorized versions. 
(O)  NIGHT OF THE DEAD (The Asylum) 
(O)  PERRY MASON Season One Volume Two (Paramount) 20 episodes on 5 discs. Also available bundled with volume 1. 
(O)  PIRATES: BLOOD BROTHERS (Genius) Lamberto Bava’s 1999 Euroswashbuckler (aka Caraibi) with Anna Falchi. 
(O)  PRESTON STURGES FILMMAKER COLLECTION (Universal) Includes The Great McGinty, Christmas in July, The Lady Eve, Sullivan’s Travels, The Palm Beach Story, The Great Moment and Hail the Conquering Hero. 
(O)  THE PUNISHER (Lionsgate) Extended cut of this generally underrated Marvel Comics adaptation includes extra footage, including an optional animated opening scene deemed too expensive for the theatrical release, a new Making-Of featurettes, comics cover gallery and more. 
(O)  QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE (Alpha) 1935 chapterplay, a remake of the 1922 version, remade yet again in 1948. 
(O)  THE RETURN (Media Blasters) Two people are reunited in their small town where they encountered a UFO 25 years previous in this 1980 sci-fi feature. 
(O)  THE SAMURAI COLLECTION Featuring Sonny Chiba (Adness/BCI Eclipse) Collects G.I. Samurai, Ninja Wars and Legend of the Eight Samurai. 
(O)  SEINFELD Season 7 (Sony) All 24 episodes, plus commentraks, annotation tracks, interviews, bloopers, deleted footage, bonus stand-up and two short animated adaptations. 

SLAYER

© Anchor Bay

(O)  SLAYER (Anchor Bay) Soldiers vs. a new breed of vampire discovered in the jungles of South America. Includes commentrak, script and more. 
(O)  STARGATE (Lionsgate) Extended cut high resolution THX edition. 
(O)  TEENAGE WOLF PACK (Alpha) 1956 German juvenile delinquent drama. 
(O)  THE TEN COMMANDMENTS: THE MUSICAL (Echo Bridge) Val Kilmer sings again as Moses!  
(O)  THREE STOOGES: MEET THE BARON / GOLD RAIDERS (Warner Bros.) Rare 1931 and 1951 Stooge features. 
(O)  WE’RE GOING TO EAT YOU (Media Blasters) Tsui Hark’s 1979 horror comedy about a remote village of cannibals. 
(O)  WEDDING SLASHERS (Hart Sharp) Murder and mayhem follow a prospective bride on her way to the altar. Includes outtakes. 

YOU, ME & DUPREE

© Universal

(O)  YOU, ME & DUPREE (Universal) Slacker Owen Wilson invades the lives of couple Matt Dillon and Kate Hudson. Widescreen & “fullscreen” editions include two commentraks, featurettes, deleted footage, outtakes and alternate ending. 
(O)  ZEE-OUI: THE MAN-EATER (Media Blasters) A Chinese man in Thailand spirals into madness. 

BLU-RAY DISC CORNER 

(O)  ENEMY OF THE STATE (Buena Vista) 
(O)  SKY HIGH (Buena Vista)  

HD-DVD CORNER 

(O)  YOU, ME & DUPREE (Universal) DVD combo. 
 
 

And be sure to check back next week—and every week—for Mania’s DVD Shopping List! And don’t forget Anime Avalanche, now every Monday!

DVD Shopping List (© 2006 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! 

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