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Zombie Bub's Special Edition

Wow seems like there's more DVDs every week. Let's get to 'em.

SPOTLIGHT OF THE WEEK

This week's spotlight item has suffered for years due to unfair comparisons with previous entries in its series, and because it was released around the same time as the much lighter toned RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (with which it played on some double bills in the late summer of 1985). Now Anchor Bay finally gives this gut-wrenching horror classic its due with a Special Edition DVD.

(O)     DAY OF THE DEAD (Anchor Bay) Scientists and soldiers try to survive in an underground complex after the world is overrun by cannibalistic living corpses. George Romero's third zombie picture is a scaled back version of the epic he really wanted to make, but keeps you on edge with claustrophobia and the constant threat of ultraviolence. 2-disc set includes uncut feature, commentary by Romero, complete screenplay and more.

NEW RELEASES

(O)     ABSOLUTION (Sub Rosa) A fallen angel gets involved with a worldwide conspiracy. Includes deleted scenes, bloopers, bonus short film and more.
(O)     A.F.R.I.K.A. (Tai Seng) Korean action comedy about four schoolgirls who find some guns and get into trouble. Special edition includes making-of, music videos, cast interviews and more.
(O)     ALL OF A SUDDEN (Tai Seng) Hong Kong suspense thriller starring Simon Yam (TOMB RAIDER 2).
(O)     BLOOD FEAST 2: ALL YOU CAN EAT (Media Blasters) Herschell Gordon Lewis has been saying for years that he'd be ready to film a sequel to his pioneering gore movie if anybody gave him a million dollars. Well, somebody scraped together the cash, reuniting Lewis with producer Dave Friedman. Previously available in R-rated and uncut editions, this Special Edition (delayed from 7/29) includes the uncut version, commentrak, interviews and behind-the-scenes footage.
(O)     BLOOD LUST (Alpha) Inferior 1961 remake of MOST DANGEROUS GAME, not to be [IMG2R]confused with...
(O)     BLOODLUST (Monarex) The true story of the "Black Forest Vampire."
(O)     BLOODLETTING (Tempe) A woman tracks down a notorious serial killer so she can learn the business from him. Includes commentrak, making-of, deleted scenes, mp3s, trailers, and original short version.
(O)     BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE (MGM) This release of Michael Moore's guns in America documentary was pushed back on the MGM schedule following Moore's Oscar win to include more extras: commentary track by interns on the film (with intro by Moore), Moore interviews, teacher's guide, update on Littleton since the film, film fest scrapbook, Marilyn Manson music video, and other special features.
(O)     BRAZILIAN BRAWL (York) The Machado Brothers use jiu jitsu to save the farm.
(O)     BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR (Artisan) Out of print sequel returns to DVD.
(O)     BRUCE LEE'S JEET KUNE DO (Tai Seng) Documentary about Lee's own style of [IMG3R]martial arts.
(O)     THE CAT (Tai Seng) Pulp hero Wisely fights an alien-possessed cat in this insane Hong Kong sci-fi thriller.
(O)     CHICAGO (Buena Vista) Oscar-winning musical about killer females and the scheming lawyer that defends them in the corrupt Chicago of the 1930s. Includes deleted musical number, behind-the-scenes, commentrak and more.
(O)     CIRCUS OF FEAR (Alpha) A killer travels with a circus, with Christopher Lee and Klaus Kinski. I say wait 'til next month for Blue Underground's edition.
(O)     DARK SIDE (MTI) Jason Priestley, Janet Kidder and Patsy Kensit in a suspense thriller.
(O)     DEADLY INVASION (Artisan) Bees!!
(O)     DECAMPITATED (Troma) Slasher comedy.
(O)     DEMONS 3: THE OGRE (Media Blasters) Lamberto Bava horror film unrelated to his DEMONS movies, but nevertheless usually released as a sequel.
(O)     DOUBLE DOUBLE TOIL AND TROUBLE (Warner Bros.) Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen try to save the farm with witchcraft.
(O)     DRIVE-IN DISCS: Volume 3 (Elite) I BURY THE LIVING, plus THE HAND, plus great trailers and intermission ads, plus a special left speaker [IMG4R]only track.
(O)     DRIVE-IN DISCS COLLECTION (Elite) 3-disc box set includes Volume 3, Volume 1 (SCREAMING SKULL / GIANT LEECHES), and Volume 2 (WASP WOMAN / GIANT GILA MONSTER).
(O)     DURANGO KIDS (Lions Gate) Four kids slip through a time warp and visit the Wild West.
(O)     EXECUTIVE TARGET (Madacy) Michael Madsen is a stunt driver forced to work for a terrorist gang. Madacy loads up the disc with nearly an hour of trailers!
(O)     THE FOURTH ANGEL (Artisan) Forrest Whitaker stars in this update of material from DEATH WISH.
(O)     FRIGHT NIGHT 2 (Artisan) Another Artisan re-issue of an out-of-print title.
(O)     HERO OF SHANGHAI (VideoAsia) Chen Kuan-tai in kung fu action, aka LAYOUT. Intro by Philip Ko, plus martial arts instruction footage.
(O)     HONG KONG HISTORY X (Tai Seng) Gritty triad thriller with Anthony Wong.
(O)     HUNT FOR THE UNICORN KILLER (StudioWorks) True Crime thriller about an activist who is also a psycho killer.
(O)     INSPECTOR WEARS SKIRTS 2 (Tai Seng) Sandra Ng, Sibelle Hu and Amy Yip in this action sequel about an all-female SWAT team.
(O)     INTENT TO KILL (Madacy) Traci Lords searches for her motivation in this action thriller.
(O)     INVINCIBLE MONKEY FIST (VideoAsia) 1978 kung fu fest starring and directed by monkey style specialist Chen Kuan-tai.
(O)     INVITATION TO HELL (Artisan) I wonder how much Wes Craven charges producers to put "Wes Craven presents" in front of their titles? I wonder how long it'll take them to figure out that it's a bad idea? Well, in this case they've done it to boost the DVD debut of Craven's 1984 TV movie thriller about a sinister country club, with Robert Urich and Susan Lucci.
(O)     JACK FROST 2 (Ardustry) A freak car wreck turns a serial killer into a killer snowman.
(O)     JESSE JAMES MEETS FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER (Elite) Elite kicks off a new trash film series, all of which feature commentraks by Grapevine, TX drive-in movie critic Joe Bob Briggs, with this 1965 horror western, originally paired with BILLY THE KID VS. DRACULA. Delayed from last month.
(O)     JUNIOR (Artisan) A psycho family uses their gas station to trap wayward motorists. With commentrak.
(O)     KILL THE GOLDEN GOOSE (Pathfinder) Ed Parker is a karate assassin, and Master Bong Soo Han is the cop out to stop him in this 1981 action thriller.
(O)     LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM (Artisan) Another Artisan re-issue of an out-of-print title.
(O)     LAUREL & HARDY (Artisan) A collection of 5 of the team's best featurettes.
(O)     THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW (Artisan) Schoolmaster chased by headless ghost anew in this 1999 version.
(O)     THE LOWER DEPTHS (Criterion) Deep stuff from Akira Kurosawa, with commentrak, essays [IMG5R]and bios.
(O)     MEMOIRS OF AN INVISIBLE MAN (Warner Bros.) Underrated 1992 John Carpenter sci-fi comedy with Chevy Chase made accidentally invisible. Includes outtakes, featurettes on the then-revolutionary digital f/x, and more.
(O)     MUTANT X: Season 1 - Volume 3 (ADV Films) Episodes 105 & 106.
(O)     NIGHT SCREAM (Artisan) A young woman wanders into a small town where a year ago her doppelganger was murdered. With Casper Van Dien and Teri Garr!
(O)     ONE ARMED SWORDSMEN (VideoAsia) Jimmy Wang Yu and David Chiang both play one-armed swordsmen and both direct this 1976 Taiwanese adventure costarring Lo Lieh. Includes interviews, documentary, and VA's "Insta Action" feature.
(O)     OUT FOR A KILL (Columbia TriStar) Steven Seagal gets revenge. Also available in a 3-pack with two other Seagal pictures, HALF PAST DEAD and THE FOREIGNER.
(O)     OUT FOR BLOOD (Madacy) Hello. Don "The Dragon" Wilson? Oh, he went out [IMG6R]for something.
(O)     RAT PFINK A BOO BOO (Media Blasters) Midway through shooting a psycho thriller, director Ray Dennis Steckler got bored with the idea and had two of the characters suddenly become superheroes! Costarring Kogar the Ape. As nutty as it gets. Media Blasters sort of corrects the mistyped onscreen title on the video box. Includes interview, commentrak, gallery and more.
(O)     REPOSSESSED (Artisan) Why can't Linda Blair escape her EXORCIST typecasting? Why should she, when she can have some fun spoofing it in hit & miss comedies like this one.
(O)     THE RETURN OF SPINAL TAP (MVD) 1992 reunion of the only band that mutters.
(O)     RODENTZ! (Artisan) Giant rats!
(O)     SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH (Artisan) Premiere feature of the TV comics adaptation.
(O)     THE SEEKERS (Sub Rosa) Horror about a cursed videotape. Commentrak, blooper reel, music video.
(O)     SEE NO EVIL (Columbia TriStar) 1971 knockoff of WAIT UNTIL DARK with Mia Farrow.
(O)     SHAOLIN KIDS IN HONG KONG (VideoAsia) Gordon Lau and Phillip Kwok in a 1994 juvenile adventure film, hosted by Phillip Ko. With interview and documentary footage.
(O)     SILENT PREDATORS (Artisan) Another snake move, with Harry Hamlin and Patty McCormack.
(O)     SIXTY SECOND ASSASSIN (VideoAsia) Rare Old School kung fu, aka MY LIFE'S ON A LINE, with Leung Kar-yan, Lung Fei and Dead Shek. With behind-the-scenes kung fu footage.
(O)     SPACECRAFT FILMS Wave 1 APOLLO 8, APOLLO 11, THE MIGHTY SATURNS, PROJECT GEMINI (Fox) Documentary series releasing footage from the NASA archives.
(O)     THE SPRING (Artisan) Kyle MacLachlan and Alison Eastwood star in this exploitation version of TUCK EVERLASTING.
(O)     THREE STOOGES IN HISTORY (Columbia TriStar) 5 period pictures, Stooge style.
(O)     TOMCAT ANGELS (Troma) Hot chicks are fighter pilots in this 1991 [IMG7R]action yarn.
(O)     THE TRIALS OF HENRY KISSINGER (First Run) Nixon's Secretary of State guilty of crimes against humanity? Say it ain't so! Based on Christopher Hitchens' book, this doc preaches that Kissinger's Nixon-era tampering in Vietnam and Cambodia, as well as other power plays elsewhere in the world, led to the deaths of thousands.
(O)     TOUCH AND GO (Tai Seng) Ringo Lam action thriller in which Sammo Hung becomes an endangered crime witness.
(O)     VERSUS (Media Blasters) Japanese cult sensation in which an escaped prisoner disagrees with his contact over an abducted girl in the Resurrection Forest, beginning a hyperactive battle between humans, zombies, and unstoppable warriors! Special edition (delayed from 7/29) features commentrak, DTS audio track, interviews, making-of documentaries, etc.
(O)     WILDCAT WOMEN (Pathfinder) 1976 sexploitation nuttiness in 3-D!
(O)     WITCHBOARD: THE POSSESSION (Artisan) 1995 entry in the totally uncalled for [IMG8R]horror series.
(O)     ZATOICHI 9: ADVENTURES OF ZATOICHI (Home Vision) When village bosses exploit merchants at a New Years festival, Ichi gets involved in the dispute, leading to a bloody slaughter.
(O)     ZATOICHI 10: ZATOICHI'S REVENGE (Home Vision) Ichi takes on a slave ring.
(O)     ZATOICHI 11: ZATOICHI AND THE DOOMED MAN (Home Vision) In one of his best adventures, Ichi falls in with a shifty con man on a mission for a wrongfully condemned man. All of HE's Zatoichi DVDs are in widescreen with fine subtitles and include a folded reproduction of the original Japanese theatrical poster.
(O)     ZOMBIE 5: KILLING BIRDS (Media Blasters) EuroHorror weirdness from Joe D'Amato combining zombies, killer birds, and Robert Vaughn. Includes interview with Vaughn, gallery and trailers.

ANIME ADDITIONS

And finally, we close off each weekly list with a rundown of the constant stream of anime from around [IMG9R]the world:

(O)     BANNER OF THE STARS II: Volume 1 - Hunters (Bandai) 4 episodes, with reversible cover.
(O)     BEYBLADE: Volume 4 - Topsy Turvy (Pioneer) Just in case you didn't know: this is a popular anime series about battling tops.
(O)     DRAGON BALL: PICCOLO JR. Part 2 Saga Set (Goldhill)
(O)     I MARRIED A STRANGE PERSON (Lions Gate) Bill Plympton's odd, odd world.
(O)     JUNKERS COME HERE (Bandai) Theatrical feature about a girl and her wise talking dog.
(O)     NAJICA BLITZ TACTICS: Volume 1 (ADV Films) Available separately or in a series-ready box.
(O)     NEO RANGA: A Nation Apart (ADV Films)
(O)     RANMA 1/2 : RANMA FOREVER Volume 8 - Someday, Somehow (Viz) 4 episodes.
(O)     ROUGHNECKS #7: The Zephyr Campaign (Columbia TriStar) More episodes in the CGI-anime TV continuation of STARSHIP TROOPERS. Includes commentrak, gallery and more.
(O)     SABER MARIONETTE J: Ultimate Collection (Bandai) A future world where the only women are androids! Limited edition includes all three series, interviews, music videos, making-of, etc.
(O)     SAKURA WARS TV #3: Crescendo (ADV Films) Comes with 8-page booklet.
(O)     TOM & JERRY: Hijinks & Shrieks (Warner Bros.)
(O)     VIRTUA FIGHTER: Round Two (Media Blasters) Episodes 13-24.
(O)     WHAT'S NEW SCOOBY-DOO?: Space Ape ate the Cape (Warner Bros.) 4 episodes, plus music videos, how to draw Scooby, and games.
(O)     YU GI OH: Match of the Millennium - Part 1 (Goldhill)

Lastly, our friends at the Halfway to Hollywood Film Festival are gearing up for their annual gathering in September, and they'd love for you to pay them a visit this year. Listen up:

"The distance between Hollywood and the Midwest narrows again this year with the announcement of the 3^rd annual HALFWAY TO HOLLYWOOD FILM FESTIVAL. Opening September 12th and running through the 21^st, the festival continues its eclectic tradition with a sweeping mix of art house titles, documentaries, shorts, unreleased features and a celebration of cinematic magic highlighted by in-person appearances from special effects legend RAY HARRYHAUSEN and effects makeup wizard TOM SAVINI. Harryhausen, whose appearance opens the festival, is fresh from receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and will join fans in screenings of his classic films; JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD, MYSTERIOUS ISLAND and EARTH VS. FLYING SAUCERS. Fans of Tom Savini, who arrives the closing weekend of the fest, will see his talents as both effects artist and actor on display in screenings of DAWN OF THE DEAD and FROM DUSK 'TIL DAWN. Nearly 50 films will be screened over the course of the festival and Savini and Harryhausen will be available for autographs and a Q & A session with fans. For details, check out the fest's website at, www.halfwaytohollywood.com."

And be sure to check back next weekand every weekfor CINESCAPE's DVD Shopping List!

DVD Shopping List is our weekly DVD column. Brian Thomas is the author of the massive new book VideoHound's DRAGON: ASIAN ACTION & CULT FLICKS, available now!