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Movie Review
by John Holliday
by George Taylor
by Christian Fannin
COMING SOON!
[Our editor, Emily Bloom, brings you the best new releases in her "DVD / Blu Review" article. No filler, no hype, only movies and TV shows we personally buy.]
It was a close call whether or not we would combine the first couple of weeks of January DVD and Blu-ray releases because the post-Christmas momentum for home video still hasn't picked up. But the reason you keep coming back to us is because we're able to find the good titles when it looks like there are none. We've managed to filter through the junk and the hype to bring you enough material for quality articles. So even if you think you know all the new releases, check this column for the rest of the month for a few good surprises.
We're suckers for anthology series and, aside from Rod Serling's masterpiece, you don't get much better than Alfred Hitchcock Presents - Season Five. The show is the prime example of thrillers and mystery on TV, but the fifth season is also often considered the best of the series. Not only does it guest star Dick Van Dyke, Walter Matthau, and Burt Reynolds, but also features one of many people's favorite episodes, Roald Dahl's 'Man from the South' which stars both Steve McQueen and Peter Lorre. That's right, Dahl, McQueen, Lorre, and Hitchcock all in one 30 minute episode. If that's not good enough, there's a total of 38 tales spanning this 5-disc set.
This is only our second title to receive Pick of the Week without any bonus material whatsoever. That's pretty much expected considering the previous seasons but is inexcusable with the timespan between their releases. If studios are going to take seven years to produce only five of seven seasons, the title should be very well done when it finally hits shelves. The only hope we have, and it isn't much, is for the Complete Series set that shouldn't even be anticipated for a couple of years.
The Warner Archive Collection gives us three releases with stars like Gregory Peck, Yul Brynner, and Tim Holt. None of them are absolute classics but if you're a fan of the cast then you'll enjoy these rarer titles. If you want more mainstream Westerns than those of Tim Holt, how about 'The Searchers, 'The Wild Bunch', and 'How the West Was Won' in a Blu-ray triple feature? It's a great buy if you can get it for the right price. The real gem of the week though may be the horrendous DVD-R release of 'The Loch Ness Horror'. It's a terrible movie featuring a paper-mache Loch Ness Monster and totally deserves it's equally bad release by some place (guy with a DVD burner?) called Mom N Pop Video Shop (which uses the first image search result for it's cover art… seriously).
Did your pal Emily miss your favorite new release title? Are you sure you aren't the only one that likes it? Let her know at: emily@cineweekly.com
