Region 1 DVD Releases for January 16, 2006
This week: Not since Smokey & the Bandit 2 has a film had the guts to run with the two elephant premise.
The Protector
Tony Jaa (Ong Bak) goes after two stolen elephants. If that doesn’t do it for ya, I don’t know what will. Loads of extras, including the longer Thai cut of the film and commentary by Asian film expert Bey Logan.
Doctor Who – The Complete Second Series
David Tennant (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) ably takes over for Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor in the second season of the revamp of the classic British sci-fi series. The season itself delivers on the promise of season one with the return of a classic Who foe and two classic Who companions and a season-ending showdown some 30-odd years in the making. Also, keep an eye out for Hustle regular Marc Warren and fellow Potter alum Shirley Henderson in the “Love and Monsters” ep and Buffy alum Anthony Head in “School Reunion.” Extras include commentary on every ep, and video diaries from Tennant.
Gridiron Gang
Of the three true-life football stories released last year, this is by far the one with the most appearances by The Rock and Xzibit. Top that Invincible and We Are Marshall! Includes a profile of director Phil Jouanou, whse last good film may have been Rattle & Hum.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre – The Beginning (Unrated Edition)
A new wave of cinema is hitting theaters in which we see the origin stories of popular characters such as Batman or James Bond. Here we see Leatherface begin, and in February we can look forward to seeing Hannibal Lechter’s backstory. The behind-the-scenes featurette is, of course, called “Down to the Bone.”
Employee of the Month
The combination of Dane Cook and Jessica Simpson secured a healthy box office (compared to the meater $12 million budget) for this flick even before DVD, where it’s sure to thrive. Film-wise, however, it’s a little early to say that Cook has “arrived.” Although I don’t really want to see the movie, the audio commentary with Cook has me curious.
Update: More here.
Nine vs. Ten will go into the annuls of geek arguments, right along with Kirk v. Picard (to which, for me, the answer is always “Kirk, followed closely by Sisko”), but for me, series 28 (“series 2″) was more consistent and on-target than series 27. (It also does a nice job of setting up “Torchwood” without shoving it down your throat.)
Also, FYI – even though I hadn’t seen the Harry Potter films, after my first viewing of “Love and Monsters”, I was struck by that feeling of “I know her from somewhere” when it came to Shirley Henderson. IMDB to the rescue – she was a regular on the BBC’s “Hamish Mcbeth”, which also starred Robert Carlyle as a local Police Constable in a remote Scottish village.
You probably already know this, but Torchwood is an anagram for Doctor Who. Was Hamish Mcbeth any good? I’m a big Robert Carlyle fan.
I did know that – in fact, “Torchwood” was used on the labels of Doctor Who series 27 footage to keep it from getting hijacked.
I personally loved “Hamish Mcbeth” – I came into it out of sequence when I was in London 10 years ago, and latched onto it again when BBC America finally came on Comcast’s digital lineup in the late 90s. To the best of my knowledge, “Hamish” isn’t on DVD, but BBCA still shows it occasionally. (And, naturally, there’s always the internets.)