This week on DVD (08/07/07)…

Updated on August 9, 2007 By Ken Begg 14 Comments

This week’s TV sets include:  8 Simple Rules S1; The Adventures of Jim Bowie The Complete Collection; Daniel Boone S5; Dresden Files S1; Full House S7; The Muppet Show S2; My Hero S2; Rome S2; Roseanne S8; The Simpsons S10; Soul Food S2; The Tick vs. Season Two (animated show);

A slow week, movie-wise.  I guess the most notable thing is a bunch of ‘hosted’ b-movies are out this week.*

 [*The previously mentioned Elvira-hosted movies due this week have apparently been cancelled–thanks to Scott Foy for the word.  Instead, they are due next month in cheaper (per picture) two-title packs, so that’s cool.]

The ex-MST3K guys now calling themselves The Film Crew following up their first release (Hollywood After Dark) with the Peter Graves schlock classic Killers from Space. hose guys must be aliens, or they wouldn’t have ping pong balls for eyes.

The House on Dead End Lane collects a recent direct to video film called The House that Screamed, and a sequel, Hellgate: The House that Screamed 2.  Weird that two films called The House that Screamed are getting released this week (see the above Elvira listing.)  This set offers an audio commentary and other extras.

The Invasion of the Body Snatchers is the ’70s remake with Donald Sutherland, and is actually pretty decent.  We’ll see about the Nicole Kidman remake (the third!) coming out later this year.

The Myrna Loy and William Powell Collection collects five non-Thin Man movies of one of the silver screen’s great acting couples.  Cool! 

TMNT is the recent CGI (ick) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.

Universal Soldiers is (get this) a rip-off of Universal Soldier.  Timely and a great movie to reference!

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  • Ericb

    Actually, the Kidman Invasion is the fourth (!) remake. There was a third remake made in the 90s that didn’t seem to leave much of an impression. It may have been an independent release.

  • Ericb

  • Indeed. That’s why the Kidman is the third *remake*, with four versions of the book all told.

  • I feel sorry for the Gamera fan who willingly purchases “Gamera Super Monster” looking for some fun Gamera action. As I recall it, that sucker makes “Godzilla v. the Smog Monster” and “Godzilla v. Megalon” look like… I dunno. Something with a budget, maybe? I was never so disappointed in a Gamera movie than I was with this one.

  • sardu

    Oh, SNAP!! *g*

  • Actually it looks like the individual disc Elvira DVDs of this batch have been cancelled – can’t find them listed for sale anywhere. Guess we’ll have to wait for the double features next month.

  • Thanks, Scott!

  • Prankster

    I’d argue that the Kaufman remake is at least as good as the original, maybe even better.

    And the mid-90s version is pretty good, though nowhere near the same league as its predecessors. It gets points for having one of the best explanations for how the pod-copies take you over (the inconsistant explanation for this is probably the most glaring flaw of the original). Also, it has Gabrielle Anwar naked.

  • Ed Richardson

    The Invasion of the Body Snatchers ’70s remake is a sci-fi classic. Outside of Sutherland’s brilliant job you get to see some early work from Jeff Goldblum and Veronica Cartwright, who incidentally was initially selected to be Ripley by Ridley Scott for Alien prior to Weaver winning the role. This latest treatment of IotBS will certainly not top that late ’70s one. No way. There are some great shock moments, one that includes Jerry Garcia – who plays a bum, mated w/ a dog’s body because his pod was destroyed. The Sutherland howl at the end is right out of Edward Munch’s painting The Scream.

    I can’t see anything even remotely promising on the sci-fi horizon until Cameron’s Avatar or the Star Trek reboot.

  • The Rev. D.D.

    Gamera Super Monster…god, I have an OLD tape of that I recorded off some channel or other in high school.
    It’s kind of fun to see all the big monster fights (albeit truncated), and the terrible bluescreening when the three heroes “fly” at the end is a hoot, but overall it’s damn bad.
    I’d try to review it, but half the review would be “Hey, remember the fight from Gamera vs. *fill in monster*? Here it is again!”
    Of course, that’d make it a pretty easy review…

  • Ericb

    “There are some great shock moments, one that includes Jerry Garcia – who plays a bum, mated w/ a dog’s body because his pod was destroyed”

    I thought is was just because the bum and his dog slept together and the pod ended up Brundleflying them.

  • Ed Richardson

    I think you’re talking about Pod People, which sucketh royally enough to have been nailed by the MST3K guys. And they didn’t riff on contemporary movies save for their summer blockbuster shorts. Pod People is bad enough to be the exception.

    The thing about the Invasion of the Body Snatchers films (and this will hold true for The Invasion) is that they’re not really sci-fi movies, they’re zombie flicks. We’re not going to see anything new in it. It will be a slicked up re-shoot of the same old story but without the memorable performances of the 78 remake (Sutherland, Goldblum, Nimoy, Adams, and Cartwright – although Cartwright clearly has a cameo in this as evidenced by the trailer).

    The Invasion will tank in one week and be on DVD shelves for Halloween and be just where it belongs: on tv screens.

    Rent or download the 78 version.

  • Ed Richardson

    I think you’re right — Garcia and the dog were brundleflied. Is that an adjective? It is now. What a great effect for 78 though: Jerry Garcia’s head on a little ankle biter.

    I’ve seen just about every Donald Sutherland performance since Dirty Dozen and Bertolucci’s 1900 and to me Invasion of the Body Snatchers is his best.

    Whatever happened to Brooke Adams? What a beautiful woman. Cartwright, like Sutherland and Goldblum, worked pretty steadily all the way up until now.

  • “I can’t see anything even remotely promising on the sci-fi horizon until Cameron’s Avatar or the Star Trek reboot.”

    Mass Effect? Bioshock? Sometimes, you must go beyond movies. BEYOND!

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Effect
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioshock