DVDs this week (05/05/09)…

Updated on May 5, 2009 By Ken Begg 10 Comments

Gigantor Collection Vol. 1  26 episodes of the VERY old school Japanese giant robot cartoon.  I think these are the English dubs.

Other TV shows this week include Dexter S2 Blu Ray, Doctor Who: Battlefield (McCoy), Doctor Who The E-Space Trilogy (Tom Baker, “Full Circle,” “State of Decay,” and “Warrior’s Gate”), The Donna Reed Show S2; Earth: Final Conflict S1; Jake and the Fatman S2; Lipstick Jungle S2; October Road S2; Stephen King Presents Kingdom Hospital and That Girl S5. (Really? Anybody needs five seasons of That Girl?)

Disc of the Week is the two-disc (!!) The Giant Spider Invasion: Director’s Cut (!!!). It includes a commentary from director Bill Rebane.

The good folks at Image have done one of these “we’ve sold ’em separately, now let’s toss ’em all in one set” deals with the The Beast Collection. How about 11 movies for under $20:  Shriek Of The Mutilated, Snow Beast, Snow Creature, The Legend of Big Foot, The Capture Of Bigfoot, Search For The Beast, Majin Monster Of Terror, Return Of The Giant Majin, Zontar: Thing From Venus, The Eye Creatures and Sasquatch, The Legend Of Bigfoot!

The very enjoyable soldiers vs werewolves flick Dog Soldiers is now available on Blu Ray. It’s an earlier effort from the director of The Descent.

Pin It



Related Posts

  • Joe11

    Hey Ken, did you see Splinter yet? I know this is off-topic & the DVD came out a few weeks ago, but I think it’s the type of horror/monster movie you would like. You often complain about today’s horror/monster movies being bloated & using the “monster was created by an evil government experiment” cliche. Splinter avoids all that stuff.

    The Thing-Like Splinter creature(s?) is interesting & it’s only 83 mintues long so it doesn’t wear out its welcome. At least give it a rental, Netflix, On Demand, etc.

  • hmm. obviously i don’t knwo how to use the tags correctly to mark titles. I guess I suck.

  • Ericb

    It’s a sad world where Giant Spider Invasion gets a Criterion Collection-like treatment while a classic like the Quatermass Xperiment is nowhere to be seen on DVD. I’ll rent Invasion anyway, if only for the Rebane commentary.

  • I think it’s great GSI gets such a DVD, but yes, it’s weird that Quatermass I still isn’t out. X the Unknown is pretty cool, though.

  • Ericb

    I guess “strange” would be a better word than “sad.” I actually own the MST3K version of GI, it’s one of my favorite episodes and I watch it often. “Woooh Packers!!!!!”

  • Wouldn’t get too excited about that GIANT SPIDER INVASION disc because it’s never coming out. Don’t know the whole story but from what I gather Fred Olen Ray currently owns the DVD rights and has been involved in on-going legal wranglings with Bill Rebane, who reportedly is several McNuggets short of a Happy Meal these days. Rebane attempted to go behind Ray’s back and re-sell the DVD rights to the film to another company and when Ray heard the discs announcement a few weeks back he quickly let the company know the situation. The new DVD release was immediately shelved.

    Also curious is that Beast Collection DVD set. I’ve owned it since February. Bought it at my local Sam’s Club months ago. No clue why it was already on their shelves but the rest of the world had to wait until today.

    FYI – Just got announced last week that DaiMajin is finally getting its remake, only it will be returning in the form of a Japanese television series called “DaiMajin Kannon” that will be geared for adults and boast a contemporary setting.

  • fish eye no miko

    In case anyone cares, the Doctor Who episode “Battlefield” features the most recent appearance of The Brigadier on the show. He’s actually appeared on The Sarah Jane Adventures (were he proved that, even at his age, you don’t wanna mess with him), but for some reason, despite UNIT making several appearances, he’s not been on NuWho (yet, she added hopefully).

    Giant Puppet Spider Invasion! Oh, man… I don’t know if I could sit through that without Mike and the Bots. Not to mention that, I’ve seen the MST episode so many times, the jokes would pop into my head, anyway…

    Zontar, the Thing From Venus is a remake of the Roger Corman class–er… film It Conquered the World, but without Peter Graves, Lee Van Cleef, or Beverly Garland. I think I’ll pass.

  • Hmm, I’ve heard that there were problems with the GSI set, but also that some people got them anyway. So watch for them to sell for a fortune on eBay.

  • The Rev. D.D.

    I actually saw GSI before it hit MST3K; Sci-Fi played it a couple of times in their earlier days, along with fellow MST subject Overdrawn at the Memory Bank (which I also first saw without Mike and the ‘bots.) It’s a hoot either version.

    I’ll second Splinter. It was pretty good, which means that by the standards of the Sci-Fi Channel (who played it) it was freakin’ incredible. It’s mainly a NotLD setpiece (on a smaller scale, with 3 main characters) with a creepy, Thing-esque monster, but the acting is solid, the effects are pretty decent (although some of the camera tricks used to disguise some of the special effects are annoying), and it moves along quickly. Caveat to Mr. Begg: there is some nasty gore, some Thing-inspired body “modification” and some brutal violence, which I know isn’t your bag, so be warned.

    As for Zontar, it’s definitely inferior, but since it apes a classic B-movie it’s still better than any other Buchanan film, I think. The monster’s creepier, but that’s its only advantage. The biggest detriment is the lackluster acting, which was one of the stronger things ICtW had going for it.

    I’m not just being biased against it for its lack of *sigh* Beverly Garland, either, may she rest eternally.