Since I was out of town last week, here’s some stuff that came out a week ago Tuesday:
The big news of the week was the release of the second half of the second season (officially the “S2.5 edition”) of the superlative Battlestar Galatica revamp. This show finally does what folks have been suggesting for years; instead of re-making something so perfect in the first place that the redo is bound to be inferior, take something that didn’t work right bad in the day and fix up the damn thing. Maybe a new program called Extreme Makeover: Bad Movie & TV Show Edition would help.
Celtic fantasy and Heath Ledger fans, meanwhile, will want to check out Roar: The Complete Series, a short-lived Fox series from several years ago.
Also available: Bob Newhart S4; Criminal Minds S1; Gilmore Girls S6; Hart to Hart S2; He-Man and the Masters of the Universe S2; King of Queens S6; The Unit S1
On to movies:
The Boris Karloff Collection Three disc set featuring The Black Castle, The Climax, Night Key, The Strange Door, and Tower of London One very good movie, (at least) one pretty good historical suspense flick and the chance to see several obscurities definitely makes this worth $20.
Brain Damage The follow-up film from the Basket Case guy. As such, a monumental gore alert must be issued.
Concorde Affair Weird sounding ’70s Euro suspenser with Donald Pleasance, Dennis Hopper and Joe Cotton.
Day of the Cobra Another of the Italian police dramas that followed in the wake of Dirty Harry. Genre star Franco Nero headlines, and is here teamed with Sybil Danning (!).
Elvira’s Movie Macabre: Doomsday Machine Several b-movies are being put out this week under Elvira’s label, but this Jabootu classic is the essential buy. From what I understand, you can watch the film with cut-in Elvira ‘jokes’ or without.
Inner Sanctum Mysteries Features Calling Mr. Death, Weird Woman, Dead Man’s Eyes, The Frozen Ghost, Strange Confession, and Pillow Of Death. Six highly generic but enjoyable films, all lasting about an hour, and starring Lon Chaney Jr. The Inner Sanctum was a suspense radio show, for all you cultural illiterates. The best of the series is Weird Woman, based on the same novel as the far superior later Burn Witch Burn (and when the hell is that coming out on DVD?), and if nothing else, you can’t go wrong owning a film called Pillow of Death.
Jigoku: Criterion Collection A gross Japanese horror flick gets the Criterion treatment.
Quiet Cool ’80s over the top actioner that was a cable TV perennial back in the day. It thus involves, of course, drug lords. Stars the great James Remar and Jared “The Sea Serpent” Martin.
Spirit of the Beehive: Criterion Collection Another foreign fantasy film, this one from Spain.
Tomie Collection A five disc set presenting a complete series of Japanese horror flicks, about (shock) a spooky and murderous schoolgirl’s ghost.
Virgin Witch ’70s Euro nudie supernatural flick, of which there were quite a few.
