The fate of the world hangs in the balance today and he we are bullshitting about what DVD’s are coming out…  Aside from the inherent pettiness of our behaviour, there is a plethora of good stuff.

Just be sure to go and vote before you pick up any of these DVDs.  If you don’t, you’re a naive moron.

This is a collected box-set of The Classic Star Wars Trilogy.  “Why should I buy this again?” I hear you asking, but the bonus disc for each of these films is the non-Special Edition version of the film…  It’s the same thing that was available last year, but packaged in an attractive trilogy format.  Personally?  When watching all six films together, I prefer the Special Editions, they make more sense despite some deep flaws.  But if you haven’t gone in on a copy of the films on DVD, this is the time to do it.  Lucas is incredibly fickle about the original releases and you might not get them on a better format.

This is a collected box-set of The Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, which I truly love every bit as much as the classic trilogy.  Basically, if you’ve been too much of a hard-headed prick to take the plunge and buy these movies, this is the best way to do it, as it’s slightly cheaper than buying individually, though there isn’t much of a reason to buy it if you’ve already got them since the discs are exactly the same…  Just FYI, I won’t hear any arguments about Lucas re-releasing more and more shit for us to buy.  Both of these trilogies are just repriced collections of previously released discs…  This is like discount day, not go buy it for one more extra special feature. They’re probably just doing all of this in advance of the Clone Wars disc that comes out later in the month.

Today also sees the release of the latest Futurama film: Bender’s Game.  This is a good day for everybody.  I’ve thought that Futurama is superior to Simpsons for a while now and these movies have only served to prove my point. From the Amazon.Com synopsis:

The game in question is Dungeons and Dragons, and Bender wants in–only robots aren’t programmed with the necessary imagination. Naturally, Bender’s plans to develop one go completely awry and land him in an android asylum. The role-playing plotline later re-emerges–in typically convoluted Futurama fashion–via a subplot involving Professor Farnsworth’s conversion of dark matter into spaceship fuel, which created a key to a very D&D-influenced universe where our hapless heroes eventually find themselves.

Sounds great to me.

Today is going to be expensive on a lot of geeks.  We’ve got Batman – The Complete Animated Series today which will set you back a pretty penny (bit is certainly worth every one). Blu-Ray releases see A Christmas Story and Universal Soldier.  Universal Soldier is actually the only Roland Emmerich film that I will in good conscious recommend.  Though I haven’t seen it in a long time, I remember it being bad-ass…  This and Under Siege (which would be a great Geek night double feature) seemed inextricably linked in my teenage years.

Last but certainly not least is The Gregory Peck Film Collection which contains a film I have been searching high and low for years for.  Ever since Clang! Boom! Steam! was able to catch a viewing of the Stanley Donen-directed Arabesque, he hasn’t shut up about it and I haven’t been able to track down a copy.  That all ends today.  The collection also contains To Kill a Mockingbird (a perfect film), Cape Fear (a great film), and a few others I’ve never heard of but would love to see because I really, really, really dig Gregory Peck.

(Also, there’s a new feature starting this week.  The hotlinks to the films will take you to Amazon.  If you choose to buy them, Big Shiny Robot will benefit greatly for it.)