My excitement circuits were so overloaded with this news I couldn’t write it up fast enough. So pardon my lack of commentary on how much I love Star Trek and how sahweet these special features sound as I just give you the information straight up!

Special features are going to include:

• Commentary by director J.J. Abrams, writers Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman, producer Damon Lindelof and executive producer Bryan Burk
• Deleted scenes: “Spock’s Birth”, “Klingons Take Over Narada”, “Young Kirk, Johnny, and Uncle Frank”, “Amanda and Sarek Argue After Spock Fights”, “Prison Interrogation and Breakout”, “Sarek Gets Amanda”, “Dorm Room and Kobayashi Maru (original version)”, “Kirk Apologizes to the Green Girl”, “Sarek Sees Spock” -All with optional commentary.
• Four featurettes: “To Boldly Go”, “Casting”, “Aliens”, “Score”
• Gag Reel
• Digital Copy

The Blu-ray release will include all of those special features, plus a few more:

• Featurettes on the Starships, Gene Roddenberry’s Vision, and The Sounds of Star Trek
• Starfleet Vessel Simulator

Official box art for the releases have yet to be revealed, but I assure you I will post it when it becomes available.

For all you Trekkers and Trekkies out there, if you’re anything like me November is a long ways off to wait for the release of this, but it’s nice to know what’s coming. Star Trek is not yet available for pre-order at Amazon.com, but you can sign up to be notified when it does.

Lucasfilm and Warner Home Video has announced that the four disc set of season 1 will be available on DVD and Blu-ray November 3, 2009.

Still no specifics about whether or not the currently running “Decoded” versions of the episodes will be included, but there is still a lot to look forward to with this packaging.

From the official press release:

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (July 15, 2009) – After wowing TV audiences with a cutting-edge, animated look at “a galaxy far, far away,” Star Wars: The Clone Wars™ The Complete Season One is  coming to DVD and high-definition Blu-ray Disc November 3 from Lucasfilm Ltd. and Warner Home Video.

Live the adventures again and again, and dig deeper into the first season of The Clone Wars with a comprehensive look behind-the-scenes of the popular animated series. Uniquely packaged with an exclusive 64 page production journal, the four-disc set contains all 22 episodes from the groundbreaking first season – including seven extended Director’s Cuts – as well as companion featurettes for each episode. And exclusive to the Blu-ray disc, The Jedi Temple Archives provides in-depth access to an extensive database of creative materials.

“I’m a longtime Star Wars fan, and the same’s true for a lot of the guys working on the show,” said supervising director Dave Filoni. “And as a fan, I know that Lucasfilm can be pretty secretive. They’re famous for it. But we’re all so proud of the work that’s gone into The Clone Wars, and we wanted to share some of our production tricks, and open up the vault and reveal our efforts. You’re going to get unprecedented access, to see the nuts and bolts of our series – from concept to finished animation.”

Created and executive produced by George Lucas, the first-ever TV production from Lucasfilm Animation explores the tumultuous time between Episodes II and III of the live-action saga, expanding the scope of Star Wars beyond anything seen in the feature films. With the fate of the galaxy hanging in the balance, the heroes of the Republic – including the valiant Jedi Knights and their loyal clone troopers – fight bravely to repel the attacks of the evil Separatists and their droid army.

“The live-action saga was just the beginning. The universe is vast, and there are so many more stories to explore beyond Anakin’s fall and redemption,” said Lucas. “The scope of the war gives us the perfect vehicle for a weekly series, allowing us to look at how the conflict has affected the farthest reaches of the galaxy, including characters, creatures and races we only glimpsed in the feature films. Animation has allowed us to visualize the worlds and characters of Star Wars in all new ways.”

Star Wars: The Clone Wars The Complete Season One will be available November 3 for the suggested retail price of $44.98 for DVD and $59.99 for Blu-ray.

And the official list of special features (which may or may not be complete):

Special Features:
Star Wars: The Clone Wars The Complete Season One is presented in widescreen with English, Spanish and French 5.1 DTS audio and English, French and Spanish subtitles.

Bonus features include:

• Seven Director’s Cut Episodes: Rising Malevolence, Shadow of Malevolence, Lair of Grievous, Rookies, Storm Over Ryloth, Innocents of Ryloth and Liberty on Ryloth
• 22  Episodic Featurettes that go behind-the-scenes with Supervising Director Dave Filoni and crew  about the making-of each episode
• Spectacular 64 page production journal that includes early sketches, artist notes, and concept art from each episode from Season One
• Blu-ray Exclusive – The Jedi Temple Archives An extensive database exploring test footage, early concept art, 3-D character and object turnarounds and early animation. The Archives is a rare look at the assets in various stages of creation for The Clone Wars, with a wealth of surprises and never-before seen moments sprinkled throughout.

As soon as it lists on Amazon, you’ll be able to pre-order it here.

G.I. Joe A Real American Hero: Season 1.1 shall be my first choice of the day. This is a delightful box set and I would recommend it to anyone who had a passing interest in G.I. Joe. The cartoons hold up remarkably well, the transfers of them are clean and pristine and the DVD navigation is very nice. (In fact, multi-episode story arcs are even played as one long episode, which is a very nice feature.) Included on this set are 3 5-episode arcs (The M.A.S.S. Device, The Revenge of Cobra, and The Pyramid of Darkness.) I very much enjoyed going through these episodes again with the younglings who enjoyed it every bit as much as I did.  The only problem was the argument about who got which tattoo.

Sure, the show still has quite a few cheesy moments, and the animation is a bit wonkier than I remember, but it was the classic struggle of good versus evil that I fell in love with as a kid.

And with the price point on Amazon currently at $16.99, there’s really no excuse not to pick it up.

For All Mankind is being put out by Criterion on Blu-ray today. It’s a look at the 24 men who have been to the moon and in their own words and using the images they captured from, and on their way to, the moon. It’s going to be wonderful to see in the Blu-ray format and I’m very much looking forward to it.

Mad Men: Season Two is coming out on DVD and Blu-ray. I’ve only seen the first half of the first episode of this show and I was interested to watch the rest. Now that I’m two seasons behind, I may just give it a go.

The last thing on the list for the week is The State: The Complete Series. I haven’t seen these in a long time, but I’ve rekindled a love for Michael Ian Black and Stella and things of that nature, so the idea of revisiting this seems like good news to me.

You can check out Arse-bot’s alter-ego’s highlights and lowlights for releases this week here!

Warner Home Video has announced that they will be releasing Batman and Blade movie collections on September 29, 2009 for about $20 each in-store. The Batman collection will include Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Forever, and Batman & Robin. The Blade Collection will include Blade, Blade II, Blade: Trinity, and Blade: House of Chutulu Chicken China Chimney Chthon (the pilot movie for the short-lived Blade television series). Special features on the Batman Collection are next-to-none as it only lists “Production Notes” as a special feature; hoever, the Blade Collection will have all sorts of featurettes and commentary to go along with each movie. Both, The Batman Collection and The Blade Collection are available for pre-order now from Amazon.

The Remix Manifesto:

1. Culture always builds on the past.
2. The Past always tries to control the future.
3. Our Future is becoming less free.
4. To build Free Societies, you must limit the control of the past.

This manifesto is the basis for Brett Gaylor’s energetic documentary about copyright laws and how they are limiting creativity in the present and future. An overall interesting documentary on the history of copyright laws, how they have become more strict. Featuring interviews with those trying to combat ridiculously strict copyright laws, RiP! A Remix Manifesto, should be an interesting watch for anyone interested in copyright effects on digital media in the modern world and how it all came to be. You can check out the full review of the documentary here.

…It used to be that, under the Statute of Anne (1710) that an owner of a particular work owned the rights to that creation for only 14 years, after which, it entered the public domain for others to build upon. However, in modern day the world over, the new copyright laws entail that the creator owns the exclusive rights to his/her work for their entire life-span plus 50-70 years. This means that right now, the only music available for legal public use is music from the 1920’s or so. RiP! explores many of the past and current copyright laws and asks what should be considered fair.

Are you one of those luck robots or humans out there that are going to be going to Comic-Con in San Diego later this month? Well, if you are, and you are a fan of the Joss Whedon series, Dollhouse, you’ll be delighted to know that Fox Home Entertainment has released 5,000 Dollhouse: Season 1 Special Collector’s Edition DVD and Blu-ray copies for pre-order just for the ‘Con! The only catch is is that you have to be at ‘Con to pick up your copy. Season 1 of Dollhouse isn’t hitting shelves until July 28 so this is a great oppotunity to get the jump and pick it up before it’s on sale! You can check out all the details you need by checking out he Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment Press Release, or you can just shoot on over to FoxStore.com to place your pre-order now!

Warner Bros. has released the artwork to their next animated feature film, Batman/Superman: Public Enemies, for both the single-disc edition and the two-disc special edition, which will be available on both DVD and Blu-ray.  This latest addition to the DC Animated Universe library won’t arrive until September 29th but you can pre-order your copy now over at Amazon!

Check out the artwork for Batman/Superman: Public Enemies here!

Summer is here, and if you’re like me you like looking at women’s boobs… even if you’re married or whipped like you should be. Well now, you have to look no further than you local dvd store to see a great variety as the first Friday the 13th hexology is now released on deluxe edition DVD’s by Paramount.

Actually, I’m not so sure if the first one is out, here’s what they sent me; Friday 13th Part 2 and Part “3-D” on Blu-Ray, and then Parts 4-6 on deluxe DVD editions (The Final Chapter, A New Beginning and Jason Lives). There was no X-Man-like part 7, Jason takes Manhattan, the hell one (a.k.a. the “final friday”) or that god awful space one; but receivers can’t be choosers. I was shocked, SHOCKED that no one wanted to play a five day in a row drinking game with me and these babies, but whatevs, their loss.

I gotta say, I haven’t see a 3-D movie in a while and that was probably my favorite one as it comes with stylish custom-made Jason hockey mask glasses. Not only that, but the biggest douche-bag in this movie, Shelly, was on a NBC contest show in 2007 making the actor über douche man. Hahaha, I keed, I keed. The 4th, or the “Final Chapter” probably has the best cast with the likes of silver-screen legends as Corey Feldman and Crispin Glover.

The picture on all of these, as you can probably guess, is great. They even left some scratches and b-movie trademark goodness even though they are all remastered in HD now, but that doesn’t really mean much because of the horrendous way it was shot, but that’s what is good about these flicks and why you watch ’em, am I right? Right?

Tell you the truth… I don’t even like these movies. In fact… I don’t even know why people like them besides the gore and breasts and…. eh, never mind, I remembered why I like these. Now, if you’re like me again, the only way to watch these and enjoy them is with buds (unless they’re being punk-bitches like mine) of all sexes (pending the women you’re hanging with are the ones you want to get sauced up for a make-out session during or afterwards, if not, what are good heterosexual-male friends for, if not that?). Coming out of my long weird parenthesis thing I did, you know the second thing you need is, of course, a plethora of alcoholic beverages.

Here’s some stand-by rules for any Friday the 13th drinking game that many go by (and some that only I, Pencilbot dare go by. Take the Pencilbot challenge): [DISCLAIMER: BIG SHINY ROBOT! AND Pencilbot CAN’T BE BLAMED FOR THINGS YOU DO.]

1 half-can chug per horny guy or chick that can’t get laid (to be fair, this moment usually only happens once per movie, but by all means, be creative!)

1 drink per “Crystal Lake” being shown or said. (sometimes you’ll just have to opt for “Lake” instead to get things going)

1 drink per beer drink or pot smoked (for an added bonus, do a sip for every cough or person who waves pot smoke away)

1 drink per scream heard (“Oh my God!” counts as 3 to 5 drinks depending on the loudness, discuss with friends before doing this one)

1 drink per pair of boobs seen (or each boob seen to get faced faster)

1 long drink per “chi chi chi chi, haw haw haw” heard (Jason’s war cry)

1 chug can or bottle per first death (this to me, gets everything off on the right foot, many people just do ‘a drink’… pfft! wussies!)

1 drink per death of non-main characters

1 long drink per death of main characters (they’ll usually be 20-somethings, just fyi)

1 chug every time Jason “dies”

1 drink per every time Jason isn’t really dead.

Now at this point, you should be able to be declared “legally dead”, but if you really want to go the extra mile, I throw in this one.

1 drink per person calling another person BY THEIR NAME. (this also works with ‘Jason’, this one will sometimes make you cry as you lift your drink impending, but it’s well worth the laughs. Especially when you assign names, but when you assign names, you have to chug a can when your person assigned gets macheted, it’s only fair.)

Enjoy and have a good time!

(Click the link to check out the Friday the 13th movies on Amazon.)

In the movie, 12 Rounds, John Cena plays Detective Danny Fisher, a man who is being targeted for revenge by International Terrorist Miles Jackson. When apprehending Jackson, Fisher inadvertently causes the death of the love of his life and as soon as Miles is out of jail his first order of business is to kidnap Fisher’s girlfriend, Molly, and put him through 12 rounds of missions and tasks in order to get her back. If Fisher can complete and survive each round, Jackson will give back Molly unharmed. But what is Miles Jackson really up to?

And frankly, who cares?

This movie is about what you would expect from a WWE movie starring wrestler-trying-to-turn-action-star John Cena: bad acting, bad action, bad movie. Lucky for you, someone actually sat down and watched this, from beginning to end, and you can check out that review here.

It’s hard to believe that a man who was in prison for the last year was not only able to escape in such a short amount of time, but also plot out these elaborate, booby-trapped “rounds” for Detective Fisher to participate in all over New Orleans. But, he was able to, so we find Fisher recklessly driving all over the city in various vehicles -including a fire truck- disarming bombs, stopping trolley cars, having cheesy flashbacks about his girlfriend (flash backs all the way back to the beginning of the movie) and spouting bad one-liners. It’s one thing for an action movie to have admittedly bad one-liners in it, it’s another to have a movie full of bad one-liners about boxing (in reference to the “12 Rounds” theme) and culminate the final blow in the movie with this gem: “You lose!”

It’s a light week, otherwise I couldn’t imagine a time where I open up with a Spike Lee joint.  But here we are. Do the Right Thing is coming out on Blu-ray and DVD for its twentieth anniversary.

The next on the list is the extended edition of Hal Ashby’s Lookin’ to Get Out. This was the first screen appearance of Angelina Jolie and it was with her father, Jon Voight. This was 1982, so it was before Voight was unwatchably bad, so this might be worth a look. Hal Ashby has always been, at the least, interesting.

Bukowski fans should be interested to note that a Region 0 copy of Barfly comes out today. I’m told that this is Mickey Rourke at his best in the early days.

Finally, we have Parker Lewis Can’t Lose: The Complete First Season. I wonder if this is good as I remember it being when I watched it as a kid. Anyone have any idea?

As much as I hate to say it, that’s about it for this week.

You can check out Arse-bot’s highlights (and lowlights) here!