Today’s first, biggest release is something of a must buy. The Powerpuff Girls: The Complete Series. The Powerpuff Girls are great fun and a great cartoon from a great era of Cartoon Network. The episodes are smart, witty, and funny and reference everything from Star Wars to The Big Lebowski. It’s certainly a good time, whether you have a kid or are just a kid at heart.

Next on our list is the Blu-ray version of Peter Jackson’s King Kong. Yeah, this movie was long and should have been an hour shorter, but the action sequences kicked a lot of ass. Seriously, you need to watch the fight with Kong and the Tyrannosaurus Rex’s on Blu-ray.

Criterion is releasing a Spanish language film called El Norte that Roger Ebert called, “The Grapes of Wrath” of our time, so that seems to make it worth a look to me.

That’s really it for me this week. Come back next week and I’ll give you more reasons you need to buy Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona is coming out. Hands down this is one of the three best films to come out in 2008. It’s funny, sad, sweet and Woody Allen at his best. You should get this movie. Seriously. And if you don’t want to buy this movie and watch it, then there is something wrong with you. Seriously.

Breakfast At Tiffany’s and Funny Face are both coming out with new Special Editions. They’re both great Audrey Hepburn films. Any self respecting geek loves Audrey Hepburn and that’s why these two are the second headline of today’s releases.

Swing Vote came out. I sort of wanted to see it even though it looked like standard Kevin Costner sort of crap. I just like the whole political movie thing. That’s why I liked My Fellow Americans so much, aside from the fact that Jack Lemmon and James Garner are badasses.

I really like westerns and so I was really disappointed when I didn’t get to see Appaloosawhen it was in theatres. Does anyone have an opinion on this one?

UPDATE: It seems as though that two of my sources for DVD release dates were in conflict as per the release of Vicky Cristina Barcelona.  Consulting a couple of other sources, it seems as though it doesn’t come out until the 27th.  I apologize for the confusion.  In the meantime, order it now anyway.

Welcome to the first 2009 installment of DVD and Blu-ray releases.

Without further ado, we’ll be getting to the DVD releases of the week.

Battlestar Galactica – Season 4.0 is the first thing on the list. Not because I highly recommend it or anything, in fact I’ve never seen it. I just hear too much about it at the Geek Show tapings that I’m at the point that I really want to start.

Next is Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor on Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection. Sounds like a good time to me. Criterion discs are always worth the money.

Not a lot else today. It’s been a light few weeks for releases, which I guess is great for those of us who want to catch up on movies. Righteous Kill came out, which I was interested in seeing but somehow managed to miss. Another big Geek Show recommendation that keeps coming up is Dexter: The Complete First Season on Blu-ray. So that should be pretty good for some of you.

Until next week.

In our last DVD column of the year, I would like to start by asking you guys what you’d like to see more of here.  Is there anything I can be doing better to make this column more useful to you?  I’ll leave that for the comments and move on to this weeks first release:

Serenity comes out in the Blu-ray format. This makes me excited. I really, really, really like Firefly and I hope everyone buys this version of the movie in the hopes that Fox might pull their head out of their ass and realize what a cash cow this show could still be to them. I mean, honestly, if they can pull Family Guy out of cancellation a hundred times, why not a good show?

Event Horizon also hits Blu-ray. Now, I’ve never seen this film so I don’t know if it’s any good. It’s sci-fi, so it makes it geeky. I’ve heard good things about it and I’ve always wanted to see it. But since it’s such a light week for releases, I didn’t know what else to put on here. And trust me, A Paul W.S. Anderson movie will never–never–find it’s way on one of these columns again.

I guess Towelhead should be on the list, too. I was at the premiere at Sundance and it was pretty good. I could tell just by watching it though, it wasn’t going to find a giant audience. And I did sort of want to see Eagle Eye which is coming out today according to IMDb, even though DJ Caruso’s last film (and Shia LaBeouf team up) was a cheap knock off of Rear Window… And I’m excited to see if the pair of them can pull off Y the Last Man, but I guess that’s neither here nor there.

So, until next year…

The scholars and gentlemen over at Lucasfilm have been kind enough to offer me two copies of the deluxe 2-disc copies of Clone Wars to give away here on the site.

In return, you guys have until the next new episode of Clone Wars airs (that’s Friday, January 2nd) to email me a reason why you like the Prequels.  You don’t have to love the prequels, but I want to know what it is you like about them.  And the two best written, most well-thought out responses will be presented here on the site and will earn their authors a copy of the Clone Wars DVD.

If you need help, you should listen to this weeks episode of The Geek Show Podcast.  Go to iTunes and subscribe to it or check out their website.  I was offered the opportunity to come on the show and defend the Prequels and explain why they deserved a rightful place in the hearts of all geeks.  I think I did a pretty good job.

Let me also remind you that until January 2nd, StarWars.com is allowing you to watch every episode of Clone Wars that has aired for free.  Go there and watch them all and then come back here and read my reviews on the episodes and why (to date) they’ve all been great.

So, email your entries to bigshinyrobot (at) gmail (dot) com and let us know your best defense for the prequel and on Saturday, with my review of Clone Wars, we’ll announce the winners.

Burn After Reading is obviously the biggest release today. And while it is by no means greater than No Country For Old Men or Millers Crossing, it’s still a solid entry in the Coen Brothers canon. And it’s pretty goddamned hilarious to boot. Definitely (defiantly?) check this one out.

Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas is the next best release today. This is a film I’d like to see on Blu-ray but I’m almost tempted to tell you all to wait and see if this comes out from Criterion on Blu-ray. The Criterion edition of this film is top notch and I’d hate to trade up for a version that only has improved picture quality.

Hamlet 2 also hit shelves today, though I imagine you’d probably have a hard time finding it at most places. Releases like this rarely get shipped at any decent quality to the chain stores. And I want to warn you that this movie isn’t great, it’s simply funny. Steve Coogan will make you laugh your balls off until you need to sew them back on.

Also, Coming to America & Trading Places are coming out on Blu-ray on opposite sides of the same disc for a pretty reasonable price.

See you next week in our last installment of 2008.

I’m not exactly sure what the film companies are thinking because this week is preposterously light and it seems as though they’d want a whole host of bad-ass new releases in stores before Christmas so that people would stock up on them as gifts.

Apparently, I’m wrong.

The Third Man [Blu-ray] is easily the coolest release of the day. It’s hands down one of my favorite films and I watch as often as I can. It’s one to be studied, to be sure. I’ve written about it before so I won’t get back into it again.  The long and short of it is, though, if you haven’t seen this movie, you need to immediately.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Vol. 6 is next on the list for today.  If you don’t know why this is on the list, chances are you aren’t the target audience of this site.  And if you are and you still don’t, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Death Proof [Blu-ray] and Planet Terror [Blu-ray] are coming out today. Which is fine, I guess. I really just wish they’d release the theatrical version in one box.

So….  That’s this week.  See you next week.

The Dark Knight comes out today, obviously. Now, I would hold off on buying this on Blu-ray if you need to buy a player. Supposedly, this Christmas season is going to be known for the crazy sales of Blu-ray players that come free with Dark Knight. Something to think about.

Lost – The Complete Fourth Season comes out today as well. I don’t care what you guys say, I think this season was completely radical.

There aren’t too many other giant releases today, what with everyone staying away from The Dark Knight and all, but here are a couple of documentaries that might be worth checking out:

Man on Wire comes out. I didn’t get a chance to see this, but it looked fantastic. Anyone have a verdict on it?

Here’s one I don’t suspect anyone has seen but sounds cool anyway: The Rape of Europa. It’s about how bad the Nazi’s pillaged Europe in the war. It’s based on a book and Joan Allen narrates.

So, until next week…

First this week is the Casablanca (Ultimate Collector’s Edition) on Blu-ray. I thought of putting something else on as the top disc this week, but this is probably the coolest gift you can give anyone who cares about movies even a tiny bit.  This film is certainly on my top 5 of all time (if we’re not counting Star Wars movies) and I would highly recommend this film to anyone.  In fact, I demand that a lot of people I know see this because I really don’t want to talk to anyone who doesn’t know and love this movie.  And if you don’t like Black and White movies, both myself and Roger Ebert agree you shouldn’t be allowed to watch movies.

Frost/Nixon: The Original Watergate Interviews is next on the list. This is really something that has been of great interest to me. And I imagine this will probably be better than the Ron Howard movie, though I am surprised to find myself excited to see his dramatization.

There are a lot of Blu-Ray releases today that are pretty good:

Sin City [Blu-ray]: The best film Frank Miller has been involved in in history. Probably forever, too.

The Shawshank Redemption [Blu-ray]: Good, but not as great as IMDb users seem to think it is.

Wanted [Blu-ray]: Meh. Mark Millar is great, this adaptation? Not so much.

Children of Men [Blu-ray]: Perhaps one of the best movies of 2006. If you don’t own this movie I will look down on you. But if you buy this version, I will look upon you with delight once more.

We’ll be back next week when The Dark Knight comes out, among other things.

So, I was in New York City last week and went to my favorite video store ever: Kim’s on St. Marks. I was presented with a gigantic tower of Dark Knight DVDs as I walked in. Regular version, 2-Disc Edition, and the Blu-Ray. I lustfully snagged the Blu-Ray disc and then it hit me: “WTF? This isn’t supposed to come out until Dec 9th.”

And it was on sale.

My robo-boner lasted for multiple hours after I purchased it.

Here’s my review of everything:

Let me first say that TDK is hand’s down my favorite comic book movie and rivals for my Top 10 list of all time. When I put the Blu-Ray disc into my PS3, I wanted to see at least 30 hours of bonus material. I was super disappointed.

There are 4 major extras spread on 2 discs. Disc one has a series of “making of” shorts (about 1-4 minutes each). They range from “This is how we learned to shoot in IMAX” and “This is how we fucking blew up the Tumbler”. Some of them were interesting and mega-cool like the 4 minute piece showing how they blew up the hospital. Basically, these shorts are nothing but special effects coverage. We don’t see any directing, any actors, any “behind the scenes” stuff. Which is exactly what I wanted. So, balls to that.

The other 3 extras on disc two are called “Batman Tech”, “Batman Unmasked”, and “Gotham Tonight”. “Tech” is nothing but another special effect orgy showing all of Batman’s new toys and gadgets. Another “this is how and why we made this shit up”. “Gotham Tonight” is 6 uncut episodes of Gotham City’s News Program. It’s a nice extra, but I didn’t care about this since I considered it icing on an already stale cake. And then the most balls-out stupid extra is “Batman Unmasked” in which multiple psychologists and sociologists are interviewed about the “inner thoughts” and “dark side” of Batman and his villains. They literally sat there saying shit like, “You see, Bruce Wayne is good, but Batman is his dark side. See?” And then they talk about the Joker, “This man is crazy. He’s like Ted Bundy (shows picture of Ted Bundy). He’s unpredictable n stuff.” This goes on forever and ever.

And that’s it.

WHERE THE FUCK IS HEATH LEDGER GETTING INTO HIS MAKEUP? WHERE IS CHRIS NOLAN DIRECTING? WHERE IS CHRISTIAN BALE REHEARSING WITH LEDGER?

I wanted a more “video diary” type thing in the extras. But to no avail.

Well, I guess there’s the movie itself. Which, I might add, looks and sounds like a digital orgasm in Blu-Ray.

The End.