First up: The Young Adventures of Indiana Jones, Volume 3. This series is bloody entertaining as hell. I’ve picked up the first two collections and I must say they’re worth their weight in gold. And I’m not saying this as a George Lucas nerd (of which I carry some type of membership for) but because it’s genuinely entertaining. The first box set takes care of his early years (when he’s 8 or so) all the way up until he joins the Belgian army to fight the Germans in the Great War. The second volume deals with Indy’s war years and his experience as a spy for the French and is great fun. (It also guest stars people like Daniel Craig, Catherine Zeta Jones, Elizabeth Hurley and others. This third box is about his post-war adventuring in the time between 1918 and Temple of Doom which, chronologically, is the first Indiana Jones movie.

Seriously, I’m in love with this series and it’s well worth the coin to own these sets.

“The Orphanage“, produced by king nerd-bot Guillermo Del Toro is the second on the list of DVD’s to pick up today. Here’s a review of the film that when out at its release and it sums up exactly how I feel today. Most horror films suck and this one didn’t, which makes it a cut above most of the drek we get in theatres.

Next on the list is Julian Schnabel’s “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly“. I haven’t seen it yet, but it comes highly recommended by robots I generally trust. And I like Schnabel. At a panel recently, he suggested that Americans banish the word “awesome” and replace it with “Schnabelicious.” That’s just bold. And fortune favors the bold.

The last item on the list seems like a bit of a rarity. Joseph Campbell was an expert on mythology and comparative theology and was probably one of the most brilliant scholars on the topic since the dawn of Roman philosophy and he did a number of TV specials. The one I’ve managed to get my hands on is called “The Power of Myth”. PBS put it on and Bill Moyers hosted and it was the single most inspiring tool for writing I’ve ever purchased. Tomorrow, “Mythos II” will be released. This was the filmed version of what was to be the final speaking tour of his life. Anything the man has to say is always relevant and interesting and well worth checking out.

UPDATE: There are some conflicting reports about when Indiana Jones comes in, either this week or next week. The simple fact of the matter is that it doesn’t matter. Just buy it. Also, I left a few films off the list because I wasn’t sure if any of you guys cared about old movies, but Billy Wilder’s first film “The Major and the Minor” came out, as well as a film he wrote called “Midnight” with Don Ameche and John Barrymore. Now, if you guys don’t know who Billy Wilder is, just go ahead and commit the robot version of sepukku right now.

Also, Kill-tacular-tron just reminded me that some movie called “Cloverfield” came out today.

Today is a big day for film lovers.

First: Sidney Lumet’s bloody brilliant Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. This film hit me between the eyes with both barrels and is as good as his heyday in the 70s (Serpico, Network and Dog Day Afternoon). Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Albert Finney, Ethan Hawke and a repeatedly topless Marisa Tomei headline an amazing cast with a fantastic script crafted by one of the best directors of any generation. This is definitely one I’m picking up and certainly one you should, too.

Here’s a review of Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead.

Second place is a tie between two David Lean masterpieces re-released on DVD: Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia. Two of my favorite movies ever. And for nerd credibility? Both films feature Alec Guinness. If you haven’t watched either of these movies, you’re missing out. If you haven’t even heard of them, you’re a prime case for post-natal abortion.

3 movies to avoid this week at all costs: AvP: Requiem, Dungeon Siege and Juno.

See you next week, when I’ll tell you how great The Orphanage is.

Well, obviously the instant pick of the day is P.T. Anderson’s masterpiece, “There Will Be Blood.” It really should go without saying that you should have this in your collection, side-by-side with every other P.T. Anderson movie. If you don’t have every other P.T. Anderson movie either you’re poor or stupid. Either way, you should scrape your pennies together to get them.

Here’s a good review of the film.

The second disc has about 50 minutes of material, including 2 deleted scenes that should be interesting to see. From what I’m reading, though, this 2 disc isn’t as packed as other P.T. Anderson releases, which has me a little worried. We’ll see how it is once I get my hands on it.

Next on the list is a 20th anniversary 2 disc collection of Terry Gilliam’s fun-as-hell Adventures of Baron Munchausen. It sports a feature-length commentary by Gilliam and a 3 part documentary, making it a required disc for any fan of Gilliam’s work.

I’ve watched this film recently and it’s certainly a pre-cursor of the wondrous things to come from Gilliam. Now if he could only finish “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.”

Just in time for the 100th anniversary of the birth of Bette Davis is a two disc set of “All About Eve.” I’ve never seen this film but it’s one of those perennial classics that everyone talks about and you probably should have seen.

Last on the list? The sixth season of the 80’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Need I say more?

(And yes, I knew about the straight to DVD remake of Day of the Dead… But seriously… Does anyone care? Didn’t think so.)

Well, the first big release of the day was one of the highest-grossing films of 2007 (out-earning Zack Snyder’s underwhelming 300 by $6 million (no lie)) is the better-than-it-should be Alvin and the Chipmunks. Nerd favorites Jason Lee and David Cross headline the film and make it work pretty well.

Next on the list? The Cutting Edge 3: Chasing the Dream….

I can’t keep this up any longer. It’s April Fools Day. And even though I’m going to end up buying Alvin and the Chipmunks movie (you know, for the kids) I’m not actually recommending it.

I will, however, recommend Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd, which I thought was really good. It was by far and away the bloodiest, goriest love story the cinema has ever known. And most movies Tim Burton makes have some redeeming factor or another, even if you’re not into the musical.

Sweeney Todd (and maybe the Bette Davis collection) are probably the only two releases this week that I’ll want to add to my DVD collection.

On a sidenote. Today sees the release of the newest (and, sadly, probably last) Kurt Vonnegut book, Armageddon in Retrospect. And if you don’t buy it and read it, I’ll have even less respect for you than I do now. Which isn’t much.

(also, April Fools aside, I really did think 300 was both overrated and underwhelming)

Sadly, the film has nothing to do with the brilliant 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead. Why not take that remake (which did the original justice while still being it’s own fucking entity) and follow it up with a sequel set in the same fictional world? It’s not hard to come up with a somewhat decent plot based off of material that’s already been fucking written for you. Surprisingly Ving Rhames is in the project, though is not reprising his role as police officer Kenneth, but as a military captain. And not surprisingly Mena Suvari (of American Pie fame) had nothing better to do than to star in a crappy remake of a classic Romero zombie flick.Day of the Dead does not look promising and if you wish to see for yourself Rotten Tomatoes has provided a clip for your viewing displeasure. And if you wish to actually subject yourself to, what will undoubtedly make you want to brain yourself, the film is released straight to DVD on April 8th. Or you can just download a leaked copy off of your favorite BitTorrent client.

This week has a few interesting tidbits. First off is Frank Darabont’s Stephen King’s The Mist. Now I wanted to see this in the theatre but didn’t end up making it for whatever reason. I heard it was good. And I might end up buying it, sight unseen, for the bad-ass second disc it’s being released with. Apparently, Darabont made a 50’s sci-fi horror picture and in keeping with that spirit, he put a black and white directors cut of the film on the bonus disc. Some reviewers I’ve checked out seem to think this is their preferred version of the film. For me, it’s certainly sounds worth checking out. I think black and white movies are fantastic and am eager to see any new black and white film I can.

Next up: Warner Brothers has put out an “Ultimate Collectors Edition” of Bonnie and Clyde. That’s a great movie and you can’t go wrong there. Interesting story about Bonnie and Clyde, when it first came out into theatres, it bombed. Hard. Warren Beatty worked and worked and worked to get the film re-released because he knew there was something there that people missed. And he was right.

Last on the list for the week is a release of David Lynch’s Lost Highway. I’ve seen this movie a few times and it still confuses but excites the hell out of me.

So, there you have it. See you next week.

I’m sure a lot of you have heard of the upcoming Batman: Gotham Knight. It’s an anime style look at the Batman set for release just before The Dark Knight.

It’s divided up into six segments, each directed by an established anime director and written by people like David S. Goyer, Greg Rucka and Brian Azzarello.

I’ve been a bit wary of it because anime sucks, but the writers had me interested.

Now that they’ve announced Kevin Conroy’s return as the voice of the Batman, I’ve got a little more faith. He voiced him through the entire animated series and run of Justice League and JLU. And he voiced Bruce Wayne on Batman Beyond. So now we know that at the very least it’ll sound like Batman. And that, if anything, is the only complaint I had about The New Frontier and it’s one of the reasons I didn’t watch that animated Batman show that was on recently.

In fact, now that I think about it, why would they let anyone but Kevin Conroy do the voice?

Batman Gotham Knight hits the streets July 8th, 2008. 

Today is fairly light for DVDs.  Justice League New Frontier is out on HD-DVD.  Which kind of sucks because HD is dead now, but it has the standard def version on it, too.  Which kind of pisses me off, because I didn’t know that and I plan on buying an HD player when they go on sale cheap.  (Much like my laserdisc players and collection.)

The other notable releases today were “I Am Legend” on Blu-ray and Married With Children Season 8.  Season 8 is the peak of Married With Children, seeing a lot of the plots revolve around NO MA’AM, which is all really funny stuff.

No Country For Old Men tops the list for DVDs coming out today. Buy it. Want a review of it? Here’s one. If there was one film this year that could have beat There Will Be Blood at the Oscars it was this one. Pretty much everything about it is right on.

Other notable releases? I, Robot on Blu-ray, Fletch on HD and Sam and Max: Freelance Police on regular DVD.

Sam and Max is very interesting to me, despite the fact I’ve never seen it. Sam and Max was one of the coolest video games Lucasarts put out in the early nineties and I’m a little disappointed that we haven’t seen a newer game. How about a Sam and Max game for the Wii?

Well, anyhow, there you have it: the new DVD Tuesday column. Trust that it’ll get better as the weeks go by.

Predictably, the powers that be (Paramount and the Great Bearded Ones) have decided to release another edition of the Indiana Jones pictures on DVD in the feverish days leading up to the release of what will undoubtedly be the greatest film of 2008. (That’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull for those of you a little slow on the uptake.)

And I, for one, am glad. Even though I bought the other box set. Why? Because it was severely lacking in the special features department and this set seems to take solid steps in remedying that situation. I mean, the fourth disc in the original package had a good documentary on it, but it wasn’t as extensive as most of us would have liked.

This is good news for film nerds.

It is, however, also bad news for those of us who can’t stand the bitching of countless geeks who seem to think that Lucasfilm is putting a gun to their head and forcing them to buy a new version of their movies.