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The DVD Dossier is the free newsletter published weekly by DVD Direct 4 Less.
This is the archived issue for May 9, 2004.
Click Here To Subscribe To The DVD Dossier Newsletter
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Published weekly by DVD Direct 4 Less, the online source for DVD Discounts & Deals
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In This Issue
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May 9, 2004
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Fifty-one million people watched the final episode of "Friends" last week and it seems like many of them are eager to watch it again and again. Preorders for the "Friends: Series Finale - Exclusive Limited Edition" have already made it a best seller prior to its release on Tuesday. If you haven't yet said "goodbye" to Ross, Rachel, Monica, Chandler, Joey and Phoebe, this value-priced disc is your last chance (assuming, of course, that you won't be watching them three times a day in syndication).
Some prominent TV shows from days gone by are also out this week. Season Nine of "The X-Files" hits the street along with the First Season of "Have Gun Will Travel," in which Richard Boone starred as a gunfighter for hire (1958). We're especially pleased to see the First Season of the 1970's British comedy series "Two's Company" finally released in the USA. Stage veterans Elaine Stritch and Donald Sinden star. She's an acid-tongued American novelist living in London; he's her self-assured butler, a bit of a snob... and a chauvinist to boot.
A new boxed set from Warner Home Video invites you to "meet George Jetson... Jane, his wife... daughter Judy... " and "his boy Elroy." They're the stars of "The Jetsons," the First Season of which debuts this week. This 1962 series was a futuristic counterpoint to "The Flintstones," another popular animated primetime series from the same studio, Hanna-Barbera.
The show reflected the space-age optimism of the times and is awash with flying cars, floating cities and fully automated household appliances. Trendsetters that they were, "The Jetsons" may have been the first family to have a big-screen home entertainment system decades before it became a reality for those of us here on earth.
All 26 episodes from the First Season of 1964's "Jonny Quest" are also being released by Warner. Available for the first time ever on DVD, this animated series details the fantastic exploits of brave and brainy Jonathan Quest, an 11-year old who uses science and detective-style logic to solve mysteries and apprehend villains. This deluxe four-disc collector's set features over 11 hours of classic original TV programming and newly added enhanced content.
Seven or eight years after "Jonny Quest" made his mark, another "John" entered the television landscape: John-Boy Walton, the central character in the TV show, "The Waltons." A youth on the verge of manhood during the Great Depression, John-Boy was a fledgling writer whose observations are influenced by the life lessons and love he receives from his family.
"The Waltons" is out this week in a 5-disc set featuring all 24 episodes from its first season. The show won 5 Emmy Awards that year, including Best Drama Series.
New movies on sale this week include "Scary Movie 3," the gag-a-minute horror film parody starring Anna Faris, Charlie Sheen, Queen Latifah, D.L. Hughley, George Carlin, Pamela Anderson, Jenny McCarthy, Jeremy Piven, Camryn Manheim, Ja Rule and Leslie Nielsen. The disc has a commentary track with director David Zucker, producer Robert K. Weiss and writers Craig Mazin and Pat Proft, an alternate ending, outtakes, bloopers, deleted scenes and more special features.
Director Jim Sheridan's "In America" is a nicely-told tale of an Irish immigrant family's struggle to adjust to life in the United States. Samantha Morton and Paddy Considine star as a young couple who are grief-stricken over the loss of their son. They move to America to begin a new life with their two daughters, played by real-life sisters Sarah and Emma Bolger. The acting is topnotch across the board and, frankly, really helps you get though some overly sentimental parts of the film.
Toni Collette is the best thing about "Japanese Story," the highly regarded Australian film being released this week. It's a character study about a geologist who unexpectedly finds herself having to "baby-sit" a Japanese businessman (Gotaro Tsunashima). But at the picture's midpoint, they find themselves thrust into a sudden life or death situation, which is about the same time the film loses all its forward momentum and you start paying more attention to the sensational outback scenery.
And as we mentioned in last week's Dossier, this year's Oscar Winner for Best Documentary, "The Fog of War" makes its home video debut on Tuesday. It's a film by Errol Morris about the former US Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, and the lessons he learned from the Vietnam conflict.
There are a lot of great older films to choose from this week, including a collection of "The Films of Paul Newman" and - available for the first time as an individual title, without the other two films in the trilogy - "The Godfather." And Katherine Hepburn, Ralph Richardson, Jason Robards and Dean Stockwell star in Eugene O'Neil's masterwork, "Long Day's Journey Into Night." The 1962 film was directed by Sidney Lumet.
A trio of Gunsmoke movies debuts on DVD as the "Gunsmoke Movie Collection," at the same time a trio of John Wayne movies is released as the "John Wayne Collection." (How do they come up with these clever titles?)
Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier wildly overact in "The Boys From Brazil" and an absolutely Shrek-tacular double bill of "Shrek & Shrek 3-D" is out on Tuesday in a value-priced edition that includes four pairs of 3-D glasses.
That's the way it looks from here for this week... thanks for reading! We'll see you next time.
DVD Direct 4 Less
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| This Week's New DVD Releases |
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Street Date: May 11, 2004
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Shipping is FREE when your order totals $25 or more.
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Visit us online to see a comprehensive list of new DVD releases for the next six weeks.
The links above are for Region 1 (USA) Editions. Availability and release dates elsewhere may vary.
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The complete First Season of "Northern Exposure" comes to DVD on May 25th, cleverly packaged in its own collectible zippered parka.
Rob Morrow starred in this 1990 series as Dr. Joel Fleischman, a cocky young Big City doctor who feels more than a bit out of place while tending to the medical needs of a small Alaskan village. "Northern Exposure" won seven Emmy Awards and is a remarkable blend of quirky humor and heartwarming storytelling. TV Guide called it "one of television's truly fine series."
Preorder Northern Exposure now and save 30%
You'll get all eight episodes from Season One on two discs, plus over an hour of extended and deleted scenes, outtakes from every episode, documentary footage and mock movie footage.
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| Cary Grant Signature Collection |
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"Cary Grant: The Signature Collection" will be released by Warner Home Video on June 1. The boxed set includes "The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer," "Destination Tokyo," "My Favorite Wife" and "Night and Day" (all previously available on DVD) and "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House," making its DVD debut.
This is a fine collection and a welcome addition to the library of any Cary Grant fan. But since it only includes the titles that Warner has the legal rights to distribute, calling it the "Signature" collection is a bit of a stretch.
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Such "signature" Grant films as "Notorious," "North by Northwest," "The Philadelphia Story" and "Topper" are noticeably absent.
Preorder "Cary Grant: The Signature Collection" today and save 30% |
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| Delta / Columbia House Partnership |
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A couple of months ago, we speculated on a partnership between Columbia House and Delta Airlines based on some recent domain registrations we had seen. Both companies made their official announcements of the new program last week and here's the deal:
Sign up for the Columbia House DVD Club through Delta and pay $4.95 for your first DVD. You'll receive 1,500 SkyMiles (Delta frequent flier miles) after you pay for your introductory shipment and another 1,500 miles after you complete your membership obligation (five DVDs in two years). When you join, you're given the opportunity to buy three additional DVDs for only $9.95 each, but these DVDs don't count toward fulfilling your membership obligation.
Not a bad deal, if you want or need the miles... but it's probably not the best deal, strictly speaking, on a cost-per-DVD basis. We like the deal they've extended to the site visitors at DVD Direct 4 Less much better:
With this deal, you get 5 DVDs for 49 cents each at sign-up (with free shipping) and you're given the opportunity to buy an additional DVD for $14.95. This DVD does count toward meeting your membership obligation, so you'll only have four more DVDs to buy later.
To learn more about this special Columbia House offer, visit us online. |
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| Preview of Next Week's Releases |
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Coming next week: Part One of the Final Season of the recently departed HBO hit series "Sex and the City," the Second Seasons of "The West Wing," "Smallville" and "Star Trek Voyager" (available separately) and Episodes 12- 24 of "Speed Racer" in a Limited Edition Collector's boxed set.
As for movies, Kurt Russell stars in "Miracle," the story of the U.S. hockey team's victory at the 1980 Olympic Games and Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman star in "Paycheck," the limp science fiction thriller from director John Woo.
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Please note: all DVDs were available for sale as of the original publication date of this newsletter. Some may no longer be in inventory at the present time and preorder savings may not be in effect. If you're you're having difficulty finding a particular title, you can search current availability for any DVD here.
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