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The DVD Dossier is the free newsletter published weekly by DVD Direct 4 Less.
This is the archived issue for September 26, 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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September 26, 2004
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Join the Columbia House DVD Club and Save...
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Choose from big hit films like "Ray," "Shrek 2," "Anchorman," "Meet the Fockers" and more.
For a limited time, get FREE SHIPPING when you sign-up here.
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There are quite a few good movies making their DVD debuts this week, so let's start with those.
First up is "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." An all-star ensemble cast shines in this comic and poignant look at losing memories and finding love. Written by two-time Oscar®-winner Charlie Kaufman and directed by Michel Gondry, "Sunshine" stars Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood and Tom Wilkinson. It's a romantic comedy you won't, um, forget.
Also out on Tuesday: "The Alamo," starring Academy Award®-winner Billy Bob Thornton, Dennis Quaid, Jason Patric and Patrick Wilson. The film is an epic, action-packed drama that tells the true story of one of the most momentous battles in American history. It's a story of ordinary men who become extraordinary heroes as they fight for freedom.
"The Alamo" DVD features extensive extras including a look at the legendary heroes behind the story: David "‘Davy" Crockett, William Travis, Jim Bowie and Sam Houston; deleted scenes; a behind-the-scenes “making of” featurette; and a special program featuring director John Lee Hancock, Dennis Quaid and others sharing their thoughts on their Texas roots.
"Walking Tall" is a straightforward remake of the 1973 film that bears its name, this time starring The Rock as real-life Sheriff Buford Pusser.
"Envy" is essentially a vulgar one joke movie, but we found it to be a guilty pleasure, deserving a quick rental, if not a permanent place in our DVD collection.
Ben Stiller and Jack Black star as two friends that let a little dog poop come between them. Nick (Black) invents a spray that makes pet feces evaporate into thin air. (As we so often find ourselves saying in The DVD Dossier, we're not making this up!)
Tim (Stiller) is offered the opportunity to invest in the product, but passes because he considers it another in a long line of harebrained schemes hatched by his best friend.
The spray, however, turns out to be an enormous commercial success and as Nick's fortunes grow, Tim is left on the sidelines with uncontrollable jealousy and "Envy."
"Super Size Me" rides the current wave of documentary popularity with a funny and sad examination of the state of America's fast food industry. Director Morgan Spurlock's painfully personal film looks at what happens to your body, mind and spirit when you restrict all food intake to the items available on the menu at your local McDonalds restaurant.
Season One of "Ellen," the winning sitcom starring Ellen DeGeneres, is also out this week, so to speak. And coming once again to DVD is Barbie, this time making her musical debut in the computer animated tale, "Princess and the Pauper" (based on the Mark Twain story, "The Prince and the Pauper.")
Our next movie has a corny plot... a hip city kid gets stuck in an uptight Bible Belt town where dancing is forbidden. But star Kevin Bacon, director Herb Ross and writer Dean Pitchford played it straight and produced one of the most spirited films of the 80's, "Footloose."
This week, a widescreen Special Collector's Edition of "Footloose" is released, with many extras that include commentary by Bacon, Pitchford and producer Craig Zadan and a two-part documentary about the film.
Appearing in "Footloose" (within one degree of Kevin Bacon) are Lori Singer, Dianne Wiest, Chris Penn and John Lithgow, delivering - no kidding - one of the best performances of his career.
And a treasury of Top Ten songs are sprinkled generously throughout the film, including Kenny Loggins title tune, Shalamar's "Dancing In The Sheets," Deniece Williams' "Let's Hear It For The Boy" and Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for A Hero."
"Footloose" is not the only older film being made newly available on DVD this week.
The 35th Anniversary Special Edition of "Easy Rider" comes to DVD with a book from the British Film Institute providing an in-depth look at the film, plus a CD "song-track" with music from the movie.
And while we're talking about music... those of you of a certain age may remember watching television and being introduced to the joys of classical music by Leonard Bernstein. As Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, Bernstein led a series of "Young People's Concerts," (fifty-three of them to be exact), spanning the years from 1958 - 1972.
The works of the great composers were explored on those Saturday morning concerts, including tributes to modern masters Dmitri Shostakovich, Paul Hindemith, Gustav Holst, Aaron Copland and Charles Ives.
Bernstein held forth on topics such as "Jazz in the Concert Hall," "Folk Music in the Concert Hall," and "The Latin-American Spirit," he explained the intricacies of Music Theory and he broached complex aesthetic issues with clarity and without condescension.
Every bit as engaging today as they were forty years ago, "Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts" are available this week in a 9-Disc set containing 25 episodes, each with an entertaining lesson from the maestro.
And that wraps it up for this week; we'll be back here next Sunday to do this all over again.
Please join us.
Regards,
DVD Direct 4 Less
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| This Week's New DVD Releases - Street Date: September 28, 2004 |
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Envy
Walking Tall (2004)
Radical Harmonies
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Super Size Me:
PG-13 Theatrical Version
Super Size Me:
PG Family Friendly Version
National Lampoon's Lost Reality
The Corndog Man
The Alamo (2004)
Spinning Boris
Sniper 3
My Name Is Modesty
The Big One
Footloose:
Special Collector's Edition
Easy Rider:
35th Anniversary Special Edition
New York Philharmonic:
Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts
Ellen: The Complete Season One
MTV Punk'd:
The Complete Second Season
Crank Yankers Uncensored:
The Complete First Season
The Joey Bishop Show:
The Complete Second Season
Mr Bean, The Animated Series:
Grin and Bean It
Mr Bean, The Animated Series:
Ends Justify the Beans
Mr Bean, The Animated Series 2-Pack
DeGrassi: The Next Generation, Season One
Bob the Builder - Snowed Under:
The Bobblesberg Winter Games
Real Wheels: Travel Adventures
(There Goes a Train, Plane, Bus)
Touching Evil 2
Dark Shadows: Collection 14
Silk Stalkings: Season One
Make Room For Daddy
Homicide - Life on the Street:
The Complete Fifth Season
Star Trek Voyager:
The Complete Fourth Season
Star Trek Voyager:
The Complete Seasons 1 - 4
Ken Burns' America Collection
A Thousand Clouds of Peace
Baryshnikov's Nutcracker
Bush Family Fortunes:
The Best Democracy Money Can Buy
The Hunting of the President
Road to the Presidency
Club Dread:
Unrated Extended Edition
Tattoo: A Love Story
Frivolous Lola
The Clever Cleaver Brothers Tailgatin'
Eric Bogosian's Wake Up
and Smell the Coffee
Warren Miller's Journey Through the Decades
Gungrave: The Sweeper, Volume 2
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Yu-Gi-Oh S.2 Volume 8:
Dark Spirit Reveal
Demon Lord Dante:
Dante Agonizes, Volume 3
Seven of Seven: Test of Love, Volume 2
Knight Hunters Eternity 2:
Troubled Souls
Children of the Corn:
Divimax Special Edition
Creepshow 2:
Divimax Special Edition
Barbie: Princess and the Pauper
Real Wheels Mega Truck Adventures
I Wanna Hold Your Hand
Donna Richardson:
Sweating in the Spirit, 3 in 1 Gospel
Sniper 3-Pack Collection:
Sniper, Sniper 2 and Sniper 3
National Lampoon Live:
The International Show
Best of the Best
My Best Friend's Wife
The Big Town
Track Down
The Box
Masterpiece Theater: Painted Lady
Masterpiece Theater: Great Expectations
Masterpiece Theater: King Lear
Christine: Special Edition
Real Ghost Stories
Nightmare Boulevard
National Geographic:
Most Amazing Moments
Sugar Cane Alley
Little Women:
Limited Collector's Edition (with Book)
Tess: Special Edition
Tess:
Limited Collector's Edition (with Book)
Sense and Sensibility:
Limited Collector's Edition (with Book)
Crazy Richard:
I Can't Even Think Straight
My New Gun
Sherlock: Undercover Dog
Sweating in the Spirit:
3 in 1 Gospel
227: The Complete First Season
Andy Goldsworthy's Rivers & Tides
Shock-O-Rama Cinema:
Lust for Dracula
Roald Dahl:
Tales of the Unexpected, Set 1
Totally Spies, Volume 3:
Spies Attack
Victim of the Haunt
Wild Roomies
Dragon Drive: New Journey
Gravitation:
One Million Copies!? (Volume 3)
Hollywood Legends: 50 Movie Pack
War Classics: 50 Movie Pack
Sherlock Holmes Collection
Nothing But A Man:
40th Anniversary Edition
The Ramones: Raw
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Visit us online to see a comprehensive list of new DVD releases for the next six weeks.
Links above are for Region 1 (USA) Editions. Availability and release dates elsewhere may vary.
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| Show Wins Emmy, Can't Get Arrested |
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To the surprise of many, but the absolute delight of dedicated fans, "Arrested Development" won 5 Primetime Emmy Awards last Sunday, taking the top prize for Outstanding Comedy Series, as well as honors for writing, directing, casting and editing.
However deserving it may well be, the fact is that "Arrested Development" is the most highly regarded - but little watched show - in recent memory.
Frankly, the ratings for this Fox show suck.
(How many people do you know that have actually seen it?)
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To its credit, Fox renewed the quirky sitcom, due in large part to letter-writing campaigns by its fans and to preserve the network's relationship with executive producers Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Mitchell Hurwitz. (The new season begins November 7th.)
We're here to report that the show really is worth the extra effort to get yourself in front of a TV at 8:30 ET/PT on Sunday nights (the techno-savvy can simply set their DVR or VCR).
"Arrested Development" revolves around a young widower (Jason Bateman), trying to raise his 13-year old son while the family business is thrown into turmoil. Dad (Jeffrey Tambor) has been arrested for unscrupulous accounting practices and the family's assets are frozen, forcing them to live for the first time without an endless expense account.
The cast features one of the finest acting ensembles on television and - in addition to Bateman and Tambor - includes Jessica Walter, Will Arnett, Tony Hale, Portia de Rossi, David Cross, Alia Shawkat and Michael Cera.
The First Season of "Arrested Development" comes to DVD on October 19th.
Preorder Season One of this clever and original series and save 30%.
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Two more Emmy winners, Sarah Jessica Parker and Cynthia Nixon, are the stars of another DVD announced for late this year. Parker won last week for Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy Series, while Nixon took the honors for Outstanding Supporting Actress.
Together with Kristen Davis and Kim Cattrall, they've spent the past six years on the prowl as single gals (more or less) on "Sex and the City."
Alas, the fabulous foursome no longer brightens our Sunday evenings, but their DVDS live on. Already released on DVD are Seasons One, Two, Three, Four and Five.
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HBO Home Video decided to split up the Season Six DVD release of "Sex and the City" into two parts (that's the way it aired on HBO). Part One was released back in May and Part Two will be released December 28th.
This 3-Disc set includes all eight episodes from the second half of the Final Season and is a fitting four-hour tribute to the series. In Part Two of Season Six, loose ends are tied up (some, perhaps, a little too quickly and neatly), old characters return one last time and - just in case the tears were not yet flowing - there's even another wedding.
Special features include HBO's two farewell shows, four audio commentaries by Executive Producer Michael Patrick King, deleted scenes from Seasons 1 - 6 and the three much-publicized, never-before-seen alternate endings to the series finale.
Preorder "Sex and the City, Season Six, Part Two" now and save 35%.
Also available on December 28th: "Sex and the City, The Complete Series, Seasons 1 - 6.
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Enter the incredible world of Tiger Woods on November 16th with a new DVD collection that covers every aspect of the life of the golf sensation.
From the promise of a child prodigy to the most dominant force in the history of golf, "Tiger: The Authorized Collection" chronicles a life of unparalleled ambition, dedication and success with unique access to the man himself, to those around him - his close friends and associates - and to the entire archive of his prodigious golfing career.
This 3-Disc boxed set details Tiger's life, his eight Majors victories, his legacy and his impact on sports, business, and culture.
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Bonus materials include "Golfing Memories: Tiger's Favorite Moments," a breakdown of Tiger's run at the Majors, "Tiger's Golf Clinic," "Amazing Shots Through The Years," a selection of Tiger's favorite commercials and more.
Preorder "Tiger Woods: The Authorized DVD Collection" now and save 13%.
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| Preview of Next Week's Releases - Street Date: October 5, 2004 |
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A great film, "The Shawshank Redemption" gets the 2-Disc Special Edition treatment next week, as does Disney's "Aladdin," which hits DVD for the very first time with lots of bonus features.
Also out next week, the most controversial film of this year, Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," another documentary called "Born Rich" takes a look at the heirs to the world’s greatest family fortunes and "Saved!," a dark teen comedy with Jena Malone, Mandy Moore and Macaulay Culkin.
And even though it's just barely October, there are a few notable Christmas discs to talk about, including ones featuring Bob Hope, Dame Edna Everage, Felix the Cat and Sonny & Cher.
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