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The DVD Dossier is the free newsletter published weekly by DVD Direct 4 Less.
This is the archived issue for October 17, 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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October 17, 2004
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Ed Wood: Special Edition, Now on DVD
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Ed Wood, from acclaimed director Tim Burton, is the story of one of Hollywood’s most legendary filmmakers. Johnny Depp stars as the high-spirited movieman who refuses to let unfinished scenes, terrible reviews and hostile studio executives derail his big-screen dreams.
With an oddball collection of showbiz misfits, Ed takes the art of bad moviemaking to an all-time, hysterical low. The film costars Oscar®-Winner Martin Landau, Sarah Jessica Parker, Bill Murray, Jeffrey Jones, Patricia Arquette and Vincent D’Onofrio. Available on DVD October 19th.
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The all-new extended 3-Disc Director's Cut of "Hellboy" is out this week with lots of special features and commentaries. Based on Mike Mignola's celebrated Dark Horse comic book, "Hellboy" is a mind-blasting supernatural action-adventure film starring Ron Perlman (directed by Guillermo del Toro).
The "Hellboy" Director's Cut will also be available in a deluxe Gift Set which includes a collectible Hellboy figurine.
In "Van Helsing," a legendary monster hunter - played by Hugh Jackman - is summoned to Transylvania on a mission that thrusts him into a battle against the forces of darkness. Van Helsing joins forces with the fearless and beautiful Anna Valerious (Kate Beckinsale), to rid her family of a generations–old curse by defeating Dracula.
Such is the plot of the theatrical hit "Van Helsing," the film that kicked off last summer's movie season with a $52 million box office opening weekend. But nonstop action and stunning special effects are the real reasons to see this action-adventure-horror-comedy flick.
"Van Helsing" is available in both widescreen and full screen editions jam-packed with extras and in an Ultimate Collector's Edition for those who want even more behind-the-scenes exclusive content.
Also included in the Ultimate Collector's Edition are the three original classic films that inspired "Van Helsing." "Dracula" (1931), "Frankenstein" (1931) and "The Wolf Man" (1941) are presented in their original unedited form.
And the monster mash continues this week as Universal debuts three more boxed sets in their "Legacy Collection" series: The Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Invisible Man and The Mummy.
Thora Birch and Keira Knightley star in the suspenseful psychological thriller "The Hole," while Johnny Depp stars in Tim Burton's 1994 hilarious heartfelt homage to "Ed Wood," the wackiest filmmaker in Hollywood history. Both films arrive on DVD this coming Tuesday.
"The Ultimate Oliver Stone Collection" from Warner Home Video pays tribute to the legendary filmmaker with 14 discs featuring his best films, along with hours of commentary and bonus features.
Michael Apted's entire six film "Up" series comes to DVD this week in a new boxed set collection.
Starting in 1964 with "Seven Up," the renowned director interviewed 14 children from diverse backgrounds from all over England, asking them about their lives and dreams for the future. Every seven years, Apted returned to talk to the same subjects, examining the progression of their lives.
From cab driver Tony to schoolmates Jackie, Lynn, and Susan and the heartbreaking Neil, we see, as they enter their 40's, how close these subjects are to realizing their ambitions. It's an extraordinary look at the structure of life in the 20th century which now has added weight and power, by virtue of all the films being available in one collection.
Another politically charged DVD is out this week as we head toward the close of the presidential campaign here in the U.S. "Going Up River: The Long War of John Kerry" is a look at the politician, where he has come from, and how his roots have driven him forward in his public life.
Director George Butler has known Senator Kerry since 1964 and in 1969 began photographing him, in an effort to document his life and career. Using his unique collection of images, the film weaves together Butler's photography with archival material, interviews with Kerry's closest associates as well as contemporary footage of him at home and abroad.
Lots of TV shows on DVD this week, as usual.
Among the best are the Fifth Season of "Xena Warrior Princess," Season Seven of the sci-fi hit "Stargate SG-1," Volume 2 of the sketch comedy series "SCTV," Season Two of "SpongeBob SquarePants," "Greg The Bunny" (the complete series), "Pee Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special" and a 5-Disc set of new adventures featuring Thomas the Tank Engine that comes with its own toy trains.
The boxed set that everyone is waiting for this week, however, is definitely Season One of "Arrested Development." This is the critically acclaimed Fox Sunday night sitcom that very few people actually watched. The show got a big boost when it won this year's Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series and expectations are high that a lot of people will buy this one so they can catch up before the Season Two premiere on November 7th.
Well, we've done it once again.
We've managed to cram into just a few paragraphs every piece of worthless information we have on this week's motley assortment of shiny new discs.
We hope it has enriched your life as much as it has ours! And as always, thanks for reading... please join us again next weekend when we will try to uncover even more tasty tidbits about a whole new crop of DVDs.
Regards,
DVD Direct 4 Less
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| This Week's New DVD Releases - Street Date: October 19, 2004 |
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Van Helsing
Van Helsing: Ultimate Collector's Edition
A Cinderella Story
Hellboy: Director's Cut
Hellboy: Director's Cut Gift Set
Going Upriver:
The Long War of John Kerry
The Hole
Twist
Letting Go
Alexander the Great: Special Edition
Pee Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special
The "Up" Series: The Definitive Collection
The Ultimate Oliver Stone Collection
Uncovered:
The Whole Truth About the Iraq War
Universal Soldier: Special Edition
Thomas the Tank Engine:
DVD 5-Pack with Toy Trains
Stargate SG-1: Season 7
Greg The Bunny: The Complete Series
Arrested Development: Season One
Xena Warrior Princess:
The Complete Fifth Season
Eden: The Complete Series
The Man Show: Girls on Trampolines
SCTV: Volume 2
SpongeBob SquarePants:
The Complete 2nd Season
Ed Wood: Special Edition
Dracula (1979)
Batman: Holy Batmania
Garfield: The Movie
The Healer
Intermission
Letting Go
Texhnolyze, Volume 4: Suspicions
Bionicle 2: Legends of Metru Nui
Shootfighter Tekken: Round 2
The Legend of Condor Hero:
Volume 1
Pit and Hellgate Double Feature
Alexander the Great
Driving Miss Wealthy
Anelito Mio
Charly
The Troupe
Criterion Collection:
Eyes Without a Face
Criterion Collection: Fat Girl
Tom and Jerry, Volume 1:
Spotlight Premiere Collection
Monster Legacy Collection:
The Creature from the Black Lagoon
Monster Legacy Collection:
The Invisible Man
Monster Legacy Collection:
The Mummy
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The Yakuza Papers:
Complete Box Set
The Yakuza Papers, Vol. 1
Battles Without Honor and Humanity
The Yakuza Papers, Vol. 2:
Deadly Fight in Hiroshima
The Yakuza Papers, Vol. 3:
Proxy War
The Yakuza Papers, Vol. 4:
Police Tactics
The Yakuza Papers, Vol. 5:
Final Episode
Born on the Fourth of July
Deep Impact:
Special Collector's Edition
Wacky Races:
The Complete Series
The Garden of Allah
I'll Be Seeing You
Intermezzo
Portrait of Jennie
Pursuit
Ruby Gentry
Since You Went Away
Straw Dogs:
Extended Unrated Edition
They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
The Young In Heart
Species: Special Edition
Make a Wish
Fire in the Sky
Bulgarian Lovers
Shiner
The Butterfly
The Cat and the Canary
You'll Get Over It
Superman - A Little Piece of Home:
DC Comics Kids Collection
Justice League - The Brave and the Bold:
DC Comics Kids Collection
The Return
Under The Black Flag
After the Deluge
UFOs: Down to Earth
Wicked Ways
Parting Shots
Bait
Grim
Ice Cream Man
Liquid Bridge
Yu-Gi-Oh Volume 1:
Shadow Games
Yu-Gi-Oh Volume 2:
Inspector Combo
The Geisters:
Fractions of the Earth, Volume 2
Masters of Poker, Volume 1
Masters of Poker, Volume 2
Playboy:
2005 Video Playmate Calendar
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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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"Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy," starring Will Ferrell as a chauvinistic 1970's TV newscaster who strongly protests the addition of a woman anchor (Christina Applegate) to his news team, arrives on DVD December 28th in four different versions.
If you saw the theatrical trailer for "Anchorman," you may remember that there were many scenes that were not actually in the completed film.
In fact, director Adam McKay shot so much extra footage that he had enough to make a second full length feature film about the sexist anchorman. Which is exactly what he did.
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The new film, "Wake Up, Ron Burgundy," is included in the fully loaded 2-Disc "Anchorman Gift Set," together with the Unrated Extended Widescreen Edition of "Anchorman."
In addition to the Gift set, "Anchorman," will also be available in a PG-13 Full Screen Edition, the Unrated Extended Widescreen Edition (without the second movie) and the Unrated Extended Full Screen Edition.
Preorder any of the "Anchorman" discs and save 30%. |
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This past Thursday, Netflix, the leading online DVD rental service with 95% market share and 2.25 million members, announced that they were lowering their price, from $21.95 a month for their standard plan (3 DVDs at a time) to just $17.99.
The change becomes effective November 1st.
This is an abrupt turnabout for Netflix, which raised their price from $19.95 to $21.99 only four months ago. Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings says the reason for the price reduction is that he expects a powerful competitor to enter the online DVD rental marketplace very soon: Amazon.
Amazon isn't talking, except for issuing this non-denial denial through a spokesperson: "Our customers have encouraged us to offer low price online DVD rentals, but we have no announcement to make at this time."
All of this, of course, is very good news for Netflix subscribers, who will soon get a $4 reduction in their monthly fee. The news is not as good for its shareholders, who watched the Netflix stock plummet 41% last week, down to $10.25. The firm had been expected to show $80 million in profits next year, but is now expected to just barely break even.
Wall Street types say that it's not just Amazon that Netflix is worried about.
Blockbuster, which operates nearly 9,000 retail stores worldwide, went online this summer and is already luring a substantial number of Netflix customers with lower prices and coupons for two free in-store rentals a month.
Both rental firms offer unlimited DVD rentals for one monthly fee, a selection of over 25,000 titles and the convenience of having no due dates and no late fees.
Blockbuster, which was already two dollars cheaper than its rental rival, wasted no time in meeting and beating the new price cut. Blockbuster announced on Friday that beginning "the week after next" they will lower the cost of their monthly online subscription to $17.49 from $19.99.
They also said that they would soon offer more in-store and online promotions like free movie and video game rentals to get people to stay with the Blockbuster service.
No word yet from Wal-Mart, which started their own online DVD rental service last year and took great pride in being the low price leader. They offer a plan at only $15.42, but that's for just 2 DVDs out at a time. Their "3 at a time" plan is actually $18.76 a month, making Wal-Mart - at least temporarily - the most expensive choice.
We predict they will soon announce a price reduction of their own.
And here at DVD Direct 4 Less, we've been busy expanding our DVD rental guide and will be launching several new pages within the next few weeks, including an online DVD rental comparison chart; we'll let you know when those pages go live.
In the meantime, if you haven't yet tried online DVD rental, now is the perfect time to come on board. |
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"Harvie Krumpet" is this year's Academy Award®-Winner for Best Animated Short. This 72 minute film, directed by Australian Adam Elliot, has won more than 50 international awards and features the voice of Geoffrey Rush as the title character.
"Harvie Krumpet" tells the story of an ordinary man seemingly cursed with perpetual bad luck. From being born with Tourette's Syndrome, to getting struck by lightning; from having his testicle removed to developing Alzheimer's disease; Harvie's troubles seem unending!
Even so, Harvie learns many lessons in life and enjoys its many fruits.
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He finds love, freedom, nudity and - ultimately - the true meaning of what it is to be human.
Preorder "Harvie Krumpet" now and save 30%.
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| Preview of Next Week's Releases - Street Date: October 26, 2004 |
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