It goes without saying that the James Bond franchise is the crown jewel of the MGM and Sony vault. And in preparation for Daniel Craig’s turn as the man who likes his martinis shaken and not stirred in Casino Royale, it was decided to let them run with some things in order to double-dip Joe Q. DVD Buyer. And in the UK, where Bond reigns supreme, these new “Ultimate Editions” of all the James Bond movies have just been released (don’t worry US fans, these are on their way in November).

The UK version ...

Synopsis

Here we go again. Punky Brewster (Soleil Moon Frye) is pretty comfortably ensconced in the home of Henry Warnimont (George Gaynes) now. The season follows Punky through the usual round of problems at school, with friends, with boys, and so on. Will she do her homework and get to a rock concert? We await the answer on the edge of our seats. Frye is a few years older now, and so is moving from precocious youngster to tiresome tween. Lessons are learned in the most painfully didactic and mundan...

Synopsis

A group of masked criminals, led by Clive Owen, take over a Manhattan bank and hold everyone there hostage. Denzel Washington arrives on the scene as police negotiator, and he rapidly finds that his opponent is extremely clever, and appears to know every move the police will make even before they do. Complicating matters further is the arrival of Jodie Foster, an ice-cold fix-it woman hired by bank-owner Christopher Plummer to protect his interests: there is a safety deposit box he desperate...

In what universe is a weekend jail visit considered a “family emergency” when it comes to missing your job? Can anyone answer this for me? By all means, send your answers (or curious situations) to yours truly. I’m curious to hear what the responses are.

The big news in the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray battle is that Training Day, Rumor Has It and Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang arrived on Blu-Ray this week, after being available in HD-DVD for a little while now. And the verdict? Well, at least according to Pet...

Without question, the most celebrated bad director is Ed Wood. He is the portal through which so many people discover the joys of the terrible film. He stands out from so many contenders because his films are not ordinarily bad. They are deeply felt, deeply earnest. He meant what he was saying, whatever that was. And his style, particularly his screenwriting style, is unmistakeable. Insanely purple, banal, and incomprehensible, it cannot be mistaken for anyone else’s work. It is as individual as the writing of the Co...

Reader Brian asks:

What happened to the HUDSON HAWK: 15TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION dvd? It was supposed to come out on July 25th and now it doesn't appear to be available anywhere ... Including Amazon.com. Can you research it and let me know as I seriously (seriously) would like to get it.

Synopsis

Robin Williams is struggling to keep his job, and struggling to keep his sanity in the face of his teenage children (particularly daughter Joanna “JoJo” Levesque). This all becomes more difficult when his boss forces him to cancel a trip to Hawaii and head off to Colorado instead. Williams rents an RV, packs his family in, and hits the road for misadventures and hijinx.

And everything plays out much as one would expect it to. The film looks slick enough, but it might just as well h...

Discussing the old school DVD’s that still sound and look great in the era of Blu-Ray and HD-DVD technology.

Ang Lee’s Hulk got a bad wrap.

When it was originally released in 2003, it was endlessly criticized for replacing action with a "boring" psychoanalysis of Bruce Banner.

I think there was a mutated poodle in there somewhere, too. But I could be wrong.

Despite all of its flaws -- and it has quite a lot of them -- I always enjoyed Hulk. I foun...

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Well, Mark Dancer’s review of Season Two of Bridezillas pretty much echoes my general thoughts on the show. Now, for those of you who haven’t read his review, go there. Come back, and see what I do with it.

Now again, I basically agree with Mark’s comments. Bridezillas is another in a growing list of shows featuring women (or young girls, as is the case with MTV’s Sweet Sixteen) that are either in upper-middle class relationships or in a very safe position in life tha...

Rising from Your Grave, You're about to Die, and E3 coming to an end, Welcome to the the family pet corpse that you keep buried in the backyard known as Dare to Play the Game.

Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. I'm your host that knows Stone Sour is a condition that you encounter with eating gummi worms while you are smoking pot. Seriously, go get their new cd this week, its called Come What(ever) may. Supposed to be pretty good. I tried win...