Media | DVD Releases | October 2, 2007: Welcome to this week's spooooooky home video releases -- focused entirely upon American audiences, sorry everyone else -- prepared with the assistance of The Digital Bits and cover art courtesy of Amazon.

Roundup by VsRobot | Posted October 1, 2007

Pick of the week

Comedians of Comedy
Patton Oswalt is one of us. He proudly wears his geekdom as a badge of honor, and not in some phoney, PR/marketing way, either. Not only does his brand of sarcastic humor instantly relate to the target audience of this website, he's also incredibly funny. This film -- part documentary, part stand-up showcase -- features Patton Oswalt and three other like-minded comedians on tour. Sure, the formula of stand-up routines interspersed with behind the scenes footage has been done many times before. But the personalities of the featured talents make this a show well worth watching.

Also out this week

1408
Movies based on Stephen King's written work only occasionally live up to the source material, and John Cusack in supernatual/horror films has been a losing proposition so far. (I might be in the minority, but I thought Identity stunk to high heaven). I've been unable to screen this as of press time, but I have pretty low expectations. The buzz, however, is pretty positive. Then again, everyone told me about how awesome Identity was, so proceed with caution.

Caligula
I have a memory from my prepubescent youth of waking up in the middle of the night, going downstairs and clicking on the television and witnessing an orgy scene on the television. As far as I can ascertain, it was from this movie, and that means that this movie was my first ever exposure to human sexuality. I'd Netflix it to be sure, but I'm not sure my wife would find this an appropriate choice for date night.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
No way. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice... lets just say you're not going to fool me again. One of the worst comic book movies ever gets an absolutely unnecessary sequel. Sure, it makes a mess of one of the greatest stories in comic book history, but least it keeps Jessica Alba from polluting actual good movies. Right?

The Jungle Book
All of my favorite Disney movies aren't the ones generally considered their classics. Growing up, I loved Fox and the Hound, Robin Hood, The Black Cauldron, and, of course, The Jungle Book. Needless to say, I can't wait to revisit it on DVD again.

TV on DVD

I'm so bored of Entourage. It went from okay to unwatchable pretty quickly. On the other hand, I hear good things about How I Met Your Mother and Jericho. The Sarah Silverman Show is funny enough if it's on and you're bored out of your mind, and the supporting cast features a ton of great comedians sprinkled throughout. Notable but not pictured is Metalocalypse. As much as people enjoy that particular series, I have to fault it for not being Home Movies, Brendon Small's previous (and utterly brilliant) show.

High-Def Alert: The World of Blu-Ray and HD DVD

HOLY CRAP. A wallet-busting week for horror fans with hungry Blu-ray players. Romero's Dawn of the Dead is my favorite horror movie of all time, and Evil Dead 2, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and Halloween are all in my top 25, with Evil Dead 2 in the top three. Day of the Dead isn't nearly as good as the other horror movies out on Blu-ray this week, but it's still worth a look for zombie fans. Non-horror HD buffs have a few choices, including Top Gun's famous volleyball scene in high-def on HD-DVD.

Fall Children: Halloween on DVD

Halloween is coming, which means a ton of low-budget direct-to-video horror movies and reissued and/or repromoted catalog titles are going to be hitting DVD in the next month. You might not have realized that cult-classics Pumpkinhead and Species are both onto their third sequels, or that the GameSpite-worthy pun Flight of the Living Dead was so juicy as to justify a film made just to use the title on the box, but when you're at the video store on the 30th of October looking for a scary movie to watch on Halloween and all the good ones have already been taken, you'll be glad someone bothered to make 'em.

Post on the forum or PM me if you like the column or have any suggestions. Staying up til 2 a.m. on a work night to get it done isn't really a great decision, life-wise, so some feedback to justify the time would be mighty appreciated. Per the forum's feedback, I did make one small change to the 1408 write-up. People got the impression that I was saying that all Stephen King-derived movies based on his short works were poor. I clarified that point. See the power of the forum!

Please talk with me on the forums. I'm so lonely!