I hope all you Comic-Con nerds didn’t blow all your dough on convention center hot dogs and magic missiles, because this may be the geek-friendliest week of DVDs and BDs in the history of recorded time. If you’re a garden-variety sci-fi/fantasy/superhero fan, you can pick from the big Battlestar Galactica box set, the latest volumes of Doctor Who or Torchwood (review of Children Of Earth coming to our DVD section next week, by the way), the complete series set of the soon-to-be-cult-favorite The Middlman (review coming tomorrow), or the first season of Joss Whedon’s problematic-but-improving Dollhouse (review of unaired episode “Epitaph One” coming to our TV Club section soon). If you’re an animation freak, you’ve also got your choice of goodies, from a set dedicated to the work of American indie stalwart Bill Plympton, or one for Japanese legend Tezuka Osamu, or the official DVD release of Nina Paley’s handcrafted wonder Sita Sings The Blues. (And if you like animation and superheroes, there's always DC’s original movie Green Lantern: First Flight on one side of the aisle and Marvel’s The Spectacular Spider-Man: The Complete First Season on the other.)
How about some classy British genre TV, like Armchair Thriller or Life On Mars? Or foreign-born pulp, like the Italian WWII picture The Inglorious Bastards, or the giallo classic Torso, or the Japanese superhero mockumentary Big Man Japan? (Review of the latter coming tomorrow.) Or schlocky geek TV like Knight Rider or Krod Mandoon? Or fodder for Hollywood historians, like The Judy Garland Show? Or cineaste favorites like Bad Lieutenant or Repulsion? Or the Blu-ray debut of This Is Spinal Tap, a movie which crosses lots of geek quadrants?
And of course Voltron! Funky Voltron!
Acolytes
Starz/Anchor Bay, $26.97
An American Affair
Screen Media, $24.98
Angel Of Death
Sony, $24.96
Armchair Thriller: Set One
Acorn, $59.99
The Astonishing Work Of Tezuka Osamu
Kino, $29.95
Bad Boy Bubby
Blue Underground Blu-ray, $34.95
Bad Lieutenant
Lionsgate, $19.98
Bart Got A Room
Anchor Bay, $29.97
Battlestar Galactica: Season 4.5
Universal, $49.98; Blu-ray, $69.98
Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Series
Universal, $279.98; Blu-ray, $349.98
Becoming Charley Chase
VCI, $39.99
Big Man Japan
Magnolia/Magnet, $26.98
Bill Plympton’s Dog Days: A Collection Of Short Films 2004-2008
Microcinema, $24.95
Combat Shock
Troma, $19.95
Devil In The Flesh
Mya, $24.95
Doctor Who: Planet Of The Dead
BBC Warner, $14.98
Dollhouse: Season One
20th Century Fox, $49.98; Blu-ray, $69.99
Dragonball: Evolution
20th Century Fox, $29.98; Blu-ray, $39.98
Early Edition: The Second Season
Paramount, $45.98
El Camino
Lifesize, $24.98
Fast & Furious
Universal, $29.98/$34.98; Blu-ray, $39.98
The Green Hornet (1940)
VCI, $29.99
The Green Hornet Strikes Again (1940)
VCI, $29.99
Green Lantern: First Flight
Warner, $19.98/$24.98; Blu-ray, $29.99
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
Kino, $26.95
The Inglorious Bastards
Severin Blu-ray, $34.95
In Search Of The Great Beast 666: Aleister Crowley
The Disinformation Company, $19.99
Island Of The Fishermen
Mya, $24.98
Jim Breuer: Let’s Clear The Air
Comedy Central, $16.99
The Judy Garland Show: Volume One
Classic World, $19.98
Knight Rider: Season One
Universal, $59.98
Krod Mandoon & The Flaming Sword Of Fire
Paramount, $19.99
Liberace: Greatest Songs
MPI, $24.98
Life On Mars: Series One
Acorn, $59.99
The Middleman: The Complete Series
Shout! Factory, $39.99
Miss March
20th Century Fox, $29.98; Blu-ray, $39.99
Monika
Mya, $24.98
Necessary Evil
Lionsgate, $26.98
Pop Skull
Halo 8, $19.98
Repulsion
Criterion, $39.95; Blu-ray, $39.95
Richard Pryor: Live & Smokin’
The Weinstein Company, $14.95
A River Runs Through It
Sony, $38.96
Severed Ways
Magnolia/Magnet, $26.98
Shouting Fire: Stories From The Edge Of Free Speech
HBO, $24.98
Sita Sings The Blues
Nina Paley Productions, $19.99
The Spectacular Spider-Man: The Complete First Season
Sony, $25.95
Streets Of Blood
Starz/Anchor Bay, $29.97
The 10th Victim
Blue Underground, $14.95
This Is Spinal Tap
MGM Blu-ray, $34.99
Torchwood: Children Of Earth
BBC Warner, $29.98; Blu-ray, $34.99
Torchwood: The Complete Second Season
BBC Warner, $79.98
Torso
Blue Underground, $14.95
The Union: The Business Behind Getting High
Peace Arch, $29.99
Voltron: Fleet Of Doom
Anime Works, $19.99