Thank you for being part of my life for so long. In a sop to recycling, the potting shed windows have been sourced from some long-flattened football ground, and we’re being offered apparently ‘thrifty’ gardening tips that are, in a nutshell, simply sexed-up and recycled common sense, but whither organic gardening? With over 20,000 reviews, people have obviously discovered the space-saving ingenuity that these surprisingly stylish under-bed storage bags provide. New films due to arrive over the Labor Day frame include Balls of Fury starring Christopher Walken on Wednesday, followed on Friday by Death Sentence starring Kevin Bacon, as well as Rob Zombie’s Halloween. 3:10 to Yuma (1957) – Air Guitar Nation – Antibodies – Blades of Glory (widescreen) – Blades of Glory (full-frame) – Blood & Tears – Bob Saget: That Ain’t Right – Carlito’s Way: Crime Saga Collection – The Crocodile Dundee Triple Feature (3-disc set) – Dane Cook: The Lost Pilots – Danger Mouse: The Complete Series Megaset (4-disc set) – The Dog Problem – Dr T & the Women: Special Edition – East Side Story – Finney (3-disc set) – Friday Night Lights: Season One (5-disc set) – Heroes: Seasons One (7-disc set) – I Shouldn’t Be Alive – Jesse James: American Outlaw – Justine de Sade – Kickin’ It Old Skool – The Last Day of Summer – Legion of Super Heroes: dune london straw crossbody bag Vol.
On the Board: New reviews this week include Blades of Glory, Year of the Dog, Serenity: Collector’s Edition, and The First Films of Samuel Fuller: Criterion Eclipse Series. On the Street: There’s just a few DVDs to pick up this week as we head into the Labor Day weekend, including Paramount/DreamWorks Blades of Glory and A Night At the Roxbury starring Will Ferrell, Year of the Dog with Molly Shannon, a re-issue of Dr T & the Women, and the complete first season of Heroes. It will bring a natural touch to beach and city looks. The city previously used roughly 2 billion plastic bags every year, and just 14% of those were recycled. No boxes, no plastic wrap, no Styrofoam, no egg cartons, no plastic tubs of butter and very few cans. Right now it’s looking like plastic might be humankind’s most lasting legacy on this planet. It’s a geeky thrill ride designed to appeal to hardcore movie lovers (and, yes, to fans of the TV show), but be warned once you see Serenity you’ll want to run right out and get the “Firefly” box set, and once you’re through with that, you’ll understand the Browncoats’ frustration that there are no more adventures forthcoming from Serenity’s crew.
Whedon has even allowed that there’s the slim possibility of another movie if this DVD sells well, saying, “It’s probably not being discussed in board rooms right now, but the fact of the matter is, if it makes enough money, sooner or later they say, ‘Hey this is money!'” For those unfamiliar with the world of Serenity, Whedon’s space opera still works beautifully as a stand-alone film, a wickedly wrought homage to classic sci-fi, Indiana Jones-style serial adventures, and shoot-’em-up Western pictures. Whedon has remained characteristically modest about the love for Serenity, telling one interviewer, “I think it’s lovely for people to say that Serenity is this generation’s Star Wars, but I don’t think it’s accurate. Star Wars had a cultural impact that is unprecedented and almost untraceably large. Serenity is not that. It’s like comparing apples to unbelievably huge apples.” But still, the executives at Universal Pictures know a moneymaker when they see one. Universal Studios Home Entertainment’s two-disc Serenity: Collector’s Edition offers all of the bonus features from the previous DVD release the original commentary track by Joss Whedon, an introduction filmed by Whedon to precede early screenings of the movie (4 min.), a blooper reel (6 min.), nine deleted scenes (14 min.), “We’ll Have a Fruity Oaty Good Time,” in which Whedon discusses the creation of the bizarre Japanese commercial (2 min.), and three behind-the-scenes featurettes plus another 60 minutes of new bonus features, including an additional, brand-new commentary track with Whedon and stars Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau, and Ron Glass that’s funny, silly, informative, and a whole lot of fun.
Disc of the Week: When Joss Whedon’s sci-fi western “Firefly” was canceled before its 2002 season was completed, no one could have predicted the passionate fanbase and long life that would keep Whedon’s rag-tag crew of space outlaws on the cultural radar for years to come. Game players will get to create their own characters in the “Firefly” universe starting sometime in 2008, when a MMOG (massively multiplayer online game) based on the series reportedly will be released by Multiverse Network, Inc. And in June, 2007, astronaut Steven Swanson brought “Firefly” and Serenity DVDs along with him on the Space Shuttle Atlantis, donating the discs to the International Space Station’s crew. I sat on one of the cots and bounced with false levity; I tested out this open coffin; I lied down in the space of someone else’s eventual tomb. Box Office: The traditional August box-office slump when Hollywood studios dump less-promising titles on the market during the back-to-school run-up kicked in over the weekend with four wide titles failing to open higher than fourth place, giving Sony’s teen-raunch Superbad its second straight win and $68.5 million in the bank. Seriously, very sorry to see you go and many thanks for all the useful information you provided me over the years to make my DVD buying decisions.