DVD Geeks Podcast

Happy New Year! Did you miss us? This week, DVD Geeks returns after a holiday hiatus with a huge collection of accumulated titles from the last few weeks. We've got awesome TV box sets, some horror goodies, another one of those "quirky" indie comedies and a whole lot more. In our extended Honorable Mentions segment, we'll give you the low-down on some of our favorite TV picks: "Star Trek The Next Generation" Season 2 on Blu-ray, "American Horror Story" Season 1 and the complete series of "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers." We'll also look at recent theatrical releases "Looper," "Killer Joe" and "The Dark Knight Rises." In our featured presentation, we'll kick things off with recent horror titles "V/H/S" and "Silent Night." If the crazed, flamethrower-wielding Santa of "Silent Night" isn't your thing, then maybe you'll appreciate the bizarre anthology of "found footage" on display in "V/H/S." We'll get a little artistic on you with the also-creepy-but-brilliant 1967 Goddard classic "Weekend." This edition from Criterion brings the movie back to life in a pristine new HD transfer along with scholarly notes and special features. In the dark comedy "Butter" we get a twisted look at the high-stakes world of competition butter carving. In "Lawless" we get a taste of the very high stakes of running moonshine during prohibition. Finally, we take a nostalgic look back at "Comic Book Confidential" which was originally released in 1988 and now on Blu-ray for the first time. Stan Lee, Frank Miller, Robert Crumb, Will Eisner to name but a very few contributed to this documentary that traces the history and importance of the comic book from its birth as a medium. All that play  more including our Netflix Pick! This week on DVD Geeks...

Halloween may be over for this year, but we've got a handful of gritty titles that make the best of suspense for your viewing pleasure. Director Darren Lynn Bousman teams up again with Terrance Zdunich ("Repo: The Genetic Opera") for a short film set in the carnival that is Hell. In "The Devil's Carnival" - an original rock opera based on Aesop's Fables - three poor souls are tormented for their Earthly sins by Zdunich's clever Lucifer. A wholly home-grown effort, "The Devil's Carnival" is truly independent filmmaking packaged in a very thorough DVD set. We'll also trawl the dark streets of 1860s New York in BBC America's police drama "Copper." In this original series, the racial and social divides of New York City's Five Points neighborhood in the waning days of the Civil War serve as the backdrop for very edgy crime drama. Season two is soon to come, so get caught up with the first 10 episodes now. Finally, we revisit one of our favorite scifi-horror-cult films of the '80s with John Carpenter's "They Live." A down-on-his-luck construction worker uncovers the alien plot to take over the world and finds the world is not as it seems. It's an action-packed but subversive tale of the haves and have nots just as relevant today as it was in 1988. All that plus our weekly Honorable Mentions and more!

We don't always do "theme" shows on DVD Geeks, but Halloween is one our favorite times of the year. This week we have to share with you some of our favorite seasonal picks. Shout! Factory has brought us brand new Blu-ray releases of "Halloween II" and "Halloween III." The former picks up just seconds after the end of the original Michael Myers slasher fest. The latter goes in a completely different direction. The oft-maligned second sequel has found a newly appreciative audience in the last 30 years, and the special features of this DVD finally give Silver Shamrock the praise it (rightfully?) deserves. We've also got a modern horror film, "Excision" which delves into the twisted, gory fantasies of a high-school outcast. Then we go retro with Roman Polanski's horror classic "Rosemary's Baby," here in an all-new glorious Blu-ray release from Criterion. Finally, we wrap it up with a couple of early '80s schlock fests: "Terror Train" and "The Funhouse." Both are brought to us by Shout! Factory as well, and both remind us how much fun a low-budget thriller can be this time of year. All that plus the weekly Honorable Mentions and our Netflix Pick!

Here's a quirky collection for your viewing pleasure: On this episode, we'll have a look at the latest from Wes Anderson with "Moonrise Kingdom." In it, a couple of 12-year-old misfits decide to run away from home sending their whole town into a tizzy. The local scout troops take up the mission to return these "fugitives," but they don't really want to be found. We'll also visit the extraordinarily strange other world that is "Portlandia." In this sketch comedy series, Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein play a slew of characters with increasingly bizarre traits. Even if you've never been in the great northwest, you will definitely enjoy this little slice of alternative Americana. Finally, the dark LA drama "Crazy Eyes" follows a couple of hard-living, hard-drinking hipsters as they try to find something that resembles a relationship (or maybe not) in this gritty indie. Lukas Haas stars as a guy with questionable virtues who just can't seem to shake off his demons as he chases the iconoclastic girl who keeps getting away. All those plus our weekly Netflix Pick and Honorable Mentions!

We're kicking off the Halloween season with a couple of scary pics: First it's Edgar Allan Poe as you've never seen him before. In "The Raven," John Cusack portrays the poet as a tortured hero helping the police to track down a brutal serial killer who has kidnapped Poe's fiancee. We'll also look at "The Barrens" in which a family on a camping trip is confronted with the legend of the devil's spawn. In addition, we've got the slightly less scary horror comedy "Piranha 3DD" which has more killer fish and more, ummm, double Ds. You've been warned. One of the most anticipated films in geek circles this year is "Iron Sky." It's got everything you are expecting: moon Nazis, Udo Kier, flying saucers and a Sarah Palin stand-in as president. We'll see if the Blu-ray lives up to the hype. Finally, we'll take a quick look at an epic from more than 100 years ago with the recently restored "David Copperfield." At the time, this film adaptation of the Dicken's classic was one of the biggest movies from the burgeoning film industry. All that plus our weekly Honorable Mentions and more!

We're back! The TV is back together, and we are once again able to bring you a roundup of the coolest DVDs and Blu-rays on the market. We're bringing you the best of September with some really landmark releases. The man with the hat is back - The Complete Indiana Jones Collection makes its debut on Blu-ray in glorious high-definition with a monstrous collection of special features. Get to know one of the greatest film franchises of all time all over again. We've also got two amazing Criterion Blu-ray releases "Eating Raoul" and "Quadrophenia." In Paul Bartel's brilliantly subversive "Eating Raoul," an uptight couple living in Los Angeles decide to kill anyone they see as sexual perverts in order to steal money to open their dream restaurant. In The Who's "Quadrophenia," Jimmy is a mod struggling with his identity during the tumultuous summer of 1964 when rebellious teens rioted in the quiet seaside town of Brighton. Finally, we've got some great TV on DVD picks with the Shout! Factory release of "Steve Martin: The Television Stuff" and the totally unnecessary but totally awesome "Get A Life" complete series - one of the strangest series in TV history. All that plus a HUGE collection of Honorable Mentions! Thank you all for hanging in there - we're glad to be back!

It's time for an all-new DVD Geeks featuring a handful of new and interesting releases for the week! First off, we want to revisit Wes Anderson's 2001 film "The Royal Tenenbaums" with its all-star cast and brilliantly detailed look at the malaise of overachieving New Yorkers. Criterion's all-new, director-approved transfer to Blu-ray really does breathe new life into this modern classic. We'll step over to a run-down trailer in Texas where Gina Gershon plays a scheming wife trying to find the $1000,000 her husband stole in "Breathless." Finally, we'll head to Cuba for the zombie comedy "Juan of the Dead." All those plus the week's honorable mentions and more!

We may be barely hanging on after a whirlwind of geeking out at the 2012 Star Trek convention in Las Vegas, but we've pulled it together long enough to let you know about some choice DVDs for the week. Our attention is immediately drawn to anything with Stanley Kubrick's name on it, and this Blu-ray release of "Full Metal Jacket" is special for its newly-released bonus feature: the documentary "Stanley Kubrick's Boxes." In it, we are given a glimpse into Kubrick's private archives as well as his attention to detail and the psychological process of his approach to filmmaking. We'll also spend some time with the new Blu-ray release of the sci-fi classic "Total Recall" in a newly-restored edition just in time for the remake in theatres this month. There are new and old special features, and we spend the time to separate the wheat from the chaff. Also, we've got a look at an '80s cartoon classic with "My Little Pony" and a cadre of Honorable Mentions including "Jaws," "Titanic at 100," and much more!

DVD Geeks is a show where we wear our biases loud and proud for everyone to see. On this "very special episode," we're waving our geek flag high and spending an abnormally long time reviewing a single release: "Star Trek: The Next Generation" Season 1 on Blu-ray. Why? Well, it's a huge technical achievement first of all, and second we just couldn't wait to see if we could prove ourselves wrong with the malaise that had set in about TNG's retro-uncool '80s veneer. Does the show really hold up, or is it best delegated to the nostalgia bin? We dig deep into a few choice episodes, but we also talk about all those snazzy new special features. We even got to sit down with Roger Lay, Jr. who directed and co-produced the monumental special features. Trust us - this feature-length look at TNG will make those early DVD release special features seem like a sad old memory. There are a few minutes for "Honorable Mentions" this week as well so you can detox from Trek when you're good and ready.

We're recovering from Comic Con, and on this episode we welcome a very special guest to give us the lowdown on the biggest pop-culture convention on the planet. Michael Hinman from Airlock Alpha hit the floor and brought us the important news on upcoming releases that you need to know about. Getting back to our regular reviewing gig, we'll dive into the latest comedy from Upright Citizen's Brigade - the dance musical parody "Freak Dance." Then we'll visit a darker, nuanced performance from David Arquette in "Black Limousine." Will Ferrell's latest movie is "Casa de mi Padre," and we can't wait to tell you about how he carries off his role as the "little" brother in this Mexican revenge-film parody. Finally, it's an alien invasion movie with no aliens. In "Extraterrestrial," a man and woman wake up after a one-night-stand to discover alien ships hovering over the major cities of the world. We don't know what the aliens are up to, but we do know that paranoia is contagious - especially when the woman's boyfriend shows up...

We've been waiting a long time for the Blu-ray release of Roger Vadim's 1968 psychedelic sci-fi epic "Barbarella." Finally, Paramount has released Jane Fonda in all her heroic (and occasionally dressed) state, and we're here with an in-depth analysis with one of our favorite sci-fi experts, Director James Kerwin. You remember James. He's the creative force behind "Yesterday Was A Lie," and he, like us, is a big fan of "Barbarella." We'll explore the special features and maybe even suggest a few of our own. Not to be too single-minded, we'll explore a few other new and recent releases. The quirky family drama "Jesus Henry Christ" is the charming story of a boy genius, and the even quirkier "Some Guy Who Kills People" puts a social outsider on the attack when he fantasizes about killing his high-school tormenters. It's a character drama featuring some of our favorite actors (Barry Bostwick, Karen Black and Kevin Corrigan to name a few), and it just happens to carry a pretty hefty body count. Finally, we'll break out the love beads and the Patchouli when we give a look to the new Shout! Factory release of "The Grateful Dead" movie. Originally released to theaters in 1977 and then given the deluxe DVD treatment in 2004, the Dead live on in this jam-packed special edition. All that plus the week's Honorable Mentions and a look back at some of our favorite DVDs featuring the late, great Ernest Borgnine.

It's not all fun and games here at DVD Geeks. Every now and then we're the unfortunate recipients of some movies that might be better off in the dustbin of history. But we watch them so you don't have to! (And we'll redeem ourselves with a couple of good titles this week too!) Our friends over at The Asylum regaled us two new movies this month: an alien flick and a T&A skinfest. In "Alien Origin," we're treated to an expedition in the jungles of Belize that reveals we are not alone. In "Bikini Spring Break," we're treated to another kind of expedition when a group of marginally-talented (but hot!) marching-band members try to make their way cross country. Which B-movie comes out on top? Next, we'll see the latest contender to attempt to take the office cult-movie crown from "Office Space." In "Demoted," David Cross is the world's worst boss who takes out his vengeance on a couple of hot-shot sales dudes. He demotes them to the secretarial pool, and hilarity is supposed to ensue. We'll take a detour to the early '80s with a Boy George biopic "All About The Boy," and then we'll wrap things up with an intriguing home-invasion thriller "The Aggression Scale." It reunites a couple of "Twin Peaks" cast members, and introduces a very unlikely hero. All that plus the weekly Honorable Mentions and more!

Four great picks this week for your viewing pleasure! We start off with a Charlie Chaplin classic (once silent, then converted to a "talkie") lovingly restored by Criterion. The Blu-ray release of "The Gold Rush" showcases Chaplin at his finest with pathos and spectacular special effects. This disc contains the 1925 silent version as well as Chaplin's preferred 1942 sound-enhanced release. We'll see which one holds up the best. Next up, two "Friends" stars shine in quirky cable-TV releases. First, Matt LeBlanc's Golden Globe winning performance in "Episodes" explores the pitfalls that occur when a hit British show is Americanized. Next, we'll check in with self-appointed therapist Fiona Wallice, as portrayed by Lisa Kudrow, in the darkly bizarre "Web Therapy." Finally, the streets are tough in "The FP" (Frazier Park), but the underground dance scene is tougher. In one of the strangest yet most earnest dark comedies we've ever seen, the rival gangs of the FP fight for dominance in the only way they know how: mastering the art of "Beat, Beat Revelation" (not to be confused with Dance, Dance Revolution which is *totally* different). All that plus the week's Honorable Mentions and more!

After our self-imposed mini-hiatus, DVD Geeks is back with a roundup of cool new titles and a focus on three featured releases. First up, we explore the curious world of "Albert Nobbs." Glenn Close was nominated for and Academy Award for her portrayal of a woman in 19th century Ireland living life publicly as a man. "Albert" attempts to reconcile his secrets with his need for simple human relationships and a purpose in life. Next up, we'll see if comedian Ray Romano can create a buddy road-movie documentary as popular and well-received as his hit sitcom. Finally, there's a gritty new western in town: "Hell on Wheels." In the months immediately after the Civil War, as tensions are still at a staggering high, the nation attempts to come together and force industry out west through the transcontinental railroad. It's a story of personal revenge, questionable morality and industrial revolution. Join us for those as well as an awesome collection of Honorable Mentions!

This episode almost slipped by while your hosts were traveling, but we just had to make sure you heard about these new releases! As far as iconic '80s movies go, it doesn't get much better than "Dirty Dancing," and we've got a great Blu-ray set of the original and the 2004 follow-up "Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights." Speaking of romantic stories, Madonna's (Academy Award nominated) debut as a director "W.E." juxtaposes a problematic modern relationship with one of the most storied love affairs of all time. It's an inside look at King Edward VIII and his abdication for the woman he loved. It wouldn't be "DVD Geeks" without a look at some of those weird, overlooked titles, and this week we've got two: "Nazis At The Center of the Earth" from Asylum and the almost unreleased "Mother's Day" which puts a modern horror spin on the Troma original. We've also got the latest stand-up special from the multi-talented Bobcat Goldthwait plus the week's Honorable Mentions and more!