June 26th, 2019
It is an absolute nightmare on the home market. There’s no monster hit to talk about, but there are a mountain of new releases that are selling well enough that they could have been featured in the main list and about twice as many that could have been included in the Secondary Blu-ray release. I had to trim some of them to keep the list manageable. Unfortunately, the list of Pick of the Week contenders is rather short with just Megalobox: Season One and Frankie Drake Mysteries: Season Two, both of which are worth owning. However, the biggest and best release of the week is Captain Marvel. The screener arrived late, but I finally got the review of the Blu-ray online. That said, I’m going to award Frankie Drake Mysteries with Puck of the Week for best Canadian release.
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May 28th, 2019
We are back to normal on the home market for a summer week. That is to say, there’s almost nothing to talk about. The biggest physical release of the week is Outlander: Season Four. The show’s reviews have slipped a little, but they are still earning amazing reviews. However, it airs on Starz, so most people have never seen it and I don’t think it is a good idea to jump into the show in season four. Greta is the next biggest physical release, but it is not Pick of the Week material. That leaves How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, which came out last week, but the screener arrived late. And of course Captain Marvel, which is coming out on VOD this week. So the choice for Pick of the Week is down to a movie I already awarded the title to and a movie that isn’t out on DVD / Blu-ray this week. It’s a tough call, but in the end, I went with How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. Captain Marvel will have another chance when it comes out on Blu-ray.
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January 1st, 2018
Lucky is the directorial debut for John Carroll Lynch and the second last performance by its star, Harry Dean Stanton, who sadly passed away just before the film was released. Does the film celebrate the acting talents of Harry Dean Stanton? Does John Carroll Lynch show he’s got the talent to be a director in his first film?
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December 5th, 2017
The week is deceptively strong. At first glance, Despicable Me 3 appears to have scared off all of the competition, but when you look deeper, there are a lot of contenders for Pick of the Week. These include Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series, Better Watch Out, Princess Cyd, and others. In the end, I went with Long Time Running, which came out on DVD and Blu-ray last Friday.
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October 18th, 2017
It is one of those weeks. There’s a massive release coming out, which has scared away nearly all of the competition, so it is a really shallow week. Fortunately, that huge release is Spider-Man: Homecoming, which is not only one of the biggest hits of the year, it is also one of the reviewed. It isn’t the only contender for Pick of the Week, but the Blu-ray Combo Pack wins that honor.
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September 27th, 2017
Transformers: The Last Knight is the biggest release of the week and it has scared away a lot of the competition, but it’s garbage and should be avoided. There are no big releases that are pick of the week contenders, but some smaller ones fit the bill, including David Lynch: The Art Life: The Criterion Collection, HYOUKA: Part Two, and Shameless: The Complete Seventh Season. All are amazing and worth checking out, but none have many extras, so it is up to the role of the dice to determine the Pick of the Week. ... And it’s HYOUKA.
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March 31st, 2017
It’s one of those weeks. There are a number of films earning good reviews, and some are earning great reviews. However, none of them are earning loud enough buzz to suggest they will escape the art house circuit. Worse still, there are many like The Blackcoat’s Daughter that are opening simultaneously on Video on Demand, which will all but kill their box office chances.
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September 18th, 2016
Twin Peaks came out more than 25 years ago and it was instantly a smash hit on TV an a cultural phenomenon. A year later it was gone. There was an attempt at a prequel movie, but the less said about that film’s box office numbers, the better. Despite its short and bumpy run, the show’s never really faded out of the minds of its fans and a box set makes perfect sense. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time such a box set has been released. I previously reviewed the Definitive Gold Edition when it came out on DVD in 2007, while a Blu-ray edition, The Entire Mystery came out in 2014. Is this one worth upgrading to if you own the previous one? Is it at least worth buying if you missed the previous one?
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October 26th, 2015
It's the week of double-dips, as there are five double-dips for films that would normally be Pick of the Week contenders, but only if you don't have them already. Army Of Darkness has been released so many times, it is hard to keep track of them all. Same with Monty Python and the Holy Grail. If you don't own either of these movies, you need to buy them. However, most fans will already have them. Because of this, I'm giving the Pick of the Week to Mad Men. I reviewed Season Seven, Part Two, but the Complete Series Megaset is the better deal.
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