Welcome back! Well, to some of you, anyway. To the rest of you, glad you decided to stop by and I hope that this humble column helps you navigate the stacks of new releases each week. My goal is to point you toward titles of interest and warn you away from those films that seek to do nothing but leech away your time and give you nothing in return.
This week brings a load of new releases, including a bunch of television seasons and films from earlier in the year. Time to catch up on what you missed! Well, maybe... not all of them were all that great, but some are surprisingly good. I am sure you will likely want to add a number of these to your personal collections, just like me.
How I Met Your Mother: The Legendary Season 3. I love this show! I never watched the first season and discovered the second season, by accident on DVD. The show has a clever setup, a strong cast, and very good writing. I am not sure why I didn't start watching it sooner, but I guess late is better than never. I have not seen all of the third season episodes yet, but I am sure going to! Who knew Neil Patrick Harris was so funny? It's also nice to see Alyson Hannigan playing someone other than Willow. (BUY, RENT, SKIP)
Sleeping Beauty: Platinum Edition. This is one of Disney's all time classics and it has gotten the remaster treatment, and it looks like it is also having its aspect ratio adjusted. The commercials show the new image compared to the old image and it looks like the sides have been opened to reveal more image. A quick search shows originally screened rations of 2.20 for 70mm prints and 2.35 for 35mm prints, while the original negative is 2.55. Not sure what is correct, but the new footage I have seen looks quite good. On another note, the Blu-ray is a three-disk set where the third disk is a standard DVD of the movie. Not a bad way to get your first Blu disk while waiting to get a player. (BUY, RENT, SKIP)
30 Rock: Season 2. One of my favorite sitcoms going right now. The writing is clever, the acting first rate, and it genuinely makes me laugh without needing a laugh track. I also noticed with the first season that watching episodes in groups seems to make them funnier. I hope that remains true for the second season. (BUY, RENT, SKIP)
The Simpsons: The Eleventh Season. I stopped buying these a few seasons ago, but I still enjoy the show and will eventually get around to getting more of them. The season is available in Krusty head collector packaging as well as the usual box. (BUY, RENT, SKIP)
![Black Symphony [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41KeeA8Bc9L._SL120_.jpg)
Article comments
1 - bibbyroo
it seems that no matter how crappy, you are willing to give it a try. while i appreciate your optimism, why even have the 'skip' option if you are never going to use it?
2 - Chris Beaumont
I use it, I just felt nothing was worthy of it this week.
3 - bibbyroo
really?!? with movies like 'the happening', and straight to video junk like 'joy ride 2', 'feast 2', and 'kill switch'? are you really suggesting that i should rent them? including a steven segal movie?!? you even write how his movies lately have not been any good, but i should still watch it anyway? you havent seen it, yet you are recommending that i do? at some point a pattern must be acknowleged: his last 10 films were terrible, and most likely, this one will be too. thats not really a strech for me to make that assumption. i guess i am just looking for some sort of discrimination between what might be good, and what is obvious junk. im not trying to make a personal attack, im just wondering if you are letting too much junk through along side the good stuff. let us know what is genuinely good, and what is worthless filler. perhaps that is impossible considering you have not seen all the movies, so it isnt really possible to let us know right on release day what is good and what is bad. maybe this feature should be changed from an opinion piece to an informational piece, and leave the 'buy/rent/skip' for an actual review of the films.
4 - Chris Beaumont
Sure, why not. The beauty of the suggestion is that you can choose to take it or not. I take a look at the new release lists and pick out the titles that interest me or that I want to say a bit about. Sure, the skip is chosen least often as I do not go through every single new release for this column (otherwise you would see a lot more skips).
As for good versus obvious junk, I am (un)fortunately saddled with the ability to enjoy films from all walks, A list to Z list. Therefore, I am more willing to give a larger variety of films a chance. Now, whether or not I ever get to everything is an entirely different matter, I have many titles in my collection that I have not gotten to yet.
This column is more news of notable titles that are out, seen or unseen by me, and my opinion/impression of them. If only this were my day job, I'd probably be able to give more information. As it is, I do what I can.
Thanks for reading.