Perhaps to make up for last week's weak selection, we have an embarrasment of, well, if they're not all riches, they're at least notable.
Veronica Mars: The Complete First Season
Remember how much I pimped Lost a few weeks ago? That's almost how much I want to pimp this. Veronica Mars was the other breakout critical success of the last TV season and now you can see why (though why you can't see in time for the second season, which has already started off strong, is beyond me). Basically imagine if Encyclopedia Brown were a chick and investigated slightly more hardcore cases like, say, the murder of her best friend and her own rape. And she did it all in a town caught in the grip of a class struggle. Throw in some excellent dialogue, crackerjack plotting, and engaging characters and you've pretty much got this show.
A lot of unaired footage in the extras, but sadly no commentary. For example, I'd have liked to see what drew action producer Joel Silver to this material.
Kingdom of Heaven
Before you start hatin', keep in mind that there were a lot folks enamored with this re-telling of The Crusades, and many of the criticisms centered on the fact that the script tried to be too accomodating to all points of view. Better that than a racist tirade. Of course, better than both would have been a compelling film, but what are you gonna do? Saddled with the guilt of launching the Summer of the Slump (don't get me started on the dubiousness of that rubric), this flick looks to make better on the home video circuit, what with nifty extras like a streaming text commentary to provide historical info, an "Interactive Production Grid" that looks to redesign the whole making-of featurette experience, and a couple of cable shows on the film from A&E and The History Channel.
Unleashed (Unrated Widescreen Edition)
From the "better than expected" category comes this Luc Besson-penned, Louis Leterrier-helmed actioner about a fighter (Jet Li) raised like a dog by a gangster (Bob Hoskins) and re-humanized by a caring family (Morgan Freeman and Kerry Condon). On the surface, this may seem like a redux of the far superior Besson masterpiece The Professional, and in many ways it is. But excellent performances (by Hoskins in partiuclar), outstanding fight scenes, and an only occasionally grating script help this rise above such comparisons.
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