Weekly DVD Roundup

I just thought I'd go over this week's DVD releases. In case you're wondering, you can click on any title and go to Amazon.com, and should you decide to purchase said DVD, I receive a portion of what you spend from the nice folks at Amazon.

Right then. First, there's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, that fine movie starring Russell Crowe that I yacked about a few months ago. Great nautical fun, and I can't wait to see it on the big TV and hear it on the stereo. At the risk of sterotyping myself, Reefer Madness comes out tomorrow too. An obscure propaganda film before folks in the early 70s rediscovered it and turned it into a sort of poster child for the marijuana movement, the DVD presents the film in a newly-restored, colorized version, and the old black-and-white for the purists. It's also got a ton of extras.

Moving right along to Step Into Liquid, a surfer movie by the son of the guy who made the classic surfer documentary Endless Summer. Liquid tours the world from Vietnam to Sheboygan to the Gulf of Mexico to Ireland and examines surfing everywhere, including some unbelievable water and wave footage. I haven't actually seen this movie, so it's going to be a blind buy, but the trailer looks great and it's gotten some really good reviews. Plus, they use one of my favorite Butthole Surfers songs, so it can't be all bad. Lastly, Robert Altman's classic 3 Women gets the Criterion treatment. The Criterion Collection is a library of noteworthy international cinema, from big flicks like Armageddon to new stuff like Chasing Amy to classics like Seven Samurai and Monty Python's Life of Brian. Here's a list of what they've put on DVD so far.