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Buy blockbuster alone or splurge for special four-movie package
By Rich Heldenfels
Beacon Journal popular culture writer
Published on Sunday, Oct 12, 2008
When Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull hit theaters this summer, plenty of people were ready to embrace it, sight unseen.
Then we saw it.
Padded, creaky, erratically plotted, it proved a disappointment overall, and not in the league with the best of the three previous Indiana Jones movies. And when the ending hinted at yet another film continuing the Indy franchise into a younger generation, all I could do was groan.
But that was not the opinion of all moviegoers, as Crystal Skull made almost $317 million at the North American box office. It was third overall among films this year, just behind Iron Man (which is now on DVD) although well back of the champ, The Dark Knight (due on DVD in December). It made more money than Iron Man when you count revenues from overseas, since Indy is a global phenomenon.
So there will be plenty of ways to spend your money on Crystal Skull on Tuesday when Paramount releases the movie on standard definition DVD and high-definition Blu-ray.
It will be available on a single disc ($34.99), a two-disc special edition ($39.99) and a two-disc Blu-ray set (also $39.99, which should tell you how very much distributors would like you to move up to Blu-ray).
There is also a standard-DVD Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventure Collection ($99.99), which has the three previous movies and the two-disc version of Crystal Skull — although they should have called it The Complete Adventure Collection Until We Decide to Make Another Movie. After all, it was just five months ago that consumers were enticed by the Adventure Collection of the first three movies.
Extras on the two-disc, standard DVD set of the newest film include an account of the making of Crystal Skull, pieces on makeup and props and photo galleries. The Blu-ray version adds other features, such as an interactive timeline within the movie.
On the TV side, the sitcom Back to You looked like a strong contender for success on Fox a year ago, not least because of its pedigree: the stars were Kelsey Grammer of Cheers and Frasier fame and Bay Village's Patricia Heaton, best known for Everybody Loves Raymond.
Their series — about two news anchors (and former lovers) teamed up again after a long separation — needed some fine-tuning as it went along. Even their more than funny co-star, Shaker Heights' Fred Willard, was at times betrayed by the writing. But it also had hilarious moments, and with another season it might have become a TV bright spot.
Alas, Fox did not pick up the show for a second go-round. Indeed, as a new DVD set notes, three of the 17 episodes made during its strike-shortened season never even got on the air. But you can see those, and revisit the other 14 in the optimistically titled Back to You: Season 1 (Fox, three discs, $39.98). Extras, besides the unaired episodes, are limited: a couple of short pieces and some bloopers.
Going back into TV history, some viewers may fondly remember Quark, a science-fiction comedy from Get Smart co-creator Buck Henry, which aired briefly in 1978. It starred Richard Benjamin as Adam Quark, captain of a space-traveling garbage collection crew, and was loaded with silly and intermittently clever jokes in the Get Smart vein.
Time has not been kind to the show, which Sony releases on DVD on Tuesday (eight episodes, two discs, $19.94). Although it at times pokes wittily at the pomposity and cheesiness of Star Trek and other sci-fi staples, the humor is hit-and-miss and the laugh track is thoroughly annoying. No extras related to the show itself; the set does include edited-down ''minisodes'' of I Dream of Jeannie and Fantasy Island.
Briefly noted: Liberty's Kids, the animated series about young people during the American Revolution, will be in stores Tuesday in a complete-series set (Shout! Factory, 40 episodes, six discs, $59.99). . . . If you don't own the Bing Crosby-Fred Astaire classic Holiday Inn already, Universal is giving you another chance with Holiday Inn: 3-Disc Collector's Set ($26.98). It includes the original black-and-white film, an unnecessary colorized version and a CD of 12 songs from the movie, along with other extras.
Down the DVD road: Moonlight, the vampire series starring Alex O'Loughlin, will be on DVD in January. And for those of you still hoping the show will come back, please note the set is called Moonlight: The Complete Series.
Rich Heldenfels writes about popular culture for the Beacon Journal and in the HeldenFiles Online blog at http://www.ohio.com. He can be reached at 330-996-3582 and rheldenfels@thebeaconjournal.com.
When Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull hit theaters this summer, plenty of people were ready to embrace it, sight unseen.
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