CSB is back this week with our weekly roundup of important DVD releases from around the world.

Now that the Oscar rush is winding down, we’ll have several slow weeks for DVD releases, unfortunately. The big title of the week is Sean Penn’s latest (directed) film Into the Wild. Also of interest is the critically-acclaimed documentary My Kid Could Paint That, the new Iranian drama Half Moon (from director Bahman Ghobadi, who also did A Time for Drunken Horses and Turtles Can Fly) and the American drama Things We Lost in the Fire, starring Halle Berry and Benecio Del Toro.

On the more obscure side, one title that looks particularly interesting this week is Amazons vs. Supermen, apparently an Italian production, shot entirely in Italy, but as a co-production with the legendary Shaw Brothers studios, and thus starring Yueh Hua, a regular star in Shaw martial arts films. Apparently this was the same year that Shaw Brothers did a co-production with Hammer Studios (Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires). In any case, I’m pretty sure this title was not released by Celestial Pictures as part of their massive catalog of Shaw releases over the past several years, so this is quite a find. As a sad side note, for those who don’t know, the Celestial Pictures titles have come to an end, which we’re very sorry to hear here at CSB, as we loved catching up on the old Shaws.

Another interesting title of note is volume 2 in the collection of Mexican horror films from BCI. Crypt of Terror: Horror from South of the Border Vol. 2 is out this week, with at least 5 films, though I note that the excellent blog on Mexican horror films Vampiros y Monstros indicates that there are seven titles included. I haven’t confirmed it for myself, but apparently volume 1 included English subtitles (albeit on full-frame transfers). Volume 2 includes Night of the Bloody Apes, which my colleagues here at CSB tell me is a ridiculous but fun (and disgusting) Mexi-horror movie, and also Dr. of Doom, which I’m told is also great fun — after all, how can you go wrong with Mexican wrestling women fighting a mad scientist?

There’s an exciting new Japanese film out this week (which was actually released this past Friday and in Korea, but who’s counting), which is Takashi Miike’s Like a Dragon, the film he made before Sukiyaki Django Western. To my knowledge this is the first time this film has been released with (alleged) English subtitles, though, as fair warning, I note that a comment by a customer at Yesasia reports that it does not actually have them, see here). If any of our readers have this DVD, please email us to let us know whether this is true.

And, sadly, that’s about it for this week. On the HD front, Ice Age is the only significant new title out on Blu-ray, though Into the Wild has been released on the now-defunct HD-DVD format. There are also 4 new silent Chinese classics out from Cinema Epoch, which makes me glad, though I doubt they will be big sellers. In the UK, a set of Kubrick films were released on Blu-ray, but otherwise Region 2 and Region 3 dvd are quiet as far as I can tell.

Alright, enough of my babbling. A complete list of this week’s highlights follows below. Enjoy!

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Released This Week On DVD in the USA (March 4, Region 1, NTSC):

101 Dalmations (Disney)
1961, USA, Director: Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske

Amazons and Supermen (Rarescope) (Navarre Corp)
1975, Italy/HK, Director: Alfonso Brescia, Starring: Yueh Hua

Arranged (Filmmovement)
2007, USA, Directors: Stefan Schaefer, Diane Crespo

Automaton Transfusion (Weinstein)
2006, USA, Director: Steven C. Miller

Crypt of Terror: Horror from South of the Border Vol. 2 (includes Night of the Bloody Apes, Curse of the Doll People, Spiritism, Wrestling Women vs. the Aztec Mummy, Doctor of Doom) (Navarre)

Eleven Men Out (Here)
2005, Iceland, Director: Robert I. Douglas

Getting Any? “Uncut Edition” (21st Century Dreamquest)
1995, Japan, Director: Takeshi Kitano

Half Moon (Strand Releasing)
2007, Iran, Director: Bahman Ghobadi

Her Name is Sabine (FilmMovement)
2007, France, Director: Sandrine Bonnaire

The Hogfather (Genius Products)
2006, UK, Director: Vadim Jean

Into the Wild (Paramount) (Available on DVD and HD-DVD)
2007, USA, Director: Sean Penn

Khadak (Lifesize Ent.)
2006, Mongolia, Director: Peter Brossens, Jessica Hope Woodworth

The Kill Point (Lionsgate)
2007, TV Series, Starring: Donnie Wahlberg, John Leguizamo

Magnum P.I.: the Complete 8th Season (Universal)
1980, USA, Director: Gilbert Shilton, Robert Totten

Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium (20th Century Fox) (DVD and Blu-ray)
2007, USA, Director: Zach Helm, Starring: Dustin Hoffman

My Kid Could Paint That (Sony)
2007, USA/UK, Director: Amir Bar Lev

Myriad of Lights / Along the Sungari River (Cinema Epoch)
(I don’t know the exact date, but they’re silent films) China

An Orphan on the Streets / Watch (Cinema Epoch)
(I don’t know the exact date, but they’re silent films) China

The Pink Panther Classic Cartoon Collection Vol. 6 (MGM)
1969, USA, Director: Sid Marcus, Art Leonardi

Pistol Whipped (Sony)
2008, USA, Director: Roel Reine, Starring: Steven Seagal

Shaolin vs. Ninja / Shaolin vs. Tai Chi (Rarescope) (Navarre)
1983, Hong Kong, Director: Mai Chen Jsai

The Shepherd: Border Patrol (Sony)
2008, USA, Director: Isaac Florentine, Starring: Jean Claude Van Damme

Shogun Assassin Vol. 4 (Animeigo)

Surveillance 24/7 (Wolfe Video)
2007, UK, Director: Paul Oremland

TCM Archives: Forbidden Hollywood Vol. 2 (includes The Divorcee, A Free Soul, Night Nurse, Three on a Match, Female) (TCM)

Things We Lost in the Fire (Dreamworks) (DVD and HD-DVD)
2007, USA/UK, Director: Susanne Bier

Also available on Blu-ray: Ice Age, The Rookie

Also available on HD-DVD: No Reservations

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Released This Week On DVD in the UK (March 3, Region 2, PAL):

101 Dalmations (Disney)
1961, USA, Director: Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske

Also available on Blu-ray: 2001: a Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Eyes Wide Shut, Full Metal Jacket, The Shining

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Additional Links:
::: DVD Calendar — a Look at What’s Coming Up
::: Discuss This Week in DVD with Others in the Movie Forum Lounge
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“Are you speaking in code? What do you mean by saying some DVDs are Region 2, PAL or NTSC?

DVDs are encoded by region — there are 6 Regions for DVD. A Region 2 disc will not play in a Region 1 country and vice-versa unless you have a special “all region” DVD player. If you’re not sure if you have an “all region” DVD player or not, then don’t worry about it, you don’t have one. These are not things you stumble across by accident, so you would only have one if you had sought it out.

Generally speaking, Region 1 is the USA and Canada, Region 2 is most of Europe and Japan. Hong Kong and South Korea fall under Region 3. Mainland China has Region 6 all to itself (and to date I’ve never been able to find a Region 6 DVD that wasn’t actually a VCD or Region 0 bootleg), and the rest of the world chops up Region 4 and 5 (Australia is Region 4). As an added twist, a DVD that is not region coded is marked Region 0 and in theory can play everywhere (but see the PAL/NTSC explanation below).

Whether you can play DVDs that are “PAL” vs. “NTSC” is another potential hurdle — most of Europe is PAL and most other countries release in NTSC. The actual difference is a technical one and relates to the number of frames per second that the film is recorded at. Almost all of the “all region” players also convert between PAL and NTSC (they wouldn’t be much use otherwise), but if you don’t have such a player, then you will likely only be able to play either PAL DVDs or NTSC DVDs, depending on where you live (or bought your TV), even if the DVD is Region 0.

By the way, these problems all potentially apply to high definition format releases as well, but exactly how they will apply is still in flux (they have the ability to be region coded, but to date many have not been, and in any case I have not yet heard of an all-region Blu-ray player).

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“Why aren’t you listing films from the country of _________”

We love international movies from all over the world, and if I had my way, everything from popular Nigerian action movies to Taiwanese television dramas would be on here each week. But often release information is not available to us in advance (or at all), and truth be told we sometimes run out of time to cover what we do know. As a result, many hugely important film industries too often are not covered above (including for India, Iran and much of Europe, to name just a few). Please do not interpret this as an affront to you, your country, your mother or anything else. On the contrary, if you have any helpful information or links, please email us — we’re dying to know more.

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“Hey! This isn’t a full list of this week’s titles! Where’s my Tae Bo exercise video!!!!”

Here at Cinema Strikes Back our goal is to sift through the masses of dvd information so you don’t have to — to cut straight to the good stuff, or at least what us handful of film geeks think is the good stuff. That means that many dvd releases are left off the list, either because they suck or more likely because we don’t know better. Although I can’t promise we’ll include everything sent to us (”ARRGH, How could you not include Postnatal Rescue or Topless Fight Club in this week’s lineup!”), we always welcome feedback, and I invite you to email me here if I’ve forgotten any important releases this week.