DVD Pick of the Week: Night Watch

This week's crop of DVD releases brings an Oscar winner, a remake, a bunch of superhero stuff, a cult horror film, and more. Out of all the choices I could have gone with, I have chosen a film that I have not seen, not for lack of desire, but for the lack of a local theater willing to screen it.

This week's pick is the Russian film Night Watch (Nochnoi Dozor). It is the first part of an epic horror trilogy from writer/director Timur Bekmambetov. It details the battle between the forces of good and evil that have been waged since the dawn of time. It has been called the Russian equivalent to the Matrix trilogy. This film focuses on the forces of the night who work tirelessly to defend those who don't know. The second film, Day Watch has made its way through the Russian theaters, and the finale, Dusk Watch, is due next year.

I have been looking forward to this for some time now. I really hoped to have seen this on the big screen, but I guess my laptop screen will have to do. The trailer looks great, big action, epic story, everything you could ask for. Now, I hope I am not setting myself up for a fall, but I have high expectations for this one.

Also coming out this week:

• The Adventures of Superman: Seasons 3 & 4. The classic George Reeves version of Big Blue continues its DVD releases with the middle two seasons.
• Eight Below. This Disney tale of inspiration was actually very good. Paul Walker was actually watchable, and they did a good job of giving the dogs individual personalities.
• Equinox: Criterion Collection. I've heard good things about this low budget horror flick. Must be good enough to get the Criterion treatment!
• The Hills Have Eyes. Alexandre Aja's remake of this early Wes Craven film is pretty good. Aja has the right eye for this sort of material.
• Justice League: Season 2. The excellent, and final season, of JL is here, just in time for Superman Returns next week.
• Korn: Live on the Other Side. Another live DVD from the prolific Godfathers of nu-metal. Looks good!
• Look, Up in the Sky - The Amazing Story of Superman. From the producers of that excellent Star Wars documentary comes this one, tracing Superman's origins.
• The Omen: 2 disk Collector's Editon. A new edition, loaded with bonus material, of the original film. Strange time to release it, figured it would have come before the remake hit theaters.
• Superman: Brainiac Attacks. A new animated adventure, I saw this last weekend on Cartoon Network. It was OK, but the character of Lex was off. I would stick to the other releases.
• Superman: The Animated Series Vol. 3. Yet more Superman stuff!
• Syriana. This was a very good film, but a little plot heavy and definitely requires a few viewings to get it all.

What are you getting this week?