Blu-ray & DVD: The Digital Dread Report for November 4th

The first week of November is relatively light on the Horror, but there are still plenty of great titles that are worth owning.

Told ya things were going to slow down a bit after Halloween. Sigh.

I suppose the big release of the week has to be the Extended Edition of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. We liked this sequel way more than we did the first Hobbit movie, and if we're buying it, the EE is definitely the only way to go. The Hobbit movies aren't as great as the Lord of the Rings movies (to us, anyhow), but they're still enjoyable enough, and worth owning for the sake of completion

We actually really enjoyed Maleficent. Being that we're not very big on Disney Princesses, we weren't bothered at all by the changes to the Sleeping Beauty story like so many people were. Like the movie or not, you can't deny that Angelina Jolie was absolutely brilliant in this movie. If you passed on Maleficent in Theaters, do yourself a favor and see it. It's a good flick, and it's a definite buy for us.

The Shout Factory release of The Doctor and the Devils has us curious, mainly because of its star-studded cast: Timothy Dalton, Jonathan Pryce, Julian Sands, Stephen Rea, Patrick Stewart... that like a who's who of classic British Actors. If nothing else, this tale of grave robbers will be a great watch from an acting standpoint.

We really love the hell out of The Rock; the guy is charismatic as hell, and he makes for a great action hero. That being said, we have no desire whatsoever to see Hercules.

Finally, the Steelbook releases of An American Werewolf in London, Psycho, and Shaun of the Dead, look great. There's nothing new about these releases at all, aside from the fact that they each come in a shiny new Steelbook that boast some great artwork, so if you already own any of these movies, there's no sense in re-buying them. Unless you're a sucker for great artwork. Or Steelbooks.

No Horror offerings on the TV front this week, but the fact that at long last the complete series of The Sopranos is finally available on Blu-ray is a beautiful thing. The Sopranos is one of the greatest TV Shows ever produced, and and to finally be able to own in in one, 1080p collection, is a dream come true for its fans. We've no doubt that this one will be under many a Christmas Tree this year, including ours. If you love great TV Shows, then this is about as Must Own as it gets.

Of this week's DVD releases, we're excited to see The Taking of Deborah Logan. This movie has been available on Netflix for a few weeks now, which is odd considering that the DVD just came out today, so I guess we don't have to buy it... For those without Netflix though, Deborah Logan seems like a movie that might be worth taking a flier on.