Movies Unlimited - The Movie Collector's Website

Deadly M.A.N.T.I.S.: A cult fave that lasted only for one season in 1994 on Fox, M.A.N.T.I.S.: The Complete Series starred Carl Lumbly as a super-intelligent handicapped scientist who builds an exoskeleton that gives him amazing superhuman abilities. He soon uses his new powers to battle criminals and stop the city’s escalating crime rate. Bobby Hosea and Steve James also star in this four-disc set.

Buy George: George A. Romero, the guiding force behind the Living Dead zombie films, scored with Tales From The Darkside, a Creepshow-like anthology series that ran 1984 to 1988 in syndication. Danny Aiello, Christian Slater, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar were among the guest stars in the macabre installments penned by Romero, Stephen King and other top genre writers. Nonstop goosebumps are guaranteed in the three-disc Tales From The Darkside: The First Season.

Blossom Rocks!: Do we credit Joey Lawrence’s success on Dancing With The Stars for the DVD arrival of Blossom: Seasons 1 & 2? OK. This tween-favorite sitcom that ran on NBC from 1991-1995 starred Mayim Bialik as the free-spirited teenager of the title, daughter of a divorced studio musician (Ted Wass) who had his hands full with the fairly real-life adolescent angst provided by Blossom and big brothers Anthony (Michael Stoyanov) and Joey (Lawrence). Jenna Von Oy co-stars in this six-disc set that runs 15 hours.

Major Minis: A slew of much-requested mini-series and TV movies are on the way to DVD. Among them:

Captains And The Kings (1976): The NBC epic of Irish immigrants’ experiences in 19th century America from Taylor Caldwell stars Richard Jordan as the father who makes it in the business world, and has designs on seating son Perry King as the first Catholic President of the United States. The impressive all-star cast includes Patty Duke Astin, Henry Fonda, Charles Durning and Jane Seymour.

George Wallace (2-Disc Special Edition) (1997): A magnificent performance by Gary Sinise as the controversial segregationist Georgia governor and presidential candidate highlights John Frankenheimer’s first-rate biographical drama for TNT. Angelina Jolie, Mare Winningham, and Joe Don Baker also star.

East Of Eden (1981): John Steinbeck’s classic novel receives a magnificent ABC mini-series treatment as it follows three generations of an American family, from the Civil War through World War I. Warren Oates, Timothy Bottoms, Bruce Boxleitner, Hart Bochner and Jane Seymour star.

Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story (1987): The amazing life of Hutton, heiress to the F.W. Woolworth fortune, wife to several men (including Cary Grant), and victim of a tough tumble from the high to low life is given an acclaimed account with Farrah Fawcett in the lead. Burl Ives and Anne Francis also star in this effort that originally aired on NBC.

Teen Scene: In The Secret Life Of The American Teenager: Season One, high school band geek Amy Jeurgens (Shailene Woodley) finds herself having to grow up very quickly as a result of an unplanned pregnancy. Kenny Baumann, Josie Bissett and Molly Ringwald co-star in the 2008 ABC Family saga, offered on three discs featuring 11 episodes.

Ritz Cracker: Robbie Coltrane shines in Cracker: The Complete Collection, a ten-disc compendium of the classic 1993-1996 British crime series that offers close to 23 hours of great mystery TV. Coltrane played brilliant criminal pathologist Dr. Edward “Fitz” Fitzgerald, who is great on tracking down criminals, but not so great getting along with others, while trying to lay off of booze, women and gambling.

Plains Speaking: Laramie, the fondly remembered NBC sagebrusher that ran from 1959-1963, is finally riding up on DVD in a set branded Laramie In Color, Part 1. The show’s premise concerned the efforts of Slim Sherman (John Smith) to maintain his murdered father’s Wyoming Territory cattle ranch, and to keep income flowing by using the land as a stagecoach relay station. He was aided by drifter-turned-hand Jess Harper (Robert Fuller) over the show’s run; passers-through over the years included Slim’s kid brother Andy (Bobby Crawford, Jr.) and family retainers Jonesy (Hoagy Carmichael) and Daisy (Spring Byington). This six-disc set contains all 28 episodes from the series’ third season, its first to air in color.

Archives