Yesterday's Double Dips

With yesterday being new DVD day, there were a couple of double-dips I wanted to report on, but never got around to.

First up, Joss Whedon's big screen version of Firefly, Serenity, finally gets a 2-disc special edition. The original, single-disc version only had a running commentary from Whedon, a featurette about how the show got resurrected into a movie, and a handful of cut scenes.

On this new 2-disc edition, you get all that stuff, plus a second running commentary with Whedon and the cast, a documentary about the making of the film, a featurette about the ship itself, a few more cut scenes, the online webisodes that chrocincled River Tam's conditioning, and the Sci-Fi channel TV special about the show.

I like this universe, but not enough to buy it again.

And the second one...well, you know you have to report it when Ebert and Roeper make it their DVD pick of the week.

That would be RoboCop: 20th Anniversary Edition. RoboCop hasn't had a decent DVD special edition since DVD was young and new 10 years ago.

The big thing about this 2-disc edition is you get both the original theatrical version AND the original, X-rated director's cut. For those who don't know their history, RoboCop was originally rated X for its excessive gore and violence. So, director Paul Verhoven did some editing and got it down to an R. He only had to a cut a minute's worth of stuff, but there was a lot of blood in that one minute.

Plus, you know, there's also the fun stuff like featurettes and running commentaries. Seeing as to how I don't own RoboCop at all, this might be the one worth getting.