The Budget Geek’s TV Shows of the Week (descriptions courtesy TV Guide):
The Office - Thursday, April 29, 9:00pm NBC
“Body Language” Season 6, Episode 21
Episode Synopsis: Pam and Jim team up for their first sales pitch together. They deliver it to the manager of a regional hot spot, resulting in mix-ups when Michael has difficulty deciphering body language. Meanwhile, Dwight pushes Mindy to participate in the minority training program. Amy Pietz guest stars.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Friday, April 30, 9:00pm CARTOON NETWORK
“R2 Come Home” and “ Lethal Trackdown”
Episode Synopsis: When a band of bounty hunters leads Anakin and Mace into a deadly trap on Vanqor, it’s up to R2-D2 to battle his way back to Coruscant and warn the Jedi. After combing the Coruscant underworld for a young fugitive, Plo Koon and Ahsoka pursue him to Florrum for a climactic confrontation.
The Budget Geek’s Blu-ray Release of the Week:
From the mega-hitmakers who produced and directed The Rock and Pearl Harbor comes Armageddon. And now, these mind-blowing action-adventure explodes on Blu-ray for the first time ever! Bruce Willis (Surrogates, Sin City) and Academy Award winners Ben Affleck (1997, Best Original Screenplay, Good Will Hunting) and Billy Bob Thornton (1996, Best Adapted Screenplay, Sling Blade) head an all-star cast that incudes Liv Tyler (The Lord of the Rings trilogy), Steve Buscemi (Con Air) and Will Patton (Gone in 60 Seconds). When NASA’s director (Thornton) realizes the Earth has 18 days before it’s destroyed by a metor the size of Texas, he has only one option; land a ragtag team of roughneck oil drillers on the asteroid and drop a nuke into its core. With spectacular special effects, laugh out loud humor, a riveting story and a rockin’ soundtrack featuring Aerosmith and Bon Jovi, this adrenaline-pumping thrill ride now boasts the staggeringly intense picture and incomparable theater quality sound of Blu-ray high definitition. Bonus Features include: Aerosmith’s music video I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing, theatrical trailer, teaser trailer.
Editorial Comment from The Budget Geek: I am torn on this release. On one hand, this will be the first time that the film is available in anamorphic widescreen in the US. Add to that the fact that it is in high definition and this release should be worth the money. Right?
Unfortunately, the only bonus features offered here are the Aerosmith music video I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing and two trailers. Given the wealth of extras on the Criterion Collection Armageddon DVD set, this lack of extras on the Blu-ray release is very disappointing.
Fortunately, I own the Criterion DVD set, so I will likely purchase this for the film upgrade and keep the older set. However, I will not pay the $20 asking price on release date. Instead, I will wait for it to either fall in price to the $10-12 range, or pick up a used copy on Amazon.
The Budget Geek’s Podcast Pick of the Week:
The Flickcast
Each week, Chris Ullrich and Matt Raub talk movies, TV, comics, games and all things geek.
