The Latest on DVD: Here Comes the Spider-Woman

Long absent from DVD, the gay-themed indie classic Kiss of the Spider Womanis now available in an Amazon.com exclusive two-disc collector's edition on both standard DVDand Blu-ray.Included in the set is the feature-length documentary Tangled Web: Making Kiss of the Spider Woman.

The 1985 film, based on the Manuel Puig novel, was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. William Hurt won the Best Actor Oscar, the first for an openly gay character.

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The Latest on DVD: Chance Encounter

Remember all those 80's teen comedies by the likes of John Hughes? Well, imagine a long-lost gay entry in that genre and you have The Curiosity of Chance,on DVD today.

Tad Hilgenbrink stars as the title character, the Ferris Bueller-type new kid at school who finds it's hard to fit "in" when he's "out". This fest fave (written and directed by Russell P. Marleau), with its cute actors, retro songs and a drag queen or two, looks like a fun romp, a pinker Pretty in Pink, if you will.

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The Latest on DVD: Dolly-Rama

Everyone loves Dolly Parton (we certainly do), but do you own any of her clothing? Make annual pilgrimages to Dollywood? Stalk her?

As you can see in the trailer, the subjects of For the Love of Dolly,the new documentary available on DVD today, go above and beyond the average Parton fan. Among the passionate fans seen here are a gay couple whose house is filled with "Dollybilia", while another pair dress up as giant day-glo butterflies.

In other words, think Trekkies with a Southern accent.

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The Latest on DVD: Holy Bait and Switch, Batman!

Anyone who glances at the Dark Knight-inspired packaging of the DVD above may be inclined to believe it is the latest of the Batman movies. However, this one doesn't star Christian Bale or Michael Keaton or even George Clooney, but the first pop culture Caped Crusader, Adam West.

Yep, it's Batman: The Movie,the feature-length spin-off of the campy 60's TV show starring West and Burt Ward as the Dynamic Duo, with a rogues gallery of villains made up of Cesar Romero's Joker, Burgess Meredith's Penguin, Frank Gorshin's Riddler and the Catwoman stylings of Miss Lee Meriwether.

Also available on Blu-ray,this "Special Edition" (conveniently timed to coincide with the approaching release of The Dark Knight), includes an audio commentary by West and Ward, brand new bonus featurettes and a "Holy Trivia Track, Batman!" option.

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The Latest on DVD: Muse-ical Magic!

Who knew that 28 years after its notorious box office belly flop that Xanadu would find itself resurrected not only as the quintessential "bad movie we love", but also as an award winning Broadway hit?

The magical, muse-filled musical starring Olivia Newton John, Michael Beck and Gene Kelly (in his last film role) is even getting a deluxe DVD treatment, new this week: the Xanadu: Magical Musical Edition.In addition to a digitally remastered picture, new 5.1 surround sound audio track and all-new bonus features, the set also includes the complete CD soundtrack (granted, most of us already have that, but still ... )

By the by, if you too have fond memories of "growing up Xanadu", be sure to read Dan McCallum's hilarious essay on doing just that over at AfterElton.com.

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The Latest on DVD: Miranda Rights

As a connoisseur of cinematic camp classics, you have the right to be ecstatic about The Carmen Miranda Collection,a new box set featuring five of the Brazilian Bombshell's best.

Three of the five -- Greenwich Village, If I'm Lucky and Something for the Boys -- are new to DVD, but the best news is a newly restored print of The Gang's All Here, easily her most famous -- or infamous -- film. The extravagant "The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat" production number, courtesy of Busby Berkeley, must be seen to be believed. Rounding out the set is Doll Face, previously only available in poor public domain prints.

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The Latest on DVD: Good Clean Fun

"This is a story about two sisters, Jessica Tate and Mary Campbell. These are the Tates. And these are the Campbells. And this is Soap."

If these words don't start the familiar theme music running through your head, then maybe you need to spend a little time with the aforementioned Tates and Campbells. A satire about desperate housewives long before anyone ever heard of Wisteria Lane, this Emmy Award winning comedy series tackled everything from murderous adulterers to demonic possession to alien abduction; it also featured one of the first regular gay characters on network television, Jodie Dallas, played by a fresh-faced Billy Crystal.

You can now watch (or re-watch) it with Soap: The Complete Series,a 12-disc collection featuring all 93 episodes of the groundbreaking sitcom, available on DVD today. And for more of this week's new releases, see the Amazon widgets in the sidebar.

The Latest on DVD: Possessed and Undressed

The newest episodes of here! TV's sexy supernatural soap are now available on DVD with Dante's Cove: Season 3.Gay faves Reichen Lehmkuhl and Jensen Atwood join the rest of the photogenic cast this go round; click here for the season preview. The two-disc set includes all five one-hour episodes.

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The Latest on DVD: Faboo

Sweetie darling, if you must have absolutely every fabulous moment of Patsy and Edina's alcohol-soaked, drug-induced, Lacroix-clad adventures, then you absolutely must have Absolutely Fabulous - Absolutely Everything.

The new nine-disc box set includes all five series of the classic Britcom, plus the two Christmas specials and over two and half hours of bonus features. The whole shebang is packaged in a chic silver quilted photo journal with leopard print bookmark. Like I said, "faboo".

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The Latest on DVD: The Bear Necessities

"It's time to put on make up, it's time to light the lights," which means it's time for The Muppet Show: The Complete Third Season,now on DVD for the first time.

Season three was a high point for the classic series. Not only did the season boast such guest stars as Gilda Radner, Pearl Bailey, Jean Stapleton, Alice Cooper, Loretta Lynn, Liberace, Raquel Welch, James Coco, Helen Reddy, Harry Belafonte, Lesley Ann Warren, Danny Kaye, Leslie Uggams, Sylvester Stallone, Roy Rogers & Dale Evans, Lynn Redgrave and Cheryl Ladd (whew!), but the beloved variety show also won the prestigious Peabody Award that year. None to shabby for a bunch of felt.

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The Latest on DVD: Sci Fi Showcase

Previously only available through Best Buy, Universal releases today the first two volumes of their Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collectionin one ten movie set.

If you love vintage 50's science fiction, this is the collection for you: Tarantula, The Mole People, The Monolith Monsters, Monster on the Campus, Dr. Cyclops, Cult of the Cobra, The Land Unknown, The Deadly Mantis, The Leech Woman and The Incredible Shrinking Man (one of my personal favorites of the genre).

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The Latest on DVD: Happy Mother's Day

What better way to honor dear ol' mom this Sunday then with a slice of classic John Waters satire?

Serial Mom: Collector's Editionincludes featurettes about the making of the cult favorite, a salute to B-movie influences Herschell Gordon Lewis and David F. Friedman, plus an audio commentary by Waters and his Beverly Sutphin, Kathleen Turner.

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The Latest on DVD: The Big Gay DVDs

On the heels of its recent season finale comes The Big Gay Sketch Show - The Complete Unrated Second Seasonon DVD. In addition to all eight episodes (now uncensored), a bonus disc includes bonus sketches, interviews with the cast, behind-the-scenes featurettes and more. Also available: The Big Gay Sketch Show - The Complete Unrated First Season.

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And speaking of Big Gay things, LOGO tonight will air a special episode of the Show that promises to feature "clips highlighting favorite characters". Let's hope it's better then that Big Straight fiasco of a few weeks back.

The Latest on DVD: The Other Hoff

Philip Seymour Hoffman had a great year in 2007. In addition to the critically acclaimed Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (released on DVDlast week), he won an Indie Spirit Award for The Savagesand was nominated for an Oscar for Charlie Wilson's War.

The former is a black comedy about an estranged brother (Hoffman) and sister (Academy Award nominee Laura Linney) who come together to take care of their dying father (Philip Bosco), while the latter is Mike Nichols' political satire about a Texas congressman (Tom Hanks) who, along with a wealthy socialite (Julia Roberts) and a portly CIA agent (Hoffman, natch), funds the Afghan war against the Soviet Union.

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The Latest on DVD: Lars and the Pregnant Girl

Two modern romances that more or less define in contemporary cinematic terms the word "quirky" are new to DVD today:

• Juno- Ellen Page is the title character, a knocked up high school teenager who turns to the Pennysaver to find the perfect adoptive parents for her unborn child. Nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, the comedy hit won the screenplay prize for first-timer Diablo Cody.
• Lars and the Real Girl- Another Original Screenplay Oscar nominee this year (from the pen of Nancy Oliver), this unlikely romance between a slightly delusional man and his mail order "love doll" stars Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson and, in her film debut, Bianca.

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