PP GURU GRABBAG:

REIGN OF THE SUPERMAN DVDS !!!

Talk about kryptonite hi tech overkill. Today, Warner Bros. releases several Superman related DVDs and DVD box sets to herald the return of the Man of Steel to the silver screen.
They foretell that 2006 is supposed to be the year of the Superman.

Huh?

The PP Guru didn't see that listed on his Chinese calendar.

Where's a good credit report or a mortgage loan when you really need one?

The timing couldn't have been more impeccable. The PP Guru unfortunely has to bleed a chilling amount of Gurublood money from a stone to get bills paid this week- so he has to wait until Friday's paycheck to even consider a smattering of what's being offered.

Just to get wishful thinking pleasantries out of the way- these four will have to sit on the sideline pile:
because without the WB employee discount - these prices are just too much up, up, and away at the moment for the PP Guru's velcro tunic wallet to even consider at the moment.

Please note that all package sets come with a $10.50 coupon redeemable for the price of admission to see Superman Returns. Wait, doesn't Warner Bros want to make money on this picture? For those not in the know, the trade so far, both Hollywood Reporter and Variety gave the new movie a very stellar review. And clocking in at 2 and a half hours- it fucking ought to be. The PP Guru loves comic book movies on a epic scale. It should be the fucking Lawrence of Arabia of all comic book movies.

Alright- we're here about DVD's, so let's stop guru farting around.

Lois and Clark: ($49.99 suggested retail) The New Adventures of Superman The Complete 3rd Season has some ok episodes IPPGRC- he thought the most amusing episode of the season was with Scott Valentine taking on the role of Metallo. Apparently fans like this season the best because Lois played by the ever delicious and highly lickable Teri Hatcher finds out that Clark Kent(Dean Cain ) is Superman and they get married just like they did in the comics. All twenty -two episodes, plus documentaries and a trivia challenge moderated by none other than Cain himself should make the die-hards happy. Oh, and don't forget to look for Cain in Superman's Reign of Superman black costume that was once all the rage in the mid-nineties.

The PP Guru can't say much that this series hold some sentimental value to him other than that he used to recognize a lot of the studio sets and landmarks from his former employment there.

The Adventures of Superman Seasons Three and Four ($39.98 Suggested Retail) is only monumental for the fact that the series was starting to air in color - not that anyone really had a color tv back in the fifties mind you- much like today when no one can really afford HD TV plasma screens. And they say that current network shows are supposed to be formatted that way?

But here they all are. They don't do too much for the PP Guru - he watched them when he was a little PP Guru tyke - but the villains are so fucking bland and boring, much like George Reeves was himself. He's a superman with a fucking pouch for cripesakes - which probably gave inspiration to all the William Shatners the world wide over. The PP Guru wouldn't want to be rescued from a dynamite exploding mine-shaft by some beer guzing sucidial womanizing schivozo.

The PP Guru liked the radio show the best. Special features include documentaries on the show's use of color and commentary with Jack " Jimmy Olson" Larson, but a sneak peek of Superman Returns.

The most interesting of the batch that the PP Guru is going to put on the backburner is Superboy, the Complete First Season ($39.98 suggested retail), even though he's only seen a handful of episodes back in the late eighties and early ninties- it's more rememberable for the simple fact that Stacy Haiduk was a better looking piece of ass than Teri Hatcher in her role of Lana Lang - even way better than that skinny little waif Kristin Kruek chick does on Smallville.

Sorry, that was so rude of the PP Guru. You think that after enduring a long relationship with an ex-porn star, that the PP Guru would have some sensitivity training or at least some better appreciation of women's anatomy.

Moving right along.

Somehow Warner Bros got back the rights from the Salkinds to release this one time syndicated series. The series had it's moments that it was the first Superman related series to feature some of Superman's rogues gallery like Bizarro, Brainiac, and Mr. Mxyzptlk in some episodes and some episodes were written by Denny O'Neil, Mike Carlin and Andy Hefler - from the actual DC staff. Stan Berkowitz went on to write some good episodes of Justice League and Superman: Animated Series. John Newton Howard wanted a pay hike and he was told to go up up and o'vey and jump into a murky lake of mediocrity. Special features include commentary by John Newton Howard and if screen tests are your thing - then Howard provides his audition tape for how he won the role for all his fellow die-hard fans.

Now on to the stuff that The PP Guru intends to get ASAP.

Although, it already aired on the Cartoon Network this past weekend, (with very little fanfare) the first all new Superman original animated movie, Brainiac Attacks ($19.98 suggested retail) hits the shelves today. The PP Guru got to watch half of it and didn't think that it was as bad as reviewers said it was on Amazon.com. Tim Daly and Dana Delany both reprise their voices of Clark Kent and Lois Lane from the original 1996 series as well as some regulars. However there's no Clancy Brown doing Lex Luthor - it actually sounds like Sherman Howard - the Lex Luthor of Superboy tv series had finally won the part.( According to producer Bruce Timm on a Batman Beyond commentary - the role of Derek Powers on that series was given to Howard because he had originally auditioned for the role of Luthor on the Superman series and was passed over by Brown.) and Lance Henriksen does the voice of Brainiac. Some annoying girl have taken over the role of Mercy from Lisa Edelstein Lots of slam bang robot machine exploding action and the PP Guru liked what he saw and decided to see the second half on DVD - sans the goddamn commerical interruptions (c'mon, you all know how much the PP Guru is a DC Animation DVD completist! - he's going to buy it regardless!!).

Justice League Season 2. ($ 44.98 - suggested list price) Now to be the ultimate guruette - you have to be a big TREMENDOUS fan of the Justice League animated series - otherwise go choke your chicken on the AIN'T IT COOL NEWS website (the PP Guru isn't hyperlinking that cyberstream of garbage- are you kidding the PP Guru?) where they bitch about every little thing like; where the fuck is the anamorphic widescreen? In the second season of this fabulous series, Timm, Dini, McDuffie, Tucker and co. pull out all the stops in giving us one of the most slam-banging and character driven super-hero sagas ever to grace the glass teat. Other than one of the best shit-kicking fist slaming duke out between Superman and Darkseid ever depicted on the opener, Twilight , The hard ass core villains from old Justice League of America lore reign here: Dr. Destiny, Eclipso, The Royal Flush Gang, and the Secret Society! This historical season also encapsulates the first ever bi-racial screen kiss that took place between the John Stewart Green Lantern and Hawkgirl. Commentary on three episodes, plus a profile behind the vocal performers conducted by Phil (Green Lantern) LaMarr round the perfect animation dvd set ( and the PP Guru is still not even finished with the first season yet.)

And finally, the crucial events that lead up to the pivotal battles that take place between Superman and Darkseid (before coming to a anti-climatic clash on the Twilight episode on JL - the last and final bout took place on the Justice League Unlimited series finale ) are chronicled here on the third and last DVD volume set of Superman: The Animated Series ($26.98 suggested list retail) volume 3. These episodes produced at the tail end of the nineties were the first to experiment with the roster of other main hard hitting DC characters such as the Kyle Rayner Green Lantern, Aquaman (voiced by Miguel Ferrer) and the Legion of Super Heroes. These were the percusor or the diagrams that led to the creation of the Justice League show. There are also two episodes that guest star Batman and Robin.

More Saturday cartoon hi-jinks in hog heaven for the PP Guru and he can't wait to jump in the slop.

Other Superman related products available this week is a all new collection of unreleased Superman radio episodes from 1948 put out by Radiospirits which retails for $39.98.

Faster than seeing through your panties with X-Ray vision with party specs provided by:

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Coat