This week offers a cool collection of cinefantastique for the dedicated collector: a blockbuster hit, an impressive cult film, a neat box set collection, and a clever bunch of double bill DVDs. The high-profile hit is JUMPER, which earned some decent coin despite largely negative reviews when it was released in theatres early this year. The sci-fi action-adventure flick (based on a young adult novel) is available as a Two-Disc Special Edition DVD (which allows you to make a digital copy), a single-disc DVD, and a Blu-ray disc. Both the double-disc DVD and the Blu-ray include audio commentary, deleted scenes, an animated graphic novel, and several featurettes; the Blu-ray disc also presents one of the features (”Jumping Around the World”) with options for Standard or Picture in Picture, so that without interrupting the film you can see behind-the-scenes clips and other information about the places in the world to which the characters “jump.” If you haven’t seen the film yet, you can read Lawrence French’s review of it here.

If you’re skeptical of the merits of glossy Hollywood film-making, and prefer something a little more independent, you are in luck: this week offers the home video release of THE SIGNAL, an excellent little flick about a mysterious signal that turns everyone who sees it into a homicidal maniac. The film’s structural gimmick is that the story is told in three parts, each the work of a different writer-director. The results are intriguing, with strong characterization and good performances that lift the film out of the sci-fi horror category and turn it into a mini-art film. Read a more in-depth review here.

The title “Icons of Adventure Collection” may sound like a poor choice for inclusions here at Cinefantastique Online, but Sony’s box set packages together four flicks from Hammer Films (THE PIRATES OF BLOOD RIVER, THE DEVIL-SHIP PIRATES, THE STRANGLERS OF BOMBAY, and THE TERROR OF THE TONGS), of which the last two are borderline horror efforts. Although lacking the supernatural elements of Hammer’s more famous Gothic efforts (CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE), both STRANGLERS and TONGS are meant to chill the blood with their horrible happenings, which take the form of British colonists facing off against evil secret societies using violence and bloodshed to terrorize the local populace. Although the pro-colonial stance of both films (it is the White Man’s Burden to clean up this mess) is hard to swallow, both are very effective, particularly BOMBAY, which at least casts a somewhat jaundiced eye upon the details of colonial rule. And of course, TONGS is worth seeing just for the wonderful moment when Christopher Lee (in a make-up prefiguring his later work as Fu Manchu) sinisterly inquires of the hero, “Have you ever had your bones scraped?”

Finally, let’s cast our spotlight on a clever piece of packaging. We all know that Hollywood is addicted to remakes, and we know that contemporary viewers would rather watch a bad new film than a good old film. Well, here is a neat little trick that makes the best of both problems: a series of “Double Take” DVDs that package original films and their remakes. This week gives us Double Takes of THE AMITYVILLE HORROR (1979 and 2005), THE OMEN (1976 and 2006), THE FLY (1958 and 1986), and PLANET OF THE APES (1968 and 2001). With the exception of THE FLY, none of those remakes is worth the celluloid they’re printed on, but if this gets people to check out the originals, I’m all for it.

You can find these and other DVD listed below, or check out the Cinefantastique Online Store.