This Week's DVD Releases: You, the Invention of No Impact Gamer Pandorum Outrage

Last week had tons of new releases worth your while, but this week we're back to practically bupkes.  And Massachusetts just elected their first Republican Senator in nearly forty years, so up is down, cats are gay-marrying dogs, and people are wearing underwear on the outside of their dead health care reform bills.  With that in mind, let's take a look at the new DVD releases this week, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video.  (And check out their upcoming event with Frank Henenlotter, of Basket Case and Frankenhooker fame. He'll be at the store on February 5th, in conjunction with the screening of his latest film, Bad Biology, at the Grand Illusion that weekend.)

Pretty much the only halfway decent movie out on DVD this week is The Invention of Lying.  Have I seen it?  No, I have not.  But I guarantee at least halfway decent due to the presence of Ricky Gervais (just like Ghost Town, or the Golden Globes).  You might also want to consider You, The Living, a vignette-filled Swedish dramedy that made Roger Ebert's top ten list for 2009.  And there's a couple documentaries:  No Impact Man, in which a Manhattan guy and his family attempt to stay waste-free and carbon-neutral for a whole year (see his book of the same name), and Outrage, in which our fair government is virulently homophobic, yet teeming with closeted homosexuals.

Now for the swill:  Gamer, Pandorum, and Whiteout are all equally forgettable one-word titles.  One has Gerard Butler, one has Dennis Quaid, and one has Kate Beckinsale as a U.S. Marshal in Antarctica (chuckle).  You guess which is which.  In fact, I'm not quite sure why they bothered to put Whiteout in theaters at all, considering it sat on a shelf for almost two years after production and went on to make a mere $10M at the box office.  I guess, like Massachusetts voters, there's no figuring Hollywood execs' decisions.