This Week’s DVD Releases

Of course the biggest release this Tuesday is The Social Network, blah blah blah Best Film of the Year. Also surely to be picking up awards at the Oscars, Piranha 3D is out on DVD this week, and Machete was out last week. Speaking of Robert Rodriguez, El Mariachi and Desperado are on Blu-ray for the first time, as is his Once Upon a Time in Mexico. (Robert Rodriguez fun fact: his children are named Rocket, Racer, Rebel, Rogue, and Rhiannon.)

There’s really no reason to watch Dinner for Schmucks. If you’re on a plane it might be halfway tolerable. I can’t even say that much for supernatural thrillers The Last Exorcism and Case 39. Meanwhille, I will watch multi-talent pretty boy James Franco in anything. That includes him kissing himself in a mirror, or new release Howl starring Franco as a young Allen Ginsberg. You probably don’t remember wolf cartoon feature Alpha and Omega–that’s because it’s terrible. I don’t remember Colin Firth in a 1984 made-for-tv version of Dumas romance Camille, but it’s now out on DVD.

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Mayan father-and-son fishing journey Alamar and Romain Duris and Vanessa Paradis looking pretty in Heartbreaker (L’Arnacoeur). Legendary Jean Pierre Melville morals-in-war film Army of Shadows is out in a Criterion edition this week.  In other special editions, there’s the 20th anniversary edition of Dances with Wolves and Backdraft, and Raging Bull celebrates its 30th anniversary with a new edition. You’d think that a Rocky and Bullwinkle complete series would be awesome, but it got mixed reviews on Amazon.

Only a few new documentaries in recent release, the biggest being “controversial” doc Catfish, “controversial” because there is some question of its truthiness. But even if it’s hoaxy, that doesn’t necessarily make a film less affecting (see Exit Through the Gift Shop).  Also out now is Beyond Belief, in which two 9/11 widows travel to Afghanistan to help empower women there. Only slightly less heavy is Louis CK: Hilarious, because at some point, yes, everybody accidentally tells their child that one day the sun will engulf the earth and all will be darkness and death.

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Let’s talk TV: Big Love season 4 is out now, but I stopped watching that show many moons ago. Also on HBO, there’s season 1 of The Ricky Gervais Show, in which he turns his podcast into a cartoon, mostly to laugh at Karl Pilkington. The BBC’s Downton Abbey is supposed to be the upstairs-downstairs recommendation for those who liked their latest take on Sherlock, and it’s also on PBS for the next month starting tonight. If you haven’t gotten your fill of Betty White just yet, check out season 1 of her latest lady show Hot in Cleveland. The third season of ABC Family frat house Greek is now available, as is season six of your favorite reality show, Criss Angel’s Mindfreak. You should really start watching better reality shows.

In the grab bag, who can forget 50 Cent and the bloated corpse of Val Kilmer in Gun? Meanwhile, Cuba Gooding Jr. “stars as an investigative crime reporter who must stop a brutal serial killer before time runs out” in the “pulse-pounding action thriller” Ticking Clock. And the Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 8 motion comic allows you to read a comic book without having to read a comic book. Nerds, ur doin it wrong: