Weekly DVD Picks and News

The first week of January is always light in terms of
new product releases.

First, the genre releases:

Then, the non-genre releases:

  • Big
    Trouble
    : A comedy based on the works of Dave
    Berry. Very
    amusing.
  • Four
    Rooms
    : This experimental film about a bellboy had
    a different
    director for each room the bellboy visited. I’ve
    never actually seen
    how the final product turned out, but I’ve been
    interested.
  • Harold
    and
    Kumar Go To White Castle
    : A buddy comedy from
    last year that I
    haven’t seen.
  • In
    The
    Bedroom
    : A multiple Oscar winner.

The idea behind the inclusion of the “Pick of the
Week” was that I’d
be able to point people to a product which I felt was
reliable for
quality. It may or may not be well known, and may or
may not be
popular. I ran into something this week that I
didn’t expect. In
fact, I’ve been keeping track of new DVD releases for
over two years,
and haven’t hit this problem before. Of all the new
releases this
week, there is a grand total of one title I have seen
before. While
Big Trouble is good, I don’t think I can
justify calling it
the pick of the week without a little more
familiarity with the
competition. Therefore, there is no official pick of
the week this
week.

11 replies on “Weekly DVD Picks and News”

  1. I’m curious about Harold/Kumar & Big Trouble
    Funny – no interest in Eternal Sunshine, mainly because the clips I’ve seen don’t impress, plus it’s Jim Carrey. The trailer for Harold & Kumar sounded funny (“Doogie Howser just stole my car!”), and Big Trouble sounds funny, if only because I imagine it as Tim Allen channelling Dave Barry.

    How was the third season of Millenium? I watched most of the first season, occasionally during the second, and fell off after that… the sense of gloom was too overwhelming. Which was intention, but shows like “Miracles” proved you could mix gloom with optimism.

    • Re: I’m curious about Harold/Kumar & Big Trouble

      Funny – no interest in Eternal Sunshine, mainly because the clips I’ve seen don’t impress, plus it’s Jim Carrey

      Generally I do not flock to Jim Carrey films, but I found he did a good job in this one. I really enjoyed the film, and if you like those “artsy” films where you have to think you way through the plot (to a certain degree anyway) I think that you’ll enjoy this film.

      This reminded me of Memento, if memento was a love story.

      • Re: I’m curious about Harold/Kumar & Big Trouble
        Yes, as Frunkee said in a post below, if you enjoyed Kaufmann’s other movies you’ll enjoy this one as well.

    • Re: I’m curious about Harold/Kumar & Big Trouble

      Big Trouble sounds funny, if only because I imagine it as Tim Allen channelling Dave Barry.

      I enjoyed Big Trouble greatly in the theater. I have the DVD already, so this really looks like a re-issue, and not a new release, and there doesn’t appear to be any new extras on it. It is indeed Tim Allen channelling Dave Barry, as you suggest, but with a great ensemble cast to back him up, as well as a fast-paced plot well suited to Barry Sonnenfeld’s directorial millieu. It even stays relatively true to the novel of the same name, which is impressive. To me anyway.

      Info/spoiler follows: Big Trouble suffered at the box office in part due to world events. It’s original release date was late 2001, but with a plot that involves ineffectual airport security, it was rightly postponed for fairly obvious reasons. By the time it hit theaters, the hype built up around it with previews and trailers in the summer had mostly been lost, but don’t let it’s poor performance at the cash registers deter you. It’s a fun watch.

  2. Four Rooms
    Judging by the info posted on Amazon, this appears to be the same version as released several years ago. Amazon every now and then takes old releases and slaps a new release date on them, possibly as an excuse to put them on sale (that’s my guess anyway).

    • Re: Four Rooms

      Judging by the info posted on Amazon, this appears to be
      the same version as released several years ago. Amazon
      every now and then takes old releases and slaps a new
      release date on them, possibly as an excuse to put them on
      sale (that’s my guess anyway).

      It’s not Amazon. Studios often rerelease DVDs after the
      first print run once the DVD authoring costs have been
      recovered. The rereleases come at lower price points with
      different product numbers, and sometimes different
      packaging, so they get new product listings.

  3. 4 rooms is genre, technically (spoily?)
    There’s witches in one of the rooms, so technically, that makes it a movie with supernatural elements. It also contains clips of Salma Hayek dancing… that has nothing to do with sci-fi or fantasy, but Salma Hayek dancing is always fun to watch ;-)

    • Re: 4 rooms is genre, technically (spoily?)

      It’s Quientin Tarantino style (who I beleve also directed the last episode) but without all the blood and gore. I for one watched it more than once. If anything else fails it’s good comedy.

  4. Eternal Sunshine well worth seeing
    I consider it one of the best movies of the year. I detest Jim Carrey (I have since the first Ace Ventura) but he is reined in in this movie and delivers a good performance. Of course if you don’t like Kaufman’s other movies (Being John Malkovich, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Adaptation) you probably won’t like Eternal Sunshine.

  5. None of the above.
    I’m getting none of these. By the way, Big Trouble has been out for a while. This is probably a(nother) re-release.

    If I’m getting any DVDs this month, I’ll be getting Clerks X.

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