This Week in DVD

Synecdoche, New York: This tops my "must-see" list this week. It's the latest head trip from Charlie Kaufman, this time with the acclaimed writer directing his own work. This movie didn't get universal praise, and it seemed to fall off the face of the earth quickly, but Roger Ebert called it one of the best of 2008. So there.

Cadillac Records: Intriguing flick about the Chess Records label. I didn't see this one, either, but my pal Mike enjoyed aspects of it, while telling me he thought it might have made a better HBO miniseries.

Hey, I like this whole "quoting other people" thing. Saves me lots of trouble. Let's try this some more.

Get Smart Season 2: I haven't watched this show regularly, but I'll report that my dad is excited about the retail release of this season (the whole series is available from Time-Life). He tells me he's enjoying season 1 and that it's still funny as hell even when you know exactly what's going to happen.

Milk: Well, a lot of people liked it, enough that it won several Oscars. I just kind of quoted the voters, didn't I?

Howard the Duck: A lot of people think this one stinks. But don't movies that stink deserve DVD releases, too?

Family Ties Season 5: This season features some Very Special Episodes, but don't let me tell you about it, as I'm disappointed each time I revisit this series. Let Amazon customer Adrienne Miller tell you that, "Andrew has started preschool, and the whole gang is funnier and wiser."

Pinocchio Platinum Edition: I'm sure this is a great package. I'm gonna quote myself here, though, from 3 days ago, when I said, "I'm telling you, I don't CARE about Blu-Ray right now! Just let me know about the regular DVD release!" Unfortunately, I said that to myself, and I couldn't really answer my own question, but I think it's still a pretty good quote.

Happy-Go-Lucky:Many critics and fans were charmed by the lead character in Mike Leigh's movie, a woman who certainly personifies the title description. Not so an IMDB commenter, who described her thus:

Poppy's message: Come on, be happy man, who cares what grief you might actually be feeling or in what way you might be distracted or maybe you are just at work and don't want to deal with my 3-year-old personality. Just be happy because I say so and if you aren't happy, well, you just aren't NICE.

Rachel Getting Married: Jonathan Demme's film provided a standout acting showcase for Anne Hathaway. I didn't see it, so let me instead another IMDB user, Dave 660, who asks...

"Where did her boobs go? she's still cute she but seemed a lot more curvier before. i hope she doesn't waste away on the red bull and cigarettes diet like every other young actress in Hollywood."

Role Models: Seann William Scott and Paul Rudd are no Will Farrell and John C. Reilly, and considering I think Rudd's pretty cool, you can figure what I think about Scott. But who cares what I think? Andrew L. Urban on Urban Cinefile said this:

Like so many of Hollywood's youth oriented comedies, this is like a mound of dog turd flavoured with honey; the crass vulgarities are sweetened by add-on humanity. But just like dog turd with honey on it, the mess is unappetising.

Commenting on crass vulgarity WITH crass vulgarity=better quote than anything I could write.

That's it for this week. I didn't see hardly any of these new releases, so I'd like to thank Roger Ebert, Michael Cowgill, my dad, the Academy, lots of people, Adrienne, the IMDB, and Andrew for contributing.