This Week in DVD

Land of the Lost: Complete Series: Just in time for the big-screen version coming out soon, it's a full set of the old-school kid show. Maybe there'll be a "Great Space Coaster" movie so I can see some of those again. "LOTL" isn't something I can watch now for more than an episode at a time, maybe, but it still has a certain charm. Of course, if it were made today, Holly and the dinosaurs would have to be in a rock band.

Designing Women Season 1: Although I was never a fan, I respect the show for presenting something that's not all that common in the world of sitcoms: a largely female cast and a group of southern characters who aren't portrayed as idiots just because of their geographical disposition. See the early episodes, before the show became known for Delta Burke's controversies and the producers' relationship with the Clintons.

The Mod Squad Season 2 Volume 2 and Gunsmoke Season 3 Volume 2: Have you noticed how the further we get into a TV show's run, the more ridiculous the split-season titles look?

Mega Shark vs. Octopus: OK, I have no idea what this is, but I just want to get in a plug for the shark. Go, shark! Whoo-hoo! Rah rah!

Saturday Morning Cartoons sets--1960s and 1970s: At first, I thought this was kind of a weak effort from WB, packaging a bunch of cartoon episodes almost at random instead of giving full season sets for the individual shows. However, I didn't grow up on these shows. My informal survey of the Internet shows these releases are gonna make a lot of people happy. Hey, not everybody gets Boomerang, and even Boomerang doesn't even show a lot of these anymore.

Powder Blue: This compendium of independent movie cliches (interconnected plotlines, transsexual, drug addiction, etc.) does feature something you haven't seen at the arthouse cinema lately: Jessica Biel topless. I hope for her sake she wasn't bamboozled into thinking she had a shot at "cred" in this one. You'd think she would have saved that for 10 years down the road when she's trying to resurrect her career. Anyway, as a public service, I quote "The Karaoke Kid" on Netflix, who posts what is surely the single most useful review anyone has written for this film:

If you're just interested in Jessica Biel's nude scenes, go to the 1:09 mark. That's when she does her striptease. There's another topless scene around the 1:24 mark and a butt shot around the 1:27 mark.

Killshot: How did a movie from John Madden (no, not the Frank Caliendo muse, but the guy who directed "Shakespeare in Love") with Ray Liotta, Diane Lane, and Mickey Rourke; let alone Joseph Gordon Leavitt, Thomas Jane, and Rosario Dawson; based on an Elmore Leonard novel, no less; come straight to video with nary a peep? Oh, it's from the Weinstein Company, where apparently, if you ain't getting Oscars, you ain't getting distributed. I looked this one up, and you know, it kinda sounds not all that bad.