This Week in DVD

The Expendables: From what I understand, this movie is basically PUNCH, KICK, BOOM, BAM, PUNCH, KICK...and so on and so forth. And for some reason, I'm OK with that in this case. I don't know why I want to see this particular dumb action flick, but I do.

Eat, Pray, Love: Back in the good, old days, before the whole notion of parody adult film titles became a cliched joke, we would have seen a decent version of this film called--well, I'll leave it to your imagination. Maybe there IS one; I haven't, uh, done the research. But it seems like these days, they don;t even bother trying, going with titles like "Not the [insert the pop culture phenomenon of choice here--or, wait, please pick a less suggestive verb than "insert"]" or "This Ain't the..." You get the idea. It would be a shame to see "Not Eat, Pray, Love," considering the wonders that could be done with this title, is all I'm saying.

Groucho Marx TV Classics: If nothing else comes out of this blog today--and I fully expect to live up to that potential--maybe someone can tell me what exactly is on this 3-disc set. Yes, I know there are "16 episodes of You Bet Your Life and two episodes of Hollywood Palace," as per the oft-quoted press release material that pops up everywhere, but WHICH episodes? Am I gonna spend 25 bucks for duplicates of the Shout Factory "Life" sets and one of the "Palace" episodes I already have, plus a few extras? I don't know if the "and lots more" promised in the blurb is enough to go on.

This is the frustrating thing about under-the-radar releases from smaller companies: The near impossibility of finding out solid info before the release, or even after it. As with some sets from Timeless, I just have to wait for some kind soul to buy the set, watch it, and review it on Amazon.

Kukla, Fran, and Ollie The First Episodes: Standard operating procedure in this column is for me to tout a cool-sounding DVD, then follow it up with words to the effect of, "Hope I get to rent it soon." Well, folks, this time I put my money where my mouth is and purchased a gen-u-ine real copy for my ownself of this new set. So how is it? Well, uh, I don't have it yet. See, you could not place an order till this week, so I just reserved my copy of this apparent limited edition earlier today.

This 1950s "children's" show enchanted me in its all-too-brief appearance on Shout Factory's "Hiya, Kids" collection. At first glance, it's a primitive puppet show, but, wow, from what I've seen, the discussion is thoughtful, provocative, even sophisticated in its way. I can't wait to get these episodes, produced courtesy of the Burr Tillstrom Trust, and I hope more are on the way. And thanks to the DVD's producer for--here's a novel idea--actually detailing the contents of the set, including specific episode titles.

I'm Still Here: The Lost Year of Joaquin Phoenix: Real or fake, I don't really care to spend a week with Joaquin Phoenix, let alone a whole year.

Who? I'm asking you the name of the movie.
Who?
YOU. I'm asking you, what's the name of the movie.
No, WHO.
I'm asking you...
(It was either this or a reference to Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart's short-lived WWF stint as the masked Who, which seemed nothing more than an excuse for similar exchanges on TV)

Sherlock Holmes Archive Collection Vol. 2: So I guess if Volume 1 isn't on Netflix yet, I shouldn't hold my breath for Volume 2, huh?