This Week in DVD

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: OK, folks, remain calm. This is a re-release, an extended version of the DVD that already came out. I want to highlight this because it was spotlighted in Best Buy's ad circular, and I momentarily panicked and thought that another Peter Jackson movie was coming out.

Wait, there IS another one of these coming out soon? Well, the only thing unexpected will be if it clocks in at under 2 1/2 hours and if its DVD release isn't followed months later by an extended 5 1/2 hour director's cut.

White House Down: Speaking of Best Buy, I get that they want to emphasize high-end electronics and appliances, but it irritates me to open their ad booklet and see DVDs and CDs relegated to a few small boxes at the very end of the damn thing.

As far as this goes, I can watch this movie with Channing Tatum and Justin Beiber, or I can see for "free" on Netflix a different White House under siege movie with Aaron Eckhart and Morgan Freeman. Sorry, "White House Down!"

Grown Ups 2: Make it easy for me: Just tell me how many scenes Salma Hayek has. Better yet, give me the time codes so I can skip the rest of it.

As I Lay Dying: James Franco attempts to film one of those classic novels long thought unfilmable. It's been tried before, but never by ~JAMES FRANCO~. I'm skeptical, but Franco earns points through the seemingly obvious but still genius move of casting Tim Blake Nelson in a William Faulkner adaptation.

Lovelace: Wasn't this biopic supposed to be a big deal? It doesn't seem like so long ago that everyone was vying for the role of Linda Lovelace, and there was Lindsay Lohan drama, and Amanda Seyfried got the part and gave the movie some credibility and...and then nothing.I just don't know that people want to go out and see a movie about 1970s porn, though there is an attempt every few years or so. I think "Boogie Nights" pretty much covered the whole thing.

Oh, and why am I not surprised that James Franco is in this one?

Parkland: There had to be at least one big JFK movie in the 50th anniversary year of the assassination, and, jeez, when you have Paul Giamatti as Abraham Zapruder, I think you're off to a good start. Yet this didn't get any traction, and its combination of big cast and subject matter reminds me of Emilio Estevez's well-intentioned but unsuccessful "Bobby."

WWE Battleground: See the WWE continue to bury the guy its fans wanted it to push.

Classic TV Comedy Christmas Collection: MPI brings us episodes from "Petticoat Junction," "The Doris Day Show," "The Honeymooners," "Family Affair," "Donna Reed," and "The Beverly Hillbillies." That's a pretty fair Christmas gift, except of course for the fact that it's the kind of gift you have to pay money to receive. I'd like to see MPI give us a real gift and release some more of those Honeymooners specials they presumably control, and/or rerelease the previous ones in a more affordable package.

Under the Dome Season 1: Surely Amazon shipments can get in, right? They can't? Nooooooooooo!

Mad Men Season 6: Still not caught up, and therefore still not able to make credible wise-ass comments.

Naked City: Complete Series: This series has been represented by a series of discs Image put out collecting batches of episodes, but now the seminal drama is complete on DVD. Some lucky folks apparently got this for the low, low, LOW price of 25 bucks due to a Wal-Mart pricing error and an Amazon misprice mismatch. I envy those people.

Law and Order: The 13th Year: There's just something pretentious about calling it that instead of "Season 13."

Flo: Hey, HERE'S an early holiday treat for TV fans! Warner Archive brings us the complete series in all its glory. Can "Enos" be far behind? Seriously, can it? Because if not, I want a warning.

And in streaming--well, there was a lot going on in the world of streaming this week, but there were so many DVDs to talk about (like my "Under the Dome" comment was SO insightful), that I will spend a separate post on that. Tune in tomorrow!