This Week in DVD and Instant Watching

Parental Guidance: Remember when Billy Crystal came back to the host the Oscars, and while a lot of people were excited about it, a lot of people thought maybe the magic was gone, so there was a lot of ambiguity in the anticipation for it?

Yeah, not the case this time. We all knew this Crystal/Midler vehicle was gonna bomb the minute we saw the trailer.

Lincoln: Controversy already plagued the DVD of this acclaimed Steven Spielberg film when it was revealed that an audio commentary by consultant and "Team of Rivals" author Doris Kearns Goodwin "borrowed" from an old Peter Bogdanovich track.

Killing Them Softly: My "Hey, this might be worth a shot" pick of the week didn't do too well at the box office, but it's a crime flick with a decent cast, and that should be enough to warrant consideration.

The Collection: I don't know what the hell it is, but it must be important to deserve releases of a DVD, a Blue Ray, an Ultraviolet Digital...right?

To the Arctic (IMAX): Narrated by Meryl Streep. Jennifer Lawrence sure is lucky Streep didn't go on camera as, say, an iceberg or something.

Veep Season 1: I actually enjoyed this HBO series better than the most recent season of its pregenitor, BBC's "The Thick of It," and that's no faint praise.

Men at Work The Complete First Season: OK, I enjoyed this TBS sitcom, much to my surprise, but "Complete First Season"? Big deal! $35 MSRP for 10 episodes is no deal at all, in fact.

Lee Marvin Presents Lawbreakers: Good to see Timeless is still putting out stuff like this even after being acquired by Shout...at least so far. If this 1960s series is a fraction as cool as it looks, it's going right onto my Wishlist.
And on streaming...a hot new Netflix add is John Cusack's serial killer movie The Factory, which was barely released a while back after being finished in 2008. 2008! That was so long ago, Cusack was just out of college, the Cold War was still being waged, and DVD was barely a glimmer in the eye of Albert Einstein.

Plus Netflix premieres Mad Men Season 5, a mere hundreds of days after its debut on AMC.