How to Spend $20
By Eric Hughes
January 6, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Pick of the Week
For people who are fly like paper and get high like planes: Pineapple Express (Unrated Special Edition)
Seth Rogen on anything is always a good time. Remember what the guy did with shrooms in Knocked Up? The actor was at it again during the summer with Pineapple Express - only this time the drug of choice was weed. And instead of getting high in a straight comedy, Rogen went for a bit of action, too, in a movie that saw his character, Dale Denton, witness a brutal crime while under the influence of some good ol' THC. Thus, he's forced to spend the remainder of the movie being chased by the evil-doers alongside his buddy and dealer, Saul Silver (James Franco).
Surprisingly, the comedy landed Franco a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor (winners to be announced on Sunday).
Disc includes: Audio commentary, extended and alternate scenes, deleted scenes, gag reel, The Making of Pineapple Express featurette, Phone Booth featurette, Line-O-Rama featurette, Direct-O-Rama featurette, Item 9 featurette, Saul's Apartment featurette, raw footage, rehearsal footage, First Table Read featurette, Comic-Con Panel featurette, The Action of Pineapple Express featurettes, Begley's Best featurette, Red and Jessica's Guide to Marriage featurettes, Injury Report featurette, Stuntmaster Ken featurette, digital copy of the film
For people who have come to terms with the fact that I always include these lucrative spoof movies in How to Spend $20 so that I can kick back and have something to make fun of: Disaster Movie (Unrated)
Currently tied with Sweetie Pie (2000) on IMDb's list of worst movies of all time – holding steady with a 1.4 ratings out of 10 – Disaster Movie certainly lives up to its name. It's, well, a disaster. In July 2008, I even wrote in Trailer Hitch that Disaster Movie's trailer was "far and away the worst movie trailer I [had] ever come across." Unfortunately, not everyone in America reads my column (a boy can dream) nor follows my advice as the title still earned just over $14.1 million at the domestic box office. Add in another $12.8 million abroad and the $20-million budgeted spoof was, once again, profitable - though not by much. Disaster Movie's tally was way below other recent spoof releases, including Superhero Movie, Meet the Spartans, Epic Movie and Date Movie.
Typically around this part of a How to Spend $20 write-up, I say something about the movie or TV show's plot. I'm gonna skip that step this time. I hope you understand.
Disc includes: Girl Fight featurette, High School Musical Sign-along, I'm Fucking Matt Damon Sing-along, Sitting Down with a Stand-Up featurette, audio commentary, G-Thang's Tour featurette, Straight from the Ladies featurette, Who's Spoofing Who featurette, This is How We Do It featurette
For people who will soon have to come up with a new plan on Friday nights: Battlestar Galactica: Season 4.0
Sorry, folks. The end is near. Beginning January 16th, Sci Fi Channel will air the latter half (ten episodes in all) of Battlestar Galactica's fourth season, the series' last. Because of the writers' strike, production was halted on the final season, which aired its midseason finale on June 13th. So far, ratings are up 13% in households, 11% in total viewers, 14% in viewers 25-54 and 6% in viewers 18-49 (compared to the same set of episodes of season three). Basically, Sci Fi must lament the decision by the show's producers to call it quits after four seasons.
But all will be well in the Battlestar Galactica universe. A special, two-hour event movie, The Plan, is set to air in June 2009. And a prequel series, Caprica, which picks up about 50 years before the events of Battlestar Galactica, is slated for prime real estate on Sci Fi's early 2010 schedule.
Disc includes: Extended version of Battlestar Galactica: Razor, The Journey featurette, Cylons: The Twelve featurette, Season 4.5: The Untold Story featurette, Untold featurette, The Music of Battlestar Galactica featurette, Caprica sneak preview, deleted scenes, podcasts, producer's video blogs (nine total)
For people who like to see Brits strip down to their birthday suits: Secret Diary of a Call Girl: Season One
Airing after Showtime's Weeds on Monday nights in the summer, the British import Secret Diary of a Call Girl introduced American pay cable viewers to Belle (Billie Piper), a high-class female escort. Living in London, the college graduate is witty and independent, and maintains a completely professional work life while her personal life gets a bit more complicated. Other series characters include Ben (Iddo Goldberg), Belle's best friend and ex-boyfriend; Alex (Callum Blue), a doctor Belle mistakes for a client; Stephanie (Cherie Lunghi), a former call girl and Bambi (Ashley Madekwe), a wannabe escort who is mentored by Belle.
Showtime at one time considered recasting the show with American actors, but later went back on the idea after the network's President of Entertainment, Robert Greenblatt, decided the Brit series was already "fantastic." Season two is geared up for a Stateside premiere on January 18th.
Disc includes: Billie Piper: Coming to America featurette
For people who are interested in getting exposed to Showtime's most entertaining show to date: Dexter: The First Season [Blu-ray]
While I'm talking about Showtime, I may as well mention another of its programs. It's Dexter, which just completed its third season on the pay cabler (and to the tune of a network record 1.5 million viewers). Due out today is the series' debut season in gorgeous Blu-ray. Just what we've always wanted... dismembered body parts and blood spatters in high def!
Set in Miami, the drama stars Michael C. Hall (Six Feet Under) as a blood-spatter specialist working for the city's police department. At night, however, the man specializes in a different, though somewhat related field: murder. Chiefly, the killing of people who he deems as unstoppable, murderous villains themselves. It's devilishly good, with the first season ending on an unexpected jaw dropper.
Disc includes: The Academy of Blood: A Killer Course featurette, Witnessed in Blood: A True Murder Investigation featurette, audio commentaries, free episodes of Showtime's Brotherhood and The Tudors, the first two chapters of Jeff Lindsay's Dexter in the Dark
January 6, 2009
The Absolute Best of Ghost Hunters
The Alphabet Killer
Babylon A.D. (Special Edition)
Bangkok Dangerous (Special Edition)
Duckman: Seasons 3 & 4
The Grocer's Son
Mannix: The Second Season
Ping Pong Playa
The Plot To Kill Hitler
Righteous Kill (Special Edition)
Tripping the Rift: The Complete Third Season
The Tudors: The Complete Second Season
The Wackness
The Waltons: Seasons 1-8 (Set)
The Waltons: The Complete Eighth Season