How to Spend $20
By Eric Hughes
September 28, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Pick of the Week
For people who like to get their Gute on: Party Down: Season Two
Starz’s cultish, criminally underwatched series, Party Down, will be remembered by me as a hilarious, somewhat groundbreaking series that may have lived on longer than just 20 episodes had it aired on a network with greater reach than Starz and been programmed by peeps with the decency to air it on any night other than Friday. Besides Battlestar Galactica, I can’t think of another show off-hand that thrived in the time period.
I’d love to know the science behind Starz’s shoddy scheduling, considering they only really have Crash and Spartacus: Blood and Sand to play with.
With that said, Party Down was great because you never knew what to expect from it. Since the episodes revolved around a company of catering “professionals,” an episode set at a funeral home would be followed by an intimate party at Steve Guttenberg’s mansion. An auction one day; an at-home orgy the next. Guest stars – Thomas Lennon, Kristen Bell, Paul Scheer and many more – would filter in and out of the show. And the comedy was mostly splendid because it relied largely on improv.
Party Down was unique, too, because it lost one of its stars, Jane Lynch, to Glee after the first season and would’ve faced the departures of up to three more series regulars had the show extended into a third season. Yet an unintentional, revolving door cast would’ve worked brilliantly for a show like Party Down anyway. The characters – struggling actors, writers and so on in Lalaland – were mostly miserable with their day job. So, for them to “move on” to something else wouldn’t have seemed forced or a quick fix. Instead, it would have made sense within the universe of the show.
New to Party Down in season two was Megan Mullally, who played a naïve stage mom named Lydia who joined the catering company to gather contacts and intel in the entertainment industry for her 13-year-old, Escapade. Her character didn’t totally replace Jane Lynch’s… yet to do so would’ve been impossible anyway.
I guess the “good news” to come out of Party Down’s cancellation is that its creators scored a pilot deal with NBC. The series, to be called Temp, features a group of characters doing different jobs every week.
Disc includes: Promo reel, gag reel
For people who think The Janitor was the most missed thing about Scrubs’ final season: Scrubs: The Complete and Final Ninth Season (Widescreen)
I don’t consider the final season of Scrubs a particularly great one. Largely a re-launch of a series already eight-years-old (and complete with a new setting and just three regulars from the seasons that came before it), Scrubs 2.0 subbed in a fresh batch of newbies to take over for departed stars like Sarah Chalke, Neil Flynn and Judy Reyes.
And like a typical “first year” show, Scrubs spent a good amount of its 13-episode order adjusting to its new digs. By the time the new characters finally got some back story and fleshed out personalities, it was time to say goodbye. (And this time, for good).
For that, the ninth season was largely a failure because it ended the series on an awkward note. Just an average of 3.79 million people watched the final episodes – down sharply from season eight’s previous low of 5.61 million. And, the experimental season opened the door to new characters and storylines that in hindsight apparently didn’t matter. This is more or less ABC’s fault, though, since Bill Lawrence probably would have continued with the series for at least a few more seasons.
In its heyday, Scrubs was a watercooler hit on NBC, snagging the post-Friends timeslot in its second season and reaching an average of nearly 16 million people a week. It also made Zach Braff a household name. Besides his eight years on Scrubs, the dude is probably best known for writing, directing and starring in 2004’s Garden State and, maybe, his turn as Girls With Low Self-Esteem founder Phillip Litt on Fox’s immortal Arrested Development.
Disc includes: N/A
For people who like snarky superheroes: Iron Man 2
I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve walked out of a movie at the theater. Come to think of it, I don’t know that I ever really have before a little movie called Iron Man 2.
Next to the original, which was fun and exhilarating, the sequel was, in my view, lame and disappointing. Mickey Rourke’s villain was one big evil cliché, and newb Scarlett Johannson was a bit stiff. Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark also did ridiculous things like drunkenly emcee his own birthday party in full Iron Man getup.
The people, though, seemed to enjoy it. Iron Man 2 holds a fresh 74% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and more than $300 million was had at the domestic box office alone. A second sequel, probably titled Iron Man 3, should hit theaters by 2013 – a year after that hyped Avengers movie.
Disc includes: S.H.I.E.L.D Data Vault featurette, audio commentary, making of documentary (four parts), six behind the scenes featurettes, deleted scenes
For people who dig Russell Brand: Get Him to the Greek
Maybe I’m in the minority here, but there’s something about Russell Brand that rubs me the wrong way. Maybe it’s his crassness, or maybe it’s because I’m largely familiar with him for playing the idiotic Aldous Snow in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. The idea of a FSM sequel excited me; learning that it would revolve around his obnoxious rocker character didn’t.
Everyone and their mom appeared in Get Him to the Greek. Sean “Diddy” Combs played a music executive named Sergio Roma; Jonah Hill, Elisabeth Moss and Rose Byrne snagged leading roles and everybody from Meredith Vieira to Kurt Loder to Cristina Aguilera to Pharrell played versions of themselves.
Disc includes: Deleted and extended scenes, alternate intro and ending, gag reels, line-o-rama, behind the scenes featurette, music videos and concert performances, Blind Medicine featurette, audio commentary, karaoke featurette, cast auditions featurette
September 28, 2010
Blu-ray
Adventureland
Airborne Toxic: All I Ever Wanted Live
Babies
Battle 360: The Complete Season One
Bedtime Stories
Bolt
A Bug's Life
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch...
Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky
Confessions of a Shopaholic
Frozen
G-Force
Get Him to the Greek
Good
Hannah Montana: The Movie
Hero
High School Musical 3: Senior Year
The Iron Bodyguard
Iron Man 2
The Killer Inside Me
King Kong
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (Criterion Collection)
Monsters, Inc.
Nostradamus: 2012
Patton 360: The Complete Season One
Prey
The Private Eyes
The Proposal
Race to Witch Mountain
Rush: 2112 & Moving Pictures Classic Album
Suck
Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (Special Edition)
The Thin Red Line (Criterion Collection)
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas
Tinker Bell
Zombie Holocaust
DVD
2001 U.S. Open: Serena Williams vs. Venus Williams
2002 U.S. Open: Sampras vs. Agassi
2010 Wimbledon Official Film
Airborne Toxic: All I Ever Wanted Live
Babies
Battle 360: The Complete Season One
The Black Balloon (Special Edition)
The Cleveland Show: The Complete Season One
Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - The Tenth Season
CSI: Seasons 1-10 (Set)
Ellery Queen: The Complete Series
Family Guy: Partial Terms of Endearment
Frozen
Get Him to the Greek
Good
Iron Man 2 (Special Edition)
The Killer Inside Me
Legend of the Seeker: The Complete Second Season
Madman (30th Anniversary Edition)
Paranormal State: Season 4
Party Down: Season Two
Patton 360: The Complete Season One
The Private Eyes
Scrubs: The Complete and Final Ninth Season (Widescreen)
Scrubs: The Complete Collection
Son of the Beach: Back to the Beach
South Park: A Little Box of Butters (Set)
Suck
Super Size Me (Special Edition)
Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (Special Edition)
The Thin Red Line (Criterion Collection)