How to Spend $20

By Eric Hughes

January 5, 2010

3-D Sarah Walker wipes the floor with Avatar.

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For people who have beer-flavored nipples: 10 Things I Hate About You (10th Anniversary Edition)

Before Heath Ledger was The Joker, he was Patrick Verona in one of my most favorite guilty pleasures from the late '90s. I'm not generally a fan of teen comedies – save for a handful of titles including American Pie and Superbad – but this movie, which arguably achieved more success in home media than at the domestic box office, seemed to nonchalantly cross gender barriers and attract the attention of both females and males.

Honestly, what's not to like? It's got Allison Janney in a toned down version of her character we saw a couple months ago in Away We Go as the school's guidance counselor (who, ahem, moonlights as an erotic fiction writer), Larry Miller as an extremely protective father (and OBGYN) who wears a fake pregnant-belly suit without a lick of shame and, of course, its stable of young, talented actors – the aforementioned Ledger, as well as Julia Stiles, Larisa Oleynik and Joseph Gordon-Levitt – in the movie's lead roles.

For those who have yet to discover this delightful gem, 10 Things I Hate About You is a loose retelling of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew set, as you have come to suspect, at a high school. It largely concerns a family rule put in motion by an overbearing Larry Miller, which prohibits the more popular and prettier of two sisters, Bianca, from dating boys until her rebellious sibling, Kat, gets a suitor of her own. In his attempt to finagle Bianca into dating him, a boy strikes a deal with an unruly Patrick to win Kat's heart.

Disc includes: Audio commentary, Behind-the-Scenes featurette, cast interviews, screen tests, deleted scenes, on-set B-roll, digital copy

For people with an appetite: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Special Edition)

Capitalizing on the industry's successful permeation of 3D movies in 2009 – which David Mumpower highlighted a few days ago at #6 in BOP's Top 12 Film Industry Stories of 2009 – Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs raked in more than $30 million at the domestic box office during its opening weekend, good enough for first place (and third all-time against all opening weekends in the month of September). Against a $100 million budget, the project has so far tallied more than $200 million worldwide, meaning anything this puppy makes in the home media market will be gravy for Columbia. Not too shabby for Sony Pictures Animation, which has theatrically released only two movies prior to Meatballs: Open Season and Surf's Up.




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Loosely based on a same-named 1978 children's book, Meatballs is about a man (voiced by SNL's Bill Hader) who "solves" world hunger by devising a way to make food fall like rain from the sky. Hunger problems go from bad to worse when the food overloads cities and towns.

Disc includes: Audio commentary, A Recipe for Success: The Making of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs featurette, "Raining Sunshine" music video, Interactive "Raining Sunshine" Sing-A-Long, Behind the Scenes of Miranda Cosgrove's "Raining Sunshine" music video, Key Ingredients: The Voices of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs featurette, extended scenes, Progressive Reels with Introductions featurette, Early Development Scenes featurette, Interactive Splat Button, Flint's Good Fight Game, digital copy

For people who want to see Rose Byrne in something fluffier than your average Damages episode: Adam

Rose Byrne, who caught a break a few years ago in landing a leading role in FX's Damages as Glenn Close's protégé-turned-nemesis Ellen Parsons, is now at work on bulking up her career on the silver screen. Though starring alongside Nic Cage in a mindless sci-fi Blockbuster like Knowing won't attract any positive critical attention an actress like Rose deserves, appearing in a movie about a relationship between a school teacher and a man (Hugh Dancy) with Asperger syndrome certainly will.

The film, distributed by Fox Searchlight, was generally favored by critics (77% of the nation's top critics on Rotten Tomatoes wrote a positive review) but failed to break out into the mainstream. The title ended its domestic run at $2.2 million, having never appeared in more than 177 theaters in a weekend.

Disc includes: Not specified

January 5, 2010

Blu-ray

10 Things I Hate About You 10th (Anniversary Edition)
Battlestar Galactica: Season One
Cheaper by the Dozen 2
Chuck: The Complete Second Season
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
D Grayman: Season 1, Part 1
Dogtown And Z-Boys
Fifty Dead Men Walking
The Green Berets
The Ministers
Riding Giants
Wicked Lake

DVD

10 Things I Hate About You (10th Anniversary Edition)
Adam
Battlestar Galactica: Season One
Big Love: Seasons 1-3 (Set)
Big Love: The Complete Third Season
Burn Notice: Seasons 1 & 2
Cheaper by the Dozen 2
Chuck: Seasons 1 & 2 (Set)
Chuck: The Complete Second Season
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Special Edition)
Coco Chanel
Everybody Loves Raymond: Seasons 3 & 4 (Side-By-Side)
Fifty Dead Men Walking
Fresh Prince of Bel Air: Seasons 1 & 2 (Side-By-Side)
Ghost Hunters: The Best of Ghost Hunters
Kendra: The Complete First Season (Widescreen)
The Last Starfighter (25th Anniversary Edition)
Lorna's Silence (Widescreen)
Martin: Seasons 3 & 4 (Side-By-Side)
The Ministers
Night Court: Complete Seasons 1 & 2 (Side-By-Side)
The Philanthropist: The Complete Series
UFC: The Ultimate 100 Greatest Fights (Widescreen)


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