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Welcome to How to Spend $20, BOP’s look at the latest Blu-ray discs and DVDs to hit stores nationwide. This week: Back to the Future celebrates 25 years, Noomi Rapace captures the attention of Hollywood and Sarah Jessica Parker plays in sand.

Pick of the Week

For people willing to reignite the great “which is the best Back to the Future movie debate”; or, for people who wanna be more familiar with Brokeback to the Future’s original source material: Back To The Future: The Complete Trilogy (25th Anniversary Edition)

Brokeback Mountain was so good to us in so many ways. For one, Ang Lee probably never could have imagined that it – principally the main theme and, well, gay cowboys – would later be used in a popular YouTube video that depicts Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd (Marty McFly and Emmett “Doc” Brown) as secret lovers outfitted in cowboy hats and boots. The joke worked so incredibly well because the series’ third and final entry is set in the late 19th century – a time when that look, you know, thrived.

I’ve yet to fully appreciate Back to the Future: Part II, yet the movies that bookend it are pretty solid. It’s always felt a bit cheap to me in that it uses the time travel device set up in the original movie as a way for Biff to make some cash. While I do like that it gives us a glimpse of the future – hoverboards, oh my! – it failed to capture the character of the series’ first entry. (Something the sequel does much better).

And kudos to Universal for releasing something in time for Back to the Future’s 25th anniversary. Over a year ago, I wondered why it would release a special edition of Back to the Future for the franchise’s 24th anniversary. Good to see the studio is back to celebrating regular anniversaries again. And unless I’m mistaken, this is the first time any of the movies has been released in Blu-ray.

Disc includes: Tales from the Future (six-part documentary), The Physics of Back to the Future featurette, deleted scenes, Michael J. Fox Q&A, eight archival featurettes, Behind the Scenes featurette, music videos, audio commentaries, Back to the Future: The Ride featurette





For people who, figuratively, play with fire: The Girl Who Played With Fire

The final Swedish adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s phenomenally successful book series, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, hits U.S. theaters on Friday – it was released in Sweden last November – and then the whole Dragon Tattoo business can be put to bed, eh?

Actually, absolutely definitely no. The titular female, Noomi Rapace, has become Hollywood’s next It girl, even though the actress has yet to appear in a Hollywood movie. She’s attached to Sherlock Holmes 2 and last I checked was circling Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel. At one point, she was rumored to star in Mission: Impossible 4, too, but that appears to be over for now.

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