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Welcome to How to Spend $20, BOP's look at the latest DVDs to hit stores nationwide. This week: The Terminator franchise leaps to the small screen, men named Rafa and Roger stun the world and Al Gore loses the 2000 Presidential election (again).


For people who have never seen a movie featuring LAPD law enforcement: Street Kings (Special Edition)

Probably taking the year off in 2007 to reconsider why he ever thought it a good idea to star alongside Sandra Bullock in Alejandro Agresti's dreadful and logically inconsistent The Lake House, Keanu Reeves returned more to form as an L.A. cop in David Ayer's Street Kings, Reeves' first feature film release in nearly two years. In it, Reeves stars as Tom Ludlow, a cop who questions the loyalties of everyone around him after being framed for murder by those closest to him.

Alongside Reeves in the drama are Hugh Laurie, the smart-as-a-whip star of Fox's hugely successful House; Forest Whitaker and two stars of hip hop, Common and The Game. Ultimately, the movie did okay business at the box office, with worldwide totals eclipsing the $60-million mark.

Disc includes: Audio commentary, Street Rules featurette, L.A. Bete Noir: Writing Street Kings featurette, Street Cred featurette, deleted scenes, alternate takes, vignettes, behind-the-scenes clips, digital copy of Street Kings for iPod and other portable music players.

For people who know what Skynet, Tech-Com and Cyberdyne are: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Season 1

Sure, the third Terminator film released five years ago ended with a doozy of a cliffhanger. But who knew the franchise actually still had life in it, especially when star Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor of California in late 2003, just about eliminating the Austrian's possible involvement in future films? Well, the original big screen franchise is alive and well, with a fourth installment starring Christian Bale due out summer 2009. And now the series has a compliment on broadcast television in Fox's Terminator: The Sarah Chronicles, which aired a brief nine-episode debut season earlier this year.

The series features some of the same characters from the film franchise, but with different actors filling in the roles. Picking up where Terminator 2 left off, Sarah Connor (Lena Headey) and her son, John (Thomas Dekker) focus their energies on stopping the creation of Skynet after Terminators from the future again appear in their lives. They are also helped by a Terminator named Cameron (Summer Glau of Firefly), whose sole purpose is to protect John by posing as a female student at the boy's school. Season two, planned to be 22 episodes, starts Sept. 8.

Disc includes: Creating the Chronicles featurette, audio commentaries, deleted scenes, gag reel, cast audition tapes, storyboard sequence, summer dance rehearsal, director's cut of episode titled The Demon Hand.

For people blown away by greatness: 2008 Wimbledon Final: Nadal vs. Federer

The world's top two players - Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer - surely entertain audiences time and time again when the powerhouses butt heads in the tennis circuit's biggest tournaments. The most recent Wimbledon, however, stands as their greatest match against one another, and arguably the greatest men's tennis match of all time. At four hours and 48 minutes, the match ranked as the longest Wimbledon final in the English tournament's 122-year history, with the Spaniard ultimately defeating the five-time Swiss champ in five sets.

I by no means keep up with men's professional tennis, and in fact had not planned to watch the match when I initially scanned the television dial for entertainment on a rainy Sunday morning. But thank God I can be one of the lucky ones who can say they saw this thing live. It was simply outstanding tennis.

Disc includes: Bare bones.

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