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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: Brad Pitt snags some Nazis, Ed Helms loses a tooth and Demetri Martin takes Woodstock.

Pick of the Week

For people who wonder what the world would be like if World War II really went down like this: Inglourious Basterds (Special Edition)

My favorite movie (so far) of 2009 is Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino's epic World War II dramedy that goes off the textbook, so to speak, in its faux telling of two plots to assassinate Hitler and the Nazi political leadership, with one being undertaken by a group of American soldiers dubbed the Basterds. From Brad Pitt's thick, ridiculous accent to that horrifically excellent opening scene to Christoph Waltz's genius as Hans "The Jew Hunter" Landa, some circles have named Inglorious Basterds a masterpiece, and I'll have to agree. It's richly entertaining and oddly never drags – even though many of its scenes are on the longer side and the movie itself clocks in at a Tarantino-sized 152 minutes.





Though I found a lot to like in both volumes of Kill Bill and feel the same way about Pulp Fiction as everyone else, for reasons not completely known by me I was never overly excited to go see Inglourious Basterds up until a few days before I went with a friend to see it. I'll go ahead and blame the marketing department, which on one level failed to capture my interest in the project. It's silly for me to think back on the time I lacked avid interest in the movie, as it ended up providing me one of the best theater-going experiences I can recall in some time. When Tarantino thickly laid on the humor, the audience ate it up with delight. And likewise with the movie's more dramatic moments, which at times were unexpectedly gruesome and profound.

Disc includes: Extended and alternate scenes, Nation's Pride: The Film within the Film, roundtable discussion with Quentin Tarantino and others, The Making of Nation's Pride featurette, Quentin Tarantino's Camera Angel featurette

For people who've never seen a better end credits sequence: The Hangover (Special Edition)

Who knew that by the beginning of the summer box office season, Brad Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis would solidify themselves as household names after their $35 million R-rated comedy movie, The Hangover, opened to a bigger-than-expected $45 million, en route to a disgusting $277 million domestic cume? Its $277 million, in fact, places the movie first all time as far as R-rated comedies go. Even more impressive, I think, is that the movie ranks #3 all-time when taking all R-rated movies into account, behind just The Passion of the Christ and The Matrix Reloaded. To no one's surprise, a Hangover sequel is already planned, with production expected to begin next year for a summer 2011 release.

The Hangover follows four friends (Cooper, Helms, Galifianakis and Justin Bartha) who journey to Las Vegas for Bartha's bachelor party. The morning after, none of them can recall what happened the previous night. Even worse, Bartha is missing. Even more worse, there are, among other things, a live tiger and a baby in their Vegas hotel room. The remaining three members of the original bachelor party group take it upon themselves to figure out what happened in Vegas, and more importantly, what happened to Bartha, who's expected to get married the next day.

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