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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: It's worth considering to keep that expendable income far away from Best Buy's movie section. Admirable arrivals are, shall we say, lean.

Pick of the Week

For people who didn't know Gerard Butler could be just as menacing when not fighting against the Persians: Law Abiding Citizen

Gerard "THIS IS SPARTAAAA!" Butler had a financially successful, albeit critically detested 2009. Of his three big movies that year – Gamer, The Ugly Truth and Law Abiding Citizen – Gamer received the most critical support, pleasing 29% of Rotten Tomatoes critics. Law Abiding Citizen was even worse at 25% and The Ugly Truth was the ugly truth at 14%. But like all business, the driving force behind Hollywood is money. And in that respect, Gerard has a steady and, let's face it, bankable track record. All three pics turned a profit for its parent studio - even a stupid movie like Gamer, which managed to out-do its budget by a couple million. Of course, that's before the gravy (read: home media market) comes into play.

In Law Abiding Citizen, which surpassed $100 million worldwide, Gerard Butler is a dude who seeks justice after the courts' failure to give him closure following the brutal deaths of his wife and young daughter. What is a guy to do but target the person (Jamie Foxx) who put him behind bars?

Disc includes: Theatrical and director's cuts, audio commentary, The Justice of Law Biding Citizen: Law in Black and White: Behind the Scenes featurette, Preliminary Arguments: Visual Effects featurette, The Verdict: Winning Trailer Mash-Up featurette

For people who knew Coco was Gabrielle before she was Coco: Coco Before Chanel

Coco Before Chanel was no Amelie at the domestic box office, but the project – also starring the perky and bright-eyed Audrey Tautou – earned ($6.1 million) around what she averages here in the States.

Nominated for four BAFTAs (including Audrey Tautou's Best Actress nod) and an Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Coco Before Chanel (or Coco avant Chanel to you Frenchies) stars Tautou as Coco Chanel in a biopic about the famed French designer. Pic follows her post-orphanage experiences working at a bar as a seamstress and singer. Through a baron, she gains entry into French society, and greets new opportunities after falling in love with English businessman Arthur Capel.

Disc includes: Walking the Red Carpet: From Los Angeles to New York featurette, Coco Before Chanel "La Rencontre" ("The Meeting") featurette, The Making of Coco Before Chanel featurette, audio commentary





For people who like sexual innuendos: Black Dynamite

Little did Sony know early last year when it purchased Black Dynamite at Sundance for $2 million that it spent more than eight times what the blaxploitation flick would have grossed later on in the year. (But such is the business. If there was a perfect formula to predict box office success, the suits would already know how best to exploit it). What can best be described as a blip on the radar, Black Dynamite opened on 70 screens in its opening weekend a few months ago and grossed just $130,000 – or about $1,800 per theater. The flick lasted just one more week before being put to pasture.

Perhaps this one, about a former CIA agent who gets back in the biz after the mafia kills his brother, would have fared better had it been released much earlier in the decade. An obvious example would be Undercover Brother, the Eddie Griffin vehicle that grossed upwards of $41 million. That movie, and the third Austin Powers chapter, both hit theaters in 2002.

Black Dynamite may not have a lead you've heard of (Michael Jai White), but does have a supporting cast you have: Arsenio Hall, Tommy Davidson and Nicole Sullivan.

Disc include: Audio commentary, Making Of featurette, The Comic-Con Experience featurette, deleted and alternate scenes, The 70's Back in Action featurette

For people who can play a string instrument: The Ladykillers [Blu-ray]

No, this isn't the version by those wonderful Coen brothers, but the 1955 original. Believe it or not, they're already mastering 45-year-old movies to Blu-ray! (The Wizard of Oz, of course, snickers at that. It got the Blu-ray treatment two months ago and is 26 years older).

The black comedy is about a professor who assembles a crew to rob a security van at Kings Cross Station in London. They rent a room and convince the landlord that they're an amateur string quartet using the room for practice, but hit a speed bump when she sees their stolen money.

Disc includes: Introduction by filmmaker Terry Gilliam, interviews with filmmakers Allan Scott, Terence Davies and James Mangold and writer Ronald Harwood, audio commentary, Forever Ealing (documentary on the famed British studio), Cleaning Up The Ladykillers featurette

February 16, 2010

Blu-ray
Black Dynamite
Cabin Fever
Claymore: Complete Collection
Coco Before Chanel
Contempt
Dirty Harry Collection (Collector's Edition)
Freeway Killer
Goodfellas (20th Anniversary Edition)
Halo Legends
Heroic Age: The Complete Series
Hunger (Criterion Collection)
The Ladykillers
Law Abiding Citizen
Lola Montes (Criterion Collection)
Ran
Revanche (Criterion Collection)
Women in Trouble

DVD
2010 Allstate Sugar Bowl
2010 AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic
2010 Citi BCS National Championship
2010 FedEx Orange Bowl
2010 Rose Bowl Game Presented by Citi
2010 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl
Barnaby Jones: The First Season
Black Dynamite
Bob and Margaret: The Complete First Season
Branded: The Complete Series
Cabin Fever
Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever (Unrated)
Charlie Murphy: I Will Not Apologize
Claymore: Complete Collection
Clint Eastwood: 35 Years, 35 Movies at Warner Bros
Coco Before Chanel
Daybreak
Dirty Harry Collection (Collector's Edition)
Freeway Killer
Goodfellas (20th Anniversary Edition)
Halo Legends (Special Edition)
Head Case: The Complete Series
Heroic Age: The Complete Series
Hunger (Criterion Collection)
Law Abiding Citizen
Lincoln Heights: The Complete First Season
Lola Montes (Criterion Collection)
Revanche (Criterion Collection)
Small Wonder: The Complete First Season
Women in Trouble