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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: Paul Rudd and Steve Carell party, James Franco goes back 50 years and Bill Murray loves Japan.

Pick of the Week

For people who think Steve Carell and Paul Rudd go good together: Dinner for Schmucks

For me, Dinner for Schmucks is one of those movies where you can’t quite wrap your head around the fact that it did indeed earn $73 million at the Stateside box office. Gosh. And it isn’t so much the log line – an evening of blatantly eccentric personalities at one dinner table… nice – but, apparently, that millions of people dropped what they were doing to, yes, go and see it.

Take me to those people. Shower me with them. Because I can’t say, truly, that I’ve run into one soul who has said: “Ah yes, the weekend was bliss. I went on a successful ‘coon hunt, shot the back nine at the club and topped it off with a 10 o’clock showing of Dinner for Schmucks in 3D.”

I think what may have happened, actually, was that Dinner for Schmucks was released in the wake of a weensy mind crumbler named Inception. In its third weekend, it was still the nation’s #1 movie, having brought in $4 million more than Dinner for Schmucks’ $23 million opening weekend.

Disc includes: The Biggest Schmucks In The World: Behind the Scenes with the Cast featurette, deleted scenes, The Men Behind The Mousterpieces: Bringing Barry's Dioramas to Life featurette, outtakes

**The “3D” may be an exaggeration.

For people who enjoy poetry: Howl

In between General Hospital takes, James Franco spent a portion of his busy, busy life portraying Allen Ginsberg on screen in a movie about the life and times of one of the Beat Generation’s most influential and central figures.

It’s amazing, really, to take a step back and admire Franco’s film canon. I mean, to have gone from second (or third) fiddle in the Spider-Man movie series to smooching Sean Penn in a period piece or sawing off an arm after getting it pinned under an immovable boulder – not to mention that Golden Globe nod for his work as a super stoner in Pineapple Express – and it’s like, Jeez, what’s next, man? Actors like Franco are the exciting ones to watch and appreciate because you never quite know what you’re going to get. Much like that star turn on General Hospital, which didn’t make much sense at the time, but is a bit clearer now, eh?





Disc includes: Audio commentary, Holy! Holy! Holy! The Making of Howl featurette, Director’s Research Tapes – original interviews with Ginsberg's friends and collaborators, Allen Ginsberg reads Howl (at The Knitting Factory in New York, 1995), James Franco reads Howl audio featurette, Allen Ginsberg reads Sunflower Sutra and Pull My Daisy (at The Knitting Factory in New York, 1995), Directors Q&A featurette

For people who’ve been to Japan: Lost In Translation [Blu-ray]

Bill Murray’s Lost in Translation/The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou/Broken Flowers stretch really was the impetus for why I have such loving feelings towards him as an actor. I heart the man so hard – mostly because he’s so good at, you know, playing characters. He also seems to be a total goof. What, with his showing up at random house parties and the rest of it unannounced. I’d like to think that he, in real life, would be a lot like he was in Zombieland: The dude with the foresight to make himself look like death so he can survive a zombie apocalypse, sure, but mostly so he can maintain a steady golfing handicap.

If The Life Aquatic is Bill Murray at his most subtly funny, and Broken Flowers his most serious, then his character in Lost in Translation – the aptly named Bob Harris – would fall somewhere between the two. He won just about every major and minor award that year – save for that elusive Oscar (his first nod though) – and deserved absolutely all of it. I enjoyed Bill in the movie, and I could tell he enjoyed himself in it, too.

Disc includes: Deleted scenes, extended scene, Lost on Location featurette, “City Girl” music video by Kevin Shields, A Conversation with Bill Murray and Sofia Coppola featurette

January 4, 2011

Blu-ray
8213: Gacy House
Airline Disaster
Austin Powers In Goldmember
Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
Backdraft (Anniversary Edition)
Battlestar Galactica: Season 4.0
Blade Runner Final Cut
The Blind Side
Book of Blood / The Midnight Meat Train
Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season 8 Motion Comic
Case 39
Catfish
Coraline
Dark Blue
The Desperado And El Mariachi
The Devil's Rejects / House of 1000 Corpses
Dinner for Schmucks
Ever After
Gone With The Wind Sleeve
Gun
The Haunting In Connecticut / Stir Of Echoes
Hope Floats
How The West Was Won (Special Edition)
Howl
JFK
Kurokami: Animation Volume 5
L.A. Confidential
The Last Exorcism
Lost In Translation
Machete
The Matrix
My Dog Skip
Navy SEALs
Once Upon A Time In Mexico
The Princess Bride
Rollerball
The Thomas Crown Affair
Ticking Clock
To Live And Die In L.A.
Tsubasa: Volumes 1-5
A Walk In The Clouds
The Wizard Of Oz (Anniversary Edition)

DVD
8213: Gacy House
Backdraft (Anniversary Edition)
Battlestar Galactica: Season 4.0
Big Love: The Complete Fourth Season
Blade Runner (Final Cut)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season 8 Motion Comic (DVD +)
Cabin Fever / Cabin Fever 2 / Descent / Descent 2 (Set)
Case 39
Catfish
Dinner for Schmucks
Glee: The Complete First Season
Gun
How The West Was Won (Special Edition)
Howl
Jamie Kennedy: Uncomfortable
The Last Exorcism
Machete
Make It Or Break It: Volume Two
Mannix: The Fourth Season
The Ricky Gervais Show: The Complete First Season
Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends: The Complete Series
The Wizard Of Oz (Anniversary Edition)