There hasn't been a DVD week like this since, oh, before you were born. Well, that might be an exaggeration, but still: the combined gross of all these films put together might not match your Deathly Hallows, Part II, but it'd still be pretty high. And, for once, there are actually a few films I might not mind checking out, e.g. The Hangover Part II and Point Blank, which I hear is excellent. And morbid curiosity forced me to add Cowboys And Aliens to our Netflix queue, although it won't be available until next month.
See anything below that fascinates you? Gonna buy any of this crap to give away as gifts?
 | 1. The Hangover Part II Hahaha, "weenis." I watched a bit of The Hangover last weekend, and it still holds up as a genuinely hilarious film, but I've heard nothing but weirdly mediocre things about Part II. I guess now I can find out for myself! I really don't have strong opinions about it! |
 | 2. The Help Just go ahead and slap the "Acadamy Award Best Picture Nomination!" sticker on the package now, because there's no way that that's not happening. On the plus side, you know precisely what to get your mom for Christmas now, if you didn't already buy something for her. |
 | 3. Cowboys and Aliens With its massive advertising budget, there's almost no chance that Cowboys And Aliens is going to make money for Universal. I'm mildly curious to see precisely how O.K. it really was. |
 | 4. The Debt I had mixed feelings about this Nazi-hunting drama, as I did about most of the movies on this list. Hey, it was O.K., I guess. And it was part of Jessica Chastain's all-hands blitz on the American consciousness this year, so it's got that going for it. And hey, you know what? Helen Mirren's not a bad actress. |
 | 5. Mr. Popper's Penguins You couldn't pay me enough to make me watch this. Well, honestly, you could: I would accept one million dollars. Actually, I'd accept ten bucks and a donut. I don't value my time all that highly. But I would't enjoy it! |
 | 6. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo The Swedish Dragon Tattoo series gets a deluxe, Extended Edition release in a box-set of all three films. Maybe they'll explain how the hell Lisbeth did that thing at the end of the second movie that IS TOTALLY FUCKING IMPOSSIBLE. |
 | 7. Point Blank This French thriller was apparently great, but I neglected to see it in theaters, alas. Now I'll make up for that mistake by adding it to my Netflix queue! Take that! |
 | 8. Rapt An unfaithful husband is kidnapped and held for a huge ransom. Will his wife, when she learns of his infidelities, actually pay? That's the premise for this Chabrolian thriller. I don't know what the hell "Chabrolian" means. I guess he was a director or something. Let's ponder that. |
 | 9. Big Love In TV releases, we have: Big Love: The Complete Fifth Season, Big Love: The Complete Series, Portlandia: Season One, The Simpsons: Season 14, and Law & Order: The Ninth Year. |
 | 10. Tora! Tora! Tora! In older films getting reissued, we have Tora! Tora! Tora!, The Lady Vanishes, and Design For Living, no doubt among others. |
There's no way the Help is going to best picture (reviews were good, not positive), and Mr. Popper's Penguins didn't get terrible reviews either.
5% of the Academy voting The Help as Best Picture (as per new rules)? I don't see that happening. If the Weinsteins produced it then we could have a different story...
I think, if there are to be 10 nominations this year, The Help can possibly get in. However, here are the ones I think are most likely (based on film sensibilities and buzz alone, as I still haven't seen a number of these films)
The Artist, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, War Horse, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Harry Potter 7 Part 2, The Descendants, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and possibly Young Adult, The Help, Pariah, or Tinker Tailor Soilder Spy finding the last spot.
I wish Drive was out on Blu-Ray, that's the big 2011 film I know I want to own. Sadly, it looks like it's not slated for release until the end of January.
Cowboys and Aliens was such a bummer. I wanted to like that movie so bad but I just couldn't muster up any feelings besides boredom for it. Maybe I'll finally get around to renting the Hangover Pt. II this week though.
I hope that people will watch swedish version of Men who hate woman(The girl with the dragon tattoo), great movie and I would say authentic scenery to the books.
If you liked the first one, Hangover 2 isn't bad, just more of the same. Did they ever resolve that whole stupid tattoo lawsuit that was holding up the DVD release or did they digitally alter it which is why it took so long?
I want to see Portlandia. I do not want to see Hangover 2 again.
@AlKusanagi: I agree with this but don't watch them too close together because then you just get the feeling of "yeah i guess that was funny but i liked it better in the first one"
I might rent one or two of those, won't buy.
I also plan on investing some time to finding out just how middling Cowboys & Aliens is.
@ChiliPalmer said:
I also think it was, but as many have already said, it was definitely diluted because it was so much like a re-hash of the original with a different setting and some newly introduced characters.
Saving my money for Rise of the Planet of the Apes next week.
Point Blank looks like the kind of foreign movie that gets released to Netflix Instant right away. Fingers crossed, it looked pretty good.