This Week on DVD & Blu-ray (10-30-12)

It’s one of those “Catch-Up” weeks, where a handful of films that I haven’t yet seen rise to the top of a mediocre list. The big major studio release is the appropriately-timed comedy “The Campaign” starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis as rival presidential candidate, directed by Jay Roach (“Austin Powers”). Two indie movies (with links to “Little Miss Sunshine”) may give you something a little more unexpected. From the Directors of “Sunshine” comes “Ruby Sparks” starring the very busy Paul Dano and then there’s “Safety Not Guaranteed”, from the producers of “Little Miss”. All three showcase an impressive group of supporting actors, such as: John Lithgow, Dan Aykroyd, Chris Messina, Steve Coogan, Jeff Garlin and Mary Lynn Rajskub, in movies that provide varying degrees of laughter.

It’s Halloween week – can we scare up any horror movies from this list? Well, yes. One looks like a schlocky B-movie and the other is a classic that I STILL haven’t seen (told ya it was “Catch Up” week). Check out the painful premise for “Excision” – a disturbed and delusional high school student with aspirations of a career in medicine goes to extremes to earn the approval of her controlling mother. Sigh. Parents, don’t exasperate your children. The movies stars Traci Lords, Roger Bart, Malcolm McDowell, John Waters, Marlee Matlin and Ray Wise. On the flipside, there’s Roman Polanski’s “Rosemary’s Baby”, yes this is the one I haven’t seen yet. So, now is as good a time as any. It’s been given the Criterion Collection treatment, so I’m sure it has some interesting bells and whistles. Maybe I’ll do a Ruth Gordon double-feature and watch it with “Harold and Maude”.

Well, that’s it for this week. Enjoy the Rundown….

• A Certain Magical Index: Season One, Part One (DVD)
• A Certain Magical Index: Season One, Part Two (DVD)
• A Christmas Story 2 (DVD/Blu-ray)
• Alfred Hitchcock – The Masterpiece Collection (Universal 100th Anniversary) (Blu-ray)
• All In The Family: The Complete Series (28 Disc Box set) (DVD)
• Americano (DVD/Blu-ray)
• The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye (DVD)
• The Brain (Le Cerveau) (DVD/Blu-ray)
• The Campaign (DVD/Blu-ray)
• Chuck: The Complete Series – Collector Set (DVD/Blu-ray)
• Chuggington: Icy Escapades (DVD)
• Coma (Mini-Series) (DVD)
• Copper: Season One (Blu-ray)
• Excision (DVD/Blu-ray)
• Greed in the Sun (DVD/Blu-ray)
• House of Dark Shadows (DVD)
• The Kathy Griffin Collection: Red, White & Raw (DVD)
• Long Day’s Journey Into Night (DVD/Blu-ray)
• Metalocalypse: Season Four (DVD/Blu-ray)
• Night of Dark Shadows (DVD/Blu-ray)
• One Piece: Season Four, Voyage Two (DVD)
• Rosemary’s Baby (Criterion Collection) (DVD/Blu-ray)
• Ruby Sparks (DVD/Blu-ray)
• Safety Not Guaranteed (DVD/Bu-ray)
• Santa Claus Conquers the Martians: Kino Classics Special Edition (DVD/Blu-ray)
• The Streets of San Francisco: Season Five, Volume One (DVD)
• The Streets of San Francisco: Season Five, Volume Two (DVD)
• Taxi for Tobruk (DVD/Blu-ray)
• Twilight’s Last Gleaming (1977) (DVD/Blu-ray)