This is the biggest week for New Releases between now and January. I hope you'll forgive me for rushing through some of the releases. With so much to sort through, I'm leaving the heavy lifting on a lot of the films to my fellow MSN film critics. Read on for highlights in comedy, drama, American indies and more.

 

"The Smurfs" (Sony), the juvenile comedy about little blue CGI creatures scrambling and singing through live action New York City, arrives on Friday, December 2. Videodrone's review is here.

 

Also arriving Friday, December 2 is "Friends with Benefits" (Screen Gems), an R-rated romantic comedy with Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake navigating the fine line between sex and love. "[T]here's no denying that Kunis and Timberlake have no small amount of chemistry," observes MSN film critic James Rocchi. ""Friends With Benefits" makes the occasional misstep outside of the bedroom, but it's still more honest -- and more funny -- about the facts of life and lust than a lot of romantic comedies. It's just sad that a movie suggesting an honest and zesty approach to sex and relationships builds to such a conventional ending." Patricia Clarkson, Jenna Elfman, Bryan Greenberg, Richard Jenkins and Woody Harrelson co-star.

On DVD, Blu-ray and Blu-ray+DVD Combo Pack, with commentary by director Will Gluck and stars Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake and deleted scenes. The Blu-ray editions also include two featurettes, a Pop-Up trivia track and a bonus Ultraviolet digital version, which allows you to download the film or stream it on portable video devices.

 

The rest of the releases arrive on the more tradition Tuesday. "Our Idiot Brother" (Anchor Bay), starring Paul Rudd as a sweetly oblivious guy whose instinctive honesty and generosity tends to get him in trouble (Rudd completely sells a scene where a uniformed police officer talks him into selling him a bag of dope) and complicate the lives of his sisters, is my pick for the day. It's an easy-going comedy with a good cast (Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel and Emily Mortimer as the sisters) and a big heart. "The Sundance hit is a genuinely smart, pointed, lively and ultimately benign modern comedy of manners and mores and sex, and all the more successful for having a relatively refreshing viewpoint, as its sweet but very socially awkward title character is seen throughout through the prism of not one but three female perspectives," affirms MSN film critic Glenn Kenny.

On DVD and Blu-ray with commentary by director Jesse Peretz, deleted and extended scenes and a featurette.

MSN film critic Glenn Kenny is upbeat about "30 Minutes or Less" (Sony), a black comedy about a pizza delivery guy (Jesse Eisenberg) sent to rob a bank with dynamite strapped to his body. "It's punchy, nasty, laugh-out-loud-funny​ stuff that doesn't flag or wear out its welcome," praises Kenny. "Clocking in at a mere 83 minutes (why, that's not even three times 30!), it has so little dead air that one might even legitimately call it the "His Girl Friday" of bomb-strapped-to-the​-chest caper comedies." Danny McBride and Nick Swardson are the would-be criminal masterminds who put him through this hell and Aziz Ansari and Fred Ward co-star.

 

The DVD features deleted scenes, outtakes and a featurette on the cast. The Blu-ray adds picture-in-picture commentary by director Ruben Fleischer and actors Jesse Eisenberg, Aziz Ansari, Danny McBride and Nick Swardson and a traditional behind-the-scenes featurette.

 

My indie pick this week is the horror comedy "Tucker & Dale vs. Evil" (Magnet), with Tyler Labine and Alan Tudyk as good-natured idiot hicks in the woods attacked by smug college kids convinced the boys are horror movie hillbilly killers. Hilarious mayhem ensures. Videodrone's review is here.

Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess star in the romantic drama "One Day" (Universal), which checks in on the would-be lovers on the same day every year for twenty years. MSN film critic Glenn Kenny writes that he expected "beyond boy-meets-girl this is a story about life, and how precious it is, and how we ought to treasure every moment, even with all the changes we put each other through. And yes, it is about that ... rather tritely about that, I regret having to say." On DVD and Blu-ray,  with commentary by director Lone Scherfig, three featurettes and deleted scenes, plus digital download and OnDemand.

 

Brit Marling co-writes (with director Mike Cahill) and stars in "Another Earth" (Fox), an indie drama of guilt and redemption with a science fiction backdrop that won the Special Jury Prize at Sundance. Marling delivers a breakthrough performance as the young woman who tries to make amends for an accident that killed tow people and left another (William Mapother) adrift in anger and depression. MSN film critic James Rocchi writes that "there are moments in "Another Earth" where what we see onscreen has the grace and power of life as we know it, and where the sci-fi plot points do not make us think about that fantasy, but, rather, about our reality." On Blu-ray+DVD Combo Pack, with featurettes and deleted scenes.

 

The offbeat comedy "The Future" (Lionsgate), about a hip young couple adrift in stasis and self-doubt and dying cat waiting to be adopted by them (the cat narrates, sort of), is the second feature from acclaimed performance artist Miranda July. "July's not an unaccomplished filmmaker, and she cannily adopts a very straightforward shooting style here, which makes the weird stuff resonate interestingly once it starts kicking in," offers MSN film critic Glenn Kenny. "But by keeping things simple, direct and small-scaled, she gives the impression not of a minimalist sensibility at work, but of an artist who actually hasn't fully fleshed out her ideas."  On DVD only, with commentary by July, a behind-the-scenes featurette and a deleted scene.

 

Foreign Affairs:

From Spain comes "Kidnapped" (IFC), a brutal thriller about ruthless kidnappers who take an entire family hostage and starts to torture them to force the father to hand over the family savings. "My eyes never left the screen and my attention never wandered; in a restricted, technical sense of the term, "Kidnapped" is a masterpiece," proclaims Salon.com film critic Andrew O'Hehir, with the disclaimer: "But I make no claims for its moral value or for any cathartic or redemptive qualities." In Spanish with optional English dub soundtrack and English subtitles, plus a making-of featurette.

 

"The Wave" (IFC), a German drama inspired by the true story of an unorthodox high school teacher who tried to teach his students the attraction and the horror of Fascism through a classroom experiment. The real-life event occurred in a California high school in 1967 and  previously inspired an American TV movie of the same name. This German version tries to connect directly with its own Nazi history. In German  with English subtitles, plus interviews and a featurette.

 

Also new this week is "Vampires" (IFC), a horror comedy from Belgium designed as a mock documentary about a family of vampires just trying to get along in human society. In French with English subtitles, with deleted scenes.

 

True Stories:

Werner Herzog's documentary "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" (MPI), an exploration of the ancient Chauvet Cave and the oldest human artwork known to exist, was originally released in 3D and is available on Blu-ray 3D as well as standard DVD and Blu-ray editions. Videodrone's review is here.

Also new on the non-fiction front: "Reel Injun" (Kino Lorber), "Becoming Chaz" (Virgil) and "Sons of Perdition" (Virgil). More details here.

 

Plus:

"The Art of Getting By" (Fox) is a coming-of-age film Freddie Highmore and Emma Roberts. MSN film critic Glenn Kenny describes it as "a limp, lifeless and rote retread, utterly unconvincing in most of its New York details." On DVD  and Blu-ray, with director commentary and featurettes.

Robert Duvall and Lucas Black star in the faith-based golf drama "Seven Days in Utopia" (Arc Entertainment), which received a brief theatrical release. Philadelphia Inquirer film critic Steven Rea suggests that "Until (it) sucker punches you with a surfeit of faith-based platitudes, its upbeat brand of golf mysticism isn't altogether unappealing." On DVD only, with three featurettes.

"5 Days of War" (Anchor Bay) is Renny Harlan's portrait of the brief but brutal attack on Georgia by Russia in 2008. New York Post film critic Lou Lumenick observes that it "Should appeal more to those who like to watch stuff blow up than understand exactly why the carnage is transpiring." DVD and Blu-ray, with commentary and deleted scenes.

Christopher Lloyd and Ray Liotta provide the adult supervision in the family drama "Snow Men" (Arc Entertainment). "Needle" (Lionsgate) is another horror film featuring death from a supernatural device. Tyler Perry takes Madea to the stage in "A Madea Christmas: The Play" (Lionsgate), recorded like in 2011.

Continue after the jump for select trailers

 

For more releases, see Hot Tips and Top Picks: DVDs and Blu-rays for November 29

 

"Smallville" launched in 2001 as a superhero series by way of a "Dawson's Creek" style young adult melodrama: teen angst with a kryptonite boost and moral lessons in a freak-of-the-week serial. Tom Welling looked more like a Tiger Beat cover model than a small town farm boy, but his gentle blue eyes and aw-shucks smile made his high school freshman Clark Kent all innocence as his powers emerge as he grew up -- not your usual problems with puberty. The producers made a point of never putting Clark into the familiar costume. This was a show about the boy -- and the man -- before he was Superman.

 

The series had its ups and downs and almost ended after falling ratings in its seventh season but it improved enough to win back audiences and power through ten seasons to end on the long-awaited and highly-anticipated sight of Welling's debut in the familiar red, white and blue costume, streaking off to save the world as Superman. In the process, it became the longest-running superhero series on television.

 

"Smallville: The Complete Series" (Warner) is one of the most impressive TV box sets of the year, a collection of all 218 episodes and supplements, plus exclusive bonus supplements, on 62 discs in a box set of hefty digibook cases. It's DVD only (seasons 6 – 10 are the only seasons available on Blu-ray) and the two digibook cases feature stiff paperboard sleeves rather than trays (which means fingerprints on the disc and a fears of scuffing when removing and returning them to the case), but it's a solid, substantial set.

 

The show stands up to the revisit, from the touch-and-go almost romance with Kristin Kreuk's Lana Lang and the unlikely friendship with Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum), the bad-boy millionaire trying to make good before slipping back into bad to long-simmering romance with Lois Lane and the building of the "Smallville" superhero universe. In those early seasons, the strength of the show was in the warm the family relationships with John Schneider and Annette O'Toole as his rock steady, salt of the Earth adoptive parents, who balance moral backbone with just a touch of modern sexiness, and the tension with his Kryptonian father Jor-El (voice of Terence Stamp). It's satisfying to see it come full circle in the final season.

 

The 218 episodes are on 60 discs. The final two discs features supplements exclusive to this set. Some fans will be most interested in the rare 1961 pilot "The Adventures of Superboy," if only out of curiosity and archival interest, but the presentation is frustrating: the program is shown small in the screen, framed within the picture of an old console-style TV set. The show itself is pretty corny and a little stiff and it never made it to series. This is the first time it's been released on home video.

 

Also features a 90-minute retrospective with new and archival interviews, a substantially expanded edition of the featurette "Smallville's 100th Episode: Making of a Milestone," footage from the 2010 "Smallville" Comic-Con panel and the 2004 Paley Fest "Smallville" Panel. Previously available supplements include the 2006 "Aquaman" pilot (from the animated "Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths" Blu-ray) and the documentary "Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics" (from the animated "Superman / Shazam: The Return of Black Adam" Blu-ray).

 

The whole package is set in a big 8" x 11 ½" x 3 ½" box, which also holds an episode guide with pictures and production art and mock tabloid-sized issue of The Daily Planet written by DC Comics (with bylines attributed to Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Cat Grant and others) for this edition. 

See below for the set trailer, after the jump

For more releases, see Hot Tips and Top Picks: DVDs and Blu-rays for November 29

 

 

It didn't make the final cut for the Oscar documentary shortlist but Werner Herzog's "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" (MPI) is a beautiful and breathtaking work of non-fiction, one of the best of the year, and the New York Film Critics Circle made if official today: they named it the Best Non-Fiction Film of 2011. It debuts today on DVD, Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D.

The film is built around an exploration of the ancient Chauvet Cave, home to the oldest human artwork known to exist. Yes, we're talking cave paintings which survived because the cave was sealed off and preserved for centuries upon centuries. It's the cavern that time forgot and only a handful of people are allowed inside to maintain the conditions that have preserved these artifacts, some as old as 32,000 years. Herzog petitioned to be one of the few and bring a camera in to share the visions with the rest of the world.

 

Restricted to a thin catwalk through a cave deep inside a mountain, a skeleton crew and minimal light, he does just that: capture the space, the texture, the quality of color of these ghost-like paintings, like shadows of the past captured on the cave walls. He communicates a sense of awe and wonder without any contrived dramatics and between visits to the paintings he profiles the scientists, archeologists, historians and technicians who have also been granted access, and as usual finds great stories in these individuals.

 

The film was originally shot and presented in theaters in 3D (and with this one film justified the technology) and it is available on Blu-ray 3D (which requires 3D compatible players and monitors) as well as standard DVD and Blu-ray editions. All editions feature the 39-minute documentary short "Ode to the Dawn of Man," which profiles the creation of the score. More reviews here. See the trailer below, after the jump.

 

"Reel Injun" (Kino Lorber) is a survey of how native Americans have been portrayed in the movies and on television, from the silent era through the golden age of westerns to the new Native independent cinema of "Smoke Signals" and "The Fast Runner." The Canadian documentary from Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond (not the singer) is "Absorbing and amusing for as long as it looks back at those Hollywood westerns, recounting their sins against American Indians," writes Mike Hale in The New York Times. Adam Beach, Russell Means, John Trudell and filmmakers Chris Eyre, Jim Jarmusch and Clint Eastwood are among the talking heads interviewed between the clips.

 

Also new this week are two films from the OWN Documentary Club: the Emmy nominated "Becoming Chaz" (Virgil), a profile of the physical transformation of Chaz Bono through sex reassignment surgery, and "Sons of Perdition" (Virgil), a portrait of the lives of three boys after their escape from the oldest polygamist community in the United States.

 

For more releases, see Hot Tips and Top Picks: DVDs and Blu-rays for November 29

 

"Tucker & Dale vs. Evil" (Magnet) is not so much a horror comedy as a comedy where most of the characters are convinced they're in a horror film and act accordingly.

 

Think of it as a comedy of errors with a body count: a group of frat boys and sorority girls, led by sneering alpha male Chad (Jesse Moss), hits the backwoods (Alberta, unconvincingly subbing for the Appalachians) and sees a potential psycho in every hillbilly cliché they see along the way. Enter the eponymous Dale (Tyler Labine), a sweetly stupid idiot savant, and his best friend Tucker (Alan Tudyk), the proud owner of a new "vacation home," a real fixer upper that appears to have been inherited from a disciple of Ed Gein.

 

"Officer, do we look like a couple of psycho killers to you," smiles a bloody, bee-stung Dale. Seen through the eyes of superior breeding and conceited presumption, they apparently do, especially after the kids keep killing themselves in ill-advised attacks and hysterical flights of panic. The gore is epic and the self-destruction all the funnier when it appears inevitable (case in point: a wood chipper minding its own business as a college kid sneaks up on it). Labine and Tudyk sell it all with their gob-smacked reactions to the unprovoked attacks, but it's their best-buddy chemistry that makes them so much fun to hang around.

 

All right, who smurfed?

 

Yes, that is actually a line from "The Smurfs" (Sony), the big screen debut of the little blue heroes of comic book and animated TV fame (arriving on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download on Friday, December 2). Think of them as miniature playdough versions of the seven dwarfs (multiplied into an entire village) as little blue children: there's Clumsy Smurf, Brainy, Gutsy, Greedy, Grouchy… you get the idea.

 

There's also Smurfette (voiced by Katy Perry), the sole female in this vaguely masculine society, and Papa Smurf, the sage voice of reason and advice. His voice is in fact a very paternal Jonathan Winters, who is about the only one here not going for cartoon extremes as the little blue CGI creatures scramble and sing through live action New York City after they get sucked out of their magic mushroom forest home and get adopted (sort of) by human couple Neil Patrick Harris and Jayma Mays.

 

And if you think these guys are animated, get a load of Hank Azaria, who is even more of a cartoon as the hygiene-challenged troll of a wizard Gargamel, their eternal nemesis. Or for that matter Harris as the earnest young ad executive and Mays as his optimist of a wife, who fishes one of the little blue guys out of the toilet and makes friends. Yeah, I know, it's not the message you really want to send to a little kid, but there you have it.

 

The feature film, directed by Raja Gosnell (whose experience with CGI characters in live action movies dates back to the "Scooby-Doo" films), is most definitely targeted toward kids, with big, broad gags and zippy action, while a few self-effacing lines acknowledge the adults in the audience but fail to offer much else for anyone over the age of 12. But apparently the nostalgia factor worked wonders in turning "The Smurfs" into a hit and putting a sequel into the works. Call me Grouchy, but I say grown-ups should just say smurf it and avoid the film completely.

 

 

New Releases:

Tuesday is officially new release day for DVD and Blu-ray, but this week a pair of new releases have staked out the Friday usually reserved for "Harry Potter" films and other youth-skewed blockbusters: "The Smurfs" (Sony) and "Friends with Benefits" (Screen Gems) both released on Friday, December 2.

 

"The Smurfs," featuring little blue CGI creatures scrambling and singing through live action New York City while a hygiene-challenged wizard pursues them, is a juvenile comedy for the kids and includes lots of supplements on the DVD and Blu-ray editions. Videodrone's review is here. "Friends with Benefits" is an R-rated romantic comedy with Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake navigating the fine line between sex and love and it arrives on DVD and Blu-ray with commentary and deleted scenes. Reviewed here.

 

Even without those films, Tuesday is a huge week for New Releases, the biggest between now and January. "Our Idiot Brother" (Anchor Bay), starring Paul Rudd as a sweetly oblivious guy whose instinctive honesty and generosity tends to complicate the lives of his sisters, is my pick for the day, an easy-going comedy with a good cast (Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel and Emily Mortimer as the sisters) and a big heart. With commentary, deleted scenes and a featurette on DVD and Blu-ray. More here.

 

MSN film critic Glenn Kenny, on the other hand, is upbeat about "30 Minutes or Less" (Sony), a black comedy about a pizza delivery guy (Jesse Eisenberg) sent to rob a bank with dynamite strapped to his body. Kenny describes is as "punchy, nasty, laugh-out-loud-funny​ stuff that doesn't flag or wear out its welcome." The DVD features deleted scenes and a featurette and the Blu-ray adds commentary and more.

 

My indie pick this week is the horror comedy "Tucker & Dale vs. Evil" (Magnet), with Tyler Labine and Alan Tudyk as good-natured idiot hicks in the woods attacked by smug college kids convinced the boys are horror movie hillbilly killers. Hilarious mayhem ensures. Videodrone's review is here.

 

Werner Herzog's documentary "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" (MPI), an exploration of the ancient Chauvet Cave, home to the oldest human artwork known to exist, was originally released in 3D and is available on Blu-ray 3D as well as standard DVD and Blu-ray editions. Videodrone's review is here. Also new on the non-fiction front: "Reel Injun" (Kino Lorber), a survey of how native Americans have been portrayed in the movies.

 

And they keep on coming: Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess star in the romantic drama "One Day" (Universal). Brit Marling co-writes and stars in "Another Earth" (Fox), an indie drama with a science fiction backdrop and breakthrough performance from Marling. The offbeat comedy "The Future" (Lionsgate) is the second feature from acclaimed performance artist Miranda July.

 

Plus: the coming-of-age film "The Art of Getting By" (Fox) with Freddie Highmore and Emma Roberts, the faith-based golf drama "Seven Days in Utopia" (Arc Entertainment) with Robert Duvall and Lucas Black, "5 Days of War" (Anchor Bay), Renny Harlan's portrait of the brief but brutal attack on Georgia by Russia in 2008, and the foreign films "Kidnapped" (IFC) from Spain, "The Wave" (IFC) from Germany (but based on a true story from an American high school) and "Vampires" (IFC), a horror comedy from Belgium.

 

Browse the complete New Release Rack here

 

TV on DVD:

"Smallville," the long-running WB youth superhero series about Superman before he donned the cape, ended last season after an impressive ten-season run. So while we get "Smallville: The Complete Tenth Season" (Warner) on both DVD and Blu-ray, we also get the deluxe "Smallville: The Complete Series" (Warner), on DVD only but an impressive collection of all 218 episodes and supplements, plus exclusive bonus supplements, on 62 discs in a box set of hefty digibook cases. Season Ten reviewed on Videodrone here, and the "Complete Series" is revisited on Videodrone here.

Another box set, "Friday Night Lights: The Complete Series," also gets reviewed on Videodrone here.

Peter Graves returned to duty for "Mission: Impossible – The 1988 TV Season" (Paramount), the first of two seasons in the revival of the secret agent caper series. 19 episodes on five discs, no supplements. More on Videodrone here.

Adam Rifkin turned his video surveillance film into a Showtime series with "Look: Season 1" (Image). 11 half-hour episodes on two discs.  "Vietnam in HD" (A&E/History), a documentary series made for the History Channel with rare film footage shot by the soldiers themselves, arrives on DVD and Blu-ray a few weeks after its cable debut.

 

"30 Rock: Season 5" (Universal) features 22 episodes of the hit sitcom, which is set to begin its sixth season in January. The three-disc set includes both versions of the season live show, commentary tracks and other supplements. Also this week are "Hot in Cleveland: Season Two" (Paramount) and "Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns: Season 3" (Lionsgate).

Flip through the TV on DVD Channel Guide here

Cool, Classic and Cult:

"Sabu! (Eclipse Series 30)" (Criterion) collects three Alexander Korda productions (all directed by his brother, Zoltan Korda) starring Selar Shaik, renamed Sabu when was elevated from boy elephant driver of a maharaja to star of the film "Elephant Boy" (1937). The set also features "The Drum" (1938), with Sabu as a young prince protected by the British colonial forces in India, and "Jungle Book" (1942), all carried by Sabu's energy, sincerity and screen charisma. (A fourth Korda feature starring Sabu, "The Thief of Bagdad," was previously release by Criterion.) Videodrone's review is here.

 

"The Cycle" (Nima Pictures/Facets) is a 1978 drama from Iranian master Dariush Mehrjui, made during the reign of the Shah, whose regime banned it for its uncompromising portrait of poverty in the country. "Chillerama" (Image) is anthology film of four tongue-in-cheek horror shorts directed by Adam Green, Joe Lynch, Adam Rifkin and Tim Sullivan. "The Invisible Frame" (Icarus) is a rumination on the Berlin Wall from filmmaker Cynthia Beatt and actress Tilda Swinton.

 

All of the Cool, Classic and Cult here

 

Blu-ray Debuts:

"Horror Express" (Severin), the cult Spanish horror film with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing previously available in numerous DVD editions of dubious quality, gets the deluxe treatment and a new HD master for its Blu-ray debut in an edition that features new and archival interviews and a bonus DVD copy. Reviewed on Videodrone here.

 

The complete calendar of releases this week is after the jump:

 

UPDATED November 29, 2011

Cornel Wilde's end-of-the-world thriller "No Blade of Grass" is the most under-appreciated apocalypse-now films of the seventies. It's also one of the most densely designed with flashbacks and flashforwards. For that reason it might not be clear right way that there is a significant error in the Warner Archive release, which marks the home video debut of the film and the first opportunity I've had to see the R-rated film complete and uncut (prints on Turner Classic Movies removed scenes of nudity, extreme violence and a live, clinically explicit childbirth).

 

While the entire film is (to the best of my knowledge) intact (including a brutal rape scene completely missing from the cut version that casts the film in a much darker, more unforgiving light), it's not in right order. The third and fourth reels of the film have been inadvertently swapped, creating a major continuity error. A comparison to the Turner Classic Movies edition confirms the error. At around 36 minutes into the film, it leaps ahead from the characters escaping from bandits on the road in their cars to suddenly tramping out in the hills, where one of the previously intact characters is suddenly dead and gone. The film continues on as they pick up more members for their growing militia, then at about 56 minutes, we're back to them on the road, in their cars with the original line-up (including the missing character back in the passenger seat; the death scene soon follows).

 

Warner has sent no formal press release out but they are aware of the error and promise that corrected replacement discs are being prepared and will be sent out "very soon."

 

UPDATE: November 29, 2011

I've been told that Warner will be contacting everyone who purchased a copy by E-mail once replacement copies are ready and then will automatically send out replacements. E-mails should go out by the end of the week.

I'll be reviewing  the corrected disc at Videodrone when I receive it.

 

Here's what's new on DVD and Blu-ray this week as featured on Videodrone

 

Hot Tips and Top Picks: DVDs and Blu-rays for November 22

 

New Releases:

Exclusive Clip: J.J. Abrams' 'Super 8'

The New Release Rack: 'Conan' Revived, 'The Devil's Double,' 'Sarah's Key,' a new 'Spy Kids' and much more

 

TV on DVD:

The Original 'The Office: Special Edition'

TV on DVD Channel Guide: Matt Smith's 'Doctor Who,' the animated 'Tintin,' more 'Perry Mason'

 

The Cool and the Collectible:

Classics: Henry Fonda Calms '12 Angry Men

D.W. Griffith's 'Birth of a Nation' and 'Way Down East,' plus mob movies and Japanese zombie comedy 'Helldriver'

 

Blu-ray Debuts:

'¡Three Amigos!,' 'Rushmore,' 'The Taking of Pelham One Two Three' and 'The Big Country'

 

Interviews:

Watching with John Landis, director of "¡Three Amigos!"

 

Misc:

'Tis the Season: Christmas Specials on DVD and Blu-ray

Gift Guide Roundup: Classics Deluxe and Redux

 

Coming up next week:

"The Smurfs" (Sony) (Friday, December 2)

"Friends with Benefits" (Screen Gems) (Friday, December 2)

"Our Idiot Brother" (Anchor Bay)

"30 Minutes or Less" (Columbia)

"One Day" (Universal)

"Tucker & Dale vs. Evil" (Magnet)

"Another Earth" (Fox)

"The Future" (Lionsgate)

"Cave of Forgotten Dreams (MPI)

"Sabu! (Eclipse Series 30)" (Criterion)

"30 Rock: Season 5" (Universal)

"Smallville: The Complete Fifth Season" (Warner)

"Smallville: The Complete Series" (Warner)

"Hot in Cleveland: Season Two" (Paramount)

"Horror Express" (Blu-ray+DVD Combo) (Severin)

 

For more releases, see Hot Tips and Top Picks: DVDs and Blu-rays for November 22

 

For calendar of upcoming releases, click here