For some people, Tuesday is just “one day closer to the weekend.” But for me, Tuesday means new DVDs!! This is especially exciting since my grandma gave me a $50 Best Buy gift card for Christmas, and I’ve yet to put it to use. So every Tuesday, I search for something to spend my hard-earned gift card on. (Hard-earned = spending quality time with Grandma. Did you know there are bowling leagues called “9 pin no-tap” where you only need to knock down 9 pins for a strike? Grandma rolls 300 often!)

Here’s a list of what’s coming out on DVD Tuesday, and if you should care.

I did see Saw IV in the theaters, because a) I’m a horror junkie and b) I like contraptions. It’s a step up from Saw III story-wise, but the traps lack the sheer craziness of, say, being drowned in pig guts. This one focuses on Jigsaw before he was Jigsaw, but also continues the current story of Life After Jigsaw. Sort of a prequel within a sequel. One of Saw’s trademarks is to wrap each movie in a surprise ending, and this is no different. They love to play with the timeline of events, but sometimes this leaves casual viewers in the dark. The filmmakers truly expect you to remember minor characters from movies past, and I think people who see these movies only care about the traps and a twist ending that’s confuses them into thinking it’s brilliant.

I’ve always felt the Saw series had an awesome premise, but rarely capitalized on its potential, instead relying on gore and surprises. The latest one takes a detour by showing us the killer’s descent into madness. It’s a nice change of pace, but it goes a little over the top in trying to deliver that surprise ending everyone expects. By the way, if you go into a movie expecting a surprise ending, doesn’t that defeat the purpose?

Basically, if you’re a fan of the Saw movies, you owe it to yourself to see it. If you’re coming in fresh, you’re better off starting at the beginning.

VERDICT: RENTAL!

Damn you, Vin Diesel. You had to go make the Pacifier and pave the way for The Game Plan. Now, I’ve loved The Rock since his days in WWF when he was still calling himself Rocky Maivia. (and the WWF was still calling itself the WWF) But even I’ve got to draw the line. The Game Plan stars The Rock as a football star who somehow finds out he has a kid. Much ham is served up, and attempts at hilarity ensue. Nerds are clearly not the demographic for this movie, but sadly, there’s nothing I can do to break the cycle of “Action Star Makes Kids Movie.” The Game Plan made almost 90 million dollars. It’s The Rock’s second highest grossing movie (Mummy Returns doesn’t count).

VERDICT: DON’T DO IT! (Unless you’re 8 years old)

Did anyone else notice that Terrence Howard was in every single movie last year? Okay, maybe not every one, but at least 7. This is one of them, but it also stars Richard Gere and looks decent. It’s about a reporter and his cameraman who travel to Bosnia in search of a war criminal. It’s from the director of The Matador with Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear, and while I enjoyed that movie, I wasn’t compelled to recommend it to a lot of people. I haven’t seen Hunting Party, but I’m getting the same feeling as The Matador, which means this is the type of movie I’ll watch when it comes on HBO.

VERDICT: WAIT FOR HBO

And really, that’s all for this week. Not a very good DVD day, but they can’t all be winners.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 21st, 2008 at 1:37 pm and is filed under Film, Tuesday Toys!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.