DVD Digest for November 25, 2008

Paul Clark — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:00:00 GMT

This week, a surprisingly small selection leading into the so-called “biggest shopping day of the year.”

Recent releases coming to DVD include Will Smith and Charlize Theron in Hancock (Sony, also Blu-Ray), Vince Vaughn making a grab for your Christmas cash in Fred Claus (Warner, also Blu-Ray), Eddie Murphy inside Eddie Murphy in Meet Dave (Fox, also Blu-Ray), and Andy Samberg going from talking to animals as Mark Wahlberg to playing a talking animal himself in Space Chimps (Warner, also Blu-Ray).

In classics this week, Criterion releases two seminal nineties films, Wes Anderson’s debut effort Bottle Rocket and Wong Kar-wai’s awesome and Tarantino-approved Chungking Express. But don’t fret, Blu-Ray fans- they’ll be coming out in that format in December, so don’t cross them off the Christmas list.

In TV on DVD, this week brings the season-bridging special 24: Redemption (Fox), plus everyone’s fake wingnut in A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All (Paramount).

Finally, this week’s Blu-Ray only releases are a Jamie Foxx double feature, Jarhead and The Kingdom (both Universal).

Mark Wahlberg Talks To Animals

Andrew Osborne — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:00:00 GMT

Tina Fey's potentially game-changing impression of Sarah Palin has been the featured attraction on Saturday Night Live for the past three weeks, but since this is neither a TV blog nor (ostensibly) a political blog, let us turn our attention instead to bona fide movie star Mark Wahlberg...or, to be more specific, "Mark Wahlberg Talks To Animals," one of the highlights of this past weekend's unusually strong SNL, and another great moment for Andy Samberg, whose two second cameo in Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist is the latest evidence he's may be slowly building to a smart, impressive feature film career (Space Chimps and Hot Rod notwithstanding).

Maybe he's best in small doses (and I'll write more about Samberg's brilliant, surreal contributions to the history of SNL's short films in an upcoming post), but for now, enjoy or re-enjoy the previously untapped comic possibilities of Mark Wahlberg and a goat (and say hi to your mother for me)!

The Screengrab : andy samberg

DVD Digest for November 25, 2008

Mark Wahlberg Talks To Animals