By I’m fairly certain my distaste for Kevin Smith is largely due to my sheep-like semi-frequent tendencies to drink which ever Kool-Aid the Internet Hate Machine is selling. I loved Clerks, LOVED Mallrats, appreciated (at the very least) Chasing Amy, absolutely adored Dogma, watched Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back on a near-endless loop, enjoyed Jersey Girl (it was okay, deal with it), and Clerks II may be my favorite sequel ever, and the lovely Rosario Dawson may have had a lot to do with that. Zack and Miri Make a Porno was great and Cop Out was not that bad. The only film I really didn’t enjoy is Red State, which is out this week. It was…to this day I still can’t really put my finger on it. I suggest you go see it and decide for yourself. Alex, Jenika, and I were the only three who walked out before the Q&A when we saw it back in August so clearly Smith’s big fans must love it, or at least really want to fellate the man’s…we’ll say ‘ego.’ Also, the fourth installment of his Q&A series, the three-and-a-half hour long Too Fat for 40, is out if you want to listen to him talk at length about genitals and farts and other such things he’s known for (like film-making, I guess?).
There’s some other stuff out today too, of course. Quite the mixed bag, actually. For the big releases, the fourth Pirates movie is out in one of those delightful Blu-ray/DVD combo packs Disney loves so much, Selena Gomez goes to Monte Carlo, Michael Rapaport takes us in deep with Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest, we see how the man became the Bat in Batman: Year One, and Gwyneth Paltrow doesn’t give an F in Bad Teacher.
Also, have any of you seen The Last Circus? I haven’t even heard of it today but it sounds INSANE. A Sad Clown versus a Happy Clown in a twisted love triangle? What!? I’ll be picking that up as soon as I have money (stupid, sexy NYCC). The original, awful Captain America and its sequel are out (IN A TWO-PACK!) for all you nerds out there who didn’t blow all their money on $5 trades of Hack/Slash this weekend like I did. The Crow and Cape Fear are out on Blu-ray today as well.
As always, the full list of releases is after the jump, and lemme know what you’re picking up this week and if there’s anything I didn’t mention that is worth checking out!
New releases
Bad Teacher
Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest
A Better Life
Monte Carlo
Page One
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Blu-ray/DVD combo pack)
Red State
Blu-ray releases
Bad Teacher
Batman: Year One
Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest
A Better Life
Cape Fear
The Crow
The Guns of Navarone
Kevin Smith: Too Fat for 40
Kuroneko (Criterion)
The Last Circus
Monte Carlo
Page One
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Blu-ray/DVD combo pack)
Red State
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory: Ultimate Collector’s Edition
Other releases
Batman: Year One
Captain America/Captain America II: Death Too Soon
The Captains
Kevin Smith: Too Fat for 40
Kuroneko (Criterion)
The Last Circus
Soulja Boy: The Movie