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Jackass 3 (Blu-ray+DVD+Digital Copy)

PARAMOUNT

MOVIE B-

SPECIAL FEATURES C+

BLU-RAY GEEK FACTOR 6.25

(OUT OF 10)

Johnny Knoxville and the gang regroup for stunts both daring and foul. My favorite remains Knoxville's encounter with a rampaging buffalo, preceded by his fine dancing while wearing a pink sweater. A close second would be Steve-O's daring ride in a portable toilet—attached to bungee chords and full of dog shit.

Most disgusting would be a stunt in which a fat man sweats into a cup, and Steve-O drinks it. Hats off to Steve-O for being the finest puker ever put on film.

SPECIAL FEATURES: Outtakes, deleted scenes and making-of stuff. You also get a DVD featuring the movie in 3-D, with four pairs of glasses. I watched it on my computer screen, and while the 3-D isn't theater-quality, it isn't bad.


The Times of Harvey Milk (Blu-ray)

CRITERION

MOVIE A

SPECIAL FEATURES B+

BLU-RAY GEEK FACTOR 8.75

(OUT OF 10)

Director Rob Epstein and producer Richard Schmiechen won a well-deserved Oscar for their 1984 documentary about Harvey Milk, the nation's first openly gay elected official, who was assassinated just six years before the film's release. With this movie and Gus Van Sant's 2008 movie starring Sean Penn, Milk has gotten two very fitting memorials.

It must be said that there is a frightening and sad element to this movie, in that it presents the story of Milk's murderer, the twisted former Supervisor Dan White, and the travesty that was his trial and sentencing. At the time of this film's release, White (who also killed Mayor George Moscone) was walking the streets of San Francisco after serving about five years for his crimes. (White would commit suicide in 1985.)

Milk was an amazingly charismatic and joyful man, and seeing him here in all of his glory warms the heart. The documentary remains as important today as it was on the day it was released.

SPECIAL FEATURES: Epstein provides a terrific commentary, and he takes part in a featurette that explores both the documentary and Van Sant's film. There are also the director's research tapes, featuring interviews he did with subjects who didn't play a major part in his film, including Milk's former boyfriend Scott Smith. Unused footage of Dan White includes disturbing film of him as an amateur boxer.


Love and Other Drugs

20TH CENTURY FOX

MOVIE C

SPECIAL FEATURES C+

BLU-RAY GEEK FACTOR 4.5

(OUT OF 10)

While Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway certainly display their charms in this comedy from Ed Zwick, this movie wants to be too many different things. It's a sex comedy, a heart-swelling romance, a period piece and a disease-of-the-week movie, all rolled into one big mess.

Gyllenhaal plays an up-and-coming pharmaceutical rep in the '90s, around the time of the birth of Viagra. He's a womanizer who meets up with Hathaway at a doctor's office. Hathaway's character is in the first stage of Parkinson's disease, and she's looking to hook up with no connections.

Of course, the two fall in love, and they get naked. A lot. Zwick's directorial debut was About Last Night ..., an '80s sex comedy that featured Demi Moore naked for half of its running time. Hathaway is the Demi Moore of the new millennium, as far as nudity is concerned.

While Gyllenhaal and Hathaway are good onscreen together, as they were in Brokeback Mountain, the film loses control in the end. It also doesn't help that Josh Gad, an abrasive actor playing Gyllenhaal's brother, destroys nearly every scene he is in.

SPECIAL FEATURES: Some deleted scenes and a few behind-the-scenes featurettes.


Sharktopus

ANCHOR BAY

MOVIE F, BUT AN F WORTH WATCHING!

SPECIAL FEATURES C+

DVD GEEK FACTOR 5

(OUT OF 10)

This isn't just bad ... this is epically bad! But dammit, I'm happy I watched it. Part shark, part octopus and all nasty, Sharktopus might be the finest atrocity Roger Corman has ever produced.

The title monster is some sort of bio-engineered shark-octopus hybrid that is being used as a weapon by the Navy. When the monster gets rid of its electronic restraining collar, it goes nuts and terrorizes beaches and boats. It has the torso of a great white shark and sharp tentacles for grabbing. It also has the ability to walk on the beach, so you aren't safe if you are a land-dweller. In short ... it's awesome!

Yes, the acting is atrocious, but CGI has done wonders for these notoriously cheap Corman movies. The Sharktopus kills are actually pretty good when held to a bad B-movie standard.

If you are in the mood for some good garbage, you could do a lot worse. If nothing else, it gave Eric Roberts something to do.

SPECIAL FEATURES: There's a preview for a film called Dinocroc vs. Supergator, starring the late David Carradine, which looks like bad-movie heaven. You also get a commentary with Roger Corman!

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