This Week on DVD

by Philip Yu | November 4, 2008

This week's slate of DVD releases includes secret agent man Steve Carell, terror on a Trans-siberian train, robots running amuck, simian sci-fi on Blu-ray, and the 25th anniversary edition of a Christmas movie favorite.

PICK OF THE WEEK Get Smart
Steve Carell steps into the phone-equipped shoes of bumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart in this big screen remake of the classic spy-comedy TV series. When the headquarters of spy agency Control is attacked and the identities of its agents compromised, it's up to Max and the lovely-but-lethal Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) to thwart the evil crime syndicate KAOS' latest plot for world domination. He's not skilled. He's not smooth. He's definitely no James Bond. But Maxwell Smart showed up for work today... and he's really all they've got.

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HOLIDAY CLASSIC A Christmas Story
A holiday movie classic celebrates its 25th anniversary with a deluxe collectible memoribilia-packed DVD release. It's the nostalgic tale of one boy's quest for the sole item on his Christmas list: a Red Ryder Carbine-Action 200-Shot Range Model Air Rifle. But first, he'll have to endure a host of Christmas calamaties. 'Tis the season of leg-shaped lamps, pink bunny outfits and tongues on frozen flag poles. Loads of holiday fun, with no danger of shooting your eye out.

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DVD PREMIERE Futurama: Bender's Game
Fry, Bender, Leela and the rest of the Futurama gang return for the hit animated series' latest feature-length adventure. Parodying everything from Star Wars to Dungeons & Dragons, the story sends our hapless heroes on a dangerous mission to infiltrate the world's only dark-matter mine, the source of all spaceship fuel. But deep beneath the surface lies a far stranger place... a medieval land of dragons, sorcery and intoxicated knights who look suspiciously like Bender.

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YOU MAY HAVE MISSED... Transsiberian
Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer star in an unsettling thriller about a vacationing American couple who decide to take the long way home onboard a train from Beijing to Moscow. Not long into their journey across the frozen unknown, the two strike a bond with another couple who are not exactly as they appear. They soon find themselves unwittingly caught up in a terrifying web of drug trafficking and murderous deceit, and running for their lives. Just another day on the Trans-siberian Express.

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NEW TO BLU-RAY Planet of the Apes
The entire 'Planet of the Apes' series comes to Blu-ray, including the original breakthrough science fiction classic that started it all. Charlton Heston stars as an astronaut who crash lands on a distant planet ruled by apes who use a primitive race of humans for experimentation and sport. With a disc full of special features and audio/picture enhancements, experience the apes like you've never seen them before, all the way through to the movie's shocking, iconic conclusion.

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INDIE SPOTLIGHT When Did You Last See Your Father?
An accomplished writer, Blake Morrison (Colin Firth) has come to his parents' home to spend a few final days with his dying father Arthur (Jim Broadbent), a kindhearted but exasperating country doctor whose oftentimes boorish behavior has let to his son's increasing estrangement.

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