Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull obviously tops the list today.  Not because it’s the greatest film in the world, but because it’s an Indiana Jones picture.  True, it isn’t as good as any of the other films, but who doesn’t love Harrison Ford kicking ass and taking names in a fedora with a whip?  And to all of you people out there who found it hard to swallow because of the aliens, how was Jesus and Shiva somehow easier to swallow?  Being a robot of science, I find aliens waaaaay more plausible.  (Special Note: This is also available on Blu-ray, which is the first Lucasfilm movie to hit Blu-ray.)

Then we have the Alfred Hitchcock Premiere Collection which contains Lifeboat, Spellbound, Notorious, The Paradine Case, Sabotage, Rebbecca, Young and Innocent, and the Lodger.  Spellbound, Notorious, Paradine, and Rebbecca represent Hitch’s involvement with David O. Selznick and it contains one of the best Hitchcock films (Notorious, which is also one of my favorite) and Hitch’s only Best Picture, Rebbecca.  Lifeboat was quite good, too.  It was written by John Steinbeck.  Basically, this is a must.  It’s unfortunate that I already have all of these except Young and Innocent, otherwise this set would be a must-buy.  These will also be available individually as special editions and if I had to pick two, if that was all you were going to buy from this lot, I would say Notorious and Spellbound.  Why?  It’s simple.  I’m in love with 1940’s Ingrid Bergman. And Cary Grant and Gregory Peck playing opposite her, respectively, is never a bad thing either.

Criterion is re-releasing a version of Robert Altman’s Short Cuts, which is always great to watch.  In a lot of ways this film paved the way for Magnolia, which is one of the more perfect films ever made.  It’s a joy to watch and often quite humerous (and shocking…  Chris Penn’s part especially…)

They are also releasing a Special Edition of Richard Attenborough’s Chaplin.  I’ll be the first to admit that this film is a little dry, but it’s a pleasure to watch.  If you have any interest in Charlie Chaplin or Robert Downey, Jr. you owe it to yourself to watch this picture.  And if you don’t have any interest in Charlie Chaplin, I would fully advocate that you be dragged into the street and shot.

Does anybody remember the cartoon of The SilverHawks?  Volume 1 comes out today…  I wonder if it’s as bad as I remember it being good…  If that made sense…

Blu-ray titles hitting the shelves this week:  Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile (always fun when I was a kid), Casino (always a classic, though often left beneath the shadow of Goodfellas), Poltergeist (don’t remember too much about this one, it’s been that long), and American Gangster (meh, it was pretty good.)

We’ll be back next week with some more of some of my favorite stuff.