Comedy
Rod Lott
Coming at the tail end of Hollywood’s innocence, 1968’s How to Save a Marriage and Ruin Your Life is one of those old-school romantic comedies that indulges in such outdated notions that a woman’s place is in the home.

Television series
Rod Lott
Earlier this week, HBO announced the cancellation of Enlightened, which just completed its second season. It’s a damn shame, because in her four-decade career as an actress, Laura Dern never has been better.

Thriller
Rod Lott
It’s not difficult to see what Martin Scorsese saw in Easy Money to lend his name to it as presenter to American audiences: a lot of himself. The 2010 Swedish film is a crime epic cast in the mold of Goodfellas or Casino, yet still its own thing. A smash as Snabba Cash in its native land, where it’s already spawned two sequels, the movie now arrives on DVD.

Horror
Rod Lott
The Frankenstein Theory is like no other Frankenstein film you've seen: rendered in found footage.

Wait, wait! Don’t run off! This one’s better than the average entry, even if it’s not so revolutionary to change the minds of those who despise the delivery system. The picture’s snowy setting is reason enough to justify a viewing on DVD (a woefully bare-bones one) if you missed it on the big screen — and you likely did, since it played in only about 15 theaters nationwide earlier this month.

Drama
Rod Lott
How weird that K-11 is attracting more attention for who the director is (the mother of Twilight starlet Kristen Stewart) than for its outlandish subject matter (transgendered inmates). That oversight is as insane as this movie, new to VOD.

Horror
Rod Lott
What began as an intended Saw prequel has spawned a franchise of its own, now that 2009’s The Collector has begat The Collection. I hope in my heart of hearts that The Collection begets a third chapter — The Collective, perhaps?

Horror
Rod Lott
Warner Home Video’s snazzy new A Nightmare on Elm Street Collection gives Blu-ray die-hards the seven “original” films of the horror franchise. Translation: No Freddy vs. Jason, no 2010 Elm Street remake. But the big news is that is does have two of the 44 episodes of the spin-off syndicated TV series, Freddy’s Nightmares — their official first American appearance for digital home video.

Sci-Fi
Rod Lott
Britain’s on high alert after a plane falls from the sky from unknown causes. Terrorist attack, perhaps? At a 24-hour storage facility — hence the film’s title, Storage 24 — the ensuing crash has locked down its security system, effectively trapping people inside. Oh, and one gnarly alien.

Thriller
Rod Lott
I like In Their Skin under its international title, Replicas. Even if that makes Jeremy Power Regimbal’s directorial debut sound too sci-fi, it’s more interesting and apt.

Horror
Rod Lott
Eduardo Rodriguez has put three pictures in the can (including the upcoming Fright Night 2) since completing his directorial debut, Curandero: Dawn of the Demon, in 2005. Why, then, has it taken roughly eight years for Curandero to hit DVD? You got me; it’s not as if a lack of quality has stopped any flick before.

Drama
Rod Lott
With magic-themed movies The Incredible Burt Wonderstone and Now You See Me on the way, Hollywood is all about the abracadabra these days. If that exposes more eyeballs to 2011’s The Great Magician, good.

Documentary
Rod Lott
I first heard of The Pirate Bay when a friend told me about this site where he had just downloaded and watched Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle — then in theaters — at the comfort of his own home.

It hardly seemed worth the trouble. Obviously, I’m in the minority, as the site claims more than 25 million active users worldwide, who share movies, music, video games and other copyrighted works via torrent files.

Action
Rod Lott
What an unwieldy title The Tarzan Collection Starring Jock Mahoney and Mike Henry is. Then again, so many actors have donned the loincloth of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ iconic lord of the jungle across nearly 100 movies and counting, so specificity is required. This particular five-flick, five-disc set from Warner Archive rounds up the entire turns of the two men mentioned in the title.

Comedy
Rod Lott
My favorite of Christopher Guest's mockumentaries is easily 2000’s Best in Show. While I think it helps to be a theater nerd to appreciate 1996’s Waiting for Guffman in full or a folk nut to opt for 2003’s A Mighty Wind, “must love dogs” is no requirement here. Love man’s best friend or hate him, the humor in Best in Show is less inside-baseball than its brothers.

Thriller
Rod Lott
Following a half-dozen Perry Mason movies into the Warner Archive store are the half-dozen Philo Vance films that make up his Murder Case Collection. While S.S. Van Dine’s “dilettante detective” is nowhere near as well-known today as Erle Stanley Gardner’s attorney-at-law, this is the better set by bounds.