This week ... it’s a gaggle of James Bonds, Japanese gangsters with giant guns for hands, and festive, multicultural weed fiends. Oh, and Twilight. Yep. It’s that kinda week.

PICK OF THE WEEK: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1 (DVD & Blu-ray)

It’s almost Valentine’s Day and you’re gonna want a date, right? Then you’ll need to watch this, either with your lady, or simply to learn the lingua franca so you can get a lady. (And if you are a lady, you either have already seen it; desperately want to see it, because you’ve seen the rest and missed it in theaters; or want to see it just so you can better arm yourself against those sparkledorks.) Either way, sadly, it seems almost mandatory.

A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas (DVD & Blu-ray)

I’ll say it: It’s the best modern Christmas movie since Scrooged, even with all the rampant sex, drugs, violence and more drugs.



La Jetee/Sans Soleil: Criterion Collection (Blu-ray)

You know what La Jetee is, by now, yes? Chris Marker’s1962 short is a haunting, beautiful little science fiction film about the end of the world and time travel — and it’s also the basis for Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys. Its companion piece Sans Soleil is a rumination on the nature of memory.

Casino Royale (Blu-ray)

No, not the Daniel Craig version, the Woody Allen version. Back in the ‘60s, Columbia released this espionage smorgasbord, with six actors playing 007, including David Niven, Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress and the aforementioned Woody Allen. Basically, this satire is A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Bond.

Metal Shifters (DVD & Blu-ray)

You can tell this is a Syfy Original Movie because the cast is made up entirely of veterans of shows like Battlestar Galactica, Stargate: Atlantis and Eureka. Also, because, by the look of it — “an alien bacterium that transforms steel objects into furious killing machines has infected the local scrapyard” — it’s wonderfully cheesy.

Yakuza Weapon (DVD & Blu-ray)

The main character Shoza has a Gatling-gun prosthetic arm and a rocket launcher in his knee. If you require your crappy imported science fiction to have more than that, then I’m not sure I know who you are anymore.

Downton Abbey: Season 2 (DVD & Blu-ray)

People far smarter than I are in love with this upstairs-downstairs BBC drama. So, if you too would like to be smarter than I, go right ahead. I’ll be right over here with the laser beams and zombie strippers.

Supershark (DVD)

Listen, it’s called Supershark and it stars John Schneider and Jimmie “JJ” Walker. And it may or may not have actual supersharks. Carry on.