21 - Buy from Amazon: Single-Disc Edition, 2-Disc Special Edition, or Blu-ray
Based on the real life exploits of a team of card counters from M.I.T. who head to Vegas and win millions at the casinos. However, will easy money change them?

First a note, I only have the Single-Disc Edition this week, so that is all that I will be reviewing. If the other versions arrive later, I will update this review then.

I've seen both the documentary and the TV movie that were based on the same events, and this movie is the weakest of the three. In fact, it suffers from all of the problems I thought it would. Hollywood took an interesting story and decided to change from reality and add in the typical Hollywood melodrama and included a love story between two actors who I felt had no chemistry. Also, in real life if you are caught card counting, casinos simply take your information, throw you out and don't let you back in (and give your information to other casinos). They don't beat you up, because the tiny amount a card counter can win is nothing compared to the amount a casino could lose if they were sued or they lost their gambling license, either of which is likely if someone is beaten up on their premises. And no, being in a room without cameras isn't going to protect the casino; it doesn't work that way because civil law suits do not require evidence beyond a reasonable doubt like they do in criminal cases. They simply have to prove it is more likely than not, and being filmed coming in in good physical health would be enough to cause the casino no end of headaches. However, the filmmakers here didn't think reality was dramatic enough, so they had to embellish the story. They did something similar in The Last Casino, but they kept to reality by having one of the lead characters in debt to a loan shark. Additionally, the explanation of the system felt heavy-handed and was repeated too often. It was like the filmmakers assumed the audience was too dumb to figure out when one of the characters was using a code word without seeing a flashcard.

Extras on the single disc set are adequate with an audio commentary track and a trio of featurettes. The audio commentary track is a good mix of information and entertainment, and they even admit there are a few flaws in the movie, like the old-school thugs running Vegas. On the other hand, they seem to think Kate Bosworth and Jim Sturgess had chemistry together. The first of the three featurettes is a 5-minute one on Blackjack, including its history and how to improve the odds. Next up is a meatier 25-minute making-of featurette, which is your standard mix of talking heads, behind-the-scenes footage, and clips from the movie. Finally, there's a 7-minute look at the production of the movie, including the set and costume designs.

I do not have the 2-Disc Special Edition or Blu-ray version to review, but it appears that the former simply has a free digital copy of the movie, while the latter has that and a Blackjack game done with BD-Java. Had that game been profile 2.0 and playable over the internet, that would have been tremendously cool. As it is, it's not so interesting that it overcomes the weakness in the movie.

21 tells a story that is amazingly interesting, which is why it has been previously made into a book, adocumentary, and a TV movie. The filmmakers didn't need to change much to create a successful movie, but the changes they did make all seemed to hurt the film. I predicted this would happen, I just assumed this would hurt the film's box office chances as well. Little did I know. Given the film's box office run, it's clear that there are plenty of fans out there, and for them the DVD is worth checking out, but with extras that are only average for a first run release, a rental will be enough for many of them. If you are set to own, the Blu-ray offers good value for money, and even offers some additional extras. Personally, I think people should stick with the book or The Last Casino, but that's just my opinion.

The film starts with young Madison witnessing her father committing suicide. Flash forward a decade, more or less, and Madison is just starting college (we later find out it is the same college her brother committed suicide in, which is a twist that is less than believable). Things take a turn for the spooky when they find out their dormitory is an abandoned mental hospital where the old doctor in charge performed experiments on his teenage patients, but they rose up and killed him and now his ghost haunts the place. Now he is haunting the students in their dreams. There are probably dozens of similar films out there, but this is not necessarily enough to kill the movie's chances at being entertaining. However, the movie is also very generic in its execution while the villain is laughable, not scary. The end with him shouting "My souls! My souls!" was beyond too much. Had I been into the movie at that point, it would have killed my enthusiasm. As it is, it was just one more reason to dislike the movie.

There are absolutely no extras on the DVD. Not unless you count subtitles and scene selection.

Asylum is an absolutely generic movie presented on a featureless DVD. Even hardcore fans of the genre will find little here to warrant more than a rental, and for most it is completely skippable. Also coming out tomorrow is the equally generic and skippable, and similarly themed Insanitarium about a doctor creating cannibal killers out of his patients. Gee, I wonder what his fate will be in the end?

Martin Lawrence stars as James Porter, a police chief whose daughter, Melanie is just about to head off to college. He has chosen Northwester University because of its proximity to their house, while she has her eyes set on Georgetown, but she has to get there to do an interview with the acceptance board first. Hence the road trip. However, while she wants to go with her two friends, he decides it would be best if they went together. You can pretty much figure out how the rest of this story goes, as there's not a lot of creativity that went into this script. Compared to fellow Martin Lawrence road trip movie, Wild Hogs, this movie is equally bad, but it is aimed at kids, which is not an excuse, but at least an explanation. That said, the two leads do keep the energy up and there's enough here that works that its target audience will be entertained, but even for them I can't see there being too much replay value.

As for the extras, they are better than expected, and start with two audio commentary tracks. The first is with Raven-Symone and Roger Kumble, who directed the movie. It tilts towards the entertainment end and away from the informative range, but it is energetic and the two do appear to be having lots of fun. On the other hand, the second track, with the two writers, is a lot drier and there are plenty more dead spots. Raven-Symone also hosts a video diary, which is a 10-minute behind-the-scenes featurette. There are 16 minutes of deleted and alternate scenes, including two alternate endings, both of which were good cuts. Next up are a few minutes of outtakes. Finally, there are two extras on the "Double Dutch Bus" song performed by Raven-Symone: first the video and then a short making-of for the video.

As for the Blu-ray, there are no additional extras, but almost all of them are presented in High Definition. (The music video is the lone exception.) Also, the price is 20% less than the DVD, which is reasonable cost to upgrade for this type of Blu-ray release.

College Road Trip is a typical example of a film that was aimed at kids, so the filmmakers thought they had dumb it down. They dumbed it down so much that it is too dumb for adults, while the lack of creativity will even hurt its chances with its target audience. It's probably worth a rental for them, but I can't recommend more than that. If you are set on buying the movie, neither the DVD nor the Blu-ray offer significantly better value. It depends on if you have a second Blu-ray player just for the kids.

I have three main problems with this DVD...

1. It is a Best of.. DVD, I hate TV on DVD releases that are not full season sets. There is no way to release a DVD that includes all of the best questions from season one, because fans will disagree with what constitutes the best questions. More than once I thought to myself, "This is one of the best questions?" Granted, I've only seen a few questions answered previous, and never a full episode, but I have a hard time believing these were the 25 best questions.
2. There's not a lot of scientific rigor displayed here. The entire show runs just over 90 minutes, which means each question is only given about three minutes. Which in turn means that for the most part they are not able to do more than scratch the surface and give any really details. Other times they dealt with experts or studies that were of dubious reliability. Acupuncturist? Couldn't find a phrenologist? And using one scientific paper to form a conclusion is faulty as well. Perhaps I am holding the show up to too high a standard.
3. Finally, the show relied way too much on sex and nudity, but never actually showed any. They can't show any, because the network censors won't let them. They know they can't show anything, I know they can't show anything, so they should stop pretending that they will. It just gets pathetic very quickly.
On the other hand, there are a few questions here that are actually interesting, like the one on cannibalism, beating the breathalyzer, elevator survival, lethal vending machines, getting drunk faster, and some others. But the misses outnumber the hits.

Manswers can be described as an educational show for those who don't want to learn; or a show for people who want to be teased with the prospect of seeing nudity, but don't want to actually see a nipple. The Best of Season One is a single-disc release that gives a hint of what the show is like, but fans would likely prefer full-season sets. And personally, I recommend waiting for such a set to be released.

Aaron Eckhart stars as the titular Bill, who has a dead-end job, who has a loveless marriage, and is living a dead end life. ... Wait a minute, did I review this movie already? Nope, but the film does have similarities to Just Add Water, and no, this is not a good sign. Bill is a man that is slowly going through a mid-life crisis. After learning his wife is having an affair, he decides to make a lot of changes in his life with the help of a high school student he is mentoring and a sexy underwear saleswoman. The problem is, by the time he starts making changes, we no longer care. The audience has been beaten down by the relentlessly pathetic nature of lead character and this doesn't put them in the right mood for humor, which could explain why the few forays into that realm fall flat (like when Bill and The Kid smoke pot and party at Bill's brother's sports store, or when they throw firecrackers at each other). The movie had potential and I kept waiting for the script to give its cast something to work with, but there's not enough of a script here to do that.

Meet Bill barely played in theaters opening with a per theater average of below $1,000 and was gone from theaters after just two weeks. This explains why the DVD only has a handful of deleted scenes as extras. There are one or two interesting bits here, but as the lone extra is seems inadequate.

Meet Bill takes a depressing character and hope to mine gold from the overdone territory of the mid-life crisis. It does not work. The DVD offers very little incentive to buy it, or even rent it. I would call the DVD safely skipable, unless you are hardcore fan of one or more of the main cast members. Even then, a rental is more than enough.