Pathology - Buy from Amazon
Pathology's path to theaters was not a easy one as it was shuffled around a few release dates before coming out in limited release, where it promptly bombed. The real question is whether the movie deserved to do better, or whether the overall quality meant it was resigned to this fate.

Milo Ventimiglia stars as Ted Grey, a promising doctor who enters one of the nation's most prestigious pathology departments, and unwittingly enters a world of horrors. It seems the other students are using their pathology skills in a competition where they go out and murder bad guys in such a way that the others can't figure it out. However, Ted's skills are so great that the leader of the group, Jake Gallo played by Michael Weston, become jealous. At least at first, then he becomes unstable.

The film has a lot of promise and the murder mystery angle of the film could have been interesting, but for two problems. Firstly, the writing has been described as too clever for its own good, which is a strange phrase, but it makes sense here. The movie isn't really clever, but you can tell that the filmmakers were thinking to themselves, "Ha, ha. Aren't I clever." There were too many twists in the movie that felt like the screenwriter was trying to make the script draw in the moviegoers with a twist, instead of trying to make the movie seem real and have the moviegoers drawn in naturally. Secondly, the cast of characters were just horrible. It is hard to get into a film when the characters are nearly completely unsympathetic. And it is not just the murders, but these people's lives are nothing but sex, drugs, and violence. Perhaps this was meant to shock us and draw our attention. However, we are never given a reason to care about most of them, and thus never given a reason to care about the movie. I don't think it is as bad as its box office run would indicate, but it is not particularly good either.

Extras on the DVD are better than expected starting with an audio commentary track, which is not overwhelming with the amount of information given, but it is still worth listening to. Creating the Perfect Murder runs 15 minutes and is your typical making-of featurette, but with a focus on what sets this movie apart from most. The Cause of Death is an 8-minute interview with a pathologist talking about what his profession is about. There are also extended scenes, as well as a music video from the soundtrack.

Pathology opened in limited release with mixed reviews and never found an audience theatrically. Odds are it will do better on the home market, but I can only recommend renting the DVD.

The cast of characters include...

• Adam Quark - The captain of a garbage scow who believes he is destined for more, like being the captain of his very own star ship. But for now he's stuck picking up garbage and dealing with his less than efficient crew.
• The Bettys - The second in command, or is that seconds in command? Betty and her clone, Betty, and identical in every way, so much so that they both believe they are the original and the other is the clone.
• Gene/Jean - A transmute, which is to say, he/she/they have a complete set of male and a complete set of female chromosomes. This manifests as an extreme split personality, both of which are completely stereotypical. (I don't think they could remake this show today and get away with a character like this, and I can't say I would miss it.)
• Ficus Pandorata - A Vegeton, which is a race of sentient plants. The quickest way to explain this character is to call him Spock, as he fills the same role in this parody as Spock did in Star Trek.
• Andy - An android of sorts. In the pilot he was created by Dr. O.B. Mudd, but that character didn't get picked up from the pilot, and from the second episode on, it was said that Adam Quark created Andy. Regardless who created this robot, what doesn't change is his completely neurotic nature, which is a source of a lot of the humor on the show.

• Otto Palindrome - Leader of Perma 1, and the man in charge of Adam Quark. A petty bureaucrat who delights in making Adam Quark's life miserable, as if Adam Quark needed anyone to make his life miserable.
and...
• The Head - The leader of the United Galaxy, he appears to be a giant disembodied head. He is apparently an unmeasurable genius, but that doesn't explain why he keeps giving important missions to Adam Quark.

Sadly, there are no extras on this single-disc release. However, given the age of the show and its short, short run, it is a minor miracle that it is coming out on DVD at all.

Quark is a show that most people reading this review have never heard of. This is a real shame, as it deserves a wider audience. If you are a fan of real spoofs, especially the original Get Smart, then The Complete Series is worth checking out. Even if you are just a fan of Sci-fi, it is worth checking out. Many who do will want to add it to their DVD collection.

I reviewed the First Season when it came out, but despite seeing potential in the series, I was not overly impressed. Season Two doesn't show much improvement over season one. The humor doesn't fit very well in a TV sitcom format, as Sarah Silverman's brand of comedy is too random and disjointed to work within a plot. That said, it was no weaker than season one, and those who enjoyed season one should be satisfied here.

As for the extras, this 2-disc set includes seven audio commentary tracks on five of the six episodes with Joan of Arf being the only episode without a track. Disc two has more than a dozen shorts, some animated, some live action, some behind-the-scenes. Things start with a 30-minute Q&A session at the 2007 Comic-Con moderated by Zach Galifianakis. Most of the Cookie Party shorts and Brian Posehn shorts were found on Home Grown, so their value here is limited. Finally, there are 8 'behind-the-scenes' clips with a total running time of roughly 16 minutes. Most of these are played for humor, but rarely do they succeed.

If you enjoyed Season One of the The Sarah Silverman Program, there's little reason not to get Season Two. If you only rented it, then renting this one makes sense. And if you skipped the first, there's nothing here to make the second worth checking out either.

Shrek the Third - Blu-ray - Buy from Amazon
I'm starting quite a collection of films I've reviewed on DVD, HD DVD, and now Blu-ray. There's no sense in dealing with the quality of the movie, or the extras that were found on the DVD and HD DVD, so let's cut right to what sets the Blu-ray apart.

No much.

Unlike Madagascar above, Shrek the Third has been released on High Definition before, so it is harder to be impressed by this release. This means while the Blu-ray was re-encoded with 1080/VC-1, its image quality is imperceptively better than the HD DVD release. It might be better, but I can't tell. Perhaps if I had a $10,000 home entertainment system I could see the difference. Then again, the HD DVD release of Shrek the Third was arguably the best-looking HD DVD I have in my collection, so even given it's not an improved, the look is still amazing.

As for the extras, there are no additional extras compared to the HD DVD release, but there are additional extras compared to the DVD release. This include a Picture-in-Picture storyboard track, a trivia track, and information on the characters and the actors who provide their voices. This is better than most High Definition releases get.

Shrek the Third was by far the weakest of the Shrek movies so far, but the franchise's debut on Blu-ray is marvelous. If you already own the movie, it is worth $20 to upgrade to Blu-ray. However, I can see a lot of fans of the first two movies giving this one a pass while waiting for the fourth to see if it bounces back.

• What Ever Happened to SpongeBob? - Over the course of one day, SpongeBob manages to annoy all of his friends and after being called "Idiot boy" four times, he runs away from town. After hitting his head and losing his memories, he wanders into New Kelp City, a city where blowing bubbles is reacted to with horror. At first this confuses SpongeBob... or CheeseHead BrownPants as he is now known, until he finds out that bubbles attract the Bubble Popping Boys, a gang led by Ray Liotta.
• Goo Goo Gas - Plankton's latest attempt to steal the Krabby Patty secret formula is to create Goo Goo Gas, a gas that turns Mr. Krabs and SpongeBob into babies.
• The Two Faces of Squidward - SpongeBob accidentally hits Squidward in the face with the door so hard that has to go to hospital. But when the bandages come off, he's handsome, so handsome that he makes women faint, he heals the lame, helps the blind to see. There's no way this will end well.
• SpongeHenge - SpongeBob discovers that when the wind blows through his holes, he makes beautiful music, music that attracts jellyfish and no matter what he does, he can't get rid of them.
• Banned in Bikini Bottom - The United Organization of Fish Against Things that are Fun and Delicious decides that the Krabby Patty are too much fun, so she bans them and has the Krusty Krab shut down. ... An allegory to prohibition. ... I wonder if any kids will get that?
• Stanley S. Squarepants - SpongeBob is visited by his cousin, Stanley, who is even more of a screw up that SpongeBob is. He is also a lot more annoying. Oh so annoying. There's funny annoying and annoying annoying, and this one is the latter.

SpongeBob SquarePants has been released on DVD about 80 million times, including full season sets, which are the better value for collectors. But for casual fans, or little kids, WhoBob WhatPants might be worth checking out, as all but the last episode is worth watching. But with almost no real extras, it is worth just a rental and not a purchase. Save your money for full season sets.

• They Stooge in Conga - The trio are door-to-door fix-it men who are hired to repair the doorbell of a house, a house that is home to Nazi spies. In the course of their work, they find the secret war room where the spies are to guide an enemy submarine into port.
• Dizzy Detectives - The Three Stooges are hired as police officers and their first case is investigating a series of robberies committed by a gorilla. The Three Stooges vs. a Gorilla is almost as funny as The Three Stooges vs. High Society.
• Phony Express - Set in the old west in the town of Peaceful Gulch, the trio are three vagrants who are mistaken for famous marshals who have come into town to get rid of the Red Morgan gang. But when Red Morgan figures out who they really are, they are in a world of trouble.

The Three Stooges Collection - Volume Four covers 1943 to 1945, which many consider part of the Golden Age of the comedy trio. For fans who have enjoyed the previous three volumes, there is practically no reason to not add Volume 4 to their DVD Collection. The hit to miss ratio is high enough that even with no extras, it is worth buying over just renting.

John Cusack stars as Brand Hauser, a hitman who is emotionally exhausted but sent into Turaqistan to kill the head of the Ugikistan Gas Company, Omar Sherif, because Omar is building a gas pipeline through his country, thereby cutting out Tamerlane and costing that company millions in business. While there, his cover is as a trade show producer for Brand USA Trade Show to help promote Tamerlane's reconstruction efforts, and at the end of the expo there will be a celebrity wedding involving pop princess, Yonica Babyyeah.

The movie has a lot of targets, perhaps too many, as it goes after obviously the war in Iraq, the outsourcing of military operations, the corrupt no-bid contracts that have been awarded to politically connected companies, as well as less political targets like the media, corporate sponsorships, and even the state of the music industry. However, while there are plenty of targets, not every shot lands. Additionally, there are wide swings in the tone of the film between some lowbrow humor to some very dark moments. Perhaps if the film limited its target and found a more even tone it would have been a lot more successful. As it is, there's enough that works that it is worth checking out, but enough that doesn't that it won't be remembered as one of the best of the genre.

On a side note, while I thought Hilary Duff did very well in this movie, I was a little uncomfortable watching her. She was overtly sexual, and I have no real complaints about her sex appeal in the movie, but I still remember her from Lizzie McGuire. I understand she's not a child anymore, but seeing her in a role like this still makes me feel like a dirty old man.

As for extras, the DVD has none, nor does the Blu-ray, which is quite disappointing. I was looking forward to an audio commentary track, or at least some interviews with the principal cast, but there's nothing to be found here.

A side note on the price, the MSRP for the Blu-ray is just 20% higher than for the DVD, which is a great price. However, Amazon has the DVD at close to half the MSRP while the Blu-ray is barely a third cheaper. This means the gap between the DVD and the Blu-ray is closer to 50%, which is high for a Blu-ray disc with no additional features.

The appeal of War, Inc. might be directly linked to the viewer's political orientation. If you are looking at the polls right now and can't wait until election day, then you will likely enjoy the movie a lot more than another person looking at the same polls who thinks, "We'll get them in 2012." The lack of extras on the DVD and Blu-ray further hurt the value of the release; it might be worth picking up for enthusiastic left-wingers, but for most people I would recommend a rental first.