Matthew Perry stars as Morrie Tanager, a man trying to deal with a life that didn't turn out as well as he had hoped. His wife stands by him, but he spends much of his time having to clean up messes made by his depressed brother and his flaky sister. In essence, its an Indie flick that tries to get by by stuffing the movie with as much quirkiness as possible, which is a flaw that far too many Independent comedies have. But without a foundation of compelling characters, I just couldn't get into the movie.

There are no extras on the DVD.

Birds of America was deeply disappointing, especially after seeing Matthew Perry in Numb not too long ago. The quirk to character ratio is way off and I can't even recommend renting, unless you are a really big fan of one of the principal actors.

• South Park - Mystery of the Urinal Deuce
  Someone does a number two in the urinal and Cartman thinks it is a conspiracy, just like 9/11
  The DVD starts out great with this episode and it does a great job of mocking the 9/11 conspiracy theories, but I couldn't help but notice that George W. Bush was only a minor part of the show. Also, the "Hardly Boys" bit grew old fast. A little subtlety would have helped a lot here.
• Lil’ Bush - Iraq/First Kiss
  The first episode(s) of Lil' Bush: Resident of the United States. The first part has Lil' Bush and his cronies traveling to Iraq to find a father's day gift for his dad, and the second has Lil' Cheney having an affair with Mrs. Bush.
  I hate this show, but at least these two half-episodes are not the worst I've reviewed.
• That's My Bush - An Aborted Dinner Date
  The pilot episode from this series, which lasted just 8 episodes. Here Laura planned a dinner with George, but George keeps forgetting. Meanwhile, his fraternity brothers show up to enforce a promise George made while drunk many, many years ago.
  Not so much satire of George W. Bush, but a parody of the family sitcom, complete with the dumb husband, the smart wife, the wacky neighbors, etc. Sadly, while the "live studio audience" whoops and hollers, I didn't find many of the jokes funny. I think it was the lack of a political edge that hurt the show the most.
• Root of All Evil - Paris Hilton vs. Dick Cheney
  The final full episode and it isn't even about George Bush. I guess they ran out of material
  I have mixed opinions on this show. On the one hand, I believe Dick Cheney is evil, while Paris Hilton is only mildly annoying. After all, she has no direct influence on my life. Additionally, I believe Patton Oswald is one of the funniest stand-up comics, but Greg Giraldo is merely annoying. (I particularly love Patton Oswald's one-word closing statement.)

• Last Laughs Squad
  An animated short that has Lewis Black, D.L. Hughley, and Dave Attell exploring George W. Bush's ass (I wish I was joking).
• Last Laughs
  Three stand up routines featuring Lewis Black, Greg Giraldo, and Patton Oswald. The first and the last are funny, but too short, and censured.
• Mind of Mencia
  A short skit with George W. Bush celebrating his 10th anniversary as president of Iraq. Not that funny, but at least it's short.
• Comedy Central Presents
  Frank Caliendo doing an impression of George W. Bush. Don't find him funny.

Deception - Buy from Amazon
Deception opened last April, and was one of three thrillers to open that month. None of these movies were bit hits, but this film was the weakest of the three.

Ewan McGregor stars as Jonathan McQuarry, a shy accountant who lives a lonely life, until he meets Wyatt Rose, a lawyer for a firm he is auditing. They start up a friendship and Wyatt introduces Jonathan to "The List", which is a group for professionals looking to have one-night stands with other professionals, with no strings attached. In fact, they are not even supposed to give each other their names. However, Jonathan breaks the rules with a woman and falls for her, but then he learns that Wyatt is not all that he claims to be.

Deception earned terrible reviews when it first opened, and it is hard to argue with most of the complaints. The plot involved too many twists, which stretched the gamut from preposterous to ludicrous, while moving too slowly to entice people in. On the other hand, while I get the feeling the filmmakers were aiming for erotic, given the whole section of the movie dedicated to the "sexual awakening" of Jonathan McQuarry, but it too was unsuccessful in this area. So we have an erotic thriller that is sadly neither, with surprise twists that were telegraphed in advance, and strained credibility.

On the other hand, the extras on the DVD were better than expected given its poor performance at the box office. Things start with an audio commentary track with the director, Marcel Langenegger, who spends most of the track telling the listener exactly what is happening on screen with just a little insight into his process. Next up is an 18-minute making-of featurette, a 10-minute featurette on the sex club, and finally two deleted scenes and an alternate ending. None of the extras have a lot of replay value, but then again, neither does the movie.

I'm not entirely sure where Deception went wrong, but it did. It could have used a tightening of the script to speed up the plot, close a plot hole or two, and generally polish up the dialogue. That might not have been enough, but as it is, it is hard to recommend the movie, even for just a rental.

• It's A Bugs' World!
  Diego and his friend shrink down to the size of bugs to watch the whirligig beetle dance contest, but one of the contestants is missing. So it is up to Diego to find her, with your help.
• Alicia and the Whitetail to the Rescue!
  Alicia and an injured Whitetail Deer help a baby Whitetail Deer who was hurt in a rockslide. On a side note, monkeys with bubbles? And was anyone else creeped out by the growing antlers?
• Diego the Hero!
  Alicia was out trying to rescue some penguins, but her boat was trapped in ice and now Diego needs to rescue her.
• Whistling Willie Finds a Buddy
  Diego and Baby Jaguar have to help Whistling Willie return home through the rainforest, but Willie's never been in the rainforest, and he's a little scared.

Go Diego Go! is a very interactive show, and for fans of the program, It's a Bug's World is certainly worth checking out. Since it is a kids show, the replay value warrants purchasing over just renting.

The Happening - Buy from Amazon
The latest from M. Night Shyamalan, who first became known to most people with the incredible The Sixth Sense. It's been downhill from then on.

The movie starts out in Central Park with two women sitting on a bench, one of whom notices people acting stangely (although while she describes it, we don't see most of it). Suddenly her friend kills herself. A few blocks away a few construction men are telling jokes when one of their colleagues falls from the top of the building, a tragic event that is followed shortly by another falling death, and then another, and then a dozen more. Something is happening... I would go further into the plot, but this suspense movie doesn't work well enough to bother. It's an interesting idea that is impeded by poor execution on nearly every level of filmmaking, including, and especially, the dialogue. The dialogue was so bad and the delivery so forced that I cringed at times when I was supposed to be drawn further into the story. And these are not bad actors, so I have to wonder if it was the directing that was the problem. It could be that M. Night Shyamalan has become so convinced of his own genius, that it is impossible for him to tell when his films work, and when they don't.

And this film just doesn't work.

Extras on the DVD are mixed with no audio commentary track, but a lot of other features. Things start with 15 minutes of deleted scenes, with an introduction by M. Night Shyamalan. The Hard Cut has M. Night Shyamalan talking about one of the scenes that he thought was shocking. Personally, I thought it was telegraphed and completely obvious. I Hear You Whispering is a 4-minute featurette on Mrs. Jones, who was played by Betty Buckley. The Happening - Visions of The Happening: A Making Of... Who named this featurette? Outside of the weird name, there's nothing that really sets this 12-minute making-of featurette apart. A Day for Night is a 7-minute making of featurette on one day in the filming of the movie. Elements of a Scene in another making-of featurette, which deals with one of the most complicated scenes to shoot. It was one of the better scenes in the movie; there was no dialogue. Finally, there are 3-minutes of outtakes.

After The Village and Lady in the Water, expectations for The Happening were low. But after watching this movie, they were not low enough. It's a mess, and quite frankly, I hesitate to recommend even just renting the movie. It's strictly for hardcore fans of M. Night Shyamalan, and even then make sure you have The Sixth Sense as a backup.

When the original came out in 2003, it was hotly anticipated, which explains the film's $60 million opening weekend. However, while Ang Lee was ale to get some introspection out of the comic book tale, this is not what fans were looking for, which explains the film's then record-setting fall during its second weekend. Fans of the Super Hero don't want deep introspective, they want "Hulk smash!" This time around, they got "Hulk smash!" Granted, not everyone will think The Incredible Hulk is an improvement over the first film, and there are some issues with lack of character depth / development, as well as some technical issues (some have complained about the CG animation found within), but overall, those looking for a popcorn flick should be happy. Happy enough to await a third Hulk film? I'm not so sure about that, but he should be one of the selling points to The Avengers.

The 3-Disc Collector's Edition has plenty of extras spread over the first two discs (the third is a digital copy of the movie.) Things start with an audio commentary track featuring Louis Leterrier and Tim Roth. It’s a great track that is filled with information and nary a dead spot and the two men bounce a lot of information off of each other. There are also half-a-dozen deleted scenes running a grand total of 13 minutes, many of which could have been placed back into the movie, but were likely trimmed for pacing reasons. (I think Blu-rays should be able to seemlessly reincorporate trimmed footage like this back into the movie. I don't know of any that have done this, but I look forward to it becoming common place.)

Over on disc two, things start with an alternate opening, which is an interesting extra, but I prefer the opening they went with. More deleted scenes follow, 17 in total, running nearly 30 minutes. Many work, but are unnecessary. There is a 30-minute making-of featurette, which is worth checking out but pretty standard fair. I see so many of these each week, that it takes a lot for any of them to stand out. Becoming the Hulk is a 9-minute featurette on the design of the CG Hulk, as well as Edward Norton's preparation to perform as the comic book icon. Becoming the Abomination is a very similar featurette, just on the Abomination. Anatomy of a Hulk-Out is three smaller featurettes combined into a nearly 30 minute whole on the times that Bruce Banner turned into the Hulk in the movie. From Comic Book to Screen is a 6-minute semi-animated comic book.

The third disc is just the digital copy, which I'm a fan of. Even though I don't have a portable device to watch the movie on, I like the option.

The Incredible Hulk will not be seen as one of the best comic book movies of all time, but it is a fun ride and fans of the recent influx of similar titles should be entertained by the movie. As for the three home market releases, the 3-Disc Collector's Edition is certainly worth the upgrade from the Single-Disc Edition. Additionally, even if the Blu-ray had no additional features, it would be worth buying over the DVD. However, with a couple BD-Live extras, it is certainly worth paying $3 more for. Regardless of which format you decide to get, it is worth buying over just renting.