I’m not sure why I watch bad movies and then write reviews complaining about how bad they were. Its not as if I dont know theyre going be bad lets face it, when watching a movie with a title such as Children Shouldnt Play With Dead Things, its tough to claim innocence. If nothing else, I hope you appreciate what I go through to being you these reviews.

Children Shouldnt Play With Dead Things tells the story of theater director Alan and a group of his friends/co-preformers. Alans a weird but very charismatic guy. Somehow, hes convinced five or six of his fellow performers to join him on a boat ride to a creepy island, where he plans on rehearsing his latest play. After playing a few practical jokes on his friends, they begin to revolt and thats when Alan raises the stakes. In what can only be described as abnormal behavior, Alan does two things; one, be begins breaking ground over graves and sprinkling dry blood into them as part of his play rehearsal, and two, he digs up a corpse named Orville and takes him back to the cabin so that he may join the groups party. In fact, Alan enjoys his new rotten friend so much that he drapes Orville in a brides veil and marries him, an idea that is wrong on about fourteen different levels.

As you can probably guess, Alans satanic ritual isnt as harmless as it originally seemed. Before long, the cemetery comes to life with animated corpses crawling out of their graves, headed toward the cabin in search of brains (although, one has to wonder just how many brains a guy who is partying with a cadaver dressed in a tuxedo and a brides veil actually has). The remainder of the film quickly turns into a cheap Night of the Living Dead clone; Alan and his friends must secure the house to keep the zombies from coming in, and then figure out a way out (before everyones brains are eaten).

With a budget of (I’m estimating) six dollars, Childen Shouldnt Play With Dead Things manages to do a few things right. The zombies dont look too bad and the shooting locations fit well with the stories plot. Other than that, theres not much else to praise here. The camera work is laughable; several shots are out of focus, some scenes are so dark that you can’t make out what’s going on or who’s on screen, and the print itself has strange light flares appearing from time to time. The music and soundtrack are filled with abrasive, rejected Star Trek sound effects. Worst of all is the acting, which is so horrible that I quickly found myself rooting for the zombies, vowing to personally finish of any survivors myself.

Suspension of belief when watching horror films is one thing, but a complete suspension of believability, common sense and out-and-out logic is something else entirely. Children Shouldnt Play With Dead Things is bad horror at its finest. If you’re looking for awful, you’ve found it.

If you’re the type of person who would sit down and devote half an hour to watching a movie called “Camp Blood The Musical”, then you are probably the type of person who would enjoy watching a film like Camp Blood The Musical (CBTM).

Filmed over two days with a budget of $200 (most of which went to beer and Camp Blood t-shirts) and with a running time of just 30 minutes, CBTM falls somewhere between a parody of and a tribute to the classic slasher films of the 1980s. The plot is simple and generic: six stereotypical camp counselors of the unfortunately named Camp Blood are dropped off and are killed one by one. The obvious difference between CBTM and other slasher flicks is that this one contains song and dance numbers.

The film’s non-existent budget is both a curse and a blessing. While obviously $200 doesn’t go far in the special effects department and the audio sounds about like you might expect it would, the crew did a good job of using what they had available. Even though most of the film’s musical numbers take place in front of a hand drawn backdrop and some of the actors border on tone deaf, these things just add to the film’s unexplainable charm.

CBTM’s songs vary in quality from almost bearable to downright horrible. The worst songs are the ones that take place while everybody is still alive, as not every member of the cast can carry a tune. Fortunately the worst offenders are killed off quickly, leaving us with the semi-talented performers. The girls are better singers than the guys, and the topless girls are more entertaining than the clothed ones. The tone of the songs range from humorous (such as the killer’s song) to the pseudo-serious love songs.

According to the film’s MySpace page, there are talks of making a more professional version (Camp Blood The Musical The Movie). As a 30 minute low budget flick, CBTM is cute. As a feature-length film, it would be compared to 2007’s horror musical Sweeny Todd, or more directly Southpark founders Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s student film “Cannibal: The Musical”, to which CBTM doesn’t hold a candle.

I could write ten pages worth of problems CBTM had, but that would imply I didn’t like the film, which I actually did. This movie is a perfect example of a bunch of friends getting together and, with very little money, doing something creative and entertaining. Fans of do-it-yourself filmmaking, cheap horror and (I guess) musicals could find worse ways to spend thirty minutes.

On the web: Camp Blood – The Musical on MySpace

I doubt that anyone who ever dined at Molly Murphy’s House of Fine Repute in Oklahoma City ever forgot the experience. I had the honor of going twice as a high school student (both times tagging along with my friend Jeff’s family), so I can tell you first hand that all the wacky stories you heard about the place (at least from a customer’s point of view) were true. The wait staff consisted of everybody from Little Red Riding Hood and Michael Jackson to Da Moose and Mighty Mouse, and every employee stayed in character all night long. The salad bar — excuse me, salad car — was made out of an old Jaguar. The place was as crazy and wacky as it sounds.

A second Molly Murphy’s location was later opened in Tulsa, and a Mexican-themed restaurant (“Ta’Molly’s”) was also opened, but neither were as popular as the Oklahoma City location, which sat on Meridian between I-40 and the airport. The restaurant was mentioned in Playboy Magazine and made the list of the top 100 restaurants in the country. And on January 1st, 1996, the extremely popular Molly Murphy’s suddenly closed its doors forever, an act that has left people asking for years, “Whatever Happened to Molly Murphy’s House of Fine Repute?”

The answer comes in the form of a book, appropriately titled, “Whatever Happened to Molly Murphy’s House of Fine Repute?” Written by Jeffiee Tayar, the wife of Molly Murphy’s founder and owner Bob Tayar, the 88 page self-published book answers not only what happened to Molly Murphy’s, but what happened to Jeffiee Tayar as well.

“Whatever Happened” is Jeffiee’s whirlwind autobiography, beginning with the meeting of her future husband Bob and ending, ultimately, with his passing. In between those two events, Jeffiee takes her readers through the Tayars’ romp across the Oklahoma City restaurant scene. The two Tayars most often found success by finding successful restaurants and copying their designs. Pre-Murphy’s, the Tayars opened their own “Charcoal Kitchen” right down the street from the “Charcoal Oven”. Jeffiee explains that although she and her husband were sued because their building and grounds “looked almost identical” to the Charcoal Oven’s, they won because “just as designer dresses can be copied, so can a building be copied.”

After a string of restaruant successes and defeats, the Tayars found another successful restaurant to copy — San Antonios’ Magic Time Machine — and hired the restaurant’s designer to build them a similar restaurant in Oklahoma City. The result was Molly Murphy’s, which opened in the spring of 1976.

Only 13 pages of the book (Chapter Two: “Success!”) cover the fun times at the restaurant, and half of that chapter delves into the house the Tayars had built in Nichols Hills and the parties they held there. By the time readers reach chapter three (“Losin’ It”) the Tayars are already losing money hand over fist due to failed restaurants, wild spending habits and too many hands in the accounting pot. The restaurant was already in a nosedive when sales took another blow due to the April 19th, 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. And then there was “The Incident” — an altercation with a local news reporter that put the final nail in the restaurant’s coffin and led to an almost decade-long court battle.

With the restaurant closed on page 56, Jeffiee fills the final third of the book with her life post-Molly Murphy’s. The worst case scenario is chronicled here as Jeffiee parts with her house, her jewels, and her pride. Names are named along the way, and believe me, when they said “Hell has no fury like a woman scorned,” I don’t think they realized Jeffiee Tayar would be writing a book about it. In the years after the restaurant closed Jeffiee took multiple jobs just to survive, from motel manager to selling used cars. Not only do the Tayars spend years waiting for a settlement from suing a local news station, they also end up in another court battle suing each other. It is a tragedy worthy of Shakespeare’s jealousy.

Jeffiee’s rags-to-riches-to-rags story is at times both exciting and depressing. “Whatever Happened to Molly Murphy’s House of Fine Repute” answers the titular question, but doesn’t capture the fun spirit of the restaurant so many customers remember. (For that, I suggest the similarly priced but significantly thicker (340 pp) book “Who Are You Supposed to Be?“, written by ex-employee Darren Stone aka Mighty Mouse). Jeffiee’s book is a reminder that businesses that appear like fun and games take a lot of blood, sweat and tears to maintain

Let’s make this simple: If you like the Nintendo Wii and you like television’s Deal or No Deal, you’ll love Deal or No Deal for the Nintendo Wii. If (like me) you wonder what people see in the Deal or No Deal television show, you (like me) will probably wonder why anyone would want to play it at home with no possibility of winning real cash.

In all fairness, Deal or No Deal for the Wii plays exactly like the television show. Players (yes, you can use your Mii!) choose one of 26 briefcases, each of which contain an amount of money between one cent and one million dollars. The rest of the game is spent eliminating the other 25 briefcases on whatever order you choose. Throughout the game, the “banker” will stop the action and offer to pay you mathematically-calculated sums of money in order to quit.

Like the television show, the virtual game is hosted by Howie Mandell, appearing here as a slightly odd-looking bobble head. Each briefcase is also accompanied by a virtual model which also resembles a bobble head, proportion-wise. (Each model has a name, although I’m not sure if they correlate with the real models from the show.) The real-world set has been faithfully reproduced here, and the game is presented through enough different camera angles that you get the feeling you are participating in a real television program. (All of the cinematics can, thankfully, be skipped by pressing “A”. Play the game more than once and you’ll be pressing “A” a lot.)

Briefcases are chosen by pointing and clicking on them with the Wiimote, which shouldn’t be that difficult. On my 35″ television the briefcases are bearable but I can see it being challenging on televisions smaller than mine; You also have to click directly on the briefcases; you can’t click on the (much larger) models standing behind them. After each case is opened, the model standing behind it will react appropriately; they’ll cheer when you open a low one and “aww” when you open a high one. The game continues until you open all the briefcases, or accept the banker’s offer, both of which seem kind of moot when you’re not playing for real money. (I checked my Wii’s disc slot afterwards; the game dispenses no cash.)

In addition to normal television rules, the game also allows you to play custom games, which for the most part correspond with the Deal or No Deal television specials (more than one million dollar briefcase, for example). I didn’t think these variations were any more (or any less) exciting than the original, just different.

Deal or No Deal also offers various challenge games where players can “bet it all” or even play as the banker (which I thought was interesting). The disc also contains three mini-games, none of which held my attention for more than two minutes. In “Push Your Luck”, players randomly pick briefcases until they find an empty one, at which point the game ends. In “Sharp Shooter” the briefcases fly around the screen and players must shoot them. “BlackJack” plays just like the traditional card game, substituting briefcases for cards.

Deal or No Deal also has 25 achievements to unlock, if that’s your thing, and also tracks high scores of every game and displays them on a leaderboard which is viewable from almost every single menu.

I’ve always considered Deal or No Deal to be largely a game of chance, and like most slot machines, once the ability to win real cash has been removed, the game loses most of its appeal to me. Fans of the television show who have always wanted to play Deal or No Deal in their living room can now live out their fantasy with this game for the Wii. For anyone else, I’d recommend a rental as I got bored after about fifteen minutes.

James Toback’s 2008 documentary Tyson isn’t a documentary in the true sense of the word.

For 90 minutes, viewers get to hear Mike Tyson’s story as told by Iron Mike himself. Through Tyson’s uniquely high-pitched lisp, we hear about how he was the the fat kid who got picked on in grade school, the misguided teenager who spent his free time participating in home invasions, and the older teen who, under the direction of boxing legend Cus D’amato, channeled his anger into his boxing training. All of these stories are complimented with photographs and video clips.

We also get to hear about “the leeches” that Mike surrounded himself with: Tyson briefly talks about Desiree Washington (the 18-year-old he was convicted of raping) and his ex-wife Robin Givens, while saving his most biting criticism for former promoter Don King.

Who we don’t hear from is, well, anybody else. We never get to hear from Washington, Givens, King, or anyone else from Tyson’s past. We don’t hear much about the $300 million dollars Tyson squandered, or his series of arrests due to DUIs and drug possession. To hear Mike tell it, he was the greatest fighter of all time who only lost fights because he spent the previous night having sex, and reigned until he got tired of the sport and quit.

Tyson sets out to paint the infamous boxer as a life-long victim while downplaying his own victims. If you want to hear Mike Tyson’s version of history from his own lips, this documentary delivers. If you’re looking for a more fair and balanced view of historical events, you might keep looking. If nothing, Tyson gives viewers a look at how Mike Tyson perceives the world. While Mike’s story may be depressing, his view of history is probably the saddest thing of all.

I was twelve years old when Back to the Future first hit theaters in 1985. It was two years after Return of the Jedi had been released, so the timing was right for a new trilogy of films to dig into America’s culture. Along with Indiana Jones and Star Wars, Back to the Future would do on to become one of the most popular movie trilogies of all time, and is now the first of those trilogies to appear on DVD. My fascination with BTTF started very early; I remember seeing the first film two or three times in the movie theater. Later, when the movies came out on home video, I really became infatuated with the trilogy. As a kid, I never noticed that Marty leaves the “Twin Pines Mall,” runs over a pine tree, and returns to the “Lone Pine Mall.” Once I discovered that, I became even more hooked. I must’ve watched the film 20 times on home video, trying to find different interesting things the writers had hidden in the scripts.

The Back to the Future trilogy has been one of the most anticipated DVD releases since the format was introduced. Rumors circulated that the movies were going to be released in 1998… and then, 1999. Then 2000. Then 2001. Finally, word hit the net that the elusive movies would appear for Christmas of 2002. After almost five years of waiting, the BTTF DVD box set appeared under my Christmas tree this year. After spending three days already knee deep in the extras in this box set, I can definitely say the DVDs were worth the wait.

Let’s talk about what you get right up front. All three Back to the Future flicks have been remastered here for 5.1 sound, and the movies sound great. Scenes with special effects, like the DeLorean jumping through time or lightning striking the clock tower really stand out. Films two and three take more advantage of the rear speakers, while the first mainly uses it for effects. The movies have also been reprinted, and are cleaner now than ever. The trilogy is available in either full screen or letterbox formats — and yes, for those who haven’t heard, movies two and three aren’t really in letterbox, they are just full screen versions with black bars matted over the top and bottom. Replacement discs will be available for free in February, so feel free to buy it now.

So, let’s talk about Disc 1 first, which contains the first film, Back to the Future. Christmas day, I watched the film. 90 minutes. Afterwards, I watched “The Making of Back to the Future”, a featurette from the 80’s, and “Making the Trilogy: Chapter One”. Both together lasted a little over an hour. Then I watched the film again, with the “Q&A” feature turned on. It’s basically like a commentary track, but with director Robert Zemeckis and producer Bob Gale answering questions in front of a college film audience. After that, I watched the film three more times — once with the “enhanced Michael J. Fox conversation” feature turned on (similar to the white rabbit option on The Matrix), once listening to the feature commentary with producers Bob Gale and Neil Canton, and once with the “Did You Know That?” feature turned on, which turns the movie into a “Pop Up Video”-like experience. For those of you keeping count, that’s approximately 8 and a half hours of video, which doesn’t include deleted scenes, outtakes, makeup tests, production picture archives, original screenplay excerpts, trailers, production notes, recommendations, and other small bits and pieces. You can easily kill half a day with this one disc.

If you have ever had any question about Back to the Future, it most likely is answered somewhere on this DVD. From “why did they use a DeLorean as a time travel machine” to “why are there two backwards 9’s in the air when the DeLorean gets hit by lightning and gets shot into the past,” every second of this film is covered in documentaries and commentaries. “Why was Eric Stoltz dropped and Michael J. Fox hired to replace him?” “Why did Crispin Glover not return for parts II and III?” Questions fans of the movies have been asking for years are all answered here in one nice little package.

Disc II of the boxset continues the time travel goodness with Back to the Future II, my favorite of the series. Again, aside from a new transfer and a 5.1 remix, viewers get even more “making of” documentaries, another Q&A commentary, another feature length commentary, another pop-up video sttle anecdote feature, PLUS production designs, storyboards, “Designing the DeLorean,” “Designing Time Travel,” hoverboard test footage, evolution of visual effect shots, production archives, trailers, production notes, recommendations, a Huey Lewis & the News video, and more. Some information from some of the sources overlap each other, but as with the first disc, no stone is left unturned on this DVD.

Back to the Future II had some awesome special effects, particularly ones that included several Michael J. Foxs on screen at the same time. In the “Evolution of Special Effects” feature, you can see several scenes without the special effects, and then watch them slowly be added. With this, plus all the little (and big) extras tucked away on this DVD, you can easily kill a second day with this one. Even non-fans of the film will find themselves peeking around and checking out features. The hoverboard test footage is awesome, as stunt doubles “fly” around the California desert as they work the kinks out of the system. You can see the harnesses and the rigs holding the actors, and it still somehow seems like magic.

Disc III contains Back to the Future III. Again, we’re treated to the two different commentary tracks as well as all the other extra segments. A ZZ Top music video appears, as well as two other cool features. One is “The Secrets Behind Back to the Future”, an old telelvision program starring Kirk Cameron, reading questions written in by fans and answering them on screen. The other feature I liked was the “Back to the Future FAQ”, which answers the most asked questions about the trilogy. By this time in the viewing, most of these questions have been answered elsewhere, but it was still interesting to read. One of the questions is, “are hoverboards real?” and the producers answer that this is one of the most common questions they get asked, still to this day.

It would take you basically twelve hours to watch all the extras on each disc. At three discs, that’s a day and a half straight of watching Back to the Future. Besides all that extra goodness, you also get THE MOVIES! Even without all the extras piled on, $40 for 3 classic films is an awesome deal — hell, I’ve paid more for bad movies in the used bin. More than once. Plus, as I said, on TOP of the movies, you get every possible Back to the Future factoid known to man. Did you know the amplifier Marty McFly plugs his guitar into in Doc Brown’s lab is labeled “CRM-114”, which is also the name of the decoder in Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, as well as the serial number of the Jupiter explorer in 2001: A Space Odyssey?

This is the Back to the Future collection. Every extra, every cut scene, every tidbit of information is preserved here, all in one nice, complete box set. I don’t see how they can release a special edition after this one, folks, everything you could possibly want is here. I hope those responsible for the eventual Star Wars and Indiana Jones DVD boxsets take note — Universal has set the bar pretty high with this one.

Bridge to Terabithia, based on the 1997 novel by Katherine Paterson, is a touching story about two children, both social outcasts, who together escape their daily struggles by visiting the imaginary land of Terabithia. In this pretend world, Jesse and Leslie reign as the King and Queen and spend much of their time fixing up their castle and battling imaginary creatures. The movie is an emotional tale and a terrific film. My only complaint is that the films marketing is completely misleading (more on that later).

As the only boy among five children, Jesse Aarons (Josh Hutcherson, from RV) just doesnt fit in. His love of art conflicts with his fathers (Robert Patrick, Terminator) hard working blue-collar ethics. His days are spent being tormented on the bus by 8th graders and being picked on by his classmates. His hopes of proving his mastery of, well, anything (in this case, a foot race) are dashed when new-girl-in-school Leslie (AnnaSophia Robb, Violet from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) beats all the boys. Leslie is no social butterfly herself; her unique clothing style alienates her from her classmates, and her parents are authors who lock themselves away for days on end working on fiction novels. The two social misfits quickly become friends, spending their after school hours exploring the woods behind their home an area that the two dub Terabithia.

In this new imaginary land, Jesses bullying classmates become evil critters to be fought, and Leslie imagines dragonflies as a hoard of friendly warriors. Eventually, the twos imaginations are no match for reality. When a major character within the film dies, the scope of the film changes dramatically and this is where my complaint about the films marketing begins.

Those who have seen the trailer (like myself) imagine Bridge to Terabithia to fall somewhere between The Wizard of Oz and Narnia; however, the trailer is intentionally misleading. Although the overwhelming majority of the movies commercials show the imaginary land of Terabithia, no more than fifteen minutes of the film take place there. In fact, the wide-angle, cinematic shot of the Castle of Terabithia actually appears in the films closing shot!

I do think Bridge to Terabithia is a fantastic film. That being said, I also feel like the victim of the old bait-and-switch technique. Had I known the true subject, scope and situations presented within the film, I would have taken my wife to see it instead of my five-year-old son Mason. While theres nothing particularly inappropriate for a young child to see, chances are the majority of the films themes will go directly over their heads, leaving them pining for more of the imaginary place the trailers promised us.

Or, as Mason put it as we were leaving the theater, Daddy, did we just see the right movie?

The titular Braindrainer from Michael Legge’s low-budget horror film of the same name is an alien life form from outer space disguised as a rock and delivered to Earth by a meteor. As people touch it, their brains are reduced to the size of a raisin and they instantly become comatose.

When the Braindrainer actually leaps into Senator Rick Vapid’s head, the race is on to find a cure. Dr. Belinda Garland, for which the alien meteor has been named (“Garlandite”), must team up with the brilliant but blind (and ironically named) Matt Retina if they hope to save the Senator’s life and find a way to fight the Garlandite. They’ll also have to defend themselves against The Amazing Jacques (Legge), a hypnotist who intends on stealing the Garlandite and turning the masses into his brainless slaves. Jacques has enlisted help from Spiderwoman and her creepy assistant, The Creeper. It’s all very silly, lighthearted, and entertaining.

Braindrainer actually made me laugh (or at least smirk) more than once. Legge’s jokes are more entertaining than the film’s low budget lets on. More than just simple one-liners or crude cusswords, Legge does a good job at presenting some real honest-to-goodness jokes within his dialogue and sets up some funny situations throughout his film (the reporters leading the blind scientist around in circles cracked me up).

Like most low budget films, the lack of funding is apparent through the film’s audio and editing (which may have been done on videotape). According to information I found via the Internet, a re-cut DVD edition of Braindrainer appears to have been released. My copy came from the Dollar Store and included a second movie on the disc, so I have to assume I ended up with the older, rougher version.

Braindrainer is an example of low budget horror filmmaking done right. Michael Legge, who according to his IMDB biography works as a United States postal employee when not making films, has a good eye for comedic timing and political satire. If you can overlook the normal issues that plague most low dough shows, Braindrainer is an entertaining take on the horror-meets-science-fiction genre.

I like the Kids in the Hall. I thought their show was funny, and when I heard their feature length movie Brain Candy was coming out on DVD, I looked forward to seeing it. Unfortunately, I also like Saturday Night Live, and have been burned by one too many unfunny SNL movies. Three minute ideas often become painful ten-minute skits, and excruciatingly long 90-minute films.

Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy falls into the same trap. With no one telling the guys what works, what doesn’t, what should be more developed and what should be cut, the guys spend their hour and a half of screen time throwing everything they have at the screen, seeing what sticks. Unfortunately for us, very little does.

Brain Candy tells the “story” of a group of research scientists working for Roritor, Inc, who discover a pill that cures depression. Due to pressure from the company’s CEO, they decide to release the drug on the world, sans any major testing. The drug switches from being a prescription-only medication to an over the counter pill, and soon the entire world is without depression. Unfortunately for Roritor, a minor side effect is discovered — some of the drug’s users are left in a coma, with their brains stuck in their happiest memories. The scientists must regroup and discover a cure.

The first ten minutes is spent parading cameos of characters apparently from the KitH television show. They never reappear, and their appearances are pointless to the plot. Halfway through the movie I kept wondering if any of those characters would ever reappear, but they never do.

I’d file Brain Candy under those movies that made me chuckle a few times, but not one that I’d call “funny”. When the scientist meets “Cancer Boy,” their conversation ends with a long, awkward pause which made me offer up a “heh,” but my grin was gone long before the scene ended. It’s jokes like this where the guys could use some directorial guidance — the joke might sound funny on paper or on the set, but while watching the movie it just doesn’t go over big. Oh, and half the movie’s jokes revolve around men playing women, so if you don’t find that hilarious, you’ll find yourself sitting around and not laughing like myself. Guys in drag, got it, saw it on the show, saw it here. Not really that funny anymore.

Some of the biggest jokes in the movie come when you actually get to enter people’s heads and see what their happiest (and later, saddest) memories are. Big surprise when the old lady’s memories revolve around her son and grandkids visiting, or when the gay man’s remembers fond memories of bootcamp. Sure, they had minor funny moments, but they all seemed to just go for the obvious. Only Mrs. Hurdicure’s saddest memory was something slightly original, which ended up being one of the funniest moments in the film.

The film does seem to make a few jabs at society, particularly in the directions of corporate America and the use of medications in society. While I got it, I really don’t go looking to Canadian comedy troupes for deep mental stimulation either. If they were counting on those references to carry the movie along, it failed.

As only a casual fan of the television show, I don’t know if there were a bunch inside jokes I just didn’t get, or if no one watching the film got them. A commentary track might have filled me in, but that’s one extra that didn’t make it to the DVD. Actually, no extras made it to the DVD. If this DVD had any fewer extras, it would be called a VHS tape. Chapter selection and subtitles are the only features found here.

If you’ve ever watched the KitH television show, you know that some of their skits work, and some don’t. Brain Candy seems like a bunch of strung together skits that for the most part, don’t work. If I saw this in a bargain bin for $5 I might pick it up, that’s about all I can say for it. A string of mediocre jokes from people that I normally find very funny.

Written and directed by the Coen brothers (Fargo, Raising Arizona, O Brother, Where Art Thou?) The Big Lebowski tells the story of Dude Lebowski (Jeff Bridges), a peace-loving hippy who is mistaken for the titular millionaire Lebowski. Because of the mistaken identity, a couple of ruffians end up trashing his house, roughing up the Dude, and relieving themselves on his rug. That act of urination begins a chain of events that will leads the Dude and his friends into a twisted adventure.

After a meeting between the two Lebowskis, the Big Lebowskis trophy wife Bunny (Tara Reid) is kidnapped, and Dude is chosen to relay the ransom money to the kidnappers. The Dudes pal Walter (John Goodman) comes up with another plan, and by the time the plot begins unraveling you (and everyone else in the movie) will be wondering just whose side the Dude is on.

The Big Lebowski consists of a decent plot with several twists and turns, but relies heavily on character actors for its entertainment. Steve Buscemi, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Julianne Moore all put on interesting performances, which like a magician, divert the audiences eyes away from the pretty unbelievable plot. In that aspect, The Big Lebowski stands more as a character study than a true narrative.

The Big Lebowski plays like a cross between the Coen brothers two most successful films prior to this one by using plot twists like Fargo and interesting characters ala Raising Arizona. It often plays as if it were written by the Dude himself, as so many of the films points, thoughts, and ideas never seem to go anywhere in particular and just when things do begin moving along, someone comes along and clobbers the Dude in the noggin, sending him into yet another musically-inspired acid flashback.

Like Napoleon Dynamite, the most enjoyable thing about The Big Lebowski is that everyone either knows someone like the Dude, or was/is the Dude. In fact, most of the characters in The Big Lebowski are generic and recognizable enough (especially the Dudes circle of friends) that youll probably recognize either yourself or someone else in the group. If youre more into laughing than analyzing plots and like the Coen brothers unique style of comedic characters, youll dig The Big Lebowski.