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Although it seems as if I've been hired exclusively to write articles about or concerning Tarantino-themed projects, I assure you it's merely a private obsession. That said, it feels necessary to announce that on August 25, 2009, Warner Home Video will release the Natural Born Killers Director's Cut on Blu-ray and DVD. The forthcoming set features a collection of all-new bonus materials and a 44-page booklet on the production and its cultural significance.

Perhaps even moreso than director Oliver Stone's theatrical version, The Director's Cut has something of a storied history; rather than the director's or extended cuts that DVD and Blu-ray producers churn out purely as a cash-in, this was in fact the original incarnation of the film that was truly Stone's vision, and was changed because the MPAA balked at the inclusion of some four minutes of material, including images such as a horrifically comic point of view shot through the bullet hole in a character's hand. On the other hand (no pun intended), it remains subjective which version is truly better than the other; once you've succumbed to the visual onslaught that Stone unleashes, it's tough to determine what additional impact such shots and sequences really effect.

The single disc Blu-ray will be available for the MSRP of $28.99, while the two-disc DVD set will retail for $20.97. Both sets will feature the following extras (located after the jump):

Valkyrie
Tom Cruise wants to kill Hitler. "Worth seeing for its irresistible ensemble of character actors, a handful of really well-crafted sequences, and a truth-based story that simply deserves to be repeated," wrote Scott Weinberg. Directed by Bryan Singer. Available in single-disc and double-disc editions, and also on Blu-ray. Rent it.

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Paul Blart: Mall Cop
Kevin James as a plus-sized man in uniform. "Harmlessly humorless, Paul Blart tepidly goes through its motions, but that doesn't mean you have to," opined Nick Schager. Directed by Steve Carr. Also on Blu-ray. Skip it.

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My Bloody Valentine 3D

Remake of 1981 slasher flick. "Cheesy, corny, gimmicky, gory fun ... low-brow entertainment with high-tech execution," declared William Goss, and I concur. Consider this movie a love letter to horror fans. With Jensen Ackles and Kerr Smith. Directed by Patrick Lussier. Also on Blu-ray. Rent it.

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True Blood: The Complete First Season

Southern Gothic vampire weirdness translated remarkably well to television, despite some wonky faux-Louisiana accents. Not every episode works, yet even the imperfections and blemishes are fascinating to watch. With Anna Paquin. Also on Blu-ray. Buy it.

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After the jump: Indies on DVD, more Blu-ray picks, and Collector's Corner!

It seems like Jason Statham might be booked until the end of time. Fresh off the news that he was set to be a new Mechanic comes his enlistment in The Killer Elite for director Gary McKendry who will be making his feature debut.

Elite is based on Ranulph Fiennes' (yes, one of the Fiennes) book The Feather Men, a nonfiction account of an underground group of vigilante killers who provide protection and justice for former members of the SAS. Apparently, SAS soldiers were being targeted by a former sheik from Oman, and the Feather Men (named for their light touch) sought to eradicate his band of contract killers. As intriguing as the real story sounds, it sounds as though Elite will only be loosely inspired by Fiennes' account. It centers on British special forces who are being targeted by assassins, but plunks Statham in as a Navy Seal who is forced out of retirement in order to save his closest friend.

In other words, it's like nearly every Statham movie ever made. But you know what? I'm cool with that. To borrow a phrase from Katherine Hepburn, he's like a baked potato, and you know exactly what you're going to get with him. I like knowing he has a full pre-production slate of guns, deadly squints, and ripped-abs. Movies like that are what weekends were invented for.

There's a caveat or two with which I submit this list of our favorite con artists on film, to correspond with tomorrow's NY/LA bow of The Brothers Bloom (our review from Toronto is here; our interview with director Rian Johnson, there).

One: I have not seen the following -- David Mamet's House of Games, David Mamet's The Spanish Prisoner, and David Mamet's Frank Oz's Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. I know, for shame, boo and hiss and so on and so forth.

Two: I've seen but don't fully recollect either The Grifters or Nine Queens enough to feel comfortable including them as if I had (I also missed the English-language remake of the latter, Criminal, though I've been told that's for the best). If I were a slier man, then maybe I could fittingly deceive the lot of you, but I'm not, so I won't.

While I don't doubt that the characters in those films would be worthy of a slot on our list, there are still at least seven other con (wo)men in the movies worth shining the spotlight on, and I do hope that you do think that may make do when all's said and done.

The trailer for The Road (which now has a release date of October 16) has hit the net courtesy of Yahoo! Movies but we've got an embed here thanks to Trailer Addict. For those who read the Cormac McCarthy book (and I haven't, but I was told the entire thing by a "helpful" friend), you're going to notice what looks like a lot of changes to the story. The mysterious disaster is made explicit, Charlize Theron is given a lot more screen time than the wife ever had in the book, and the action is upped ten times over.

However, this trailer has caused a lot of controversy already with people who have seen the film. Esquire just published a review this week, and noted that the Weinstein Company was falling prey to the temptation to cut a trailer that looked like a post-apocalyptic action movie. According to Esquire, John Hillcoat's film is (and other reviews have borne this out) as quiet, harrowing, and bleak as the novel is, and may just be "the most important film of the year". Unfortunately, the Weinsteins feel no one will see it unless there's an "explanation" and a hook of kick ass action, even if the film itself lacks the things the trailer sells.

But at least you get a glimpse of the real film underneath, which is enough to cause you to choke up. I think we're promised one hell of a gut-wrenching performance from Viggo Mortensen. Just look at his eyes.

(Clockwise, from upper left: Splash, Philadelphia, Forrest Gump, Castaway, The Ladykillers, The Da Vinci Code.)

Our last two polls covered Star Trek : anticipated box office returns (most folks guessed too high) and 1-10 rating (most folks were very impressed). Those polls are still open, but we thought it was time to let our hair down and move on to this week's big opener: Tom Hanks in Ron Howard's dramatic thriller Angels & Demons.

Based on the novel by Dan Brown, Angels & Demons follows Professor Robert Langdon as he again uses his expert knowledge of symbology to uncover an international conspiracy involving the Catholic Church. Though the book was written before The Da Vinci Code, the events take place afterward. When Hanks and Howard previously teamed on the film adaptation in 2006, Hanks' hair got plenty of attention. As Eric D. Snider noted, "If you recall nothing else about The Da Vinci Code, surely you remember that Tom Hanks sported a ghastly mullet in it. So the important thing to know about Angels & Demons ... is that Hanks' hairstyle has been corrected. So that's a relief."

But did you love Hanks' "ghastly mullet" in The Da Vinci Code? Or are you a bigger fan of his earlier, funnier hairstyles in movies like Splash, his first collaboration with Howard? How about the Forrest Gump flat top? The Castaway outgrowth? Or the Colonel Sanders hair from The Ladykillers? Inspired by a classic post at TheJay.com, please take our silly little poll and tell us: What's your favorite Tom Hanks hairstyle?

When you're finished with that poll, head on over to Moviefone and vote for your favorite Tom Hanks performance.

Poor Antonio Banderas. Once upon a time he was a hot and intriguing newcomer, God's gift to a rebooted Zorro franchise, poised to have his pick of of juicy Hollywood roles ... and now he's Puss n'Boots and the Nasonex Bee. So far has he fallen that the words "neo-noir" and "Banderas" together in Variety leave me unsettled.

Banderas has signed on to star in The Big Bang, a "neo-noir detective story," the feature directing debut of director Tony Krantz, and featuring a script penned by Erik Jendresen. Banderas will play an L.A. private eye who is hired to find a missing stripper. He follows her trail of pasties to the desert of New Mexico, where he finds dead bodies, a brutal Russian boxer, three LAPD detectives, and an aging billionaire who is trying to create a nuclear equivalent of the Big Bang. I assume nothing good can come of that. Darn those aging billionaires! Always getting into Bond levels of mischief.

The story is pulpy enough to be really intriguing, and Jendresen did some fine work on Band of Brothers. If it was any other leading man, I'd be really into it because of how over the top it sounds -- what do nuclear weapons have to do with missing strippers? I don't know, but I'd like to find out ... so Banderas, can you please make this fun? If you can, I won't ever refer to the Nasonex bee again.

I'll admit it, I'm one of those people who loves to quote movies. Even though I know it can be a little annoying, there are times that I just can't help myself -- but I never claimed to have a photographic memory and I can only assume that I've messed up a few lines over the years, taking a relatively endearing geek trait and turning it into a social faux pas. But, it's good to know I'm not alone, because over at lovefilm.com, they took a poll of the most misquoted movie lines in history and the big winner may surprise you.

So what line have we all managed to mess up? According to lovefilm, it was a line from Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back that took the grand prize as the most misquoted line in movie history. As embarrassing as it may seem, even I was a little shocked to find out that "Luke, I am your father" was never actually spoken in the film. There I was thinking, "But that's the line, right?" -- and no, what Vader actually says to Luke out on the platform is "No, I am your father." (And if you don't believe me, watch the scene for yourself).

After the jump: find out which misquotes cracked the top 5.

There's this little film made back in 1986 called Mona Lisa. Bob Hoskins starred as George, a man just out of prison who takes a job chauffeuring a high-price call girl named Simone (Cathy Tyson). As first, they're opposites who argue, but then they foster a friendship which leads him to help her out and get embroiled in a mess with the underworld. Michael Caine co-starred as an underworld boss, and Hoskins earned himself his only Oscar nomination.

23 years later, Production Weekly's Twitter feed reports that the film is getting a remake. Mickey Rourke will add another film to his ever-increasing roster and star alongside the radiant Eva Green. That should throw the whole relationship into another dynamic. Hoskins might be able to show the toughness, but he's no ex-wrestler and tough guy of Sin City. The big kicker, however, is the director. Larry Clark, helmer of Kids and Bully, will grab the directorial chair.

I think it's safe to say that this will be his first big production since Bully, but the bigger question: Will the new Mona Lisa have Clarke's trademark sexual shocks (Kids, Ken Park), and is that something you want to see in the world created by Neil Jordan and David Leland? Or does the remake world not matter when Green is sliding into another sexy role?