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Movie fanatics are a tough bunch to shop for because we own everything. The moment it goes on sale, it's in our hot little hands, leaving our families and friends high and dry when it comes to DVDs and box sets. How many people will try to buy you The Dark Knight this Christmas? (Thank goodness for store credit and gift receipts.)

Still, with budgets being tightened all across the country, there's probably a lot of you that have put The Dark Knight on your Christmas list to be purchased by those generous people in your circle. Or maybe there's some movies such as Tropic Thunder or Wall-E that you caught as a rental, and are now desperate to own.

Of course, we aren't all about the new and shiny here. With the format war being decided in favor of Blu-ray, older movies are being reissued every day. Plus, there are always box sets and anthologies making us drool -- the Ultimate Collector's Casablanca or that ridiculously huge Dirty Harry Ultimate Collector's Edition. (It seems the height of arrogance that I Am Legend has a similar release this year, doesn't it?)

So, why not share the DVD you hope to find under your tree this Christmas? While you're at it, why not tell us which DVD releases you think were the best of the year? The Tropic Thunder DVD was a universal favorite here at Cinematical, but The Dark Knight's bare bones release left us disappointed. Enough responses, and we'll put together a poll to decide the question once and for all.

There's a slew of new releases hitting shelves this week. Some are flashy, some are sweet, and some you should be ashamed if you spend your hard-earned money on them. As Peter said last week, we're still working out kinks in the new format, so weigh in below with your thoughts.

MAIN PICKS AND MISSES
Speed Racer (Pick)
Made of Honor (Miss)
The Love Guru (Miss)
The Babysitters (Miss)

INDIES ON DVD
Young@Heart, Finding Amanda, Harold, Snow Angels

BLU-RAY
Speed Racer, Hulk (2003), The Mist

COLLECTOR'S CORNER
High School Flashback Collection, Risky Business Deluxe Edition, and more!

...and by SEs I mean big, fat, loaded mega-special editions of the studio's most popular stuff. And when WB delivers a Special Edition, they generally don't mess around. (Unlike some home video distributors *koff Universal* who throw the SE term around willy-nilly.) Just a quick scan through my mega-awesome DVD collection reveals WB SEs like Goodfellas, Dirty Harry, Amadeus, The Shawshank Redemption, Blade Runner, Superman, and a whole bunch more. If there's a catalog title you love, you should pray it gets the WB 2-disc SE treatment.

And a bunch more are on the way! According to Video Business, WB plans to double its SE output moving forward, and while we don't have any specs just yet, we do know that the following titles will be available (in fancy form) later this year: 300 (yes already, even though I thought the first 2-discer was pretty damn excellent), Casablanca (also again, but if any film deserves it...), A Christmas Story (cool!), JFK (a movie I need to see again), and I Am Legend. Come to think of it, all five of these movies already have Special Edition releases! These new discs better be pretty dang impressive.

Also on the way: The Peanuts Complete Holiday Collection. Which I definitely will own.

Hey movie fans, here's a question: Do you presently own that 4-disc Adventures of Indiana Jones box-set? The one with all three movies and an extra disc with a bunch of supplemental stuff? And if so, are you pleased with this possession? Do you feel it somehow demands an upgrade?

Then here's some good news: Just in time for the theatrical release of Indiana Jones and the Location of an Amazingly Wordy Relic ... new DVDs! Yeah, I'd probably be a little more excited if someone had forced George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford to sit down and record some audio commentaries -- but I guess those will have to wait for Indy's 50th Anniversary Collection.

According to DVDActive, the new Indy DVDs (available separately or as a box-set) will arrive on May 13, and as far as "new goodies" are concerned, I'm not overtly impressed. You won't find a bigger Indy fan than yours truly, and I highly doubt I'll be investing another $50 on this set. I'll just wait for the next one. (After the jump: All the extra features!)

Since the arrival of the Official Indiana Jones Bullwhip, every time the UPS or DHL truck pulls up to our house my kids are all in a tizzy to see what's been delivered. This morning, when a big box was dropped off, they knew it was more than just another "boring grown-up movie," and they anxiously crowded around for me to open the box. My suggestion that I might wait until I finished my coffee was met with wails of "Mooooooommmmmm!", so I gamely ripped into the box and lifted the contents from the wads of brown paper wrapping:

Recent Theatricals

ATL (WB) -- From what I've read, it's sorta like American Grafitti 'n the Hood. (deleted scenes, featurette, music video)

She's the Man (Paramount) -- Easily the best teenage cross-dressing comedy since Just One of the Guys. And the worst. (cast & crew commentary, deleted scenes, featurette, gag reel, music video, photo album, trivia track)

Foreign & Arty

Clean (Palm) -- Maggie Cheung and Nick Nolte star in Olivier Assayas' strangely disarming redemption tale. (cast & crew interviews)

Shakespeare Behind Bars (Shout Factory) -- This doco takes you to a Kentucky prison to visit an unlikely Shakespeare troop. (convict commentary, deleted scenes, two featurettes)

Tsotsi (Miramax) -- I've heard it called the South African version of City of God. And that's a pretty lofty compliment. (director commentary, deleted scenes, alternate ending, featurette, short film, music video)