Welcome to our Olympic coverage of Rummaging through the Old Maids! Sure this doesn’t involve anything more then me posting via tape delay (Note to the audience: I have no idea what that means) but it is the thought that counts. Right?

While the amount of DVD releases this week are relatively thin, their are two pretty damn good ones especially worth noting. First is the Criterion release of Brand Upon the Brain, Guy Maddin’s oustanding pseudo-documentary science fiction/horror film on his growing up on a remote island with a mother who eats children to maintain her youth. It is a fantastic film and being released by Criterion inevitably means the transfer will be outstanding.

The other big release is CJ7, which took its sweet time coming to DVD even though it had a theatrical release last summer. Coupling Stephen Chow’s Looney Tunes styled direction with the most adorable alien ever created, CJ7 is a ridiculously cute and fun children’s film that appeals to adults as well.

Coming to theaters this week is the new film by Mumblecore vets Jay and Mark Duplass, Baghead, about a group of filmmakers that head up to a cabin to try and write their next movie. Only to discover that the movie they envision might be coming true. I don’t know too much about the movie outside of the trailer, but I enjoyed The Puffy Chair and I think the movie looks pretty interesting.

But the movie I am most excited for is Man on Wire, a documentary on tightrope walker Philippe Petit’s daring and incredibly stupid attempt to walk on a tightrope that spans between the newly built Twin Towers in New York City. It is a stunning documentary that should be a must see for everyone. Word of warning, even though it is almost all still photography, if you experience vertigo, or have a fear of heights,  be prepared to have the crap scared out of you.

As always trailers are after the break!

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Going to keep it a bit shorter today, as I am running a bit low on time and material to work with. Not much released on DVD this week besides two vastly overrated/overwatched films in Alvin and the Chipmunks and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. I’m sure both will sell umpteen thousand copies this upcoming Tuesday but I’ll be quite content in avoiding both.

The one thing I am very excited about for DVD releases is Terry Jones’ BBC documentary series Medieval Times, a series devoted to dispelling many of the myths of the middle ages. It’s a fascinating show, as BBC documentaries are want to be, and I can’t recommend it enough. Unfortunately, I have no trailer or scenes for it to show you, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.

The other DVD release of the week that I find passably interesting is a comedy called The Good Night starring Martin Freeman, Gwenyth Paltrow, Penelope Cruz, Simon Pegg, and Danny DeVito. It’s about a man (Freeman) who obsessively dreams about a woman (Cruz) he has never met before. Normally I would never dare to recommend any film with Gwenyth Paltrow in it but I must admit I have a deep an unflinching man-crush on Simon Pegg and thus all logic and reason about a film is thrown out the window once his is involved.

Case in point, my first theatrical pick of the weekend is the Simon Pegg vehicle Run, Fatboy Run. Starring Pegg, Thandie Newton, and Hank Azaria is has the ignominious pleasure of being directed by David Schwimmer, yet this is countered by the film being written by Michael Ian Black. Sure it will probably be far less then good, but Pegg is irresistible. That and I am fascinated by the Pegg/Schwimmer/Black trio.

Thankfully I have one last recommendation up my sleeve, which should redeem this entire debacle. That movie is Stephen Chow’s new film CJ7. You may know Chow from Shaolin Soccer, and you should know him from Kung Fu Hustle, and it is my hope that with CJ7 Chow only further entrenches himself within the American mainstream. I barely know what is coming to the multiplexes this weekend, but let me assure you, anything else you see will not be better then CJ7.

As always trailers are after the break. Enjoy!

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