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Welcome to How to Spend $20, BOP's look at the latest Blu-ray discs and DVDs to hit stores nationwide. This week: Adam Sandler impresses Seth Rogen, Vince Vaughn wrestles Jon Favreau and Tom Hanks visits the Vatican.

Pick of the Week

For people who didn't know Adam Sandler did stand up anymore: Funny People (Special Edition)

In The 40 Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, Judd Apatow created lasting, hilarious comedies with heart. You know, movies I can watch more than once. Apatow flubbed it with Funny People. Perhaps my expectations were too high. Perhaps I was expecting one thing but got another. Perhaps it just, well, didn't work. (I tend to think it's the latter observation).

Like most Judd Apatow projects, I wanted to like it. Funny People has Seth Rogen, who I adore; Jason Schwartzman, who I'm warming up to (in much the same way as Paul Rudd for me); Adam Sandler, who I consider a wild card but am generally satisfied with; and Leslie Mann, who in my book killed it in Virgin and was solid again in Knocked Up. Eric Bana's in this one too, though he did the usual for me (which translates to, uh, nothing).





It's not that Apatow can't do drama, because he can. We've seen it in his "comedies" and in shows like Freaks and Geeks. But the seriousness of Funny People felt forced to me, and the ad-libbed, off-the-cuff banter between his characters didn't seem as polished. And it's a common complaint, but I'm going to have to agree: What's up with the last third of the movie? What we begin with (and think we have) isn't where we end. The strongest material is in the first half, and then Funny People just runs out of gas.

Not to say that the movie is devoid of anything good – or vintage Apatowian. It has much of the comedy we've come to expect from Apatow. In fact, I'm looking forward to his next movie, just not with bated breath.

Disc includes: Gag reels, deleted/extended/alternate scenes, Line-O-Rama featurette, audio commentary, Funny People Diaries (documentary), Judd's High School Radio Show (documentary), Raaaaaaaandy! (documentary), Music from Funny People featurette, From the Archives featurette, The Films of George Simmons featurette, Prank Call 1990 featurette, Yo Teach...! featurette

For people who need visual confirmation on whether Vince Vaughn is taller than Reese Witherspoon (or vice versa): Four Christmases (Special Edition)

When Four Christmases was originally announced with Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon as its leads (and actors like Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Jon Favreau and Kristin Chenoweth as secondary players), curiosity piqued for me. But what we ended up with – as I half expected – was something more Jingle All the Way than Elf or The Holiday. Though it's silly (some would probably say stupid) and its characters are pretty plastic, the movie still manages to dish out a decent amount of laughs to make it worthwhile to see again. (Just don't go in expecting something of It's a Wonderful Life caliber. This, of course, is not that movie).

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