New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

Welcome to How to Spend $20, BOP’s look at the latest Blu-ray discs and DVDs to hit stores nationwide. This week: Tool Time ships out, Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher make a do-it deal and MTV Films releases a G-rated film.

Pick of the Week

Home Improvement: The Complete Collection (20th Anniversary Edition)

Bundled in what appears to be a makeshift tool kit, the complete collection of Home Improvement DVDs arrives in stores today for way more than twenty bucks.

With Seinfeld, Friends, Frasier, Will & Grace and other half hours also on the air at the time Home Improvement was running on originals, I know I forget sometimes just how popular The Tool Man and his dysfunctional mix of friends and family were in their heyday. In fact, its third season, which finished about a year or so in front of the debut of Friends, was the most-watched scripted television show in America (and second only to 60 Minutes). Almost 20 million people tuned in each week, and by that time it wasn’t just horny men tuning in to see Pamela Anderson having her way with power tools. She had left the show for Baywatch a season prior.

One of the things I most liked about the show was its sweetness. Other comedies airing at the time really didn’t come close, and it wouldn’t be until the premiere of Scrubs and later The Office that I’d finally see something as comparably adorable. Tim’s one-on-one relationships with Jill and Al were a highlight for me, as were the Taylor family’s consistent chats with their neighbor to the right. Wilson’s intellect helped keep Home Improvement rooted in family values - no matter how wonky the comedy would get.

Disc includes: N/A





No Strings Attached

I’ve come to trust my mother as a good barometer on whether a given Hollywood chick flick is as sucky as its trailer makes it out to be. She’ll see just about anything with a little star power, and with No Strings Attached co-starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher, she of course saw No Strings Attached. I want to say the movie, for her, fell somewhere between Morning Glory (the low end) and The Bounty Hunter (the thing next to the low end).

I do wonder, with Black Swan now under her belt, whether Natalie Portman will make a more permanent transition to artsier fair like Closer or Brothers in lieu of cheap thrills like No Strings Attached. It seems silly for an actress who tore up the Oscars to next appear in a romcom about two attractive people who make a pact to have fun sex with each other. As if after accepting Best Actress for The Queen, Helen Mirren really did turn around to make a spoofed When Harry Met Sally sequel.

Disc includes: Deleted scenes, Sex Friends: Getting Together featurette, Inside the Sassy Halls of Secret High featurette, Modern Love: The Do’s and Don’ts featurette, audio commentary

Continued:       1       2