What is it: W. is Oliver Stone’s biographical portrayal of the ever so controversial President George W. Bush (Josh Brolin). Stone begins with W.’s wild college days of 1967, to his time in the military, then his governorship of Texas and oil business, leading to his 2000 candidacy. The film then follows his bumpy first four years in the White House through his 2004 re-election campaign.

Why it’s Significant: The timing could not be more perfect for the DVD release.  January ‘09 is a time to say farewell to one of the most controversial leaders of our time and hello to history in the making. Brolin portrays the President realistically and does not resort to a caricature which I thought was key to this film. I also was surprised a monster was not described by either Stone or Brolin. Richard Dreyfuss totally transformed into Dick Cheney, an eerie humanization.  All in all, I thought Stone did honest work and gave the audience a truthful glimpse into the Brush family. - Meredith Leander

Amazon.com Review: Oliver Stone’s W. is similar to his other movies about American presidents (JFK, Nixon), which is to say these films are much more about Stone’s imagined versions of reported events than they are alleged reenactments. As such, W. is Stone’s case for what he sees as the absurdity of George W. Bush’s ascendance to the White House and especially the arrogant blunder of the Iraq War. Josh Brolin is very good as the miscreant son of George H. W. Bush (James Cromwell), Vice President to Ronald Reagan and 41st president of the United States. Adrift in a sea of booze and squandered opportunities, the younger Bush is largely driven by a need for his disapproving father’s love and respect, which never truly arrives. Becoming a hatchet man for Bush Sr.’s administration, “W” (as his wife, Laura–played by Elizabeth Banks–call him) meets Karl Rove (Toby Jones) and heads toward the Texas governorship, despite his father’s preference that the more golden son, Jeb, get all the family’s support in his Florida gubernatorial bid.

Told in broken chronology, W. focuses on Bush’s post-9/11 path to waging a “preventive war” in Iraq despite no hard evidence of weapons of mass destruction to justify it. The major players in W’s administration–Rove, Colin Powell (Jeffrey Wright), Condoleeza Rice (Thandie Newton), and especially Dick Cheney (Richard Dreyfuss)–all participate in closed meetings that look and sound like every investigative account by the New York Times or Bob Woodward about the administration’s inner workings leading up to the war. Much of this is quite fascinating if a little weird (Newton’s performance is indeed strange), but the drama is often powerful, particularly around Powell’s resistance to the rising tide for a supposedly slam-dunk war. A number of the film’s key performances, besides Brolin’s, are very strong, especially Cromwell, Jones, Wright, Dreyfuss and Bruce McGill as George Tenet.

Best Two-Fers
Kristin Scott Thomas (Tell No One, I’ve Loved You So Long)
Josh Brolin (Milk, W.)
James Franco (Milk, Pineapple Express)
Anne Hathaway (Get Smart, Rachel Getting Married)
Kate Winslet (The Reader, Revolutionary Road)
Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man, Tropic Thunder)

Best Comeback No One Saw Coming
Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)
Tom Cruise (Tropic Thunder)

Title That Sounds Most Like a Low Budget Erotic Thriller
Body of Lies

Strangest Common Movie Theme
Animated space films (Wall-E, Fly Me to the Moon, Space Chimps)

Busiest Revolving Door in a Series
Grey’s Anatomy

Best Showing of a SNL Alum
Tina Fey (30 Rock, Baby Mama, that Sarah Palin impersonation)

Worst Showing of an SNL Alum
Bill Murray (City of Ember)
Eddie Murphy (Meet Dave)
Mike Myers (The Love Guru)
Molly Shannon (Kath & Kim)

Show That’s Become Cool to Like
How I Met Your Mother

Worst Unceremonious Canceling
Pushing Daisies

Best Dysfunctional TV Couple to Root For
Chuck and Blair (Ed Westwick and Leighton Meester), Gossip Girl

Most Touching Post-Character-Departure Episode
“For Warrick,” CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

Yes, It’s Still on TV
According to Jim
The Tyra Banks Show

Movie That Didn’t Suck As Much as You Thought it Would
Rambo
The Incredible Hulk
The House Bunny

Movies That Looked WAY Better in the Trailer
Jumper
Vantage Point
Hancock

Biggest Arguments for “The Book Was Better”
The Other Boleyn Girl
Twilight
The Ruins

Best Reason for Vin Diesel to do the fourth Fast & The Furious Movie
Babylon A.D.

Coolest Movie Title
Ping Pong Playa
Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Most Confounding Movie Title
Quantum of Solace
Bangkok Dangerous

Movie Titles You Can’t Pronounce
Synecdoche, New York
Cthulhu

Movie Title That Gives You Chills if You Know What It’s About
Teeth
The Midnight Meat Train

Biggest Reasons Not to Answer the Door/Phone
Funny Games
The Strangers
One Missed Call

Biggest Waste of a Long-Awaited Matchup
Righteous Kill (Al Pacino / Robert De Niro)
The Forbidden Kingdom (Jet Li / Jackie Chan)

Biggest Waste of a Cast
The Women

Wisest Film Choice for a TV Star
The gals of Sex & the City
Kristen Bell, Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Unwisest Film Choice for a TV Star
Eva Longoria, Over Her Dead Body
Matthew Fox, Speed Racer and Vantage Point
Brittany Snow, Prom Night

TV Show That Went Out With a Bang (Literally)
The Shield

TV Show That Went Out With a Hug (Literally)
Boston Legal

Wherever You Look, There’s Beverly Hills, 90210
Jennie Garth, Shannen Doherty, and Joe E. Tata, 90210
Brian Austin Green, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Lindsay Price and Vanessa Marcil, Lipstick Jungle
Luke Perry and James Eckhouse, Criminal Minds (guest star, sep. episodes)

Colin Farrell Worked in 2008 (Maybe You Missed ‘Em)
Pride and Glory, In Bruges, Cassandra’s Dream

So Did Rachel McAdams
The Lucky Ones, Married Life

Most Disappointing Follow-Up for an Acclaimed Director
George Clooney (Leatherheads)
Kimberly Peirce (Stop-Loss)

Samuel L. Jackson Award for Most Screen Credits in a Year
Samuel L. Jackson (Jumper, Lakeview Terrace, Soul Men, The Spirit, an appearance after Iron Man’s credits)
Jason Statham (In the Name of the King, Death Race, Transporter 3, The Bank Job)

What others would you add?

What is it: The Tudors- The Complete Second Season is
the second installment to the engrossing historical SHOWTIME drama.  The series chronicles the reign and marriages of King Henry VII under England’s Renaissance Dynasty.  The second season finds Henry as the head of his own Church of England, working to banish Katherine of Aragon, while Anne Boleyn becomes the new Queen.  However, her failure to produce an heir for the King leads to Anne’s downward spiral, sending Henry’s attention elsewhere.

Why it’s Significant: Whether you are a fan or have not yet been exposed to The Tudors, you will love the second season.  This season places more emphasis on the political aspects and the historical content behind King Henry VIII’s reign, while still maintaining the sexy, raw appeal of the first season.  The Tudors takes you to a world torn apart by church, corrupted power, greed and lust.  You will be drawn to the lavish costumes and the drama behind turbulent Renaissance England and what would become The Tudor Dynasty.

What it is: No, it’s not Twilight, which is also about vampires so you’d certainly be excused for the confusion.  Nor is it True Blood, which is also a recent vampire-centric TV series.  Moonlight is the series that debuted on CBS in the fall of 2007 and was unceremoniously canceled after one season.  Alex O’Laughlin plays Mick St. John, a vampire who mingles with the human world by working as a private investigator then finds himself falling for a human (Sophia Myles).

Why it’s Significant: When it was canceled after one strike-interrupted season, Moonlight seemed destined to join the ranks of TV shows that had a devoted following but were quickly tossed on the dust heap.  But even worse, when I talked to the folks at Warner Home Video in the summer of 2008, they said they had no plans to release Moonlight on DVD–it wasn’t even going to get the chance to become another Firefly.  I explained to them that Amazon customers were passionate about the show, that you had signed up in droves to be the First To Know when it was available on DVD.  You had bought the episodes on Amazon Video On Demand and written hundreds of customer reviews on the AVOD page and on the First To Know page.  And you had sent us e-mails and posted on our discussion boards that you wanted Moonlight on DVD.  In October, Warner Home Video announced that Moonlight was indeed coming out on DVD, in January 2009.  Though it’s hard to say for sure what happened at Warner, I think it’s safe to say that Amazon customers played a big role in getting their show on DVD.

What it is:
The latest bro-mance from team Apatow (the guys who brought us Superbad, Knocked Up and The 40-Year-Old Virgin), Pineapple Express is the story of Dale Denton (Seth Rogan) and Saul Silver (James Franco), a pothead and his dealer who accidentally get caught up in a drug war between two gangs with some corrupt cops, high-school girls and small-time henchmen thrown in for good measure. At its core, Pineapple Express is a stoner comedy–a tale of two semi-slow giggling and loveable idiots in way over their heads–this formula has made for some entertaining comedy over the years, Cheech and Chong’s Up in Smoke and Dave Chappell’s Half Baked being two of the best examples. What sets Pineapple Express apart from these silly classics however, is the consistency of the humor, the perfect chemistry between Rogan and Franco and the giddily ridiculous action sequences (and the fact that even mild intoxication is not required to enjoy the humor). The movie retains the sweetness that is present in most of Apatow’s films, making the characters’ poor choices and ultra-violent actions somehow justifiable, or at least relatable. The site gags, pop-culture references and perfectly timed non-sequiturs only enhance the hilarity.

Why it’s Significant: Because it was time for a semi-grown up Superbad. Because James Franco is so good and perfect as this character that he’s been nominated for a Golden Globe. Because it’s nice to see David Gorden Green (phenomenally talented director of All the Real Girls, Snow Angels) make a movie that’s not totally depressing.  Because you don’t have to be a stoner to find this movie hilarious.