Video Tapeworm: Releases through Tuesday, Nov. 28

THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKS
SHE
1935; DVD $19.95, UR
For the literary-deprived, “She” is a fabulous book by M. Rider Haggard that’s been made into a movie nearly a dozen times, but this one is a particular Guilty Pleasure. Former congresswoman Helen Gahagan “Married to Melvyn” Douglas prepared for her political career by playing the 500-year-old living goddess Ayesha, “She-who-must-be-obeyed,” in this sexy/savage potboiler, now available colorized for reasons that escape us. This may be the most over-the-top production ever to come out of RKO, and is the source of more husband/wife jokes than any movie in history. Not to be missed!

THINGS TO COME
1936; DVD $19.95, UR
H.G. Wells, himself, worked on this, the movie that was going to be his masterpiece. The writing and plot are epic, spanning generations during and after a great war that destroys civilization, but the real star of the piece is director William Cameron Menzies, whose spectacular sets, music and scale were like nothing moviegoers had ever seen — and stand up well today! Too many stars to mention, the plot concerns Wings Over The World, a technocracy that uses airplanes to unite a broken world under a single banner, only to see it decay into chaos. Colorized.

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AN EVENING WITH KEVIN SMITH 2: EVENING HARDER
2006; DVD $28.95, UR
Kevin Smith and his sidekick, Jason Mewes, who were so entertaining in the original 2002 “Evening,” visit college campuses in London and Toronto to answer any and all questions. Smith’s vibrant wit is in top form as he comments on movies, Canadian food and picking up women in London. Always fun.

COSM THE MOVIE: ALEX GREY AND THE CHAPEL OF SACRED MIRRORS
2006; DVD $26.95, UR
Renowned painter, sculptor and author Alex Grey takes us through the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors gallery in NYC, where art, science and spirituality come together in a dizzying display of human experience that predates birth and survives death. Artsy-fartsy fun.

GIRLS BRAVO: COMPLETE BOX SET
2006; DVD $119.95, UR
An enlightened anime series that may never see the light of cathode-ray in America. A young boy who has an “allergy to girls” falls into a parallel universe that’s nearly all female! There he befriends a lass who doesn’t cause him to break into hives, and they escape back to our world with the others in hot pursuit. More of a situation comedy than a real adventure, it’s livened by frequent total male and female nudity and innocent sexual hijinx. A silly breath of fresh air.

SEARCHING FOR BOBBY D
2005; DVD $26.95, R
One of those “actors looking for a break in NYC” comedies that are so popular among the art-crowd. With a huge, multi-talented cast, Sandra Bernhard and a walk-on by Carmen Electra.

SEE NO EVIL
2006; DVD $28.95, R
Not the classic Mia Farrow shocker from 1971, this is a very modern horror/torture film about urban delinquents, sentenced to clean up a rotting hotel, who run afoul of the resident psychopath and must join forces with a cop in order to escape. Good indie effort.

SUPERGIRL
1984; DVD $14.95, PG
DANGER: A TapeWorm Toxic Video Alert! Shrewish American Princess Helen Slater, cousin to the mighty Superman, is beautiful, brave, blonde and dense as a redwood stump. Her evil adversaries, Faye Dunaway, Brenda Vaccaro and Mia Farrow, are planning all manner of painful wickedness and dastardly deeds (for their agents for roping them into this turkey). We’ve never met anyone who’s actually sat through this entire thing and lived!

SUPERMAN RETURNS
2006; DVD $19.95-$34.95
Director Bryan Singer’s damned-good sequel to the Christopher Reeve Super-series with Kevin Spacey as a shrill Lex Luthor and Kate Bosworth as a pretty, if limp, Lois Lane. Singer shows tremendous affection for the Man of Steel, as played by Brandon Routh, letting him be the gooder-than-good, compassionate-beyond-human symbol for Truth, Justice and the American Way that he’d been robbed of over the intervening years. Available as movie-only or in a two-disc set.

SUPERMAN ULTIMATE COLLECTOR’S EDITION
1978; DVD $99.95, PG
Look! Up in the sky! It’s an amazing 14-disc set of every freakin’ Super-movie worth owning — including the new two-disc “Superman Returns: Special Edition,” the “Superman: The Movie Four Disc Special Edition,” “Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut” AND the “Superman II Two-Disc Special Edition!” That only leaves us to mention the “Superman III” and “Superman IV” deluxe editions and three bonus discs of special features all packaged in a keepsake collector’s tin. We’re ashamed to say it, but this set is ... Super!

SUPERMAN: THE 1948 & 1950 THEATRICAL SERIALS COLLECTION
1948; DVD $39.95, UR
A four-disc set with all 30 chapters of the Kirk Alyn/Noel Neill pre-TV cliffhanger adventures “Superman” (1948) and “Atom Man vs. Superman,” plus all the usual DVD goodies.

THE ANT BULLY
2006; DVD $28.95, PG
The guys who dreamed up “Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius” created this for-the-wee-ones comic CGI-animated tale of a put-upon kid who takes it out on insects, only to come up against some serious formic Mojo that shrinks him to bug-size and sucks him into an ant colony! The Don’t-Be-A-Bully message gets kinda lost in the story, but all in all better than anything Disney’s done lately.

TRIBULATION 99
1991; DVD $24.95, UR
Finally available in the United States, director Craig Baldwin’s amazing “pseudo-pseudo-documentary” detailing America’s colonial invasion of Latin America that, while factual, is also a bit whacko. By combining space aliens, environmental catastrophe, cattle mutilations, killer bees, religious prophecy, covert action, sexy disease-ridden hookers, found-footage, industrial training films, cartoons, Mexican wrestler movies and such, he creates the ultimate counter-culture conspiracy masterpiece. You’ll never watch the evening news the same way again.

OTHER DVDS OF INTEREST
ANGEL: SEASON FIVE
1999; DVD $39.95, UR
BONES: THE COMPLETE 1ST SEASON
2005; DVD $49.95, UR
DANE COOK: VICIOUS CIRCLE
2006; DVD $24.95, UR
JOAN OF ARCADIA: THE SECOND SEASON
2004; DVD $49.95, UR
VAN WILDER: TWO-DISC VAN GONE WILDER EDITION
2002; DVD $19.95, UR

A more complete listing and free vids at www.videotapeworm.com!