New on DVD: Nov. 4

Debuting its new Tromasterpiece Collection, the lovable freaks at Troma Entertainment revisit their biggest-selling disc of all time, presenting a double-disc set of South Park Übermensch Trey Parker's all-singing, all-dancing retelling of the grisly Donner Party. The new set ports over everything one could have wanted from the original DVD (including the infamous "drunken commentary" from writer-director Parker and his partners in crime), then bumps up the extra features with deleted scenes, interviews with the guilty parties and, in what may be the most fascinating DVD bonus of the year, footage from several theater companies' stage adaptations of the film. The film itself remains a delight, with a respectful sense of musical theater as well as shameless go-for-broke enthusiasm (not to mention a Stan Brakhage cameo!). Here's hoping that rumored Tromasterpiece editions of Combat Shock and Troma's War are made with just as much love.

Continuing the adventures of the Planet Express delivery crew beyond the TV run Fox so foolishly pissed away, the Futurama gang delivers its third feature-length adventure, dealing with an intergalactic fuel crisis and a divergent reality that fuses Dungeons & Dragons aesthetics and a desperate struggle to defeat the evil space-tyrant Mom. Not quite the time-travel mindfuck of Bender's Big Score or the provocative sci-fi allegory of The Beast with a Billion Backs, Bender's Game plays delicately with fantasy iconography and hyperbolic topology, applying intellectual smartassery of the highest order. Not to mention centauress/amphibienne girl-on-girl action.
Mondays-Sundays. Starts: Nov. 25. Continues through Dec. 1, 2008