In contrast to last week's video avalanche, this is an exceptionally slow week for DVD releases. The major offering is Catherine Hardwicke's soggy adaptation of Stephanie Meyer's soggy adolescent vampire saga Twilight. As I described it when it arrived in theaters:
Twilight is silly and melodramatic and hard to dislike in much the same way as its target audience, with a distinctly teenage sense of tragedy. Before you know it, Bella is begging Edward to make her a vampire too, so they can be together forever. Evidently she has already forgotten the multitude of graduation caps lining Edward's wall, the fruits of the eternal 17-year-old's need to matriculate and re-matriculate every few years. Repeating high school on and on into infinity--now that is truly the fate of the damned.
But don't let me stop you from enjoying the "Midnight Madness" parties accompanying the DVD's special Saturday release...
--Christopher Orr