The weather has turned in the Midwest. This morning the wind chill registered near zero degrees. It's time to start DVD-hibernating, my friends. When it's so cold out that you can't feel your hands and your nose freezes, why bother leaving the house? Pick up some DVDs and hunker down and wait for the thaw. There are MAJOR titles hitting stores this week like Kung Fu Panda, Clone Wars, Hellboy II, and more but there are also a number of minor releases that could easily fall through the cracks. Even though we've nearly frozen to death, we gather them all and present them to you in Play All. Draft-proof the doors and windows, grab a blanket, and start a fire before you hit Play All.

Black Christmas (Blu-Ray)
Studio: Critical Mass
Starring: Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, and John Saxon
Features: Two Original Scenes with A New Vocal Soundtrack, "The 12 Days of Black Christmas", Separate Interview Segments with Olivia Hussey and Margot Kidder, Midnight Screening Q&A Session with John Saxon, Bob Clark, & Carl Zittrer

"If this film doesn't make your skin crawl, it's on too tight!" What a GREAT tagline. They simply don't write them like that any more. Black Christmas holds an interesting place in movie history. It's undeniably influential, often being credited with starting the modern slasher film. Is that a good or a bad thing? Black Christmas certainly gave birth to countless awful slasher flicks, but it's also an interesting time capsule of a how a major part of a major genre began. For the record, Bob Clark's violent semi-classic predates Halloween by four years. More people will probably buy Bob Clark's Christmas Story this holiday season, but there are certainly a few who want to find his "other Christmas" movie under the tree. They'll be treated to digitally remastered video and 5.1 surround stereo audio, along with 2 hours of bonus material supervised by uber-fan Dan Duffin, the creator of the ItsMeBilly.com website. Special features include two original scenes, a documentary with current interviews and a midnight screening Q&A session.

Chuck: Season One (Blu-Ray)
Studio: Warner Brothers
Starring: Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, Joshua Gomez, Sarah Lancaster, and Adam Baldwin
Features: Declassified Scenes, "Chuck on Chuck", "Chuck's World", "Chuck Versus the Chuckles", "Chuck's Online World"

"He's the secret. She's the agent." Can Blu-Ray save Chuck? God, I hope so. Chuck struggled at the beginning but had settled into a nice groove by the end of season one and it has truly become one of the better shows on TV in its sophomore season. But the ratings are plunging and there have been rumblings of a cancellation axe getting sharpened by NBC. Lucky for Chuck fans that not a lot on TV is doing well this year. If NBC had anything approaching a hit on Monday nights or something ready to replace it, Chuck may be gone already. Here's what I hope happens - the fans who ignored Chuck to date notice this week that the first season has been released on a 3-disc Blu-Ray set and catch on, keeping the show alive long enough to find an audience. There's no better way to watch the most beautiful woman on TV - Yvonne Strahovski - then in 1080p High Definition. Isn't that reason enough to check it out? Come for the hot girl, stay for the excellent writing.

Robert Rossellini: 2-Disc Collector's Edition
Studio: Lionsgate
Features: None

The latest classic director collection from Lionsgate includes two of Roberto Rossellini's early films. I'm a huge film guy. I see movies every day and have for decades. Even I hadn't seen Dove La Liberta...? or Era Notte a Roma. But Rossellini is one of the most important directors in the history of film. He is the father of Italian Neorealism, a movement that gave birth to the French New Wave, which itself inspired the best era of film history in the late '60s and early '70s. Liberta is a darkly comic satire from 1954 which features the great Italian comic Toto as a barber who is imprisoned for murdering his wife's suspected lover. After twenty years, Salvatore leaves the prison walls to find a world he once knew gone. The realistic take on a changing world was clearly an influence on what Truffaut and Godard would do in later years. Era Notte is an emotional war drama set in Nazi-occupied Rome, in which a beautiful bootlegger gives sanctuary to three escaped POWs, an American, a Russian, and a Brit. Both films are must-sees for film lovers, even ones who think they've seen all they need to from the Italian Neorealism movement. I can't praise what Lionsgate has done with these rare films from classic directors highly enough. There are no special features, but just having these films that were almost lost to history on DVD is special enough.

Scrubs: Season Seven
Studio: Buena Vista
Starring: Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke, Donald Faison, Judy Reyes, Ken Jenkins, and John C. McGinley
Features: My Making of II: "My Princess", One-on-One with Ken Jenkins, Alternate Lines, Deleted Scenes, Bloopers, Audio Commentaries

Can you believe that this was almost the last season of Scrubs? Not that it was bad, but it was only eleven episodes long and didn't tie up any of the loose ends that we've committed to for years. And yet, when the strike started, the creators of Scrubs went to NBC asking them for time to finish their show and the peacock network basically turned their back. NBC has never treated Scrubs well, moving it around, barely advertising, and not airing it in HD. But when NBC said goodbye, ABC picked up the show and will air the final season starting early in 2009. That season could almost called season 7.5, as this one is barely a season. Once again, it's totally worth picking up - all Scrubs seasons are - but it feels like the show was one of the most damaged by the strike, possibly in their final season and then left adrift. The seventh season of Scrubs was actually quite good, jettisoning a lot of the stunt guest stars of recent years for more serious plotlines like the way Elliot, Turk, and Carla are dealing with growing older and, most importantly, the way Dr. Kelso (the great Ken Jenkins) had to deal with forced retirement. All of the Scrubs season releases have been extensive and impressive and the seventh is no exception with a behind-the-scenes look, alternate lines, deleted scenes, bloopers, and audio commentaries. It may have been half a season, but it's a whole DVD worth buying.

Shrek the Halls
Studio: Dreamworks
Starring: Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Cameron Diaz
Features: 12 Days of Christmas Sing Along, Deck the Halls Sing Along, Gingy's Dunking Game, Shrek Carnival Craze Video Game Demo & Cheat Code, DreamWorks Animation Video Jukebox

I hate to be a grumpy Scrooge, but Shrek the Halls is just not that good. And that's coming from someone who liked all three of the theatrical Shrek movies, even the (mostly) panned third one. Those movies had a life in it that the quickie TV special, Shrek the Halls, is just missing. It doesn't have the wit and charm of the flicks. I realize that it's hard to develop a rhythm in 22 minutes and that "it's just a Christmas kids special" but it just doesn't feel like the same Shrek. Halls is a half-hour special about Shrek learning the true meaning of Christmas. I know other critics liked Shrek the Halls and I'm sure there's a family member, probably a young one, who will love watching it this year on DVD, but I just didn't find it funny. It relies almost entirely on physical humor. For example, having Puss, Gingy, and Donkey go through their own visions of Christmas could have been brilliant but Puss's is boring, Gingy's is disturbing, and Donkey? Well, someone gave Eddie Murphy too much caffeine because if Donkey was turned up to eleven in the movies, he's at an annoying 25 in Shrek the Halls. It feels like a hurried afterthought. But the DVD does have some nice kids special features including a video game demo, a couple of sing alongs, and a dunking game. It's a nice diversion to keep the kids busy while you make Christmas dinner, even if I doubt it will stand the test of time.

Son of the Beach: Volume 2
Studio: Shout Factory
Starring: Timothy Stack, Jaime Bergman, Roland Kickinger, Kimberly Oja, and Leila Arcieri
Features: Exclusive All-New DVD Introductions by Notch Johnson, Never-Before-Seen Behind-the-Scenes Footage, Commentaries by Series Creators, Sexy Montage Highlights, Cast Audition Tapes, Son of the Beach Table Read

Long before FX changed the TV landscape with shows like The Shield and Nip/Tuck, they aired a cult hit known as Son of the Beach from, of all people, Howard Stern Productions. Pushing the envelope of what's tasteful and what's funny, Son of the Beach is kind of a Police Squad-esque look at the Baywatch phenomenon. EVERYTHING is a double entendre or a bad joke. Even the name of the lead lifeguard, B.J. Cummings, is designed to make Beavis laugh. Watching the show again, five years down the road, it's easy to see why it got canceled. The cast and writing are borderline horrendous but there's one reason to watch Son of the Beach (well, one more reason than the Hank the Angry Dwarf and Gary Dell'Abate cameos) - Timothy Stack as Notch Johnson. Stack is hilariously deadpan, clearly trained in the school of Leslie Nielsen comedy and scene-stealing in every single episode. Jaime Bergman and Leila Arcieri are deadly hot, but Stack is the reason to revisit the Beach. Another reason? A typically great set of special features from Shout Factory that includes introductions, behind-the-scenes footage, commentaries, and much more.

The Story of O (Blu-Ray)
Studio: Somerville House
Starring: Corinne Clery, Udo Kier, Anthony Steel, Jean Gaven, and Christiane Minazzoli
Features: Original Trailers, Director's Commentary, Previously Unreleased Scenes, Photo Gallery, Cast Bios

"Remastered in full Blu-Ray splendor." There aren't a lot of movies that you can use the word "splendor" to describe on the front of the package, but it seems appropriate for The Story of O. From looking at the packaging for the Blu-Ray release of 1975's The Story of O, you would think that Just Jaeckin's semi-pornographic film was an award-winning classic. They actually call the film a "masterpiece of sexual obsession". Um, okay. Story of O is not a very good movie but it is culturally important to the history of cinema, as it was a part of the wave of cinema that tried to bring truly adult stories into mainstream theaters. There was a time when movies like Emmanuelle, Lady Chatterly's Lover, and The Story of O played in major theaters instead of just back alleys. But a masterpiece? You decide if the shocking portrait of sexual submission deserves the praise with a remastered Blu-Ray release that includes a commentary and unreleased scenes.

Supernatural: Season Three (Blu-Ray)
Studio: Warner Brothers
Starring: Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki
Features: "From Legends to Reality: Supernatural Effects", "Supernatural Impala Featurettes", "A Closer Look", "Ghostfacers! Confessionals", Gag Reel

There was a point in the trajectory of Supernatural (a show that we know VERY well, having written weekly recaps at one point in our illustrious careers) when it looked like the series could become the next Buffy the Vampire Slayer or The X-Files. It now looks like that's not going to happen. But we don't mean that as a knock on the series. Not everything can be a classic. Sometimes just being consistently good is notable enough and Supernatural is one of the more consistently good shows on TV. It now looks like Supernatural could easily be one of those dark horse shows like Smallville or Charmed, ones that stay on the air for more than five years and very rarely falter in quality. The third season of Supernatural was just as good as the second and probably just as good as the inevitable fourth, fifth, and sixth seasons. One thing about Supernatural that is well above average is that the show's seasons are released by Warner Brothers, the best studio for TV on Blu-Ray. The widescreen 1080p High Definition 16x9 1.78:1 episodes of the third season of Supernatural look and sound better than a lot of recently released big budget films. If you liked season one and two of Supernatural, pick up season three on Blu-Ray. You won't be disappointed.