Sheldon's Holiday Gift Guide

Every Tuesday in December, Black Sheep will look to its resident sheep, Sheldon, to throw a few gift suggestions your way. Together, you and Sheldon will be able to make sure that every movie lover on your list gets just the right movie in their stocking this year.

NEW RELEASES

Now I was not a big fan of THE HANGOVER. I didn't hate it; I just didn't laugh nearly as hard or as much as I thought I would. And ordinarily I do enjoy what I call dumb boy comedies, mostly because I enjoy entertaining the dumb boy inside of me once in a while. That said, I was definitely in the minority on that one. So, ladies, buy this for the man in your life and the odds are he'll love you for it.

I don't ordinarily recommend against films in a gift guide but I am a big Ang Lee fan and his last film, TAKING WOODSTOCK, was a totally acceptable film but sub par to say the least by Ang standards. As a well known fan, someone I know might think to get me this film as a gift. Please don't. This one is strictly a rental.

This last one I have not seen but it did pretty big business at the box office this past summer and has a whole whack of celebrity voices in it, from Penelope Cruz to Nicolas Cage, so I thought I might suggest some good family 3D fun with G-FORCE. Yes, it is a bunch of vermin masquerading as superheroes, I think; I can't be too sure because the colors are so bright in the trailer that my mind goes into overload mode temporarily. Still, if I were a kid, I'd want to see it.

CATALOG RELEASES

Here's a good catalog title for you. There is no other director that I can think of off the top of my head that has changed the face of cinema as much as this man has in the last fifteen years. And now, you can get almost all Quentin Tarantino's movies in one neatly packaged box set. I'm not sure why they tacked on a miniature collectable samurai sword to the back of it because these six films in one very affordable set are incentive to buy it. I can accept owning JACKIE BROWN (my least favorite Quentin movie) if it means owning PULP FICTION, RESERVOIR DOGS, KILL BILL 1 & 2 and DEATH PROOF. There are no new features or restoration here so if you have all his films already, you're just getting the sword. My one major complaint ... No blu-ray!

WHAT DOES SHELDON WANT?

The notable absence from the Quentin Tarantino box is INGLORIOUS BASTERDS of course. This WWII film was discussed for so many months before its release this past summer and it now stands as Quentin's biggest hit of his career. It could actually go on to nab him his first Oscar nominations since 1994's PULP FICTION. Shown in the picture is the special edition of the blu-ray release and if anyone happens to pick that up for me, I mean Sheldon, I'm sure I, I mean he, won't complain.

Safe Shopping!