After a rather exhausting week including 15 hours of polling place stuff on election day (I was running a voting precinct so don’t go bitching at me at me being on the wrong side of whatever issue you have with the John/George/Dick/John machine.) I finally had some time to enjoy some TV time. I hit the DVD collection hard and even made a trip over to the local video store for some rental fun.

So let’s put aside politics and bitter spin that some people are already caught up in and enjoy some good ole entertainment.

Friday the 13th: Box Set: Yeah I know. I wonder why I bought it myself. Target nailed me with a really good sale. It’s not the whole collection, but movies 1-8 still make for a few days of pure mindless gore. It didn’t take me too long to see how quickly a pretty good slasher movie can turn into a truly horrible parody of itself. You know for all the shitty sequels and the tidal wave of bad imitators, the original Friday and Halloween flicks are pretty fucking scary. Not that Friday the 13th is as good as Halloween, but still. As a collection, this is a bit much to take all at once, but the bonus disc is really cool. There are short behind the scenes documentaries about each of the eight movies and some very in-depth special effects shorts. It’s a cool set if you’re into the flicks or if you want to get a good look at Kevin Bacon with an arrow through his neck or Crispin Glover do a funky dance.

NBA Dynasty Series: Boston Celtics Not everyone is going to have as much fun as I did watching all of the Celtic footage and championship highlight reels, but the set is really well put together. From what I can tell this is the third in this series with Chicago Bulls and LA Lakers collections out there as well. The best part of this box and probably the selling point for a lot of people, are the complete games included. Some of the Celtics’ best playoff games are included in this collection. I have never seen a couple of these and now I can toss out a few twenty year old video tapes that have seen better days. Any Celtic fan needs to own this set and without even seeing the others I would say that Bulls and Lakers fans will want to save up a bit to pick up their respective sets.

Saved This was the first of the rental titles for the weekend. I had heard a lot of good things about it, but frankly it fell short of my expectations. There are some nice performances and Mandy Moore continues to prove that she can handle simple roles. In the end this is a pretty simple little movie that isn’t overly impressive. There are a ton of flicks with more to say and a similar feel so in the end this one gets its hype from its hook. While it isn’t a complete slam on Christianity, it survives primarily because of those aspects. Take that stuff away and you’ve got a movie that isn’t nearly as smart or funny as “Mean Girls” or even “Girl Next Door.”

Jersey Girl This is a pretty serious effort from Kevin Smith, but not without some hilarious moments. Ben is Ben as always and J-Lo really isn’t in the movie long enough to make anyone wince. George Carlin is really good and the girl who played Ben and Jen’s daughter is really impressive. It’s not quite “Chasing Amy” but it still a nice little movie.

Day Without a Mexican: How the hell did this movie make it to the theaters? It’s a semi-funny, almost halfway clever idea that comes off like a really bad USA Network movie. It can’t decide what exactly it wants to be. I am all for off-beat flicks, but this one is worth a few chuckles followed by long periods of head-scratching boredom. If you decide to check this one be warned, it doesn’t get better. You may think that it is about to get good, but it just keeps getting worse and worse. That this movie got made is a miracle, that it got distributed is almost a crime.

Punisher: This one was a lot better than I expected it to be. I’m not familiar with the comic book and I don’t think that I ever saw the old version of this one. It was a bit far-fetched at times, but hey it’s a comic book flick. There are some great action sequences and John Travolta plays a great bad guy. Don’t go looking for anything fantastic from this, but if you just want a good action flick you may be pleasantly surprised.

Raising Helen: The biggest shocking thing about this movie is that it didn’t suck completely. It comes apart long before it ends, but Kate Hudson is pretty damn charming and she carries the film. Don’t expect anything ground breaking, but it’s light-hearted and fun so if you need that, give it a look.

Taking Lives This one isn’t nearly as good as I had hoped it would be. The previews are much more interesting than the movie. Getting to see Angelina naked is always a good thing, but the movie doesn’t offer much in the way of surprises. It’s just a little too predictable. Did I mention that we get to see Angelina naked?

Alamo This one got returned without the chance to watch it. Football and the Fox Sunday night debuts cut into our time. It’s hard to pass up King of the Hill, The Simpsons, Malcolm in the Middle and Arrested Development. It was also the debut of “My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss.” Pardon me for being low-brow, but it is so freaking funny I almost cried. There is something hilarious about watching how much crap people will put up with for money. I’m just waiting for the next reality spoof “Mom & Dad, I’ve decided to become a porn star.”