Barbarella (Paramount) — Barbarella isn't a very good movie. It isn't even very good when it comes to the whole cheesy/sci-fi/sex-romp/shagadelic-'60s mash-up it falls into and may be the sole representative of. But the 1968 fantasy — directed by Roger Vadim and starring his then-wife Jane Fonda in one of the most awesomeriffic, if not exactly practical, spacesuits ever designed — is a cultural milestone for its balls-to-the-wall vision of Flash Gordon for swingin' adults. Plus, Duran Duran named themselves after a character. This Blu-ray debut doesn't offer a whole lot of valuable extras, but the film's psychedelic-colored influence on 2001: A Space Odyssey and others is significant.
Elvira's Movie Macabre: Giant Monsters (Entertainment One) — These four episodes from the horror host's syndicated TV show feature movies featuring creatures that are even more massive than Elvira's prominently displayed boobs. You know what you're getting with The Giant Gila Monster and Attack of the Giant Leeches.
God Bless America (Magnolia) — Writer-director Bobcat Goldthwait's amusing bloodfest is part social satire, part revenge fantasy. Bill Murray's brother plays a guy with a brain tumor who slaughters reality-TV stars, religious nuts, and other people who piss him off, which is pretty much everybody.
The Hunter (Magnolia) — Willem Dafoe is perfectly cast as a mercenary hired by a shadowy organization to hunt a tiger that's near extinct ... if it even exists at all. But this meditation on the soul of man and course of nature wanders off path when the hunter's quest takes a turn toward redemption.
