New on DVD: Speed Racer, The Love Guru, 88 Minutes, Made of Honor

Speed Racer
The Wachowskis first post-Matrix effort was a massively expensive box office bomb, but the film itself isn’t nearly as bad as all that. It’s longer than it needs to be, and it’s a visual onslaught, but in the comfort of your own surround sound home theater system and giant HD flatscreen it could be a lot more fun than all that. When the Wachowskis are freed from having to make sense, they can put together a fun film that includes John Goodman beating up a ninja. John Goodman beating things up in movies is always good.

The Love Guru
The Mike Myers comedy machine came to a screeching halt with this sloppy summer release that felt like it was edited by a monkey with a staple gun. He stars as Guru Pitka, a self-help guy who’s trying to heal a hockey player’s marriage while trying to boff Jessica Alba. The slapschtick doesn’t serve Myers as well this time around as it has in the past.

88 Minutes
Coming on the heels of the release of Jon Avnet’s not-so-bad Al Pacino/Robert De Niro cop thriller Righteous Kill is this DVD release of Jon Avnet’s so-so-bad absurd melodrama. Pacino is a forensic psychiatrist who finds himself framed for murder by the serial killer he put away just as he’s scheduled to be executed. Considered by many to be the worst film Pacino ever made.

Made of Honor
In what seems to be a mis-timed release, this Patrick Dempsey chick-flick about a man asked to be the maid of honor for the woman he wants to marry himself should probably have come out on DVD next week, when Sex and the City also arrives and the chicks who like chick flicks will really be chick-flick shopping. Then there’s the fact that it stars Michelle Monaghan, who also co-stars in next week’s Shia LaBeouf blockbuster thriller Eagle Eye, and that would’ve been a good bit of synchronization as well. At least this means you can check out one of the late great Sydney Pollack’s last performances a week sooner.