With the past week being the traditional holiday period, I figured it’d be a smart time to take some relaxing moments away from Blast-O-Rama.  Never the less, we are back in full effect, as I bring you the combined awesome of a double-week’s worth of Awesome-O-Rama.

Featuring 2 weeks of awesome movie releases, here’s a batch of stuff you should nab with your crimmus gift cards.

(500) Days of Summer In many ways, the 3rd film in the playlist for dudes who just broke up, (500) Days takes its place along side High Fidelity and Swingers as the ultimate romantic comedies for men.  In rewatching this, I was worried that the flick’s charms would be wasted on a second go, but I found that the follow-up viewing only underlined my love for the flick. Zooey plays her role perfectly, as a girl who many men (including myself) have encountered in life, and Joseph Gordon Levitt plays the man many of us wish we could be. Only if we were all so suave.

District 9 I’m not gonna lie, this flick singlehandedly made me wish there was more of a South African film industry.  Famously shot for “only” $30 million, D9 was the big surprise sci-fi blast of the summer and it holds up even better on the second go around.  Major props to Sharlto Copley for making Wikus such a relateable character (in both his positive and negative actions) and to the team at WETA Digital, for making creepy bugs so damned loveable.

Family Guy: Something Something Something Darkside Let’s be honest. From the word “Family Guy”, you’re gonna know immediately if you want it or not, and if you’re a fan of Seth McFarlane’s gross out comedy, you’re going to love this interpretation of Empire Strikes Back. While not quite as good as their A New Hope tribute Blue Harvest, Something Something Something Darkside is still a great hour of entertainment. Look for an interesting change in turn of phrase with the Han/Leia “I Love You” scene, and a weird moment from Empire is pointed out by Brian which I never noticed before.

9 The one release of note this week (imo), is the home video release of 9.  Lost in the mix of fall films, the Shane Acker-helmed flick is an interesting action-adventure done in what the internet deemed “stitchpunk”.  I have this on as I’m writing this post, and the animation is stunning, and there’s some great voicework from a surprising mixture of character actors.

We’ll be back to normal next week, in the meantime…what was your favorite gift from the holiday season? Let me know in the comments!