DVD releases are coming out just in time for Thanksgiving. This week is full of so-so flicks with lackluster plots and mediocre jokes. Good thing we will all be too sleepy from the turkey and pumpkin pie to notice the poor selection of DVDs coming out this week. 

Rent It: Hancock starring Will Smith as John Hancock, a superhero the public has come to despise. With fame and fortune comes responsibility, but not for Hancock. He is a sarcastic alcoholic whose crazy antics are becoming extremely expensive to the citizens of LA, and the public has had enough. Suddenly things turn around when Hancock rescues Ray Embrey,(Jason Bateman) a PR agent, from being killed in a deadly train accident. Indebted to Hancock for saving his life, Embrey sets out to remake Hancock’s image, and turn him into the hero Los Angeles deserves. Hancock’s crazy antics while he is in a drunken blur are quite funny, and worth watching. He flies through the city crashing into buildings, running through freeway signs, and remarkably the only person he is hurting is himself. Hancock is rated PG-13, for intense Sci-Fi action, violence, and language.

Skip it: Fred Claus, starring Vince Vaughn, is a story about Santa's not so saintly brother who is rescued from his latest jam by his saintly sibling who forces him to work at the North Pole. There he learns to re-evaluate his childish ways and learns the importance of family. The holiday comedy is coming out just in time for Christmas and stars, Paul Giamatti, Rachel Weisz, Kathy Bates, Kevin Spacey, Miranda Richardson and Elizabeth Banks. This is another copy-cat comedy that we are all too familiar with, and its predecessors, Elf and Bad Santa, are far funnier.  It gets an A for effort, but an F for funniness. Fred Claus is rated PG for mild language, and rude humor.

Skip it: Space Chimps is a computer-animated comedy about the grandson of the first chimpanzee in space, who is asked to help retrieve a $5 billion NASA probe that has gone missing in an intergalactic worm hole. However, Ham III is a circus performer, unlike his astronaut grandfather, and he is more interested in playing jokes than the task at hand.  Eventually, with the help of some friends, the chimp becomes a hero, and helps save a distant planet from an evil dictator. The story is unimaginative and, matched with poor animation, it’s a definite crash landing. With all of the technological advances available, Space Chimps is one flick you won’t be going bananas over. Rent Wall-E instead! This movie is rated G.

Skip it: Meet Dave stars Eddie Murphy, who plays a human-sized alien spaceship being controlled by 100 humanoid aliens, each one inch tall.  They have come to Earth to save their native planet from an energy crisis. The aliens plan to drain the Earth’s ocean in order to use the salt, which will eliminate their energy problem. The captain, who is also played by Murphy, finally realizes that humans are more advanced than he thought, and cancels he plan to destroy Earth. Murphy’s more recent films have been bombs like Norbit, and unfortunately this goes in that category as well. The movie is a mess, and should have gone straight to DVD (where we recommend you skip it). Meet Dave is rated PG for action and some suggestive humor.

—Christina Mennella and Jessica Delli Santi