This week, I have been mostly losing all of my free time to the dark corridors of eBay, dredging the murky waters for a decent metaphor and the hidden nuggets of merchandise gold amongst the seemingly endless amounts of over-priced silt.Obviously you get some utter shit – like this genuine piece of brick from the Asda car-park featured in The Full Monty (why exactly?) – but those willing to trawl through the collected detritus and Twilight paraphenalia can still find some wonderful potential additions to their own collections. But then, eBay these days is something of a seller’s market when you get to the really high-end merch, so unless you stumble across a kindly old lady who has no idea of the true worth of the treasure’s she is posting, it’s not exactly likely you’ll ever find a real bargain that will find you featured in your local paper grinning like a moron under some headline shouting of your incredible good fortune in buying the real ruby necklace from Titanic for a buck or something. Anyway, the long and short of that meandering opening gambit is that stuff is expensive. It is a recession after all. Or at least I think it still is. So picking up the kind of delightful trinkets and treasures below is no longer for the feint-hearted: but if you have a few spare (hundred) dollars, there are some really beautiful, frivolous things you can spend it on to feed your habits.

Why Watch? Because everyone deserves to have a little fun now and then. And guest week here on Short Film of the Day is going to start with just that. While Cole Abaius is off battling large blonde men for the right to have high speed internet in Germany, we are filling your lives with good ole’ American ingenuity. As in, we will be planning Short Films at the very last moment every single day. We begin our week with a hefty dose of nerdity It’s something in which the folks behind the How It Should Have Ended short series specialize in the most dastardly of ways. They’ve made some semblance of a living taking high geek properties and spinning them in unique ways that always have internet commentators saying, “I’ve been saying that for years! LOLz” This particular offering is like a bowl full of Ben & Jerry’s Nerd Bait ice cream topped with whipped dork cream, chocolate geek sauce and well, a simple cherry. And as gross as that actually sounds, you know you’d eat it — especially if it was all part of a clash between the Terminator and Back to the Future franchises. Come with us if you want to live… At least for the next 150 seconds. What does it cost? Just two minutes and thirty seconds of your otherwise mundane Monday. Admit it. You’ve got time to watch more Short Films.

Yes that’s right – New Years just happened like, a week ago… counting down, people count down on New Years… that’s the point, and it’s as close as I can get to writing about something that relates to the holidays, and it’s way late. And while I first thought to do this because of the end of 2011, it actually turned out to be a fun list to think about. How do you judge the intensity of a ticking clock? It’s not always how close the characters came to zero – sometimes it’s about the process itself, getting to inevitability, fighting time. It’s rather like life, and the knowledge that being on this world is a sort of countdown. Every year is another tick of the clock, leading every one of us to the same inescapable conclusion. So uh… Happy New Year! …Here’s a list counting down countdowns.

If it were up to me, every movie would be required at least one musical number. Seriously, every movie. Children Of Men would have a song in it, Sophie’s Choice as well. Why? I don’t know – it would be funny I guess. Fine, so it’s probably not a great idea. I take it back. I just get excited when a song becomes the center of a scene – especially in comedies. People rarely have the nibs to stick a good musical sequence or two in their non-musical genre films, so let’s take a moment to pay our respects to those who did it so well by arbitrarily judging them in list form.

It’s the final countdown. Dunuh na naaaa. Less than two weeks to go until Christmas, so naturally now’s the time to start buying things. Who needs organizational skills when you can imbue that action-film frenzied spirit into your final rounds of festive gift buying? Since I’m the collectible fiend around these parts, I’ve been tasked with listing the essential holiday gifts from that world for every film fan. It hasn’t been easy, and I’ve mentally spent way too much money in compiling the list myself. But hey, occupational hazard. Anyway, here follows 15 of the must-have collectibles for this holiday season, some regulars of the Merch Hunter column will recognize, and some will be brand new. Either way, they’re what movie lovers want. As this is my handiwork, you can expect a general mix of the uber-expensive and ultra-collectible as well as the affordable and accessible, more charming options. No snob am I….

This week’s column is brought to you by the letter e – for eBay: the single greatest opportunity for collectors to pick up gems for a tiny portion of their value. Yes, it’s a market that is now unfortunately populated by self-styled “experts” like never before – in the olden, black and white days, you could go to a yard sale, or a car boot sale, and pick up prime merch for a pittance, smiling in the knowledge that you had just robbed some ‘orrible little cretin of their inheritance – but there are still opportunities out there if you look hard enough. And wouldn’t you know it, I’ve found a couple for you – just expect mostly exorbitant prices…

Hollywood is good at recycling things. After all, you build a giant house or an elaborate prop and you wouldn’t just use it once and toss it, right? This is why they have backlots at studios; they can hoard all their favorite stuff for later use (like the iconic building in the image above) or, failing that, at least use it for the studio tours. Same kind of goes for on-location sets – some places are just too dynamic to use only once, especially when the owner is more than willing to pimp out their place for cash. This circle of life is great when you are working with a generic looking high school or cookie-cutter set but there are the occasional moments when they use a location just a little too iconic for its own good – and like a type-cast actor, you can’t help but to see the location as anything besides what made it famous in the first place.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly movie news column that sometimes leads with television news. You know, for the kids. Wait, so the guy who brought the world Pushing Daisies will be doing a modern reboot of The Munsters for NBC? That’s actually not a bad idea. In fact, it could be a lot of fun. Dear NBC, find the person who made this decision – because I know they weren’t the same asshole who pulled Community from the midseason line-up — and promote them to sole decision maker person at NBC. That is what is required of you if you’re going to stave off the loss of my love. That, and more Parks and Rec, please.

Buried deep within this sentence (Doritos are delicious) is an advertisement. Did you catch it? You probably didn’t because it was so subtly subliminal, but that’s exactly how product placement has worked for a century to varying degrees of success. After all, there’s a thin line between using real-life products in a film to create a sense of verisimilitude and using them to promote the product in question. Where that line is drawn is up to each person. One person might see a kid reading “National Geographic” in It’s a Wonderful Life and think it’s quaintly appropriate while another person might find it craven and conspicuous. To the same extent, different film productions have delivered brands with means ranging from the slyness of near-imperceptibility to almost Doritos-Scorchin’-Habanero-Flavor levels of obviousness. It’s far from new, and even though sold items have sneaked their way into movies for almost one hundred years, there’s been an explosion in recent decades, seeing a new revenue stream for studios and a new annoyance for film fans.

What is Movie News After Dark? For tonight, it’s simply a movie news column working on a very, very slow news day. So it has opted for fun instead of informative. It’s betting you won’t mind. We begin tonight with the thought of big, badass robots killing the whole of humanity in Robopocalypse, a film that director Steven Spielberg will now direct for July 3, 2013. Fox and Dreamworks were announced as the studios putting up the money today, which means that Daniel H. Wilson’s excellent book will finally get some big screen love. If done right, it could be massive.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly thing that you read. You know it, I know it, and little Baby Jesus knows it. We begin tonight with one of 70 new images from Contagion, Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming viral thriller. Early buzz insists that it’s not only good, but that it will make you want to wash your hands. As if you needed another reason — germs are everywhere, I tell you. Everywhere!

Marty McFly is just your typical high school kid who has his own rock band, rides a skateboard to school every day and wants to make out with his girlfriend in his own car on the weekend. He also has a inexplicably close relationship with zany Doc Brown down the road, but that’s all okay because that guy has just invented a time machine out of a sports car. After the terrorists that gave Doc Brown the plutonium to get the time machine working come after them with big guns, Marty travels back to 1955 where he meets his parents, accidentally stops them from falling in love and must find a way to get them back together before he disappears from existence.

Those who scoped out yesterday’s trailer will notice a distinctly Spielbergian feel to this week’s vintage trailers, so hopefully that Amblin logo will be swirling around your head all week. It isn’t present in this teaser, but there’s something about a pair of high top sneakers kicking the tires on a soon-to-be iconic vehicle that makes me giddy. Back to the Future is a rare type of universal movie that’s equal parts entertainment and enlightenment. Plus, it treats time travel extremely well, which is a bonus. We see a lot of teaser trailers these days, but it’s fascinating to look back on this short spot meant only to titillate and recapture some of the thrill that people on the edge of seeing this movie in 1985 would have felt. The only difference is that they have no idea what they’re in for. This trailer is a machine that converts nostalgia into anticipation.

Every day, come rain or shine or internet tubes breaking, Film School Rejects showcases a trailer from the past. Today’s trailer is in honor of the New Year – the nexus of the past and present and future. Anything is possible tonight – a space craft from the future could crash land in your barn, a crazy-haired scientist could use a rare car to make a time machine, your blue down vest could become cool again. Those things probably won’t happen, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy this fantastic trailer. Think you know what it is? Check out the trailer after the jump.

We were excited about this one years ago when we first heard rumblings of a Blu-ray set being put together. Then it dropped in late October and we went absolutely bonkers for the rich, crisp quality of the transfers and the hours-upon-hours of special features included in this set. It was time to be reunited with Doc Brown, Marty McFly and everyone who made this masterpieces from the height of Amblin’s reign over entertainment for the entire family. It was time to go Back to the Future…

You’ve stumbled upon Circle of Jerks, our sporadically published, weekly feature in which we ask the questions that really matter to our writers and readers. It’s a time to take a break from our busy lives and revel in the one thing that we all share: a deep, passionate love of movies. If you have a question you’d like answered by the FSR readers and staff, send us an email at editors@filmschoolrejects.com. I heard a rumor somewhere that FSR founder and big time publisher-guy Neil Miller had never seen The Empire Strikes Back until recently. First of all, if this is true he should be beaten. Second of all, what movies have some of the rest of you never seen that you’d be embarrassed to tell your movie-loving friends? – David D.

Last week, I picked perhaps the worst week of the year to take a break from This Week in Blu-ray. As you will see in this week’s entry, two or three of the most impressive releases of the year hit store shelves. And it’s likely that they – the likes of Alien, Back to the Future and Hausu – have already made their way into your collection. I will be talking about them anyway, dear reader. For those of you who need a little extra nudge, here it comes. I also have plenty to say about this week’s releases, including a few deliciously crafted releases for some legitimate cinematic classics. Julie Andrews sings, Dick Van Dyke flies through the air and Bing Crosby tap-dances with Danny “F**kin’” Kaye as our weekly Blu-ray buying budget empties faster than our tear ducts during the final act of Pixar’s Toy Story 3. Give it up, Blu-ray lovers, it is perhaps the most magical time of year. Also, This Week in DVD host Rob Hunter stops buy to review a few releases that were well off my radar screen. And he does so with gusto!

Join us each week as Rob Hunter takes a look at new DVD releases and gives his highly unqualified opinion as to which titles are worth BUYing, which are better off as RENTals, and which should be AVOIDed at all costs. And remember, these listings and category placements are meant as informational conversation starters only. But you can still tell Hunter how wrong he is in the comment section below. This week sees more Buy recommendations than we’ve ever had before! (I think.) And they include an ass-kicking serial killer flick from South Korea (The Chaser), a John Carpenter classic (Dark Star), and the brilliant new Back To the Future trilogy release. Others worth Renting or Avoiding include The Girl Who Played With Fire, Altitude, Winter’s Bone, Lake Placid 3, and more.

If everything had gone perfectly back in 1985, Doc Brown would have rolled into our future this week on October 25, 2010. But that wasn’t the case, and thus started one of the greatest motion picture trilogies of all time. Back to the Future is out on Blu-ray for the first time in a box set (and also on DVD), so not counting the hours of special features, you can spend six hours revisiting the entire saga. And if you’re going to spend that much time watching the movies, you’re gonna need to have something to drink with that.

No, this isn’t a reboot announcement wherein a middle-aged actor will be playing Marty McFly to spice things up. Yet. A few scenes of Eric Stoltz during his 5-week-long acting turn as McFly before being let go have made their way onto the 25th anniversary Blu-ray of the trilogy, and of course, onto the internet. Now if only they had shots of Tom Selleck as Indiana Jones.