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 two titles worth buying, and they’re both Criterion releases. Also out and worthy of your time or dismissal are A Christmas Carol, RoboGeisha, Best Worst Movie, The Kids Are All Right, an even longer cut of Avatar, and more.

It seems like we’re talking a lot lately about psychology and what happens when a small group of people find themselves under stress in a small space. There’s the Experiment trailer that just came out – which sees men cast as guards and prisoners. There’s the Devil trailer that just came out which sees five strangers trapped in a busted up elevator with Satan. And now there’s the trailer for Exam. You guessed it: 8 people in a room vying for the same powerful job who are given 80 minutes to come up with the answer to an exam that has no question. Who will paper cut someone to death first?

The first day of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, I was told there was one film I was not to miss — Exam, a minimalist thriller out of the UK directed by Stuart Hazeldine (watch the trailer here). I kept finding reasons to push off the film while working on other suggestions, and keeping myself busy pursuing interviews. Lucky for me, I had finally found some time to sit down with a copy of the film and catch it a day before the festival closed.

This morning we’ve got something interesting that goes out to our readers in the UK. Sometimes we post trailers — mostly from Hulu — that can’t be viewed by our friends across the pond, so every once in a while we like to give them something that only they can enjoy. Not to say that our American readers can’t watch the trailer for Exam, it’s just that it is only available on DVD today in the UK.