How to Enjoy Movies Without the Eyestrain

GIFT GUIDE 2012

• Home Entertainment for the Holidays

  Best bets for DVD and Blu-ray

• The Incredible Mel Brooks: An Irresistible Collection of Unhinged Comedy

  BY ROBERT FAIRES

• Francis Ford Coppola 5-Film Collection

  BY MARJORIE BAUMGARTEN

• The Carol Burnett Show: The Ultimate Collection

  BY ANNE HARRIS

• How to Enjoy Movies Without the Eyestrain

  More gifts for film fans

  BY KIMBERLEY JONES

Silhouettes From Pop Culture by Olly Moss (Titan Books, 144 pp. $16.95): British artist and Mondo regular Olly Moss applies a charmingly démodé artistic medium to memorialize famous faces from film and TV. There's no text, but you won't need a cheat sheet to ID spot-on side-views of Doctor Who (all 11), Max Fischer, Mulder and Scully, Statler and Waldorf, Pinocchio, or the monolith from 2001.

Knitmare on Elm Street: 20 Projects That Go Bump in the Night by Hannah Simpson (Running Press, 128 pp., $17): If the non-knitters in your life sneer it's only for softies, see how they feel after you unleash a (woolly, adorable) kraken or sic a sock-monkey-sized Nosferatu on 'em.

The Ultimate Princess Bride Wine Fan Pack (www.drafthouse.com/gifts, $106): Prepare to drink: The Alamo Drafthouse commissioned this special "Bottle of Wits" duo, As You Wish White and Inconceivable Cab; extra goodies include wine charms and a T-shirt.

Backyard Ballistics: Build Potato Cannons, Paper Match Rockets, Cincinnati Fire Kites, Tennis Ball Mortars, and More Dynamite Devices by William Gurstelle (Chicago Review Press, 240 pp., $16.95): Summer movies' Sturm und Drang left you with apocalypse fatigue? Us too. Create your own movie mayhem in the back of the house with this updated how-to guide to making your own carbide cannon and electromagnetic pipe gun. And if you're still mulling stocking stuffers, might we suggest a fire extinguisher and safety goggles?

Doctor Who: 11 Doctor Figure Set (www.bbcamericashop.com, $139.98): There's a fine line between fan fiction and playing with dolls. Just sayin'.