Mel Brooks’s career resurrection has been nothing short of miraculous. Though a hit filmmaker and comedian in the ’60s, ’70s and to a lesser extent, the ’80s, his reputation had really suffered in the last 15 years or so (Dracula: Dead and Loving It anyone?) Then, of course, came the Broadway version of The Producers and suddenly Mel was back again.

The Mel Brooks Collection is a DVD box set collecting eight of the man’s films, from the brilliant (Young Frankenstein) to the not-so-brilliant (Robin Hood: Men in Tights). You also get Blazing Saddles, High Anxiety (which along with Silent Movie is appearing for the first time here), The Twelve Chairs, History of the World: Part 1 (oh, how a younger me longed for Part 2) and his Ernst Lubitsch remake To Be or Not to Be. You don’t get The Producers, and not all of these are gems, but the hilariousness of much of Brooks’s work is indisputable.

Also recently out on DVD is Montreal filmmaker Denis Côté’s Les États nordiques (Drifting States), with a Côté commentary and bonus short film. This was one of the most overlooked films of 2005; don’t miss it. —Mark Slutsky