Since we are in the midst of summer, I thought this ’go round we’d visit a fine American institution with a decidedly gay twist, summer “camp” in DVD form.

Some brands of camp welcome familiar faces and are the essence of what every pink-blooded male considers a gay ol’ time. Others miss their mark so badly that you’ll feel like you’ve just barely escaped with your life from a Camp Crystal Lake massacre in the Friday the 13th movies. This week, we have examples of both.

Watching Mommie Dearest (Hollywood Royalty Edition) is like a visit from an old friend. Yeah, an old friend that will verbally abuse you and then move into bouts of physical abuse involving cleanser and wire hangers. But therein lies the charm of Mommie.

What should have been a horrifying movie involving child abuse is camp at its finest, due mostly to Faye Dunaway’s chewing-of-anything-that-isn’t-nailed-down acting approach.

Right about now you’re probably wondering just why you’d need to watch this newfangled version of Mommie Dearest when there is a perfectly good copy sitting on your DVD shelf. (It better not be gathering dust. Mommie would not approve.) There are three new featurettes, for starters.

“The Revival of Joan” chronicles the from-the-page-to-the-soundstage aspect of Christina Crawford’s scathing biography. “Life with Joan” is the making of the film with “exclusive” behind the scenes stories from Diana Scarwid, the actress who played the grownup Christina, and Rutanya Alda as Crawford’s yes woman, Carol Ann. (What, no Faye Dunaway being interviewed?! It’s not like she’s busy or anything.) “Joan Lives On” tells of the film’s release and subsequent placement in the pantheon of cult classics. Director John Waters adds his own spin on things during the commentary.

What started out as box-office poison has survived the test of time and remains a true champion of camp.

What makes Basic Instinct 2 a bad example of what could have been a contender for camp is not only its atrocious dialogue and the most wooden performances this side of Pinocchio, it’s the huge sense of self-importance that its star, Sharon Stone, radiates in every scene.

Basic Instinct 2 smells to high heaven and is a failure in every sense – in particular of jump-starting Stone’s flagging career. By revisiting her character, Catherine Tramell, 14 years later, Stone seems to be trying too hard at reminding us of the sex goddess she embodied in the first film.

Don’t get me wrong, Stone looks good for a 48-year-old woman. But I’ll just say this: The hands don’t lie. You can Botox yourself up the wazoo, but the hands are a dead giveaway.

From the very first scene, which is set inside a speeding car through the always-empty London streets, this movie should have turned right at some point, instead of plowing through obvious stop signs of camp and continuing to veer off course for the remainder of the film, leaving viewers to ponder, “Was this trip really necessary?”

The movie actually makes you long for the subtly nuanced writing and directing styles of Joe Eszterhas and Paul Verhoeven, the men responsible for the first Basic. Had these two had their hands shoved up this turkey, seasoned with their Showgirls sensibility for good measure, maybe this unredeemable film could have stood a chance at obtaining camp status, or at least been watchable.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a fun, action-packed, modernized version of the film noir genre that dips its toes into the Lethal Weapon pool, thanks to Shane Black, the scribe of L.W. who wrote and directed Kiss Kiss. The opposite-end-of-the-spectrum partners this time around are Val Kilmer as a gay private investigator and Robert Downey Jr. as an “actor” researching a role when the two become embroiled in a murder scheme.