"The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1" (Summit) delivers the long-awaited the marriage, the marriage night (no more abstinence for these star-crossed kids) and the rather alarming pregnancy of moody Bella Swann (Kristen Stewart) and her vampire swain Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). Note that "Dawn" breaks on Saturday, February 11. Videodrone's review is here.

 

"A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas" (New Line) gets the "truth in advertising" award for 2011 releases. It was actually originally titled "A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas" and that's what the credits read on the DVD and Blu-ray, even though only the Blu-ray 3D edition (which, of course, only plays on 3D compatible Blu-ray players and monitors) features the added dimension. And yet the blatant way the film throws anything and everything at the screen is almost funnier in 2D, as the pure visual exploitation is even more obvious.

 

3D aside, this Christmas stoner odyssey is, as the title promises, very Harold and Kumar (as embodied by John Cho and Kal Penn). Which means there is copious smoking, an insane amount of other illegal substances (some of them directed to a toddler who takes on almost superhuman powers between giggling fits), rampant racial jokes, a clay animation interlude, and Neil Patrick Harris back in action as a sleazy, sex-addicted, crack-smoking miscreant – and that's after his big song and dance number! "Coming in at a trim 89 minutes, "A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas" not only lives up to its title to the power of 10," proclaims MSN film critic Glenn Kenny, "it also serves up a veritable holiday smorgasbord of remarkably inappropriate humor (a perhaps excessive number of jokes here involve a toddler's exposure to a wide variety of the aforementioned abuse-worthy substances)."

 

The DVD features three minutes of deleted scenes and an Ultraviolet digital copy, for download and instant streaming. The standard Blu-ray features the R-rated theatrical version plus an extended "Extra Dope Edition" that runs six minutes longer, a short featurette on the Claymation sequence and a collection of comic featurettes with Tom Lennon, plus a bonus DVD version. The Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack is a three disc set with all the above plus the 3D version in a separate disc.

See the trailer below, after the jump.

 

"Anonymous" (Sony), a rare film from Roland Emmerich where nothing blows up, makes the case that Shakespeare was really a front for a British aristocrat (played by Rhys Ifans) and his authorship the result of a conspiracy. "The whole setup plays a little like "The Front" crossed with "Amadeus," only not as good and a whole lot more vulgar than either," explains MSN film critic Glenn Kenny. "Even though Emmerich is working with ostensibly more refined material here, the ham-handed touch of the man who gave us "The Day After Tomorrow" and "2012" is felt quite heavily throughout." Note that it actually earned an Oscar nomination: for costume design. Blu-ray and DVD, with commentary by Emmerich and writer John Orloff, deleted scenes and a featurette. The Blu-ray also include additional deleted scenes and featurettes. Also available at Redbox. See the trailer below.

 

"3" (Strand), from director Tom Tykwer ("Run Lola Run"), is quite possibly the most romantic portrait of a ménage-a-trois ever put on screen. This romantic/erotic triangle is built on the emotional lives of its characters rather than plot tropes of manipulative seductions and erotic competition. This tale of free love reinvigorating a relationship falling into lethargy is actually quite freeing and Tykwer offers a sympathetic perspective on the experience. And along with the hurt and healing is Tykwer's usual flair of interesting cinematic architecture and unusual cultural byways. More reviews here. In German with English subtitles. DVD only. See the trailer below.

 

"Project Nim" (Lionsgate) is Videodrone's documentary pick of the week. Though it didn't end up with an Oscar nomination, this provocative documentary about the real-life ordeal a chimp raised like a human child and then abandoned to animal preserves and laboratory experiments is thoroughly engaging and often surprising. What begins as a look at one of the most famous studies in behavior and learning (essentially a real-life version of "Bedtime for Bonzo") ends up saying as much about the people involved and the failures (and in too few instances the success) of the humans involved to protect their simian charge as they would a real child, or at least a creature they love as much as they claim. It earned awards from Sundance, The National Board of Review and the Director's Guild of America. More reviews here. The DVD features commentary by director James Marsh and two featurettes. Also available via Digital Download and On Demand.

 

Another documentary, "Knuckle" (Arc Entertainment), about the underground fighting culture of the Irish Traveler community, debuts this week as well. " It's a documentary built on both unprecedented and unpredictable access to a subject and a world that took place over a 12-year span, and it's fascinating," recommends MSN film critic James Rocchi. DVD only, no supplements.

 

Cam Gigandet and Jena Malone star in the astrology-themed romantic comedy "5 Star Day" (Breaking Glass). The film "boasts a promising premise, convincing chemistry between its attractive leads and fine thesping by a defensively edgy Jena Malone," writes Variety film critic Ronnie Scheib. "But the uneven script, repetitive tropes and over-indulgence of actorly bits slow the pace, tipping youthful casualness into complacency." DVD only, with commentary by director Danny Buday and the cinematographer, deleted scenes, a featurette and a bonus short film by the director. Also available at Redbox.

 

Ryan Reynolds, Willem Dafoe, and Julia Roberts star in the family drama "Fireflies in the Garden" (Sony) from writer/director Dennis Lee, which bounces between family gatherings 22 years apart and the crises that define each event. "Mr. Lee gathers together a lifetime of hurt without conveying that there's something personal at stake," complains New York Times film  critic Manohla Dargis. DVD only, with a featurette. Also available at Redbox.

 

More Foreign Affairs:

"My Tehran For Sale" (Global Film Initiative), about a dying Iranian actress (Marzieh Vafamehr) recounting her struggle as an artist in repressive culture while requesting political asylum, is directed by poet-turned-filmmake​r Granaz Moussavi. The film became much more famous, however, when its star, Marzieh Vafamehr, was sentenced to 90 lashes (overturned after an international outcry) and a year in prison by the Iranian regime for appearing in the film with her head uncovered. In Farsi and English with English subtitles. DVD only. See the trailer below.

 

"Yakuza Weapon" (Well Go) is an extreme action movie from Japan with gangsters who have grafted weapons right onto their bodies, directed by Tak Sakaguchi ("Samurai Zombie") and Yûdai Yamaguchi ("Battlefield Baseball"). Blu-ray and DVD, with deleted scenes, a featurette and a spin-of short film.

 

"Adrift" (Global Film Initiative) is a Vietnamese drama about a newlywed couple, an unconsummated marriage and a dangerous affair. DVD only.

"Vasermil" (Film Movement), from Israel, follows three boys in a small town pinning their success on a soccer tournament. DVD only, with a bonus short.

"Karen Cries on the Bus" (Film Movement), from Colombia, follows a woman trying to start over after ten years of a bad marriage. DVD only, with a bonus short.

 

Also new this week:

"The Rebound" (Fox) stars Catherine Zeta-Jones as a newly-divorced woman who moves her kids to Manhattan and lands in a romance with a handsome young guy (Justin Bartha) 15 years younger than her. Blu-ray and DVD, with cast and director interviews.

 

"What Happens Next" (Wolfe), a romantic comedy with a gay theme, stars Jon Lindstrom, Chris Murrah and Wendie Malick.

"Stormhouse" (Lionsgate) pits science versus the supernatural in a military experiment.

"Dead Hooker in a Trunk" (IFC) – A low-budget thriller (written and directed by and starring identical twin sisters Jen and Sylvia Soska) with the premise right in the title.

"Spiderhole" (IFC) is a British horror film about an abandoned house with nasty secrets that a group of young squatter soon discover.

"Fred 2: Night of the Living Fred" (Lionsgate) is the second movie spin-off of the web comedy series.

 

For more releases, see Hot Tips and Top Picks: DVDs, Blu-rays and streaming video for February 7

 

"Downton Abbey: Season 2" (PBS) offers the entire second series of the British costume drama that has addicted so many American viewers in its "Masterpiece Classic" showings that it's been nicknamed "Edwardian Crack." Yeah, it's a crude American remark about a classy British production, but it's oddly appropriate. "Downton Abbey" is an elegantly-mounted production with the look and lavish detail of a feature film, but it is also an unabashed soap opera with pure melodrama under the social register credentials. Which is part of the fun.

 

Creator / writer Julian Fellowes (Oscar winner for his "Gosford Park" screenplay) marries the "Upstairs Downstairs" template of that film with the stately style of recent British literary telefilms and miniseries, dropping into the Edwardian era of the 1910s, to chronicle the last generation of this kind of class society, where the servants – at least those born to the service career – are as invested in the social culture of manners and conventions as the aristocrats they serve.

 

This series is even more eventful than the first, what with World War I adding to the romantic complications, scandals, and power plays on both sides of the class divide. Even turning the manor house into a military hospital doesn't ruffle their decorum (though it does upend their daily routine). Through it all, Lady Mary Crawley (Michelle Dockery) and heir apparent Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens) continue dancing around their mutual attraction even as they get engaged to others, Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) tries to find some kind of purpose while younger men fight overseas, Mr. Carson (Jim Carter) strives to run a tight household on limited staff and the Dowager Countess of Grantham (Maggie Smith) grouses over every break with tradition and the proper respect that she feels must always be given to the aristocracy.

 

The series is still running in the U.S. on "Masterpiece Classic," with the season finale scheduled for Sunday, February 19. Which gives added attraction to this set: you can see the final hours now, rather than making appointments with PBS for the next two Sunday nights.

 

The three-disc Blu-ray and DVD sets feature the original UK edition of the series: eight regular episodes and the double-length "Christmas Special" season finale, plus three brief featurettes.

 

See the season trailer plus a lengthy cast Q&A video below, after the jump.

 

For more releases, see Hot Tips and Top Picks: DVDs, Blu-rays and streaming video for February 7

 

"The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1" (Summit) follows the "Harry Potter" model: it splits the final book in the series into two separate films.

 

"Part 1" tackles the moment fans have been eagerly awaiting: the marriage, the marriage night (no more abstinence for these star-crossed kids, and boy, from the evidence, it must have been an acrobatic affair) and the rather alarming pregnancy of moody Bella Swann (Kristen Stewart) and her vampire swain Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). Which means, contrary to decades of vampire lore, the undead are indeed quite potent. It also spurs the wolf pack, led by Edward's often shirtless rival Jacob (Taylor Lautner), into action.

See an exclusive clip from the disc on MSN Movies here.

 

I like the first "Twlight" but found the last couple of films insufferable and I skipped this one in the theaters (the disc arrived too late for me to review for the column). But MSN film critic Glenn Kenny (a self-professed Twi-virgin before he saw this episode) confesses that he "rather enjoyed it, at least in part."

 

He continues: "The director for this installment of the series is Bill Condon….  [who] doesn't do anything to subvert the highly teen-inflaming material itself -- Condon is both highly professional and not an idiot -- but he does attack it with genuine wit and a real affection for and knowledge of the genres that the saga, um, branches off from. The first ten minutes alone contain a juicy clip from the original "Bride of Frankenstein"… and a ravishing dream sequence whose visual scheme is directly inspired by "Blood and Roses," an early '60s French vampire film by Roger Vadim. The teens at whom this film is squarely aimed won't spot the reference, Condon is resourceful enough to insert it in such a way that it doesn't necessarily stick out as such; in any event, it's a good fit."

 

The Blu-ray and DVD both feature commentary by director Bill Condon, a six-part documentary (which can be watched straight through or in picture-in-picture mode as a video commentary track through the film), Edward and Bella's "Wedding Video," and the featurette "Jacob's Destiny." In addition to Blu-ray and DVD, it will be available via Digital Download and On Demand, and arrives in Redbox kiosks the same day as stores.

 

Just to be clear, "Dawn" doesn't actually break until Saturday, February 11, which provides plenty of opportunities for Friday midnight sales events, including more that than 2,700 Walmart locations, where the party starts at 11pm with special giveaways.

See the trailer below, after the jump.

 

For more releases, see Hot Tips and Top Picks: DVDs, Blu-rays and streaming video for February 7

 

New Releases:

"The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1" (Summit) follows the "harry Potter" model in splitting the final book in the series into two separate films, the first covering the marriage, the marriage night (no more abstinence for these star-crossed kids) and the rather alarming pregnancy of moody Bella Swann (Kristen Stewart) and her vampire swain Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). I found the last couple of films insufferable and never even saw this one (still no DVD screener in my box) but MSN film critic Glenn Kenny (a self-professed Twi-virgin) confesses that he "rather enjoyed it, at least in part." Just to be clear, "Dawn" doesn't actually break until Saturday, February 11, which means midnight release parties by some retailers. Blu-ray and DVD, both with plenty of supplements, and arrives in Redbox kiosks the same day as stores. Videodrone's review is here.

 

"A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas" (New Line) brings the stoner comedy duo back for one more drug-fueled odyssey, this one with a holiday theme and Neil Patrick Harris in a musical sequence. The Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack and Blu-ray 2D Combo Pack editions both include an extended "Extra Dope" version of the film and bonus featurettes, and it's also available on DVD and Digital Download. Videodrone's review is here.

 

"Project Nim" (Lionsgate) is Videodrone's documentary pick of the week. Though it didn't end up with an Oscar nomination, this provocative documentary about the real-life ordeal a chimp raised like a human child and then abandoned to animal preserves and laboratory experiments is thoroughly engaging and often surprising, and it earned awards from Sundance, The National Board of Review and the Director's Guild. DVD, Digital Download, and On Demand. Reviewed here.

 

"3" (Strand), from director Tom Tykwer ("Run Lola Run"), is quite possibly the most romantic portrait of a ménage-a-trois ever put on screen. This tale of free love reinvigorating a relationship falling into lethargy is actually quite freeing and Tykwer offers a sympathetic perspective on the experience. In German with English subtitles. DVD only. Reviewed here.

 

Also new this week: "Anonymous" (Sony), a rare film from Roland Emmerich where nothing blows up, makes the case that Shakespeare was really a front for a British aristocrat (played by Rhys Ifans) and his authorship the result of a conspiracy. Blu-ray and DVD, available at Redbox. Cam Gigandet and Jena Malone star in the romantic drama "5 Star Day" (Breaking Glass) and Ryan Reynolds, Willem Dafoe, and Julia Roberts star in the family drama "Fireflies in the Garden" (Sony). Both DVD only, and also available at Redbox.

 

TV on DVD:

"Downton Abbey: Season Two" (PBS) offers the entire second series of the British soap opera of a costume drama that has addicted so many American viewers in its "Masterpiece Classic" showings. This season takes the "Upstairs Downstairs" collection of aristocrats and servants through World War I, a handful of romantic complications and a scandal or two. And it arrives on Blu-ray and DVD before its PBS run is complete, offering viewers an early shot at the final episodes. Videodrone's review is here.

 

"CSI: Grave Danger" (Paramount) is the two-part finale from the fifth season of the hit series directed by Quentin Tarantino, and arguably the show's best episode ever. It makes its Blu-ray debut in a Blu-ray+DVD set. Videodrone's review is here.

 

"The Sunset Limited" (HBO), an HBO Original Film production of the Cormac McCarthy play, stars Tommy Lee Jones (who also directs) and Samuel L. Jackson in a conversation about life, death, faith, suicide, and the proposition that we live in a bleak, godless universe. Not particularly cinematic, but the language and the powerhouse performance face-off makes it engaging. Blu-ray and DVD. Reviewed here.

 

Also new this week: "Father Dowling Mysteries: The First Season" (Paramount) marks the DVD debut of the eighties-era series starring Tom Bosley as a crime-solving priest. Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson star in "The Song of Lunch" (BBC), a BBC telefilm originally presented stateside on "Masterpiece Contemporary." "Jerry Lewis as The Jazz Singer" (Inception) presents the live TV drama (one of the first color broadcasts ever) for the first time since its 1959 debut.

 

Cool, Classic and Cult:

"Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics Volume III" (TCM Vault Collection) uses the term "classic" loosely – the five films in this collection are not the celebrated stand-outs of the genre – but that said, this box contains some minor gems. "My Name Is Julia Ross" (1945) is a gothic mystery with a "Gaslight" plot and inventive style. "The Mob" (1951) is more bare-knuckle noir, a gangster picture with Broderick Crawford as an undercover cop on the docks. The set also includes "Drive A Crooked Road" (1954) with Mickey Rooney, "Tight Spot" (1955) with Edward G. Robinson and Ginger Rogers, and "The Burglar" (1957) with Dan Duryea and Jayne Mansfield. The discs feature video introductions by Martin Scorsese and other supplements. This online exclusive is available through the TCM Shop and Movies Unlimited. Videodrone's review is here.

 

William Wellman's "A Star is Born (1937)" (Kino) makes a nice bookend to "Wings," which debuted last month on Blu-ray and DVD. This is another of his big, Oscar-winning (for Story and Cinematography) prestige projects, a grand fable of Hollywood stardom with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March. The new Blu-ray and DVD release, while far from perfect, looks significantly better than any previous release I've seen.

 

Also new this week: "Count of Monte Cristo (1934)" (Hen's Tooth), starring Robert Donat as Edmund Dantes, is a low-budget attempt at a lavish Hollywood costume adventure.  Michelangelo Antonioni's debut feature "Story of a Love Affair" (1950), previously available in a box set from Kino, its now available as a separate two-disc release with the same supplements.

 

Blu-ray Debuts:

"Lady and the Tramp" (Disney), the first CinemaScope animated feature from Walt Disney Productions, is the latest Disney animated classic to get the Blu-ray treatment. You’ll never see a more romantic spaghetti dinner. The new Diamond Edition includes plenty of supplements and a DVD copy.

 

Also new this week: "La Jetée / Sans Soleil" (Criterion) presents two films by Chris Marker, the first an experimental science fiction story told in still images, the second a free-form travelogue through Africa and Japan.  "Love Story" (Paramount) on Blu-ray means never having to say your sorry.

 

New on Netflix Instant:

Fresh from DVD and Blu-ray release come "The Mill and the Cross," a thoughtful and visually inventive drama about the story behind Peiter Bruegel's legendary painting "The Way to Calvary," and "The Double," a spy thriller starring Richard Gere and Topher Grace.

 

The classics newly available to stream via Netflix Instant include: Roman Polanski's "Chinatown" (1974), a seventies masterpiece starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway and an Oscar winner for Best Original Screenplay; Alfred Hitchcock's "Frenzy" (1972), one of the last films from the master of suspense; "Tender Mercies" (1983), which earned an Oscar for Robert Duvall's superb performance as a country singer finding redemption.

 

As "Project Nim" arrives on home video, revisit director James Marsh's Osacr-winning documentary "Man on Wire" (2008).  And for action and comedy fans, there is the martial arts slapstick of "Shaolin Soccer" (2001) with Stephen Chow.

 

Available from Redbox this week:

Day and date with video stores: "Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 1" (arrives in boxes Saturday, February 11), "Anonymous," "Fireflies in the Garden," and "5 Star Day." See New Releases above for details.

 

Also arriving in Redbox kiosks this week:

"The Killer Elite" (Universal) is not a remake of the Sam Peckinpah thriller but it does pit elite killers (Jason Statham, Robert DeNiro and Clive Owen) in a fight to the death. MSN film critic Glenn Kenny calls it "quite the cliché-ridden desultory mess."

 

"What's Your Number" (Fox), meanwhile, offers the very talented Anna Faris in a very unfunny romantic comedy. (Read Videodrone's interview with Faris here.)

 

"There Be Dragons" (Fox), from two-time Oscar nominee Roland Joffé ("The Killing Fields"), is a drama set in the Spanish Civil War. And "The Scorpion King 3: Battle For Redemption" (Universal), is a direct-to-DVD sequel with Billy Zane and Ron Perlman.

 

For a calendar of upcoming releases, click here

 

When Hollywood was trying to find its way in the early sound era, learning to work around the sudden production constrictions imposed by sound recording and editing while struggling to find its own distinctive voice and delivery, it was also getting downright racy. It flaunted the sexual play of unmarried couples (and worse, the affairs of married characters with other partners), the flagrant boozing at the height of prohibition, and the thrill of bad behavior, which it presented without the requisite lessons learned soon to be imposed on Hollywood productions by the Production Code.

 

Not all the pre-code movies took that attitude, of course, but a couple of decades ago a handful of sauciest of these otherwise forgotten films were branded with the promise of "Forbidden Hollywood" for a retrospective that led to a line of VHS releases, followed by laserdisc and, finally, DVD. And still there are films to discovered and savored, in some cases for just a scene, in other cases for a full length appreciation.

 

The recent set of pre-code titles recently made available via manufacture-on-deman​d DVD-R from the Warner Archive is mixed collection, by which I mean there are some real discoveries here along with some misfires, and "Safe in Hell" (1931), a kind of B-movie riff on "Sadie Thompson" directed by William Wellman, and its star Dorothy Mackaill are the most exciting of said discoveries.

 

The forgotten Mackaill is a kind scuffed-up, street-smart answer to Miriam Hopkins and in this film she is perfect as the all-but-in-name prostitute who is whisked off to a Caribbean island to flee a murder charge and lands in a jungle slum that the dregs of the western world have taken refuge in. The film's title is no exaggeration; imagine "Casablanca" as a lice-infested backwater run by mercenary opportunists and filled with the sleaziest criminals to escape a manhunt. Wellman makes it snappy and sassy as he winds the story from the cynical to the sentimental to the almost spiritual with equal commitment.

 

Mackaill, who retired in the early thirties after her silent film success bottomed out in sound era, is also a standout in "The Office Wife," an hour-long 1930 programmer where she plays the golddigging secretary of Lewis Stone and Joan Blondell (in one of her very first screen appearances) is her tart-tongued sister and roommate. Mackaill's moxie and brass looks forward to Barbara Stanwyck as she takes over Stone's life and affections without being obviously flirtatious or forward, and Blondell plays entire scene while taking a bubble bath, one of those delicious conventions of pre-code naughtiness. "The Party Husband" (1931) puts Mackaill on the other side, as the wife in a "modern marriage" who discovers that independent lives leads to wandering affections. 

 

 

Here's our thumbnail guide to what's new, notable and recommended (or not) this week for home viewing. Just click on the titles and links for full reviews and more information.

 

The New Release Rack

 

In "Drive" (Sony), the sleek pulp crime cool-meets-art-house​​ style thriller starring Ryan Gosling as a taciturn getaway driver, director Nicolas Winding Refn embraces the genre with all his love of underworld tragedy and Gosling gives his unnamed hero an enigmatic chivalry. On Blu-ray, DVD, digital download and OnDemand, and available day and date at through Redbox. Videodrone's review is here.

 

"The Mill and the Cross" (Kino Lorber), a visually inventive exploration of Peiter Bruegel's "The Way to Calvary" from Polish director Lech Majewski. Blu-ray and DVD. Videodrone's review is here.

 

Also new this week:

"The Big Year" (Fox), a comedy starring Steve Martin, Owen Wilson and Jack Black. Blu-ray, DVD and digital download.

"In Time" (Fox) is a science fiction thriller with Justin Timberlake as a "time bandit" and the future of class warfare. On Blu-ray, DVD, digital download and OnDemand.

"The Thing" (2011) (Universal) - a prequel to John Carpenter's 1982 modern classic. Blu-ray, DVD, digital download and OnDemand.

"Thunder Soul" (Lionsgate), an upbeat documentary on the legendary funk high school band. DVD only.

 

Browse the complete New Release Rack here

 

TV on DVD

 

"Star Trek: The Next Generation – The Next Level" (Paramount) is essentially a Blu-ray sampler, a single-disc featuring three episodes of the show remastered from the original 35mm film elements for Blu-ray. Videodrone's review is here.

 

Also new this week:

"The Comic Strip Presents: The Complete Collection" (eOne) presents the entire run of the anarchic British comedy series of the eighties.

"Agatha Christie's Poirot: Series One" (Acorn), remastered for Blu-ray and DVD.

 

Flip through the TV on DVD Channel Guide here

Off the Rack – Classic, Cult and Blu-ray Debuts

 

"Transformers: Dark of the Moon – Blu-ray 3D Combo" (Paramount) delivers the Blu-ray 3D debut of the film along with all the supplements you could want from a Michael Bay extravaganza, including a nearly two-hour documentary on the making of the film, plus bonus 2D Blu-ray and DVD copies of the film. Videodrone's review is here.

 

"To Kill a Mockingbird: 50th Anniversary" (Universal) - the beloved Oscar-winning drama is newly-remastered edition for Blu-ray and DVD. Videodrone's review is here.

 

"Fernando di Leo Crime Collection" (Raro) presents the Blu-ray debut of four Italian gangster movie classics from the seventies from the director that Quentin Tarantino called "the master" of the genre, and offers a sharper image and a more accurate preservation of the original film. Videodrone's review is here.

 

Also new this week:

"The English Patient" (Lionsgate), winner of nine Academy Awards (including Best Picture and Best Director). Blu-ray.

"Shakespeare in Love" (Lionsgate), winner of seven Academy Awards (including Best Picture). Blu-ray.

"The Piano" (Lionsgate), Jane Campion's elegant and earthy drama starring Holly Hunter and Harvey Keitel. Blu-ray.

"Adaptation" (Image), a Spike Jonze head game with Meryl Streep and Nicolas Cage. Blu-ray.

"Malcolm X" (Warner), Spike Lee's drama starring Denzel Washington. Blu-ray.

 

All of the Cool, Classic and Cult here

Peruse all the new Blu-rays here

 

Netflix Instant

 

The Oscar-nominated documentary "Hell and Back Again" (Docurama) has just been made available. More on Videodrone here.

 

Also new on Netflix Instant Streaming:

"Conspiracy Theory" (1997) with Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts.

"Breaking Away" (1979) with Dennis Christopher and Dennis Quaid.

"The Longest Yard" (1974) with Burt Reynolds as a pro football bad boy behind bars.

"Babel" (2006) with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett.

"The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988), Martin Scorsese's controversial story of Christ.

 

Shuffle through more Instant offerings here

 

New at Redbox

 

"Contagion" (Warner), Steven Soderbergh's eerie medical thriller with a very different atmosphere than the usual disaster film. Also debuting this week: "Shark Night" (Universal), which sends seven comely college kids to a Louisiana lake filled with sharks.

 

Redbox DVD flashback this week is "Ghost Rider," the comic-book movie flop with Nicolas Cage as a motorcycle stunt driver turned into "the Devil's bounty hunter."

 

Arriving day and date with stores at Redbox: "Drive," "The Double," and "Texas Killing Fields" (see above).

 

Coming next week:

"The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1" (Summit) (street date: Saturday, February 11)

"A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas" (New Line)

"Anonymous" (Sony)

"3" (Strand)

"Project Nim" (Lionsgate)

"A Star is Born (1937)" (Kino)

"Story of a Love Affair" (Kino)

"Count of Monte Cristo (1934)" (Hen's Tooth)

"Downton Abbey: Season Two" (PBS)

"Father Dowling Mysteries: The First Season" (Paramount)

"The Sunset Limited" (HBO)

"Lady and the Tramp" (Blu-ray) (Disney)

 

For more releases, see Hot Tips and Top Picks: DVDs, Blu-rays and streaming video for January 31

 

The Oscar-nominated documentary "Hell and Back Again" has just been made available via Netflix Instant. Director Danfung Dennis contrasts one American Marine's ordeal in Afghanistan with his troubled transition to civilian life after a life-threatening injury in battle. Boston Globe film critic Wesley Morris writes: "Dennis's film attempts something few documentaries have: to inhabit the psyche of its subject."

 

The rest of the week's recommendations come from the pool of older releases added to the service.

"Conspiracy Theory" (1997) - Mel Gibson’s paranoid taxi driver may have seen one too many Ollie Stone film, but that doesn’t mean they’re not really out to get him in this thriller co-starring Julia Roberts. Director Richard Donner takes a potentially awkward story and gives it the drive and energy (and the star power) it needs. Gibson’s wacky cabbie is sweeter than a stalker really ought to be, and Roberts a lot more understanding than any real person, but hey, it’s a movie, and an unexpectedly entertaining one at that even as it stretches credulity almost to the breaking point.

 

"Breaking Away" (1979) - Dennis Christopher, Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern, and Jackie Earle Haley are the “cutters,” local blue collar kids in a college town, who take on the snotty, privileged frat boys in an annual bicycle race. Peter Yates directed this wonderful and modest drama of small town life and simple dreams.

 

"The Longest Yard" (1974), Robert Aldrich’s satirical prison drama by way fo underdog sports movie, stars Burt Reynolds as a self-absorbed pro football bad boy put behind bars for auto-theft and bad attitude and charges with organizing the inmates into a football team to take on the guards.

 

For a science fiction fans, there is "Serenity" (2005), a lively, humor-laden big screen science fiction western spun-off from Joss Whedon’ short-lived TV series "Firefly" and starring Nathan Fillion ("Castle") as a former soldier turned interstellar smugglerwith a scruffy crew and a scruffier ship.

 

For more adventurous viewing, Todd Haynes' "Velvet Goldmine" (1998) reimagines the Glam rock era and the iconic influence of David Bowie through the kaleidoscopic lens of "Citizen Kane" and a fictionalized bi-sexual pop icon. Christian Bale, Ewan MacGregor and Jonathan Rhys-Myers star.

 

And if you're in the mood for something more demanding, there is the sprawling 2006 drama "Babel" (2006) with Brad Pitt,  Cate Blanchett, Gael García Bernal, and Rinko Kikuchi, in a story that weaves stories across four countries and three continents, and Martin Scorsese's controversial "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988), the director's attempt to explore his own spiritual conflicts by exploring the human dimension of Jesus Christ (played by Willem Dafoe). (Note that a Blu-ray release of Scorsese's film is set for March).

 

For more releases, see Hot Tips and Top Picks: DVDs, Blu-rays and streaming video for January 31

 

"Fernando di Leo Crime Collection" (Raro) presents the Blu-ray debut of four Italian gangster movie classics from the seventies from the director that Quentin Tarantino called "the master" of the genre, and offers a sharper image and a more accurate preservation of the original film. Videodrone's review is here.

 

You can tell it's Oscar season when the studios pull past winners out of the vault for new home video editions. Leading the week's debuts of Oscar winners on Blu-ray are "The English Patient" (Lionsgate), with nine Academy Awards (including Best Picture and Best Director), and "Shakespeare in Love" (Lionsgate), with seven wins (including Best Picture). These two films are testament to the ability of Harvey Weinstein to promote his classy fare into Oscar gold over the bigger-budgeted studio features and their better funded campaigns. Which is not to say it's all about the race, mind you, just that industry politics have as much to do with votes as film quality.

 

"The English Patient" (1996) is a lushly romantic drama adapted from Michael Ondaatje's novel by director Anthony Minghella. Set in the African desert for World War II and starring the intense Ralph Fienned, the elegant Kristin Scott Thomas and the angelic Juliette Binoche, it could be "Casablanca" for the nineties, delivering both romantic tragedy (the end of the old world of privilege) and rebirth (the beginning of a new egalitarian world) in an old fashioned/new-age romance with the most beautiful people and gorgeous costumes you ever saw survive a trek through the desert. Features two commentary tracks, the hour-long documentary "Black and White to Color: The Making of The English Patient," interviews, deleted scenes and numerous production featurettes.

 

"Shakespeare in Love" (Lionsgate), John Madden’s love letter to the romance of art and the art of romance, is a fantasy of the Bard’s life as seen through the conventions of his own cross-dressing farces and refracted through a modern sensibility. Gwyneth Paltrow turns the role of her career into pure laughter and love (who would doubt this willowy goddess is Shakespeare’s muse?), Joseph Fiennes plays the young Shakespeare as a writer inspired by the rush of a secret affair, and Geoffrey Rush slurs the romantic mantra through his artistically rotted teeth: “Everything always works out in the end.” “How?” “I don’t know, it’s a mystery.” Features two commentary tracks (one by Madden, one by the cast and crew), deleted scenes and two featurettes.

 

Other Oscar winners arriving on Blu-ray this week:

"The Piano" (Lionsgate), Jane Campion's elegant and earthy drama of a mute woman who marries a New Zealand planter but falls for a passionate neighbor (Best Actress Holly Hunter and Best Supporting Actress Anna Paquin)'

"Cold Mountain" (Lionsgate), a Civil War drama from "English Patient" Anthony Minghella (Best Supporting Actress Renee Zellweger);

"Adaptation" (Image), a Spike Jonze head game written by Charlie Kaufman and his imaginary brother Donald (Best Supporting Actor Chris Cooper);

"Frida" (Lionsgate), directed by Julie Taymor and starring Salma Hayek as legendary Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (Best Makeup and Best Music).

 

There's also the five-disc collection "Best Picture Academy Award Winners" (Lionsgate), which features the new "Shakespeare" and "English Patient" discs along with the previously released "Chicago," "Crash," and "No Country for Old Men." Put this one under "instant collection."

 

"Malcolm X" (Warner) - Denzel Washington finally won his Best Actor Oscar for "Training Day," but he first deserved the award for his deep, complex performance in Spike Lee’s epic biographical drama, which follows the life of the controversial civil rights leader from his life as a street criminal through his days as a fiery orator charging up the Black Pride movement to his falling out with the Nation of Islam and his embrace of a humanist philosophy inspired by his journey to Mecca, just before his assassination. Features commentary by director Spike Lee with cinematographer Ernest Dickerson, editor Barry Alexander Brown, and costume designer Ruth Carter, 10 deleted scenes with introductions by Spike Lee, and the featurette "By Any Means Necessary: The Making of Malcolm X," plus a bonus DVD with the 1972 Oscar-nominated documentary "Malcolm X," directed by Arnold Perl and narrated by James Earl Jones. Comes in an illustrated Blu-ray book.

 

Plus:

Aldo Lado directs the brutal Italian thriller "Night Train Murders" (Blue Underground), another twist on Ingmar Bergman’s "The Virgin Spring," this one about a pair of thugs and a sadistic passenger who team up to assault and kill two young girls on a train, and then take refuge the house of the parents of one of their victims. Features an interview with director/co-writer Lado.

 

"A Soldier's Story" (Image), a murder mystery set in the barrack of a black army base during World War II, stars Howard E. Rollins Jr., Adolph Caesar, David Alan Grier, Robert Townsend, and Denzel Washington.

 

Tom Hanks and Jackie Gleason have "Nothing in Common" (Image) in the drama of a rising corporate superstar forced to reconnect with his crotchety old father as the old man's health fails.

 

For more releases, see Hot Tips and Top Picks: DVDs, Blu-rays and streaming video for January 31