Oscar noms come to Blu-ray

Oscar nominee “A Serious Man,” featuring another happy return to the familiar delightfully oddball filmmaking style of the Coen Brothers (after the even better “Burn After Reading” was overlooked by Oscar last year) hits stores on Blu-ray Disc this week. No filmmaker composes a shot or gets better facial expressions out of their actors than [...]

Recommend: “This,” “Surrogates,” “Whip”

After slim pickings last week, a better crop of movies I can recommend this week:

1.) “This is It” (Sony, $39.95) – my favorite movie of year by far (longer review under “Picks” here); Blu-ray takes it up a notch w/ following notable bonus features:
– 16-minute poignant but not maudlin “Memories of Michael”
– 40-minute “Staging the [...]

New Blu “Moon,” “Post Grad,” “Fame,” etc.

A pretty diverse line-up of new Blu-ray titles this week should offer something for nearly everyone. Here are a few of the most notable new releases:

“Moon” (Sony, $37.95) is a near one-man “Cast Away” type journey for an astronaut (Sam Rockwell) trying to hang on to sanity after three years alone in a lab on [...]

3D or not 3D? That is Cloudy Destination

Two big 3D movies from 2009 come to Blu-ray on the same day, just two weeks before the Consumer Electronics Show sets off a surge of home 3D announcements for Blu-ray and TVs.
But only one of the two new movies on Blu-ray this week comes in 3D.

“The Final Destination in 3-D” (Warner, $35.99) provided the [...]

New Blu: 9, Getaway, Jen’s Body

Dark and unsettling seems to be the theme for the post-Christmas holiday week of releases (Dec. 29) heading into the new year:

9 ($39.98, Universal) is a computer-animated post-apocalyptic world (Tim Burton is co-producer) in which nine small creations of a dying scientist try to alter the course of devstation.
– Original short, deleted scenes, production tour, [...]

New Blu: Steve, Extract, Fam Guy, Pie Book, Loud, Wild

Plenty of new Blu-ray releases to choose from this week (Tuesday, Dec. 22) even though none of them have anything to do with Christmas:

All About Steve ($39.99, Fox) is yet another Sandra Bullock movie of 2009. Not in the same league as “Blind Side” or “The Proposal,” but still cute and also has fun Bradley [...]

New Blu: Basterds, Hangover, G-Force

Quite a wide spectrum of notable movies released on Blu-ray today (Tuesday, Dec. 15), from Quentin Tarantino to Jerry Bruckheimer, and Mel Brooks:
* Inglorious Basterds ($39.98 w/ digital copy, Universal): Quentin Tarantino’s latest work of cleverness and inventive violence depicting vengeful Nazi-hating soliders in World War II.
- stand-out performances by Brad Pitt, horror filmmaker Eli [...]

New on Blu: Lost 5; Potter; Julie/Julia; Public Enemies

A big week for big Blu titles being released today, Tuesday, Dec. 8.

My Blu Pick is the Ultimate Edition Harry Potter and Half-Blood Prince releases, details of which you can read there.
Also notable are the following:

* “Lost: The Complete Fifth Season – The Journey Back, Expanded Edition” ($79.99, Disney). The five-disc set of all 16 [...]

Night Museum 2; Terminator 4; Green Mile

Three of the new Blu-ray Discs in stores this week (Dec. 1) include (complete official details follow):
* “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” (Fox, $39.99): Starts with a two-minute trailer for “Avatar” and features a load of trailers for upcoming theatricals, Blu-rays, and even the Built-for-Blu-ray “Flicka 2.” Fun treasure hunt game is [...]

Blu-ray finds Tinker Bell’s Lost Treasure

Tink’s back and bringing autumn with her.
The best computer-animated series created for home disc comes through again in the 76-minute installment of Disney’s “Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure” ($39.99), executive-produced by Pixar’s John Lasseter.

* Delightful music and songs, including a music video bonus feature of “The Gift of a Friend” sung by The Disney [...]