New On DVD: March 29, 2011

A scene from Black Swan. Courtesy 20th Century Fox Home Video.

New On DVD is sponsored by the Toronto-based video store Eyesore Cinema, located at 801 Queen St. West (above Rotate This!). They specialize in rare, out of print, hard to find, and import titles, and will take special orders if you’re nice. They also sell magazines, posters, books, and more. If you’re in Toronto, pop in and show your support (and make sure to tell them we sent you). You can also visit them online for more info.

Black Swan (Blu-ray) Criticize This! Pick of the Week – Every time Darren Aronofsky makes a movie he proves how brilliant a director he is, and his work on Black Swan affirms it. In short, the film is about a ballerina (played by Natalie Portman) and her struggle to become the best. To say more would ruin it, but if you’ve seen Aronosky’s previous films Pi (1998), Requiem for a Dream (2000), and The Wrestler (2008), it’s as if he mashed them all together to create this dark and beautiful surreal experience. Portman delivers her best performance to date, which also earned her a Best Actress Oscar. The Blu-ray release is stellar and the high-def image and sound mix are truly outstanding. Special features include a 48-minute documentary on the making-of the film, profiles and interviews with the cast and crew, and more. Film **** Blu-ray **** (out of 5 stars).

Tangled (Blu-ray) – Disney’s 50th animated feature is a take on the story of Rapunzel — the princess with magical long hair who has been locked away in a tower by an evil witch. The animation is beautiful, and although it’s computer generated, it resembles classic Disney movies such as Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast more than the new wave of Pixar-style films. The voice work of Mandy Moore (as Rapunzel) and Zachary Levi (as leading man Flynn Rider) also works perfectly, and the laughs and adventure never stops. The Blu-ray release is highly recommended as it presents the animation in such a clean and crisp fashion it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before. Special features include deleted scenes, a making-of featurette, and more. A regular DVD copy of the film is also included. Film  **** Blu-ray **** (out of 5 stars).

Happiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown (Blu-ray) – It’s amazing how the makers of Happiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown were able to recreate the feeling of the original Peanuts cartoons from the 60s and 70s. This is a brand new 46-minute movie featuring Charlie Brown and the gang, and yet the animation, voices, music — it’s all reminiscent of the TV specials we grew up watching. The other amazing thing about it is how much fun it is (I’ve never heard my 3-year-old son laugh so hard while watching something as he did while watching this). The story is that Linus has to get rid of his blanket because his grandma is coming to visit. When he can’t kick his habit, his nasty sister Lucy buries the blanket somewhere. Linus goes on a rampage digging holes until he finds it. As this has been made to look like the original cartoons it’s not required viewing on Blu-ray (don’t get me wrong, it does look nice in HD but is nothing groundbreaking). Special features include a featurette on finding the new voice cast, a featurette on how they animated the film to look like the previous ones, a deleted scene, and a featurette on converting the comic strip into a movie. A regular DVD and digital copy of the film are included as well. Film **** Blu-ray *** (out of 5 stars).

Fair Game (Blu-ray) – Valerie Plame was a CIA operative who had her identity leaked by the government after her husband wrote an article disputing claims about the weapons of mass destruction Saddam Hussein supposedly had. Sean Penn and Naomi Watts portray the couple in what is probably one of the most boring political dramas of the last decade. The film never lets you connect with either Valerie or her husband, and I found the story jumped around too much without making much sense. The Blu-ray release has a clean image but I the audio was very tinny and the levels were all over the place. The one special feature included is an audio commentary with the real Valerie and her husband Joe Wilson. Film ** Blu-ray ** (out of 5 stars).

The Ten Commandments (Blu-ray) – Cecil B. DeMille’s epic telling of the story of Moses (portrayed by Charlton Heston) turns 55 this year, and Paramount Home Video has gone all out with a brand new 1080p high-def transfer of the 231-minute film that looks absolutely amazing on Blu-ray. Something I found odd at first is that they decided to spread the film across two discs. This was done in order to present an even better picture though, so you can’t fault them for doing it. Special features include audio commentary with Katherine Orrison, author of Written in Stone: Making Cecil B. DeMille’s Epic, The Ten Commandments, trailers, and news footage of the premiere of the movie from 1956. Film **** Blu-ray **** (out of 5 stars).

Also available on DVD and Blu-ray this week:

Mad Men: Season Four (Blu-ray/DVD)
Treme: Season 1 (Blu-ray/DVD)
Made in Dagenham (Blu-ray/DVD)
Dogtooth (Blu-ray/DVD)
The Riddick Collection (Blu-ray)
Blow (Blu-ray)
Soylent Green (Blu-ray)