I think I mentioned before in this series that I haven’t seen very many films in the theatre this year. My daughter was born last April and I fully blame her for my lack of theatre experience. The wife and I barely get any time to ourselves anymore and when we do we’re usually way too exhausted to sit in a dark theatre, on comfortable chairs without falling asleep. As such I’ve only seen one of the pictures that were nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards.
As it turns out that picture is out on DVD/Blu-ray this week and that’s enough to make Hugo my pick of the week. We’re both very big fans of the book, my wife and I, and I like very much the films of Martin Scorsese so we found a babysitter for this one and perked ourselves up with lots of caffeine and thoroughly enjoyed the picture. It is a lovely picture through and through and Scorsese’s love of the movies shows through in every small moment. I did not see Avatar in the theatres, but I’ll go out on a limb and say this is the best 3-D has ever looked in a movie. Truly a beautiful film in every way.
Winner of five Oscars, Hugo comes in a variety of editions including Blu-ray 3D, regular Blu-ray, DVD, and digital copies. Special features include a documentary on the film, another on Georges Méliès and a few other short features.
Other releases of interest coming out this week:
Vanya on 42nd Street (Criterion Collection, Blu-ray): This is one of those titles that I recognize by name, but I don’t actually know anything about. Extras include a new documentary and a 27 page book.
Spiders (Kino Studio Classics Edition): A big, early, action/adventure film and Fritz Lang’s first big hit. The only picture I’ve ever seen by Lang is M, but that was more than enough to make me want to see his filmography.
That’s it for this week, actually, there really wasn’t a whole lot out there that piqued my interest.
