This Week on DVD & Blu-ray (01-31-12)

With the Oscar nominations announced last week, it’s no coincidence that we have a handful of previous Academy Award winning films coming to Blu-ray for the first time. One that catches my eye is Jane Campion’s “The Piano” from 1993, which would be great to revisit. The 50th anniversary of the classic “To Kill A Mockingbird” is call for a celebration and Universal Studios is doing just that with a fine-looking Blu-ray edition. Among the recent theatrical releases, there’s the Jim Sheridan dud, “Dream House” as well as mediocre (and unintentionally funny) sci-fi thriller, “In Time”. I plan on catching up with “Texas Killing Fields”, (if only to make the 2011 Jessica Chastain Film Fest complete), “Thunder Soul” (a doc focusing on the reunion of the storied Kashmere High School Stage Band out of Houston), and “The Mill and the Cross” (which seems like an immersive step into the art process). Of course, there’s also the release of a Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Drive”, a favorite here and an obnoxious 7-disc Blu-ray release of Michael Bay’s “Transformers: Dark of the Moon”, both are newly-appointed Oscar nominees.

• Agatha Christie’s Poirot: Series 1 (DVD/Blu-ray)
• Behind the Glass (DVD)
• The Big Year (DVD/Blu-ray)
• Cold Mountain(Blu-ray)
• Das Boot (Director’s Cut)(Blu-ray)
• Dog Jack (DVD)
• The Double (DVD/Blu-ray)
• Dream House (DVD/Blu-ray)
• Drive (DVD/Blu-ray)
• The English Patient (Blu-ray)
• The Evolution of Andrew Andrews (DVD)
• Fat City, New Orleans (DVD/Blu-ray)
• Frida (Blu-ray)
• Hey Dude: Season 2 (DVD)
• In Time (DVD/Blu-ray)
• LeapFrog: Number Land (DVD)
• Lost River: Lincoln’s Secret Weapon (DVD)
• Malcolm X (Blu-ray)
• The Mill & the Cross (DVD)
• Night Train Murders (Blu-ray)
• The Piano(Blu-ray)
• Poldark: The Complete Collection (DVD)
• Shakespeare in Love(Blu-ray)
• Snow Buddies (Combo Pack)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation – The Next Level (Blu-ray)
• Texas Killing Fields (DVD/Blu-ray)
• The Thing (DVD/Blu-ray)
• Thunder Soul (DVD)
• To Kill a Mockingbird (50th Anniversary Collector’s Series) (DVD/Blu-ray)
• To Kill a Mockingbird (50th Anniversary)
• Transformers (7-Disc Limited Collector’s Edition Blu-ray Trilogy)(Blu-ray)
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Ultimate Edition 3D Combo Pack) (Blu-ray)
• Treasure Buddies (DVD)
• You and I (DVD)