This Week on DVD & Blu-ray (02-14-12)

Steve James’ important documentary, “The Interrupters” (catch it tonight on PBS Frontline tonight, in the States) and Jeff Nichol’s lauded sophomore feature “Take Shelter” are the two releases you won’t want to miss coming out this week on DVD & Blu-ray. These films are quite different yet both are equally compelling and were snubbed by the Academy – so don’t make that mistake as well! Consider them both Valentines! Also out this week are two movies that passed me by last fall, Johnny Depp in “The Rum Diary” an adaptation of the Hunter S. Thompson book, and “Paranormal Activity 3” the third installment in the eerie surveillance footage franchise. I don’t see myself rushing to see either. Although I’m not a huge Woody Allen fan, I’ve heard some great things about “Woody Allen: A Documentary”, which is basically what it sounds like and it might be just the thing to get me to dive into his filmography.

 

Other docs here that interest me are “How to Die in Oregon” (the title alone) focusing on the state’s Death With Dignity Act and “Urbanized” the third film in a design trilogy which looks at the global effect of urban design. Criterion also releases two interesting films, both from unique directors, one of samurai and the other of  mumblecore melodrama (see below).

 

• 3D Triple Feature: Dinosaurs Alive!/Wild Ocean/Mummies (Blu-ray)
• All Quiet on the Western Front (100th Anniversary Collector’s Series) (Blu-ray)
• All Things Fall Apart(DVD/Blu-ray)
• Beavis and Butt-Head: Volume 4 (DVD/Blu-ray)
• Brewster’s Little Helper (DVD)
• The Burning Moon (DVD)
• The Dead (DVD/Blu-ray)
• Doctor Who: The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe (DVD/Blu-ray)
• Dragon Age: Redemption (DVD)
• Elevate (DVD)
• Elite Squad: The Enemy Within (DVD/Blu-ray)
• Family Matters: The Complete Second Season (DVD)
• How to Die in Oregon (DVD)
• The Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence(DVD/Blu-ray)
• The Interrupters (DVD/Blu-ray)
• Little Angels 123’s (DVD)
• Little Angels ABC’s (DVD)
• Little Angels Animals (DVD)
• The Little Death (DVD)
• The Lorax (Deluxe Edition) (DVD/Blu-ray)
• Mama, I Want to Sing! (DVD)
• The Man in the Iron Mask (DVD)
• The Mortician (DVD)
• Mozart’s Sister (DVD/Blu-ray)
• My Kingdom (DVD)
• Nude Nuns with Big Guns (DVD/Blu-ray)
• Paranormal Activity 3 (DVD)
• The Rum Diary (DVD)
• Swinging with the Finkels (DVD)
• Take Shelter (DVD/Blu-ray)
• Three Outlaw Samurai (Criterion Collection) (DVD/Blu-ray)
• Tiny Furniture (Criterion Collection) (DVD/Blu-ray)
• Under the Boardwalk: The Monopoly Story (DVD)
• Urbanized (DVD)
• Wainy Days: Seasons 1-4 (DVD)
• Woody Allen: A Documentary (DVD)