Weekly Digital Disc Picks – February 5, 2008

This week’s column just barely gets posted before the releases hit.

First, the DVD releases:

Now, the Blu-Ray releases:

The HD DVD releases are as follows:

Finally, the pick of the week. I’ve got to go with When Night Is Falling. This isn’t it’s first release, but it’s just plain good. For perspective, let me say this: of the 894 feature length films in my DVD/Blu-Ray/HD DVD collection, I have a grand total of 2 movies that are love stories before anything else. (The only genre with worse representation is the western, and the other romantic film is Amelie.) I was first exposed to this title in a film studies class at university. It features all of the aspects of a true art film, while still remaining completely accessible to mainstream audiences. One excellent aspect in particular is the use of the visual metaphor; pay close attention to the items that are between the two lovebirds, literally and figuratively, to see how the objects as framed on the screen represent the conceptual obstacles in their relationship. You can also rest assured that any movie costarring Don McKellar will have an effective yet twisted sense of humour. I should also give this warning; although this is a family friendly, all ages site, this is not an all ages movie. The two lovebirds involved are both female, and (as the DVD cover implies) there are some fairly explicit love scenes between them. (Pay attention to what’s physically between them and not between them in both of those scenes, too.)