One of the year’s most eagerly anticipated films, Mira Nair’s Amelia turned out to be one of the year’s biggest disappointments.

On a technical level, the film looks great. The period detail of the period from 1928 to 1937 is letter perfect and the recreation of the planes flown by Amelia Earhart are stunning, but the long, dull screenplay saps the film of its energy.

Hilary Swank is probably incapable of giving a bad performance and her incarnation of the aviatrix, the most famous woman of her time, fully captures the legend. Her look, walk and speech all convey the real Amelia, but it’s all surface acting. We never get to know what the character is really thinking.

Entirely too much screen time is given to Richard Gere, who sleepwalks through his co-starring role as Amelia’s husband, publisher George Putnam. Far better are Ewan McGregor as flight instructor Gene Vidal (Gore’s father) and Christopher Eccleston as Fred Noonan, the navigator who went missing with Amelia in her plane over the Pacific.

A scene in which Amelia takes Eleanor Roosevelt on a flight in which she allows the First Lady to take control of the plane should have soared, but is played in such a muted fashion by Cherry Jones as Mrs. Roosevelt that it is as dull as any of Gere’s scenes. Thankfully Gabriel Yared’s lovely score is vibrant enough to keep you awake throughout.

Amelia is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

The various DVD companies continue to convert their most popular titles to Blu-ray.

Criterion’s Blu-ray edition of Wim Wenders’ 1984 film, Paris, Texas, comes with all the bells and whistles we have come to expect from Criterion including commentary from Wenders, various interviews and an insightful booklet on the making of the film.

The film, generally regarded as Winders’ best American work, is best remembered for its beautiful cinematography and the performances of Harry Dean Stanton, Dean Stockwell, Hunter Carson and Nastassja Kinski. An evocation of late 20th Century American family life, the film holds up exceptionally well.

A bit of trivia: Child actor Hunter Carson is the son of actress Karen Black and writer Kit Carson, who adapted Sam Shepard’s screenplay for Paris, Texas.

Criterion has currently released a standard DVD version of Paris, Texas, but it is the Blu-ray format that does it full justice. It’s also selling for $6 less at Amazon!
Universal has made two of British director Joe Wright’s films, Pride & Prejudice and Atonement available on Blu-ray. Both come with the same features available on their earlier standard DVD versions, but the picture and sound are noticeably superior.

Nominated for four Academy Awards, Pride & Prejudice looks scrumptious but like most bonbons is rather an empty treat when compared to at least two earlier version of Jane Austen’s masterpiece, both the 1940 Hollywood version and the landmark 1995 BBC version. Nevertheless leading lady Keira Knightley has her fans and her portrayal of Elizabeth Bennett accounted for one the film’s four Oscar nods.

For my money, Knightley fares much better in 2007’s Atonement as the young woman whose lover, James McAvoy, is unjustly accused of rape by her over-imaginative 13 year-old sister, played to chilling effect by Saoirse Ronan.

The film’s central conceit is the playing of Ronan’s character, Briony, by three actresses who look amazingly alike. Romola Garai plays her as a young woman and Vanessa Redgrave as an old one. The film’s set piece is an amazing tracking shot that follows McAvoy through a World War I scene of utter destruction.

The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Supporting Actress (Ronan) and won one for its musical score. It did better at the Baftas (the British Oscars) where it was nominated for fourteen awards including Best Actor (McAvoy), Actress (Knightley) and Supporting Actress (Ronan) and won two – Best Film and Best Production Design.

An Oscar winner for Best Actor, The Last King of Scotland, has been released on Blu-ray by Fox.

Forest Whitaker has a field day playing Ugandan dictator Ida Amin in this 2006 film which introduced the previously mentioned James McAvoy to world-wide audiences as Amin’s Scottish doctor, through whom the story is told.

Whitaker’s Oscar was the film’s only Academy Award nomination. Like Atonement, it did better with its British counterpart. The film won for Best British Film, Best Screenplay and Best Actor (Whitaker) at the Baftas. McAvoy was nominated for Best Supporting Actor and the film was nominated for Best Film.

Another bit of trivia: Director Kevin Macdonald, who won an Oscar for the 1999 documentary, One Day in September, is the grandson of Emeric Pressburger, the legendary writing, directing partner of Michael Powell, who himself won an Oscar for the screenplay of 1948’s The Red Shoes.

Once again, the Blu-ray transfer improves upon an already excellent DVD.

Fox has also released the long delayed Blu-ray version of William Friedkin’s 1985 film, To Live and Die in L.A. The film, one of Friedkin’s best, was presumed delayed so that Fox could work on special features. Instead, the Blu-ray has been released on two discs, the Blu-ray and a standard DVD version of the film. Friedkin’s commentary and a making-of documentary confined to the standard DVD.

Why the film isn’t more highly regarded than it is difficult to fathom. William Peterson and Willem Dafoes both give excellent performances as the L.A. detective and his prey, a master counterfeiter and the chase sequence against traffic on an L.A. freeway is actually more tense and exciting than the acclaimed chase sequence in Friedkin’s Oscar winning The French Connection.

Not to be outdone, Warner Bros. has newly converted one of its own recent Oscar winners, 2003’s Mystic River to Blu-ray with once again, stunning results.

Clint Eastwood’s moody crime saga from Dennis Lehane’s acclaimed novel, won Oscars for Best Actor (Sean Penn) and Supporting Actor (Tim Robbins) and was nominated for Best Picture, Director, Screenplay and Supporting Actress (Marcia Gay Harden).

Yet another bit of trivia: Penn and Robbins won their first Oscar nominations eight years earlier for another film they made together, Dead Man Walking, for which Penn was nominated for Best Actor and Robbins for Best Director.

Warner Bros. has also released 1962’s The Music Man on Blu-ray.

The Blu-ray format is especially kind to great musicals and Meredith Willson’s The Music Man, directed by Morton Da Costa, was one of the great ones of the 1960s. Robert Preston, recreating his legendary stage role, Shirley Jones at her most beguiling and the rest of the cast are as wonderful as you remember them. The only sour note is the ugly look of the extras, transferred from the standard DVD without cleaning them up.

Still another bit of trivia: 7 year-old Ronny Howard shows early signs of his future career as he directs Jones and Pert Kelton in the reprise of “Gary, Indiana”.

One of TV’s most enduring shows, Murder, She Wrote, showed no signs of coming to end in its eleventh season (1994-1995). Angela Lansbury, in her iconic portrayal of mystery writer Jessica Fletcher, still managed to solve crimes that baffled the authorities whether at home in fictional Cabot Cove, Maine; New York City or one of the many places her travels brought her. If anything had changed in the 11th season it was that her travels became more diverse. She was as apt to be found in Alexandria, Egypt or County Cork, Ireland as she was the U.S. Midwest or South this season.

Murder, She Wrote – The Complete Eleventh Season is available on standard DVD only. It contains, as a bonus, two episodes from the twelfth and final season.