The first great DVD release of 2012, surprising to me, turns out to be HBO’s Mildred Pierce, the mini-series adapted from from James M. Cain’s 1941 novel previously filmed in 1945.

The 1945 version, directed by Michael Curtiz in the fashion of a film noir, begins with a murder. There is no murder in Todd Haynes’ new version which is said to be more faithful to the source material. All the other elements, though, are there, as both versions follow the rags-to-riches climb out of poverty of the title character played to Oscar winning glory by Joan Crawford and Emmy winning triumph by Kate Winslet. There is the ungrateful daughter (Ann Blyth/Evan Rachel Wood); the gigolo (Zachary Scott/Guy Pearce); the slimy lawyer (Jack Carson/James LeGros); the faithful friend (Eve Arden/Melissa Leo, Mare Winningham sharing duties) and the estranged husband (Bruce Bennett/Brian F. O’Byrne). All acquit themselves well in both versions with Blyth and Arden nominated for Oscars and Wood, Pearce, Leo, Winningham and O’Byrne all nominated for Emmys with Pearce winning. Winslet, Wood and Pearce are also nominated for Golden Globes as is the mini-series itself.

I had not seen the mini-series when it aired last year, but I was, of course, familiar with the story from the previous film version. It’s fascinating the way the story is both familiar and yet different at the same time, a class act all around. Special features include commentary from Haynes and others.

Released at the end of last year, the DVD of Warrior also proved an unexpected treat. Marketed as a mixed martial arts action flick, Gavin O’Connor’s film is that, but it is much more. It’s a family drama about two brothers who once were close but now are enemies both in life and in the ring. Joel Edgerton is exceptional as the struggling young husband and father who loses his teaching job when it’s discovered he participates in the sport, but Tom Hardy as his long lost brother whose past is shrouded in mystery is even better and Nick Nolte has his best role since the 1976 mini-series Rich Man, Poor Man as their alcoholic father. It should have been a much bigger hit than it was.

A film that was a hit and is now available on DVD is Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion, an all-star cast disaster movie of the kind that was popular in the 1970s. Which of your favorite stars will die, and which will be immune to the deadly flu engulfing the world? You have your pick from Matt Damon; Gwyneth Paltrow; Kate Winslet; Laurence Fishburne; John Hawkes; Marion Cotillard; Jude Law; Jennifer Ehle; Elliottt Gould; Bryan Cranston and more. It’s not bad as these things go, but it’s a bit maddening as you become interested in a particular story line and the character involved dies or disappears from the film for so long you think maybe you nodded off and missed his or her death scene.

A film that could get lost in the glut of new DVD releases, but shouldn’t, is John Michael McDonagh’s raucous comedy, The Guard featuring a Golden Globe nominated performance by Brendan Gleeson as a rural Irish policeman who reluctantly joins forces with visiting FBI agent Don Cheadle to track down three international criminals whose reign of terror includes drug smuggling and murder. The killings are sudden and harsh but they are secondary to the deft verbal sparring between the characters. The strong supporting cast includes Liam Cunningham, Mark Strong and Fionnula Flanagan.

Speaking of comedies, I purposely avoided the year’s biggest comedy hit, Bridesmaids all year, but finally succumbed to it in wake of all the Oscar buzz it’s been getting. It was worse than I imagined.

Crude, vulgar comedies are not my thing. The novelty of one written by a woman and performed by a largely female cast doesn’t do anything but prove that women can write bad material as easily as men. Saturday Night Live veteran Kristin Wiig’s film is like her TV show, a series of skits, some of which are amusing, but most of which fall flat. Both she and fellow SNL player Maya Rudlolph have an annoying habit of scrunching up their faces to show their emotions. It’s called mugging and it’s not very appealing. Nor is the performance of Melissa McCarthy, who many are touting for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Next to Wiig and Rudolph she has enormous presence, but her character’s raunchy behavior seems too over-the-top for Academy consideration.

If you want raunchy, a better choice would be Jesse Pertez’s Our Idiot Brother, a genuinely funny film with an underlying sweetness you wouldn’t expect. Paul Rudd is at his best as a character who is the exact opposite of Peter Sellers’ simple gardener in 1979’s Being There. Whereas Sellers’ character’s simple utterances were taken as profundity, Rudd’s simple musings are laughed at or ignored until his family, the real idiots, “get it”. Rudd has never been better than as the guy who alternates living with his mother (Shirley Knight) and each of his three sisters (Elizabeth Banks; Emily Mortimer; Zooey Deschenal) after his girlfriend throws him out upon his release from jail for selling marijuana to a policeman in full uniform. It gets very complicated very fast, but uproariously so. DVD extras include an alternate ending that is as good as, if not better, than the official one.

Other recent comedies, now out on DVD, worth checking out include Win Win; Crazy, Stupid, Love; Everything Must Go and Beginners.

Thomas McCarthy’s Win Win, which placed at number four on my Best of 2011 list, is a nicely done film about a small town New Jersey lawyer who doubles as a high school wrestling coach. Paul Giamtti and Amy Ryan head the cast.

A dysfunctional family that includes Steve Carrel and Julianne Moore is at the heart of Glenn Ficarra and John Requa’s Crazy, Stupid, Love featuring a Golden Globe nominated performance by Ryan Gosling as the young stud who tutors Carell in the fine art of picking up girls.

Will Farrell is at his low-keyed best in Dan Rush’s Everything Must Go from a John Cheever short story about a suburbanite who loses both his wife and job on the same day and resorts to living on his front lawn until matters resolve themself.

Ewan McGregor and Melanie Laurent are at the beginning of a romantic relationship in Mike Mills’ Beginners, but Christopher Plummer as McGregor’s 75 year-old widowed father is beginning life anew as well as a recently out-of-the-closet gay man who is diagnosed with terminal cancer. The comedy doesn’t always work, but Plummer’s likely Oscar bound performance is a treat.

This week’s new DVD releases include Moneyball; Higher Ground and There Be Dragons.