See what’s coming out this week on DVD!

The most successful film in Hollywood history in terms of tickets sold is now 70 years old. To celebrate, the 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition of Gone With the Wind has been released on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Only 150,000 editions of each have been produced. The Blu-ray set contains three discs, the standard DVD set, five. The film is on one Blu-ray disc but spread out over two standard DVD discs. Most of the supplements are contained on a second Blu-ray disc while the same elements are spread out over two standard DVD discs. Joining them in both sets is the previously released documentary, MGM: When the Lion Roars on one two-sided standard DVD.

The film, of course, looks and sounds better than it ever has, especially on Blu-ray. It also seems more relevant today than it has in recent years. The film is about the Civil War, the harshest time in American life. When originally released during the Great Depression it made the hardships of the day seem somehow less burdensome in comparison to what the characters in the film go through. Now in the harshest economic times since the Great Depression, audiences once again feel an affinity with the film that hadn’t been there for some time. The film especially resonates with women as the female characters in the film prove the most resilient.

Originally released in 1939, it was revived six times, roughly once every seven years, more than any other film in history and with more fanfare than any other re-release in history.

The 1960 re-release, which came out the year of Clark Gable’s death, was the last time the film was shown in its original version. It was also the last time its two female stars, Vivien Leigh and Olivia de Havilland made appearances together in connection with it. The 1967 re-release, which came out the year Leigh died, was critically lambasted. In an effort to draw “modern” audiences in, MGM decided to release the film in 70MM widescreen which meant chopping off images at the bottom of the screen. It has never been shown in that version again.

After the last theatrical showings in 1967 came TV showings and eventually VHS and DVD releases, each one an improvement over the last.

The Ultimate Collector’s Edition contains over eight hours of supplements including several new documentaries as well as ones previously made in conjunction with the film’s last DVD release. Among the new supplements are an informative documentary on 1939: Hollywood’s Greatest Year, narrated by Kenneth Branagh; The Legend Lives On, detailing why the film still holds up and The Scarlet O’Hara War, a nicely done 1981 TV movie about the search to find the actress to play the film’s leading lady.

J.J. Abrams’ re-imagining of Star Trek ramps up the action of the old TV series while remaining faithful to the characters who are introduced in fascinating ways.

Chris Pine (Kirk) and Zachary Quinto (Spock) emerge as major screen stars following years of TV work. Karl Urban (Bones), Zoe Saldana (Uhura), Simon Pegg (Scotty) and Anton Yelchin (Chekhov) resorting to his long lost Russian accent are also first rate as the rest of the Enterprise’s main crew. Bruce Greenwood is stalwart as the original captain of the ship who makes way for the new one while an unrecognizable Eric Bana makes a strong impression as the principal villain. Excellent, too, albeit in smaller roles, are Ben Cross as Spock’s Vulcan father and Winona Ryder as his human mother. Best of all is Leonard Nimoy, the original Spock, who is used quite effectively.

A sequel is already planned for 2011.

Star Trek is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

I must confess that I was not a fan of Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen’s critically acclaimed box office phenomenon of 2006. I found the film tasteless, insensitive and offensive, which I suppose was the point. Consequently I approached his latest pseudo-documentary, Bruno, with trepidation, but found it mildly entertaining.

Bruno nearly matches Borat in tastelessness but the insensitivity this time around is in Baron’s character, not the people he meets, which makes it much less offensive. Ostensibly an expose of homophobia, it is not. No one in the film calls Bruno names or attempts to do him harm. No one objects to him because he is gay. The objections come because he is totally obnoxious. There is no bite. Neither is there much to laugh at. The situations are mostly just silly. The best stuff was saved for the outtakes which are included as DVD extras.

The best part of the theatrical release version was seeing how celebrities like Paul Abdul and Ron Paul handled situations Bruno put them in. The extras give us more celebrities – LaToya Jackson, Pete Rose, Tom Ridge, John Bolton – all giving us pointers on how to handle discomfit. The answer for most of them is quietly walk away.

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

Child actor Bill Milner is the central character in John Crowley’s Is Anybody There? He plays a young boy fascinated by the deaths of the old codgers living in his parents’ old folks’ home. Enter melancholy retired magician Michael Caine who teaches the boy a few life lessons before popping off himself.

While the film has its moments, it is a mostly depressing movie about old people who have nowhere to go but into the ground. Caine is good, but when isn’t he? It’s a treat to see the likes of Leslie Phillips, Rosemary Harris and Sylvia Sims, but it would be a bigger treat to see them in something a bit more uplifting.

Is Anybody There? is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Another film about children and death, Nick Cassavetes’ My Sister’s Keeper starts out intriguingly as Abigail Breslin hires attorney Alec Baldwin to sue her parents to keep them from forcing her to give a kidney to her dying sister (Sophia Vassilieva), but quickly deteriorates. The young actors, Breslin, Vassalieva, Evan Ellingson as their brother and Thomas Dekker as Vassalieva’s cancer ward squeeze are fine, but the adults are anything but, especially Cameron Diaz as a harridan of a mother. The film’s ending, which I understand to be different from the novel upon which it is based, is a totally ridiculous cop-out.

My Sister’s Keeper is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

With Jeff Bridges now being touted as the one to beat for this year’s Best Actor Oscar for Crazy Heart, now is a good time to catch up with some of the many films he’s made over the course of his long career.

Bridges has stated that his own favorite films are American Heart and Fearless, both from 1993 and both worth seeing again. Also worth seeing are two new DVD releases, this year’s The Open Road and 1989’s See You in the Morning from the Warner Archive.

The actor is the main reason for seeing The Open Road, a low budget, barely released film in which he plays a retired baseball player travelling from Ohio to Texas with his estranged son (Justin Timberlake) and the son’s estranged girlfriend (Kate Mara) to be at the side of his ex-wife (Mary Steenburgen) as she undergoes open heart surgery. Directed by Michael Meredith, the film co-stars Harry Dean Stanton as Steenburgen’s father and features cameos by Lyle Lovett and Ted Danson. It’s pretty much what you’d expect, but Bridges is fascinating to watch as a beloved public figure who is an ass in real life. Timberlake is low key but competent in his first major starring role.

The Open Road is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Bridges is at his best in Alan J. Pakula’s See You in the Morning as a psychiatrist whose difficult to please wife (Farrah Fawcett) asks him to leave so she can be free to see other men. He then has a whirlwind romance with a recent widow (Alice Krige) which results in a shaky second marriage.

Pakula’s screenplay is compelling but has too many stops and starts leading to its inevitable conclusion. The treats are in the acting. Besides Bridges and Krige, there are excellent performances by Drew Barrymore and Lukas Haas as Krige’s kids, an already scene stealing Macaulay Culkin as Bridges and Fawcett’s son, Frances Sternhagen as Fawcett’s charming mother and George Hearn and Linda Lavin as the friends who introduce Bridges to Krige.

Interestingly, Pakula is said to have based his screenplay on the breakup of his marriage to Hope Lange and his subsequent marriage to a non-professional. Christopher Murray, Pakula’s stepson from his marriage to Lange, has a scene stealing bit as one of Bridges’ psychiatric patients.