Oscar winner Argo is a rousing, old-fashioned crowd-pleaser of the first order. That said, is it really a better film than similar high-flying productions of the 1960s such as The Guns of Navarone which received seven Oscar nominations and won one; The Great Escape which received only one nomination and Operation Crossbow which wasn’t even nominated? Well, no, not really, but it is the right film at the right moment taking the world by storm. Not only did it win major U.S. awards, it won Britain’s BAFTA and the French César for Best Foreign Film of the year.

Ironically, however, the two most tension filled scenes in the film are the trip to the bazaar and the chase at the end, neither of which happened in real life despite director Ben Affleck’s assurances that “it’s all true”. It would have taken nothing away from real life CIA hero Tony Mendez to acknowledge that it was the Canadian ambassador’s wife who purchased the airline tickets the day before the getaway without incident, but I guess that would have gotten in the way of the salute to Hollywood ending. Three cheers for dramatic license, eh?

You can enjoy Argo on either Blu-ray or standard DVD.

There have been more than ten major film and TV productions of Tolstoy’s tragic romance, Anna Karenina, the best of which remains the 1935 Hollywood classic with Greta Garbo, Fredric March, Basil Rathbone and Freddie Bartholomew. The new theatrical version directed by Britain’s Joe Wright starring his muse, Keira Knightley, looks scrumptious, but is little more than an empty calorie bon-bon.

Garbo and Vivien Leigh, who played Anna in the 1948 British production, played her as a woman torn between conscience and an uncontrollable passion. Knightley plays her as an extension of her character in Wright’s Atonement, i.e. a petulant spoiled brat. Jude Law as her cold husband evokes more sympathy, which should not be the case. Aaron Johnson, now known as Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Taylor was his wife’s maiden name), is woefully miscast as Vronsky. The decision to frame the film as a stage-play makes no sense. Yes, it saved the production money, but it is not only cheap, it looks cheap despite all the lovely sets and costumes.

You can stare open-mouthed at Knightley’s interpretation of Anna Karenina on Blu-ray or standard DVD or wallow in the magnificence of the definitive Garbo version on standard DVD. The Vivien Leigh version is available on standard DVD in the U.S., but is available on Blu-ray in the U.K.

I devoured the first season of HBO’s Game of Thrones in a couple of sittings when it was released on Blu-ray last year. The second season I was unable to get beyond the second installment.

I don’t know whether it’s the show that has changed or me, but I can no longer stomach the senseless violence, particularly when it is directed at children. In season one a child, one of the series’ main characters, is thrown from a high wall in an attempt to kill him. He survives, but is maimed for life. The series also killed off its main hero in a shocking episode ear the end of the season. Yet, despite those two questionable events, there was enough for me to want to come back for more.

I found the first episode of the second season a bit of a drag, but was willing to give it a chance until the episode ended with the murder of innocents including at least one infant. The second episode was a bit livelier, but when that, too, ended with the murder of an infant by another villain, I had enough. I looked at the IMDb. cast list for the third season and found that they had killed off two more heroic characters in season two while allowing the evil ones go on and on. That was it for me. Consider me no longer a fan of this show.

You can suffer through season two of Game of Thrones on Blu-ray or standard DVD.

Some interesting older films have been given Blu-ray upgrades.

One of Hollywood’s best and best-loved musicals, 1948’s Easter Parade has never looked lovelier with its full color restoration. The film, planned as a reunion for Judy Garland and Gene Kelly after the success of The Pirate, was famously recast with Fred Astaire after Kelly broke his foot playing volleyball the weekend before the film was to go into production. Astaire, who came out of premature retirement to play a down on his luck song-and-dance man saw a career resurgence that lasted until his death nearly forty years later. Garland and Ann Miller, who replaced an injured Cyd Charisse, also received career boosts and Irving Berlin’s perennials never had a better showcase.

Generally regarded as the hallmark of Marlon Brando’s career, Elia Kazan’s 1954 Oscar winner, On the Waterfront gets the Criterion treatment in a new first for any film release on home video. The two-disc Blu-ray is presented in three different aspect ratios. The viewer can decide which he or she prefers to view it in.

The film which won Brando his first and Eva Marie Saint her only Oscar is aces no matter which aspect ratio you choose.

Legendary director Robert Altman had made his name in TV before branching out into film. The year before most film audiences discovered him with M*A*S*H, he made his big screen debut with the psychological thriller, That Cold Day in the Park which is making its U.S. debut on standard DVD as well as Blu-ray.

The 1969 film starred Sandy Dennis in her usual persona as a tightly wound neurotic, who in this instance sets her sights on a lonely young man played by former child star Michael Burns. What might have been a low-rent thriller in other hands becomes a suspense filled drama of high order thanks to Altman’s masterful handling and Dennis’ low-key performance.

One of the great whistle-blower films, Michael Mann’s 1999 classic, The Insider, was gingerly marketed in its initial release as an anti-smoking film, though what it’s really about is the watering down of a 60 Minutes story when CBS cowtowed to Big Tobacco. Russell Crowe’s Oscar nominated work is one of the actor’s finest performances, but the film is stolen by Christopher Plummer in his dead-on impersonation of newsman Mike Wallace.

The Blu-ray release is head-and-shoulders above the old standard DVD release.

New releases this week include Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master and Jean Renoir’s Diary of a Chambermaid.