This week, we have some of the dichotomy that makes this column so much fun. Yes, some of the better 2012 releases are hitting Blu-Ray/DVD today, but there’s also one of the very worst coming out as well. It’s no secret that I despise terrible films, and all the more so when they’re among the only titles available, but luckily that’s not the case this time around. The crappy flick can safely be ignored due to the relatively strong quality of the rest of the slate. I have a quartet of enjoyable movies that I had to bandy about for my top choice today. I’m always a fan of competition for the #1 slot, so this was a fun week to write up. For my PICK OF THE WEEK, I was able to narrow it down to do films…a slightly dark romantic comedy and a documentary. Most of you are well aware that I had a soft spot for rom-coms and rom-drams as it were, but I wound up going with the doc here. Which one is it? Well, it’s the criminally under-appreciated:

Side By Side

An insanely compelling look at the digital vs film debate that directors are currently having in the movie business, I loved every minute of this documentary. I gave it a close to rave review once upon a time (here), and while I stand by those words, I will again reiterate that this can sometimes be pretty inside baseball stuff. That shouldn’t be a problem for you readers, but it may not be quite as enthralling a watch for your whole family, despite the A-list cast of filmmakers contributing. I’d love to be wrong there, but I doubt I am. No matter though, this is a great doc on a really interesting subject, and I highly recommend it!

-Coming in a close second place today was the romantic comedy Celeste and Jesse Forever. This was a much more serious flick than expected, and a more powerful one than I anticipated as well. I was smitten by this work on a first viewing, and my subsequent one hammered home just how much I dug it. It wasn’t given enough attention during its theatrical release, but that can be taken care of now…

-The other titles I see fit to recommend in this column are the addiction drama Flight and the indie drama In Our Nature. The former is obviously a popular flick, and one I recommend based on Denzel Washington’s performance (alongside John Goodman and Kelly Reilly’s as well), while the latter is a portrait of a family at a crossroads and buoyed by some strong work by Jena Malone. Neither are perfect, but both are worth picking up.

-Also out this week we have the drama A Late Quartet, the action comedy Here Comes the Boom, the suspense flick Deadfall, the dramedy Little White Lies, the romantic comedy You May Not Kiss the Bride, the documentaries Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel and Paul Williams: Still Alive, as well as the crime movie Alex Cross. I don’t have much to say about any of those, except for the last title. My pan of a review (found here) says it all, but once again…this is among the very worst films of 2012. Stay far away!

-My Vintage pick, in honor of this week’s release of Top Gun in 3D…I’m taking the opportunity to not be original. Yes, I’m saying just pop in your copy of Top Gun at home. I don’t especially think this is a required viewing in 3D, so I’d just as soon honor the memory of Tony Scott by catching the flick at home. You can still take the Highway to the Danger Zone (sorry, couldn’t resist), but without paying for parking! By the same token, if you feel the need for speed in an extra dimension (sorry again), you’re still more than welcome to do so, but it’s such a ridiculous/ridiculously fun movie that watching it with friends at home is just as much fun. Tom Cruise gives an underrated performance here, and overall compared to many of the would be blockbusters that come out these days, this one is still preferable. Give it another look this week, unless somehow you’ve never seen it, in which case you’re in for quite something…

-What will you be watching on Blu-Ray/DVD this week? Discuss

About Joey Magidson

When he’s not obsessing over new Oscar predictions on a weekly basis, Joey is seeing between 200 and 300 movies a year. He views the best in order to properly analyze the awards race/season each year, but he also watches the worst for reasons he mostly sums up as "so you all don't have to". In his spare time, you can usually find him complaining about the Jets or the Mets. Still, he lives and dies by film. Joey's a voting member of the Internet Film Critics Association as well. Today the IFCA, tomorrow the world!

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