A few good releases this week.  Some titles I have been waiting quite a while for to be released.  Any week is good when you get a Wes Anderson Criterion movie.  So, as usual, the picture links will whisk you away over to amazon, where you can learn more about each title, and purchase the movie for a great discount, which also donates a small percent to this column to keep this website going.  Here we go….

The Darjeeling Limited (Criterion Collection Bluray)

I love this Wes Anderson film.  A story about three brothers who are on an emotional and physical journey to come to terms with their lives, and their father’s death, and the disappearance of their mother.  The whole entire film pretty much takes place in India which is BEAUTIFUL.  The soundtrack is littered with Kinks songs which makes it a pleasure to listen to.  Since being a Criterion Collection release, it is packed with extras which include:

New high-definition digital transfer approved by director Wes Anderson

Anderson’s short film Hotel Chevalier (part one of The Darjeeling Limited)

Audio commentary featuring Anderson and cowriters

Behind-the-scenes documentary by Barry Braverman

Anderson and filmmaker James Ivory discussing the film’s music

Anderson’s American Express commercial

On-set footage shot by Coppola and actor Waris Ahluwalia

Audition footage, deleted and alternate scenes, and stills galleries

Original theatrical trailer

PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Richard Brody

Dollhouse: Season 2 (Bluray)

As an “Active,” the mysterious Echo (Dushku) serves as an unwitting agent of Dollhouse, and illegal underground organization that provides its elite clientele with programmable human beings. Actives receive personality imprints, allowing them to temporarily become anyone or anything — the perfect burglar, lover, spy, or assassin. Now, with the FBI and her own shadowy past closing in, Echo must face a rogue Active who will stop at nothing to bring Dollhouse down — forever.

Extras include:

• Audio commentary on “Vows”, by show creator Joss Whedon
• Audio commentary on “Belonging”, by writers Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen
• Defining Moments
• Looking Back
• Outtakes
• Deleted scenes

Exclusive HD Content

• Audio commentary on “Getting Closer”, executive producer and episode writer Tim Minear

Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones (Bluray)

Film of The Rolling Stones’ 1972 United States tour.

Tracks:

1. Brown Sugar
2. Bitch
3. Gimme Shelter
4. Dead Flowers
5. Happy
6. Tumbling Dice
7. Love in Vain
8. Sweet Virginia
9. You Can’t Always Get What You Want
10. All Down the Line
11. Midnight Rambler
12. Bye Bye Johnny
13. Rip This Joint
14. Jumpin’ Jack Flash
15. Street Fighting Man

Extras include:

Supplements

• Tour rehearsal footage from Montreux
• 1972 Old Grey Whistle Test interview with Mick Jagger
• 2010 interview with Mick Jagger

The Magician (Criterion Collection Bluray)

Ingmar Bergman’s The Magician (Ansiktet) is an engaging, brilliantly conceived tale of deceit from one of cinema’s premier illusionists. Max von Sydow stars as Dr. Vogler, a mid-nineteenth-century traveling mesmerist and peddler of potions whose magic is put to the test by a small town’s cruel, eminently rational minister of health, Dr. Vergerus. The result is a diabolically clever battle of wits that’s both frightening and funny, shot in rich, gorgeously gothic black and white.

Extras include:

Supplements

• New visual essay by Bergman scholar Peter Cowie
• Brief 1967 video interview with director Ingmar Bergman about the film
• Rare English-language audio interview with Bergman, conducted by filmmakers Olivier Assayas and Stig Björkman
• A booklet featuring an essay by critic Geoff Andrew, a reprinted essay by Assayas, and an excerpt from Bergman’s autobiography Images: My Life in Film

Wolverine and the X-Men: Complete Series (Bluray)

This show was badass.  Glad it is finally on bluray.  After a mysterious explosion at the Xavier mansion, and the resulting disappearances of Professor Xavier and Jean Grey, the distraught X-Men disband. But soon Wolverine, Storm, Beast and the others must join together again to not only battle the increasingly powerful Mutant Response Division, but also to prevent a catastrophic future that Xavier has warned Wolverine must never come to pass. With help from their allies, the heroic X-Men wage war against formidable foes as the present and future collide. But who will win? Discover for yourself as this extraordinary series is presented together in one complete collection like never before.

Supplements

• Audio commentaries
• Two unique featurettes

Leaves of Grass (Bluray)

I do not know much about this film, but I cannot believe this film did not get a major release.  It stars Edward Norton, Richard Dreyfuss, Tim Blake Nelson, Susan Sarandon, and Keri Russell.  An Ivy League professor is lured back to his Oklahoma hometown, where his twin brother, a small-time pot grower, has concocted a scheme to take down a local drug lord.  Sounds awesome.  I’ll be picking this up.

Well that’s it for this week.  Stay tuned for next week for new releases.