This week's DVDs and Blu-Rays offer some treasures and some trash. First up is the beautiful Criterion Blu-Ray release of Luis Bunuel's Belle de Jour (1967), a great, bizarre masterpiece about marriage and sex, starring Catherine Deneuve (pictured above). This was already available on a pretty good Miramax DVD, but sadly, the new commentary track isn't much better than the old one. Couldn't they have hired Martin Scorsese to do it?
Next up is a film that made my ten best list for 2011, the 4-1/2 hour Mysteries of Lisbon, which was originally made for TV and won't lose anything on the small screen. The final film of the Chilean-born director Raul Ruiz, it's also a film that deserves to be watched at leisure. Two vintage Robin Williams features -- Good Morning, Vietnam and Dead Poets Society -- are now on Blu-Ray from Touchstone, and they both feature the comedian at his best, even if the movies are not always on par with him.
Rounding out the week, we have the overrated Oscar winner Traffic (2000), the forgotten Oscar contender The Ides of March, the disappointing Dirty Girl, and the outright terrible Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star. Following is the list, with links to reviews.
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