Pretty sparse week when it comes to major studio releases this week; I’m highlighting a couple of foreign films finally getting a release not because I’m not interested in the studio releases, but also because there basically aren’t any! Instead, looks like the majors focused on television, with a whole raft of last year’s shows showing up on DVD in anticipation of shows returning this month. In Blu-ray, we get a bunch of early Coens, both individually and in a nicely-appointed box set. Criterion has a couple of quality French releases. Not much on the Instant Watch front either new or expiring, but news dropped this week that Starz will not be renewing their agreement with Netflix when it expires next year; Starz provides a good chunk of newer release films to Instant Watch, including the Disney ones, so whatever you want to watch from them, do it over the next few months (Starz-licensed films are clearly marked on Netflix with a Starz logo).

New Release Picks of the Week

In a Better World
Susanne Bier’s family drama of separated and grieving parents dealing with the potentially destructive path their young sons are taking won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film last year, which makes it at least worth putting on the to-watch list.
2010 Denmark. Director: Susanne Bier. Starring: Mikael Persbrandt, Trine Dyrholm.
Amazon DVD/Blu-ray Combo | Netflix

Police, Adjective
This has been on Instant Watch for a little while, following a fairly successful festival run in 2009, but I guess it’s just now making it’s way onto DVD? I’m not sure. In any case, I’ve enjoyed the other slow-burn films coming out of Romania in recent years, so it’s worth a look.
2009 Romania. Director: Corneliu Proumboiu. Starring Dragos Becur, Vlad Ivanov.
Amazon DVD | Netflix

OTHER NEW RELEASES
The 5th Quarter (2010 USA, dir Rick Bieber, stars Ryan Merriman, Aidan Quinn; Blu-ray/Netflix)
Bereavement (2010 USA, dir Stevan Mena, stars Michael Biehn, John Savage; Blu-ray/Netflix)
Forks Over Knives (2011 USA, dir Lee Fulkerson, stars T. Colin Campbell; Blu-ray/Netflix)
The Ideal Husband (2011 USA, dir John Ruffin, stars Darrin Henson, Erica Hubbard; Netflix)
Madea’s Big Happy Family (2011 USA, dir Tyler Perry, stars Tyler Perry; Blu-ray/Netflix)
Ne Change Rien (2009 Portugal, dir Pedro Costa, stars Jeanne Balibar; Netflix)
Norwegian Ninja (2010 Norway, dir Thomas Cappelen Malling, stars Mads Ousdal; Netflix)
The Perfect Host (2011 USA, dir Nick Tomnay, stars David Hyde Pierce; Blu-ray/Netflix)
Phantom Pain (2011 USA, dir Matthias Emcke, stars Til Schweiger, Jana Pallaske; Netflix)
Skateland (2010 USA, dir Anthony Burns, stars Shiloh Fernandez, Ashley Greene; Blu-ray/Netflix)
True Adolescents (2010 USA, dir Craig Johnson, stars Mark Duplass, Bret Loehr; Netflix)
Wrecked (2011 USA, dir Michael Greenspan, stars Adrien Brody, Ryan Robbins; Blu-ray/Netflix)

Classic / Older Picks of the Week

Orpheus Criterion
Criterion has had Cocteau’s Orphic Trilogy out before, but they lost the rights to the other two and had to pull the set out of print. However, they still have the rights to the middle film somehow, and are rereleasing it with a new look and in Blu-ray. As usual with Cocteau, a poetically entrancing film, chock-full of aesthetic and mythological pleasures.
1950 France. Director: Jean Cocteau. Starring: Jean Marais, François Perier.
Amazon DVD | Amazon Blu-ray | Netflix

The Complete Jean Vigo Criterion
Includes all four of Vigo’s films; the two short documentaries A propos de Nice and Taris, the near-feature Zero de conduite, and his masterpiece L’Atalante. I’ve yet to see any of these films, which I ought to fix soonish.
1930-1934 France. Director: Jean Vigo. Starring: various.
Amazon DVD | Amazon Blu-ray | Netflix

The Incredible Shrinking Man
I have a huge soft spot for classic sci-fi, and though it’s been a while since I saw this one, it stands tall in my memory despite its diminutive subject; full of campy thrills, but with a deeper-than-expected philosophical undertone.
1957 USA. Director: Jack Arnold. Starring: Grant Williams, Randy Stuart.
Amazon DVD

OTHER CLASSIC / OLDER RELEASES
The Cigarette Girl of Mosselprom (1924 USSR, dir Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky, stars Yuluiya Solntseva; Netflix)
Dagguerreotypes (1975 France, dir Agnès Varda, stars Agnès Varda; Netflix)
Face to Face (1976 Sweden, dir Ingmar Bergman, stars Liv Ullmann, Erland Josephson; Netflix)
Follow the Boys (1963 USA, dir Richard Thorpe, stars Connie Francis, Paula Prentiss)
George Sanders Saint Movie Collection (1939-1941 USA, dir various, stars George Sanders)
Strike (1925 USSR, dir Sergei Eisenstein, stars Grigori Aleksandrov; Blu-ray/Netflix)
When the Boys Meet the Girls (1965 USA, dir Alvin Ganzer, stars Harve Presnell, Connie Francis)
Where the Boys Are (1960 USA, dir Henry Levin, stars George Hamilton, Dolores Hart)

Blu-ray Picks of the Week

Coen Brothers Collection
There’s simply no other choice this week, as Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, and Miller’s Crossing make their Blu-ray debuts, packaged alongside the already-released but always worthwhile Fargo. This is the best of the Coens early work, and it’s not to be missed. The films are also available individually; see below.
1986-1996 USA. Directors: Joel & Ethan Coen. Starring: various.
Amazon Blu-ray

OTHER BLU-RAY RELEASES
Blood Simple (1984 USA, dir Joel Coen, stars John Getz, Frances McDormand)
Final Destination 2 (2003 USA, dir David R. Ellis, stars Michael Landes, Tony Todd)
Final Destination 3 (2006 USA, dir James Wong, stars Ryan Merriman, Kris Lemche)
If… (1969 UK, dir Lindsay Anderson, stars Malcolm McDowell, David Wood)
Miller’s Crossing (1990 USA, dir Joel Coen, stars Gabriel Bryne, John Turturro)
Raising Arizona (1989 USA, dir Joel Coen, stars Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter)
Top Gun (1986 USA, dir Tony Scott, stars Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis)
The Twilight Zone: Season Five (1964 USA, creator Rod Serling, stars Rod Serling)

Television Pick of the Week

Nikita: Season One
I must admit that I stopped watching this a few episodes in, but due to time constraints more than anything; it’s an update of the original La femme Nikita series, but more action-packed and svelt. I heard the rest of the season actually got better, so I’d love to check it out sometime.
2010 USA. Creator: Craig Silverstein. Starring: Maggie Q, Lyndsy Fonseca.
Amazon DVD | Amazon Blu-ray | Netflix

OTHER TELEVISION
90210: Season Three (2010 USA, creator Darren Star, stars Shenae Grimes; Netflix)
Cougar Town: Season Two (2010 USA, creator Kevin Biegel, Bill Lawrence; stars Courteney Cox; Netflix)
The Defenders (2010 USA, creator Kevin Kennedy, stars Jim Belushi, Jerry O’Connell; Netflix)
Desperate Housewives: Season Seven (2010 USA, creator Marc Cherry, stars Teri Hatcher; Netflix)
The Herculoids: Complete Series (1968 USA, creator Alex Toth, stars Mike Road, Virginia Gregg)
House: Season 7 (2010 USA, creator David Shore, stars Hugh Laurie; Blu-ray/Netflix)
iCarly: Season Three (2009 USA, creator Dan Schneider, stars Miranda Cosgrove; Netflix)
Murphy’s Law: Complete Collection (2001 UK, creator Colin Bateman, stars James Nesbitt; Netflix)
Parenthood: Season Two (2011 USA, creator Ron Howard, stars Lauren Graham; Netflix)
Running Wilde: Season One (2010 USA, creator Mitchell Hurwitz, stars Will Arnett; Netflix)
Sons of Anarchy: Season Three (2010 USA, creator Kurt Sutter, stars Charlie Hunnam; Blu-ray/Netflix)
The Vampire Diaries: Season Two (2010 USA, creator Julie Plec, Kevin Williamson, stars Nina Dobrev; Blu-ray/Netflix)

Instant Watch Picks of the Week

The Long Goodbye
It was a close call as to which Altman film I watched last year was my favorite, but this one was certainly a heavy contender, with its wonderful mix of hard-boiled detective homage and ennui adding up to that elusive postmodern thing – a loving tribute that is also a biting satire.
1973 USA. Director: Robert Altman. Starring: Elliott Gould, Sterling Hayden.

Some Like It Hot
The American Film Institute picked it as the funniest American movie of all time; I can’t argue too hard with that choice. I rewatched this a couple of weeks ago, actually, and it holds up pretty perfectly, aside from a few “why would a man want to marry a man” moments that actually make the film seem oddly old-fashioned and relevant at the same time.
1959 USA. Director: Billy Wilder. Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Joe E. Brown, George Raft.

Big Trouble in Little China
A film that gets a lot of love in Row Three circles, and that I’ve yet to see. I suppose I have no excuse now, huh?
1986 USA. Director: John Carpenter. Starring: Kurt Russell, Kim Cattrall, James Hong.

Airplane!
Widely considered one of the best parodies ever made, following the antics of a disaster-bound plane crew; this film has now become more well-known and loved than any of the prestigious disaster pics of the ’70s that it was lampooning.
1980 USA. Director: Jim Abrahams, David & Jerry Zucker. Starring: Robert Hays, Leslie Nielsen, Peter Graves, Robert Stack.

Dazed and Confused
Far from my favorite Linklater film, but I’m in the minority on that; its take on the rites of passage into high school life in the ’70s resonates strongly with a lot of people.
1993 USA. Director: Richard Linklater. Starring: Jason London, Matthew McConaughey, Ben Affleck.

OTHER INSTANT WATCHES
The Appaloosa (1966 USA, dir Sidney J. Furie, stars Marlon Brando, Anjanette Comer)
At Close Range (1986 USA, dir James Foley, stars Sean Penn, Christopher Walken)
The Cat O’Nine Tails (1971 Italy, dir Dario Argento, stars James Franciscus, Karl Malden)
Ceremony (2010 USA, dir Max Winkler, stars Michael Angarano, Uma Thurman)
Deuces Wild (2001 USA, dir Scott Kalvert, stars Fairuza Balk, Stephen Dorff)
Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (1974 USA, dir John Hough, stars Peter Fonda, Susan George)
The Enforcer (1976 USA, dir James Fargo, stars Clint Eastwood, Tyne Daly)
Hard Cash (2002 USA, dir Predrag Antonijevic, stars Christian Slater, Val Kilmer)
Kung Pow: Enter the Fist (2002 USA, dir Steve Oedekerk, stars Tad Horino, Joon B. Kim)
Max Manus (2009 Norway, dir Spen Sandberg, Joachim Roenningdir, stars Aksel Hennie)
MST3K: Gamera (1965 Japan, dir Noriaki Yuasa, stars Eiji Funakoshi, Harumi Kiritachi)
MST3K: Gamera vs. Barugon (1966 Japan, dir Shigeo Tanaka, stars Kojiro Hongo, Kyôko Enami)
MST3K: Gamera vs. Gaos (1967 Japan, dir Noriaki Yuasa, stars Kojiro Hongo, Kichijirô Ueda)
MST3K: Gamera vs. Guiron (1969 Japan, dir Noriaki Yuasa, stars Nobuhiro Kajima)
MST3K: Gamera vs. Zigra (1971 Japan, dir Noriaki Yuasa, stars Kôji Fujiyama, Daigo Inoue)
The Widow of St. Pierre (2001 France, dir Patrice Leconte, stars Juliette Binoche, Daniel Auteuil)
Zero Effect (1998 USA, dir Jake Kasdan, stars Bill Pullman, Ben Stiller)

See all new and upcoming titles.

Instant Watch Expiring Picks

The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996 USA, dir Renny Harlin, stars Geena Davis) [9/3]
Skins, Vol. 3 (2009 UK, creator Jamie Brittain, Bryan Elsley, stars Kaya Scodelario) [9/7]
Lonesome Dove (1989 USA, dir Simon Wincer, stars Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones) [9/10]
Return to Lonesome Dove (1993 USA, dir Mike Robe, stars Jon Voight, Barbara Hershey) [9/10]

See all expiring titles.

Disclaimers

• Amazon links use my affiliate account, and will kick a small percentage of your purchase back to me. You pay the same price you would anyway.
• Not all new releases are available on Netflix immediately. Some studio films have a 30-day release window before Netflix can rent them, and some smaller releases are not picked up by Netflix immediately. Add them to your “saved” queue if you’re interested; that tells Netflix there is demand for the disc.
• Not all new Blu-ray releases are available on Netflix – Netflix usually buys both DVD and Blu-ray editions of new releases, but if a DVD has already been released, they don’t always get the Blu-ray when it comes out later.
• Instant Watch releases are not always 100% accurate – often the data from the API is not fully accurate until the actual day of release. I always check on release day to make sure things actually do hit Instant Watch, but for things that come out later than Tuesday when I publish this post, I won’t be able to tell.
• Instant Watch expirations are not always 100% accurate – sometimes they don’t expire after all, sometimes things expire with little advance warning. I always check to make sure the data is accurate to the best of my knowledge when I publish the post, but things could still change, especially since I’m giving expiration warnings up to two weeks in advance.
• I rely on Box Office Mojo and InstantWatcher for the majority of the data for these posts, so thank you to them for the work they do.