PICK OF THE WEEK:
Zodiac
(Paramount)
Notoriously detail-
oriented filmmaker David Fincher evidently got more obsessive than his studio could stand this year, with an engrossing procedural about a hunt for a serial killer who never gets caught. Seven minutes of his “director’s cut” are restored in this new release — and better still, the digitally-shot feature is now on high-def in addition to regular DVD.
The Pianist
(HD-DVD)
(Universal)
An epic struggle with a more crowd-pleasing ending, Roman Polanski’s tale of Holocaust survival is being reissued this week on HD-DVD only.
Sunshine
(Fox)
Up until the closing scenes, when it veers off the rails, Danny Boyle’s heliocentric sci-fi leans toward the kind of rich philosophical pleasures rarely seen in today’s science fiction.
3:10 to Yuma
(Lions Gate)
Last year’s remake of a film that worked beautifully the first time around arrives this week, allowing couch potatoes to host double-features pitting Russell Crowe’s polite villainy against that of Glenn Ford.
Dragon Wars (Sony, DVD & Blu-ray); Eagle vs. Shark (Miramax): Two slightly different takes on the eternal battle of beasts — the former, an over-the-top Godzilla-style affair, the latter, a humble New Zealand rom-com in which a meek gal tries to love a fella (Flight of the Conchords’ Jemaine Clement, a lot less likeable here) who does her wrong. •
