What a great week for Blu-Ray releases! There's just too much to pick from to easily pick a single title as the best of the week, but, I'm gonna do it anyway...

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART ONE (Blu-Ray and DVD)

Well, okay, maybe it wasn't THAT hard to pick a winner. At least not for an unashamed Potter-geek like me. Sure, this came out LAST Friday (what's with this recent trend of Friday releases...screwin' with my timeline, biatches), but it's still what we're watching with fully unfurled geek flags this week. This penultimate chapter (anyone who doesn't take advantage of a good opportunity to use the word 'penultimate', I'll have no truck with) was more atmospheric and character-development oriented than I suspect a lot of theater goers were expecting, but it's their last chance to explore where these kids are in their heads before the magical apocalypse goes KA-FUCKING-BOOM all through Part Two. And speaking of, the blu-ray comes with a sneak peak at the upcoming July release, along with some suprisingly pertinent deleted scenes, a totally sweet PIP feature, and more. Sure, it's not going to have as much bonus goodness as the inevitable 'Ultimate' re-release, but more than enough to satisfy both casual and serious Potter fans in the meantime. Plus, this looks and sounds damn AMAZING on my home theater. And it will again. And again. And probably again. I really should get some work done SOMETIME this week.

--CLICK HERE FOR THE ORIGINAL SPILL.COM REVIEW

--CLICK HERE TO BUY Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 (Three-Disc Blu-ray / ...

--Also available NOW On Demand and for Download

...and then there's the rest...

FUBAR: BALLS TO THE WALL (Blu-Ray and DVD)

This is actually a sequel to a popular low-budget 2002 mockumentary film about two Canadian head-bangers, their subculture, and friendship. The sequel drops the mockumentary conceit and follows the best friends Terry (David Lawrence) and Dean (Paul Spence) as they are kicked out of their trashy party house and follow their old 'party leader' Troy (Andrew Sparacino) further north (there's further north than Canada?) to get jobs as pipeline layers. Despite both the front and back DVD cover's assertions of it being a 'METAL' movie, outside of an outrageously funny opening party sequence, "Fubar 2" shares more in common with "Trailer Park Boys" than "Spinal Tap". Despite its misrepresentation, "FUBAR 2" is quite entertaining and even surprisingly sweet towards the end. 

--CLICK HERE TO BUY Fubar: Balls to the Wall [Blu-ray]

THE KING'S SPEECH (Blu-Ray and DVD)

This really was one of the best mov... It was one of the best movvvvvvvv.....the best mov....it was pretty good. Maybe not (or definitely not) Best Picture of the Year good, as the Academy would have it, but WAY worth watching. Both Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush are at their very best here in this entertaining dramedy about the King-to-be with a crippling stutter. And just so you know, this ain't the goddamn PG-13 version either (WTF, Weinsteins?)

--CLICK HERE FOR THE ORIGINAL SPILL.COM REVIEW

--CLICK HERE TO BUY The King's Speech [Blu-ray]

MORTAL KOMBAT (Blu-Ray)

The one exception generally agreed on about the 'all videogame movies are bad' rule is the 1995 adaptation by schlock-master Paul W.S. Anderson. Not that it's not 'bad', per say (it is), but it's in that thin category where more folks than not seem to agree its 'bad, but super-fun anyway'. A lot of that has to do with the skills of Robin Shou, who plays Liu Kang, and a lot of it simply with the unforgettable soundtrack; it actually won awards for it! Either way, the first "Mortal Kombat" movie (by all means, avoid the sequel like the plague) is still entertaining as hell, and now, for you completists, it's on Blu-Ray. But don't expect anything new in the special features, except a preview of the new game. 

--CLICK HERE TO BUY Mortal Kombat [Blu-ray]

RABBIT HOLE (Blu-Ray and DVD)

Ready to be depressed? I mean, really, really, throw off your entire day? But, you know, in a perfectly performed and artful kind of way? We're not talking "Requiem for a Dream" levels of downer or style here, to be sure, but director John Cameron Mitchell's 2010 film about a couple (Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart) trying to heal their lives and their marriage after the death of their son is still a remarkable film. This is the kind of subtle filmmaking that critics adore but audiences in search of more visceral thrills might find a bit slow for their popcorn needs.

--CLICK HERE FOR THE ORIGINAL SPILL.COM REVIEW..oh wait, it's not available because Korey never posted it...

--CLICK HERE TO BUY Rabbit Hole [Blu-ray]

SOMEWHERE (Blu-Ray and DVD)

And while we're talking about your critic-bait largely without appeal to larger audiences, Sofia Coppola's 2010 entry "Somewhere" is a quiet character exploration in search of a reason to be. Unlike her largely acclaimed "Lost in Translation", this study of a popular young actor having an existential crisis relies almost entirely on the skills, such as they are, of her lead, Stephen Doriff. What's missing is having another strong lead to play him against so that he can become more than a tired cliche. You'd think from the trailers it would be Elle Fanning, who plays his daughter, but there's not actually a lot of screentime with the two of them together. What Coppola ended up with was a small, lovingly shot, but not terribly interesting film about a bored celebrity. I'm only half-way yawning.

--CLICK HERE FOR THE ORIGINAL SPILL.COM REVIEW

--CLICK HERE TO BUY Somewhere [Blu-ray]

HERE'S THE STUFF I DIDN'T GET TO SEE, BUT IS WORTH A MENTION...

IF GOD IS WILLING AND DA CREEK DON'T RISE (DVD)

Unsurprisingly, director Spike Lee chose to follow up his acclaimed 2006 Peabody award winning HBO documentary "When the Levees Broke" about Hurricane Katrina and its effects on New Orleans, with this 240 minute film that looks at both the rebuilding that has happened since, and the effects of the BP spill. Naturally, there's a look at the corruption of the New Orleans police department, investigations of who actually was responsible for the broken levees, and on the lighter side, the Saints finally winning the Superbowl right before Marti Gras (the year to BE there, I'd imagine). This seems like it would be a great accompanying film to go with the first season of HBO's fantastic series "Treme" (now available on DVD and Blu-Ray as well).

--CLICK HERE TO BUY If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise

SQUARE GROUPER (DVD)

You had me at 'Ganja'. Because this 2011 film from the makers of the ridiculously popular "Cocaine Cowboys" doc series, follows the care-free days of the pot smuggling scene in Florida in the seventies. It's divided up into three parts, examining an odd fundamentalist Christian sect that used pot as a sacrament and exported it as well, a used car dealer who had a massive smuggling operation and went to jail for 30 years because of it, and a whole city of fishing 'pot haulers'. Sounds like it's a double-bowl of popcorn type of feature to me.

--CLICK HERE TO BUY Square Grouper: Godfathers of Ganja