Gran Torino (Warners) - Clint Eastwood's latest is a live-action cartoon in which the aging star plays an old, racist bigot who learns the error of his ways after befriending a family of immigrants next door. In Nick Schenk's shockingly banal script—which Eastwood earnestly directs—Walt Kowalski is a rascally Archie Bunker who tells off-color ethnic jokes, calls blacks "niggers" and Asians "zipper necks" for our evident delight. After all, who wouldn't laugh at such a dinosaur, especially when he's enacted badly by one of our foremost stars? Eastwood's "acting" consists of snarls, grunts and mutterings his patented Dirty Harry style. The supporting cast is crushingly amateurish, which might explain the raves for Eastwood's lazy performance. To top it off, the metaphor of the old man and his 1972 Gran Torino—both antiques out of place in today's world—is as forced as it is obvious. Nothing exceptional visually to begin with, the movie looks OK on BluRay; meager extras include two making-of featurettes and a three-minute segment about antique cars.

He's Just Not That Into You (New Line) - Several interlocking stories about characters falling into and out of relationships, He's Just Not That Into You is a familiar ride into territory that's been exhaustively covered, with Love Actually the most memorable. Based on the New York Times best-selling book, HJNTIY tries to get by on a cast of real stars, has-beens and wanna-bes, but since it's saddled with a script without an original thought in its head (from situations to conservations), it bogs down quickly, going nowhere fast. Except for Scarlett Johanssen, the women fare better than the men: Jennifer Connelly, Jennifer Aniston and especially Ginnifer Goodwin are sympathetic, while the men (Ben Affleck, Justin Long, Bradley Cooper and Kevin Connolly) are stereotypical and dull. New Line's BluRay transfer sparkles; hi-def extras are extended scenes and deleted scenes, including an entire subplot wisely cut in its entirety.

Iron Maiden: Flight 666 (Universal Music) - For its 2008 tour, the long-running Brish metal band Iron Maiden cut costs by having band members, crew and tons of equipment fly on the same airplane: and the pilot was the band's lead singer, Bruce Dickinson. The resulting film, Flight 666, is a fascinating glimpse into the backstage machinations of a rock'n'roll world tour, a tantalizing peek at the many countries visited, including India, Japan, Mexico and Costa Rica (along with the U.S. and Canada), and proof that heavy metal is truly a universal language. Of course, several of the group's biggest hits are included like "The Number of the Beast," "Can I Play with Madness?" and "Run to the Hills," all delivered with head-banging polish by a six men around 60 years of age. Shot in high-definition and with bludgeoning DTS-HD sound, the BluRay disc includes the film and a concert that includes each of the 16 songs song performed in different tour locales.

John Adams (HBO) - There's no doubting the excellence of the production values of John Adams, HBO's thorough seven-part mini-series about our second president. Based on David McCullough's biography, this account of Adams' life covers his defense of British troops accused during 1770's Boston massacre to his death over 50 years later, with everything else in between: the Revolution, the Declaration, the Constitution, his vice-presidency and presidency. Nicely shot and skillfully edited, director Tom Hooper's film is a tribute to American history's glories, with a powerful Laura Linney as Abigail Adams, a great actress carrying a great role to new heights. Too bad Paul Giamatti's John is not a believable Founding Father; he tries but can't help being entirely contemporary. There's good support from Stephan Dillane as Thomas Jefferson, David Morse as George Washington and Tom Wilkinson as Ben Franklin. BluRay gives this historical account an eye-popping look, and the exclusive extras are pop-up historical factoids and biographies of the main characters. Other extras are a behind-the-scenes feature and a 40-minute documentary about McCullough.

Lost, Seasons 1 & 2 (Buena Vista) - The first two seasons of the hit ABC series about the survivors of a plane crash and their adventures on a strange isolated island are finally released on BluRay, and the results are spectacular, visually and aurally. From the first intense images of the crash's aftermath in the pilot episode, the drama is made more gripping by the improved video and audio. Fans in the know are snapping up both sets as we speak. One question: why, if BluRay discs hold so much more information than standard DVDs, are there seven discs needed for each season? Along with the voluminous bonus features from the original DVD release, the BluRay Lost sets include SeasonPlay, which allows a viewer to watch the series' episodes in order, no matter how often one pops the discs into the machine.