Ian Holm

CHICAGO – I adore David Cronenberg. He’s one of the most important filmmakers of his generation from “Videodrome” (also available in a great Criterion release) to “The Fly” to “Dead Ringers” to “The History of Violence.” He matters. And yet I’ve never been in love with “Naked Lunch,” recently released in Criterion Blu-ray and DVD. It’s one of those movies that I always admired but never loved. It’s about all that could be done with a Burroughs’ book, one that clearly could not be directly adapted into film, but I find it more interesting as a filmmaking exercise than an enjoyable piece of work on its own. Having said that, the Criterion treatment of it is expectedly stellar.

CHICAGO – “Brazil” is more than a movie. The story behind the film’s tumultuous production and release became nearly as essential to its history and arguably more so than the film itself. The special feature on the new Criterion release, “The Battle of Brazil” is a fascinating examination of expectation, ego, and commerce vs. art that all movie fans must see. And, of course, the movie is an undeniable sci-fi masterpiece.

Warner Bros. released another one of their book editions of a catalog Blu-ray film and while some of these seem somewhat random in their timing, this one has a nice real-world tie-in as “Chariots of Fire” hits stores just in time for the 2012 Olympics. “Chariots of Fire” is a well-made epic even if my strongest memory of it is related to the stunned realization that it is the movie that beat “Raiders of the Lost Ark” for Best Picture. Yes, the Academy makes mistakes too.