One of the best Blu-rays to come down the pike so far this year is the newly re-mastered edition of Chicago, the last musical to win a Best Picture Oscar.

With improved picture and sound, it lives up to Lionsgate’s hype as a more visually stunning presentation than it was during its theatrical debut a dozen years ago.

With changing tastes in year-end awards voting, Chicago, the first musical to win a Best Picture Oscar in thirty-four years may well be the last ever to pull off such a win. Film versions of the once more popular Broadway hits Sweeney Todd and Les Misérables couldn’t do it. Nothing on the horizon seems capable of the feat either, all the more reason to cherish the ones that did – West Side Story; My Fair Lady; The Sound of Music; Oliver!; Chicago – all of which have now been given well deserved enhanced Blu-ray editions except My Fair Lady which is in bad need of an upgrade in this, the 50th anniversary of the film’s initial release.

When Chicago first appeared on Broadway in 1975, it came in second to A Chorus Line in that year’s theatrical awards voting. The unimpressive 1985 film version of A Chorus Line, released on Blu-ray for the first time last month, caused musical aficionados to re-think the relative wealth of the two musicals. Indeed, the multi-award winning Broadway revival of Chicago in 1997 made audiences second guess the original’s loss all over again. That revival is still playing on Broadway seventeen years later.

The original production of Chicago, based on a 1920s play, twice filmed previously, was directed by the late Bob Fosse three years winning an Oscar for the superb film version of Cabaret, which was nominated for ten Oscars, winning eight but losing Best Picture to The Godfather. The film version was directed by Rob Marshall, who had directed the superb 1999 TV version of Annie. The screenplay was by writer-director Bill Condon, who had already won a 1998 Oscar for his screenplay for Gods and Monsters. Condon would later write and direct another successful film version of an award-winning Broadway musical, 2006’s Dreamgirls.

The cast of Chicago top-lined René Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, Queen Laitfah and John C. Reilly, who of whom except for Gere were nominated for Oscars with Zeta-Jones winning for Best Supporting Actress.

The new Blu-ray release includes over two hours of all-new content.

Man against the elements is a long-standing film theme. The latest in this distinguished lineage is All Is Lost, written and directed by J.C. Chandor who was nominated for a Best Screenplay Oscar for 2011’s Margin Call. With the legendary Robert Redford as its star, the film was one of last year’s most widely anticipated films. Unfortunately the film’s poor distribution didn’t help and the film flopped at the few theatres in which it was exhibited. Even talk of a likely Oscar nomination for Redford couldn’t save it. Perhaps it will have a shelf life on Blu-ray and DVD where it looks stunning.

Trashed by the critics, Oliver Hirschbiegel’s Diana is nevertheless a watchable picturization of the last two years in the life of the world’s most famous woman.

Focusing on the former Princess’s affair with a Pakistani heart surgeon, the film’s still bigger than life subject was just too much for such a modest film to do justice to. The romance between Diana (Naomi Watts) and Hasnat Khan (Naveen Andrews) never seems to be more than a passing infatuation despite apparent evidence to the contrary. Worse, Diana’s stalking of the busy doctor with only cursory looks into to her very busy public life makes her look shallow. The later affair with Dodi Fayed which led to her death is given scant coverage as well, making it look like she was using Fayed to make true love Khan jealous.

Watts does her best, though. Although she doesn’t deserve Oscar consideration, she doesn’t deserve her Razzie nod either.

Diana is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game first appeared as a short story in 1977, later expanded to a novel in 1985. Both Ender’s Game and its sequel, Speaker for the Dead, won Hugo awards for best science fiction novel. The film version of Ender’s Game is a mix of drama and special effects that doesn’t quite work.

Asa Butterfield, one of the best young actors working today, is excellent as the title character, a teenage recruit who rises to leader of the military group that takes on a race of genocidal giant insects. Butterfield is excellent, but stoic Harrison Ford as his mentor; Viola Davis as his protector and Hailee Steinfeld as his love interest have all done better work elsewhere. Abigail Breslin is wasted in a bit part as Butterfield’s sister. The special effects are effective, but generally unengaging.

Ender’s Game is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

The latest editions of two of Great Britain’s best mystery series are enjoying new releases available on both Blu-ray and DVD.

Co-created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss in 2010, the modern version of Sherlock now in its third season appears every year with a few tantalizing episodes. The sparkling cast includes Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes; Martn Freeman as Dr. Watson; Rupert Graves as Inspector Lestrade; Andrew Scott as Moriarty; Una Stubbs as Mrs. Hudson and co-creator Gatiss as Mycroft Holmes in constantly surprising episodes.

Set in the 1960s, Inspector George Gently, George Gently in the U.S., the melancholy series began with the murder of the title character’s wife and continues to present Martin Shaw and sidekick Lee Ingleby in unusually complex situations in a rapidly changing world now in its sixth year.

This week’s new releases include Foreign Correspondent and The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology.