New on DVD: 2/22/11

SDG

This week, one of my favorite films of 2010 is available on DVD and Blu-ray: Aaron Schneider’s Get Low (buy), a loosely fact-inspired Depression-era comedy-melodrama starring Robert Duvall as an eccentric Tennessee backwoodsman who decides to throw himself a “funeral party” while he’s still alive. Duvall is Duvall, of course, but the whole cast is terrific: Bill Murray, Sissy Spacek, Lucas Black, Bill Cobbs.

Also new this week, DreamWorks’ Megamind (buy) is a rare Will Ferrell movie I can actually enjoy, and a surprisingly entertaining Superman spoof, with Brad Pitt as a man of steel with feet of clay and Tina Fey in the spunky gal-reporter role.

And don’t overlook Last Train Home (buy), an eye-opening documentary that takes the enormous human migration that occurs every year in China when urban workers go home for Chinese New Year as a point of departure for exploring Chinese culture today.

Finally, since I was too busy last week to note it, last week’s DVD releases include Waiting For “Superman” (buy), David Guggenheim’s thought-provoking documentary on the current state of public education, and Unstoppable (buy), a Tony Scott action-fest pitting Denzel Washington and Chris Pine against a runaway train.