It seems like everything that could be said about Drive probably already has been said. At a 93% Rottentomatoes meter and a 79% Metacritic rating, it's one of the best films of 2011. It's not a huge surprise that it wasn't nominated for many Oscars, as it was quite a bit more violent than anything else that got nominated for Best Picture, aside perhaps from some scenes in War Horse. Still, a lack of awards season recognition isn't going to prevent me from adding it to my very selective Blu-Ray collection.
I suppose that one of the more remarkable things about Drive is how passionate people have been about it, on both sides of the coin; people who love it seem intent on defending it as a work of merit, while those who dislike it seem just as passionate about their feelings. That's a great thing!
As far as the rest of the releases this week go, there are quite a few of them. For the sake of timeliness, I've listed only the films that made over $1 million in the list below. Be sure to check the bottom of the list for films that are being re-issued on Blu-Ray, though, as there are some classics that you might want to pick up!
 | 1. In Time I really wanted to like this movie, and it still feels as though there were some great ideas locked away inside of it. In the end, even those ideas were a bit overwhelmed by immensely convenient and silly plotting. |
 | 2. Drive I think we've said enough about this film by this point, but if you haven't heard: it's pretty great. Of course, it was also last year's The American, in that many people who saw it thought it was absolutely stupid and horrible. Still, this is the first Blu-Ray I've bought on launch day in a while. It doesn't look like there's a commentary track, unfortunately. |
 | 3. Dream House By most accounts one of the least-necessary films of the last year, Rachel Weisz and Daniel Craig refused to do any press for the film after its director was removed from the editing room. Maybe there'll be some kind of genius director's cut for it in a few years, but...probably not. |
 | 4. The Thing Of all the films on this list that I haven't seen, this is the one that most intrigues me, even if I haven't heard especially good things about it. Still, ought to be worth a rental, right? ...right? |
 | 5. The Big Year More like The Big Flop, as this $41 million film managed to rake in $7.2 million...worldwide! It's a bit surprising, as the trio of actors certainly have a general amount of goodwill floating around for them, and one would think this would've drawn in older audiences, but I don't think they marketed it hard enough to ensure that anyone actually knew it was coming out. |
 | 6. The Mill & The Cross In addition to The Mill & The Cross, the following movies are coming to DVD after limited theatrical runs: Thunder Soul, The Double, The Other F Word, Outrage, Texas Killing Fields, Resurrect Dead: The Mystery Of The Toynbee Tiles, Janie Jones, Chalet Girl, You And I, Spork, The Chateau Meroux |
 | 7. Adaptation Older films getting new Blu-Ray releases include: Adaptation, Cold Mountain, The English Patient, Frida, Shakespeare In Love, To Kill A Mockingbird 50th Anniversary, Transformers Limited Edition Collector's Trilogy |
