By Peter Covino
Entertainment Editor
When I saw Goodfellas for the very first time in September of 1990, I knew right away I was watching something special.
 Not that I was particularly surprised. Something less than extraordinary would have been a disappointment from director Martin Scorsese, who by this point already had Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Mean Streets and Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore under his belt.

But Goodfellas was simply amazing. I saw it again within a week, and to me, it's stature had already increased.

It's not surprising that Goodfellas was also my first DVD (not including a copy of Armageddon that I got, and quickly lost, from an electronic trade show.) That was back in the olden days of DVD technology, and since Goodfellas is about two and a half  hours long, you had to turn the disc over the since it just wasn't possible to fit a move that long on one disc.

Now it's Goodfellas' 20th anniversary and Warner Home Video has just released  a new Blu-ray version that includes a 34-page Blu-ray  book.

As usual, if you wait long enough, the version you have always wanted, comes along, and this is the version.

In addition to the Blu-ray book, which has got lots of great photos and facts, the two disc set is loaded with extras, including four mob-themed Warner Bros. cartoons (I Like Mountain Music, She Was a Acrobat's Daughter and Bugs and Thugs.)

Other bonus features include what may  be the definitive documentary about America's love affair with the movie gangster Public Enemies: The Golden Age of the Gangster Film. The documentary goes back to the roots of the gangster film with its biggest stars including James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson.

Other bonuses include documentaries/features that look at Goodfellas such as Getting Made, a look at the making of the film; Made Men: The Goodfellas Legacy; The Workaday Gangster and Paper is Cheaper than Film, a glimpse into Martin Scorsese's film-making process. The features offer dialogue and the thoughts from other filmmakers including Jon Favreau, Antoine Fuqua and Frank Darabont.
There also are interviews with Goodfellas' writer Nick Pileggi and actors Frank Vincent and Paul Sorvino. And that doesn't even include commentary with Scorsese, cast members Ray Liotta and Lorraine Bracco as well as ex-gangster Henry Hill and ex-FBI agent Edward McDonald.
Finally, there is the movie itself, which looks and sounds better than ever in its 16-by-9 digital transfer and Dolby 5.1 sound.

Remarkably, Goodfellas, one of the best films of the decade,  only received six Academy Award nominations and had just one winner,  Joe Pesce for supporting actor.  Dances With Wolves was the year's big winner with seven awards.

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Flash Forward, and I do mean FlashForward to 2009-10 to one of the more creative TV endeavors of the year.

Like the equally enticing Fringe, FlashForward is an episodic sci-fi TV series that actually is probably best seen on DVD.  And just out on DVD  is FlashForward Part One Season One (ABC Studios).
Even with Tivo and online viewing, for shows such as Fast Forward, a DVD disc set is the way to go.
You can just kick back and watch episodes at your leisure, but like Fringe, Fast Forward is addicting so don't plan on doing much  once you pop in that DVD.
FlashForward reels you right in with the opening scene: cars crash, planes fall from the sky and buildings burn. All over the world, everyone on the planet loses consciousness for 137 seconds. And here is the really intriguing part — just about everyone gets a glimpse of what their future will be like on a date six months in the future(from the show's premiere date) during the blackout.

A show is only as good as its characters and FlashForward has plenty of good ones with the central focus on two Los Angeles FBI agents — Special Agents Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes) and Demetri Noh  (John Cho). Benford has the most interesting “flash forward” on the show. In six months, he will be assembling a mosaic of clues about the flash forward incident and what it all means. So, throughout the series, he finds bit of information that he remembers on his mosaic board from the future. Agent Noh has no memories of any future dream, and he figures out right away, no memories means he will be dead within that time period — unless they can change the future.
Since just about everyone has a future dream,  the question “What did you dream about?”  becomes, as one of the characters says, the equivalent  of a  “How's the weather?” greeting.
It's a fairly large cast of about 13 regulars plus many more recurring  characters,  but the entire cast is interesting and with so many diverse storylines, it should make for an exciting outcome when the first season concludes.

And that is the only not so good thing about FlashForward. ABC (the show was actually developed for HBO) put the show on hiatus in December, announcing it would return in March with 14 new episodes, including a two-hour opener and a two hour season finale.
Until then, get this 10-episode set and wait  for the show to return in March.
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A new Joel and Ethan Coen movie is always a cause for celebration and though critically approved (it  is one of the 10 films nominated for best picture) the public did not flock  to see A Serious Man (Universal Home Entertainment).  The film only made about $16 million during its release in 2009.
With the Academy Awards fast approaching and the film now available on Blu-ray and DVD,  this retro look back at Jewish Midwest America should now get much more deserved attention.

The dark comedy is the tale of a husband and father (someone who should be very familiar if you have grown up on Woody Allen films.) Physics professor Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlberg) isn't a complete loser, but he certainly comes close. His wife is leaving him for an older, but more diverse guy at the school where he teaches, his unemployed brother won't leave the couch and when he does, worse things happen. And his young son and daughter don't exactly treat  him like father of the year.
 

Having the patience of Job would certainly apply here and poor Larry has lots of it, even though he is drowning and not even a series of rabbis can help him.
While not based in fact, the Coens, who appear in bonus material, said much of what you see in A Serious Man is at least partial truth. They did know people like this when they were growing up Jewish in the Midwest in the 1960s.
Bonus features (for both Blu-Ray and DVD) include Becoming Serious an interview with the Coen Brothers and what makes this their most personal film to date; Creating 1967, a tour of the Minneapolis neighborhoods and set pieces used in the film; and Hebrew and Yiddish for Goys, a look at the mysteries of the Hebrew and Yiddish language.

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Before Johnny Depp got tied down to the now tedious Pirates of the Caribbean franchise he used to make more films like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Universal Home Entertainment). The new Blu-ray  version makes this whacky tale, directed by Terry Gilliam, really pop as journalist Raoul Duke (Depp) and sidekick Dr. Gonzo (Benicio Del Toro) go on a drug-induced trip to Las Vegas. Drug-induced trips and Blu-Ray would appear to be a perfect combination.
Fear and Loathing is a highly-entertaining film, if you like films of this kind. The 1998 film, based on the book by writer Hunter S. Thompson, had Thompson's approval of hiring Depp to star and Gilliam to direct.

Like many films Fear and Loathing barely registered a blip when it was first released, but has gotten a lot more attention on DVD and is now a genuine cult film.
Plot? You want a plot? Don't worry about such details and glory in what a long, strange trip it is, as Gonzo and Raoul make the trip to Las Vegas to cover a  motorcycle race.
The long list of guest stars includes Tobey Maguire, Ellen Barkin, Christina Ricci, Cameron Diaz, Gary Busey, Mark Harmon, Laraine Newman, Christopher Meloni and the voice of Debbie Reynolds.