Blu-ray Best Buys: March

The Oscar-decorated Inglourious Basterds heads Universal Pictures Video’s Blu-ray price promotions for March.

Quentin Tarantino’s exquisitely filmed but bloodthirsty World War II fantasy about a plot to blow up the Third Reich has flashes of cinematic brilliance but too few to justify its inflated running time, perverse violence and fatuous film brat dialogue.

However, Christoph Waltz deserved his best supporting Oscar win for playing a Jew-hunting Nazi with a sophistication that transcended the loathsome, infantile nature of a movie that inexplicably was nominated for seven other Academy Awards (with only the nods for editing and cinematography being warranted).

From March 10-April 14, fans can snap it up on Blu-ray for less than $30, along with Public Enemies, Bruno, Funny People, Fast & Furious and Coraline.

Going for under $25 are State of Play, Land of the Lost, Role Models, The Mummy: The Tomb of the Emperor Dragon, Wanted, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, Mamma Mia, Death Race 2000, Hot Fuzz, The Grinch, Duplicity, The Boat That Rocked, Tale of Despereaux and Terminator 2: Skynet Edition.

Temporarily being discounted to under $20 are Leatherheads, Doomsday, Untraceable, Scorpion King: Rise of a Warrior, 8 Mile, Baby Mama, The Unborn and Basic Instinct.

Also watch for box set specials of The Fast & the Furious, and the Rambo, Bourne and Mummy trilogies.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment also has some some great Blu-ray buys this month. Its under-$20 campaign includes: The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, A Few Good Men, In the Line of Fire, Gattaca, The Big Hit, Can’t Hardly Wait, Cruel Intentions, American Psycho, Tears of the Sun, Mirrormask, Anger Management, XXX: The Next Level, All the King’s Men (2006), The Pink Panther and Are We Done Yet?

Another $5 will buy you: Ghostbusters, Donnie Brasco, The One, Young Guns, Hellboy, Into the Blue, Superbad, 3:10 to Yuma (2007), 21, Quarantine, Dragon Wars and The Forbidden Kingdom.

Sony’s under-$30 campaign dusts off My Bloody Valentine 3D, Step Brothers, Crank, The Spirit, Seven Pounds, Crank: High Voltage and Earth.

Roadshow Entertainment’s back-catalogue bargains for March include $40 Blu-ray premieres of Tristan + Isolde, Rob Roy, Romancing the Stone, Mrs Doubtfire and The Last King of Scotland.