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No Country for Old Men (Buena Vista, $29.99 for DVD, $34.99 for Blu-ray) — I thought this genre flick was vastly overrated, a good film but not a great one. It certainly appeared to have something serious to say — Tommy Lee Jones' sheriff bookends the film with searching voice-overs. In between, though, we hear very little from the sheriff. "No Country" was simply a well-executed film whose desolation has been mistaken for moral gravity. Most people beg to differ, however. The film just won four Oscars, including best picture, and was the one most commonly on the very top of critics' Top 10 lists. So nothing I say will affect sales, which, if Amazon.com's preorders are any indication, will be very high.

The Coen brothers don't seem very interested in recording audio commentaries for the DVD editions of their films, and they don't make an exception for their most critically acclaimed and commercially successful effort to date. We do hear a bit from Joel and Ethan Coen on the 24-minute making-of short. We hear more about them, though, in the eight-minute featurette "Working With the Coens." This is a love letter to the brothers from those who worked with them, including co-star Javier Bardem, who just picked up an Oscar for best supporting actor for the film. "They are like the same person with two heads," says Mr. Bardem, who seems to have been a big fan of theirs before he was even approached to do the film.

Mr. Jones is featured in both the making-of short and in "Diary of a Country Sheriff," a six-minute look at how his character tries to cope with the evil that Mr. Bardem's character personifies. He summarizes the film as "a comedy horror chase," which might also summarize a number of other Coen brothers films. Both he and the filmmakers talk about how Cormac McCarthy's novel was just waiting to be filmed. "It read like a treatment," Mr. Jones notes of the spare book on which the film was based.

Many video and audiophiles think the Blu-ray edition of the film is one of the best looking and sounding to have been released.

Nancy Drew (Warner Home Video, $28.98) — The millions of girls who grew up reading Carolyn Keene's Nancy Drew mysteries — I'm one of them — will immediately recognize the character on-screen in last year's eponymous movie adaptation. Nancy looks exactly like she's described in the books, with titian hair, a cheerful smile and impeccable clothes and manners. In fact, that's part of the spoof in this film that's almost as smart and spunky as its heroine. It takes place in the present day, but Nancy herself is clearly a throwback to the early 1960s, with her matchy-matchy clothes, chaste taste and gleaming roadster. Parents should appreciate the independent-minded sleuth with the can-do attitude, while young girls will find themselves won over by her charm and cleverness, much as Nancy's reluctant Los Angeles classmates are. If the classic heroine must be brought to life on-screen for today's less-read audience, Emma Roberts' amusingly old-fashioned take might be the best for which we could have hoped.

Most of the extras on this disc are under 10 minutes long, which, perhaps, is as long as the post-MTV generation can take. "Nancy Drew: Kids at Work" finds out what it's like to be a child actor, while mini featurettes like "Our IPod Ideology" finds out what's on those actors' IPods.

Other releases of note:

Dan in Real Life (Buena Vista, $29.99 for DVD, $34.99 for Blu-ray) — Steve Carell stars as the title character, a man who makes his living giving relationship advice whose own personal life could use a little help. The widowed father of three finally meets another woman he thinks can love (Juliette Binoche), and she turns out to be his brother's (Dane Cook) girlfriend.

This is one of the few releases we're noting this week that has a real slew of extras. They include a commentary with writer-director Peter Hedges, deleted scenes with commentary, outtakes, a making-of featurette and a look at the creation of the score with singer-songwriter Sondre Lerche.

August Rush (Warner Home Video, $28.98 for DVD, $35.99 for Blu-ray) — You might have noticed the song "Raise It Up" sandwiched between the tunes from "Enchanted" and winner "Once" on Oscar night last month. Most people watching the telecast probably hadn't even heard of the movie from which it was taken — "August Rush," which made a modest $31.7 million at the domestic box office last year. Critics were pretty divided over the story of a boy (Freddie Highmore, "The Golden Compass" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory") who hears music in everything around him. Whatever you think of this musical melodrama, there's no denying that the film has some great talent attached. Freddie Highmore is a talented little boy, and Keri Russell ("Waitress") and Jonathan Rhys Meyers ("Match Point") star as the parents he doesn't know he has. The only extras on the disc of this Oscar-nominated film are a few additional scenes.

Stargate: The Ark of Truth (MGM, $26.98) — "Stargate SG-1," based on the feature film "Stargate," was the Sci-Fi Channel's longest-running series. It began on Showtime and ended on Sci-Fi last year after a 10-season run, appearing on TV Guide's list of the 30 Top Cult Shows Ever. A spinoff, "Stargate Atlantis," is currently in its fourth season on Sci-Fi, and a fifth is planned. Fans — and there are many — can watch this direct-to-DVD film while they're waiting. They'll likely appreciate the resolution. It takes off where "SG-1" ended, completing a story arc that never ended satisfactorily in that series.

Appleseed Ex Machina (Warner Home Video, $24.98 for DVD, $34.99 for Blu-ray) — This sequel to 2004's "Appleseed" was also directed by Shinji Aramaki, but this time the talents of director John Woo have been added to the production team. The post-apocalyptic anime film is based on the popular manga by Masamune Shirow, who's also responsible for the acclaimed "Ghost in the Shell."