new on DVD: ‘The Lives of Others,’ ‘Serenity,’ ‘Perfect Stranger,’ ‘The Ultimate Gift’

See it:

• The Lives of Others [buy it]. From my review:

The last line, the last look, the last moment: every movie lover knows that the ending can make or break a film. The Lives of Others -- which just won a very well deserved Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film -- has one of the greatest final lines of dialogue that I’ve ever heard in a movie. It’s so seemingly mundane that if I were to tell you what it is, you’d shrug and go, “Eh. What’s the big deal?” I won’t tell you, even though it wouldn’t spoil the film in any way, because I want you to be as haunted by its unexpected simplicity as I have been since I saw the film a few days ago. I keep coming back to that line -- and to the look on the actor’s face, which encompasses everything strange and beautiful and hopeful and ironic about the film -- and marveling at it.

• Serenity: Collector's Edition [buy it]. Mal Reynolds and Co. get another DVD release, now with more pretty.