Apollo 13 (1995) — PICK
Double Indemnity (1944) — PICK
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) — PICK

“Houston, we have a problem.” 20 years after its debut, Ron Howard’s “Best Picture” winner, Apollo 13, lands on Blu-ray with a digital HD version.

Noted for its extraordinary depiction of weightlessness — relying in part on actual near-weightlessness in scenes shot in a NASA “vomit comet” training aircraft — Apollo 13 is a beautifully paced, gratifyingly accurate depiction of an extraordinary chapter from the days of the space race.

Tom Hanks’ everyman star power is at its peak as Jim Lovell, commander of the doomed mission, but Apollo 13 is an ensemble film about a team effort uniting the astronauts in space and the mission crew on the ground, and Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise and The Right Stuff’s Ed Harris are all vital to the film’s success.

Following last year’s 70th anniversary “limited edition,” Billy Wilder’s noir masterpiece Double Indemnity is back in a (presumably less limited) Blu-ray edition. The film is a brilliant bit of counterintuitive casting, not only for putting the traditionally endearing Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck in the roles of a pair of utterly unsympathetic scoundrels, but also for pitting them against Edward G. Robinson, best known for playing intimidating gangsters, as a likable claims adjuster playing amateur detective.

The Gregory Peck classic To Kill a Mockingbird is now out in a one-disc Blu-ray for half the price.

Perhaps his most iconic role, Peck’s Atticus Finch is one of Hollywood’s most celebrated heroes, As a beloved father figure, he’s strong but gentle, self-sacrificing but not emotionally demonstrative, adored by his children but somewhat distant.

As an idealistic lawyer, Atticus embodies the principles and ideals of society, while at the same time taking an enlightened stand against the entrenched bigotry of his time and place. He is even humanized by his failure in the film’s central trial; as idealized as he is, he is no Superman.

Caveat Spectator:  Apollo 13: Recurring profanity and a crude reference; brief clinical bathroom content, brief innuendo and mild sexual content (nothing explicit). Double Indemnity: Adultery theme and much innuendo; restrained references to domestic abuse and sexual violence; an elaborate murder plot (nothing shown) and some gunplay; lots of smoking. To Kill a Mockingbird: Restrained references to an alleged rape; off-screen violence; repeated use of an offensive racial epithet. All three fine for teens and up.