By Peter Covino
Lifestyles Editor

With the holidays upon us, it is nice to have some romantic images on the brain, and romance and fantasy abound in Woody Allen’s latest Midnight in Paris (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment).

Owen Wilson is Gil, the hopeless romantic in the film (which has been nominated for several awards in the acting and writing categories). He and his fiancee (played by Rachel McAdams are visiting Paris with her conservative parents. It is a major mismatch all the way around.

This is one of Allen’s best films in many years, with its lingering scenes of Paris streets today, as well as the Paris of that golden age in the 1920s. Every night at midnight, Gil goes for a walk and waits for vintage vehicle to pick him up and transports him to the Paris of Ernest Hemingway, Cole Porter, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein and many more. Along the way, he even falls in love with Adriana (Marion Cotillard), the mistress of Picasso.

Along with its great premise, Midnight in Paris also has a great ensemble cast which also includes Adrien Brody, Kathy Bates and Michael Sheen.

The scenes of Paris make this a good Blu-ray choice as well.

Both the Blu-ray and DVD contain a special featurette, Midnight in Cannes, and exclusive to the Blu-ray are cast and crew photo galleries.

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You can continue that holiday glow with the DVD release from Warner Home Video, the Emmy-winning 1977 television film, The Gathering.

Edward Asner and Maureen Stapleton steal the show in this drama about a hard-working businessman (Grant) who arranges a Christmas reunion with his family after he is diagnosed with only weeks to live.

The story may sound like a movie of the week cliche, but the acting is something special . This emotional and heartfelt holiday drama won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Special – Drama or Comedy (1978) as well as receiving an additional four nominations (Outstanding Art Direction, Outstanding Directing in a Special Program, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama or Comedy Special and Outstanding Writing in a Special Program Drama or Comedy - Original Teleplay).

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You can welcome the new year with lots of pomp and circumstance with Stars and Stripes Forever (Twentieth Century Fox 1953), now in Blu-ray.

This classic film biography about composer John Philip Sousa is sure to strike up the band in your home if you like movie bios. Clifton Webb is featured in one of his signature roles as Sousa, who was the leader of the Marine Corp Band in the 1890s, when he met Private Willie Little (Robert Wagner), inventor of the Sousaphone.

I don’t know anything about Sousa’s real life story and I suspect this is probably as much fiction as fact, but there is lots of great Sousa music, mixed in with this tale about the Spanish-American War and the romance between Willie (Wagner) and his showgirl girlfriend (played by Debra Paget).

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And one final Blu-ray/DVD for this holiday weekend, The Nutcracker: The Untold Story (Universal Studios Home Entertainment).

This is the classic holiday tale of the Nutcracker with eight new songs written by Tim Rice (The Lion King, Evita). But this is a re-telling of the story so it does take a major departure from the traditional Nutcracker tale that inspired Tchaikovsky for the ballet.

There is some nice imagery, but some of it is definitely kind of dark and scary for small children, the kind of stuff that might keep them up at night.

It is available in both Blu-ray and DVD formats.

The film stars Elle Fanning, Nathan Lane, Frances de la Tour and John Turturro and is rated PG.

Bonus features includes a making of featurette.