Welcome back once again. I hope the young year is finding you well and I certainly hope that you made the decision to skip the lone theatrical of the week in favor of one of the holdovers, or decided to curl up with a past DVD Pick of the Week recipient. I know, last week did not offer up much, but it did have some guilty pleasure titles. This week lands towards the other end of the scale. Three of this week's titles were recently vying for a spot on my as yet unpublished Top Ten of 2007 list. Beyond that, there are still plenty of titles to spark your curiosity or fuel your wariness.

Considering the quality of the week's highest profile releases, the pick of the week was a tough decision as three of them pulled ahead in a dead heat. As they rounded the first corner a western took the early lead, but the further they went it lost a bit of steam, falling into second place in the back straightaway. The next leader was a crime procedural from earlier this year. This film had the strongest legs, and stayed in the race the longest. Still, it too succumbed in the long run. Coming from the back of the pack was a fascinating film that combines spirituality, the bigger scope of humans communing with a higher spirit, with a more visceral slasher approach. It proved to be the one release that had what it takes to come out the other end a winner. Seriously, though, none of them are bad, and all are worth seeing, but only one can be deemed the Pick of the Week.

Following a long, hard, and grueling race to the finish, Danny Boyle's existential science fiction film, Sunshine, emerged the winner. How to describe Sunshine? Well, it's a blend of 2001, Event Horizon, Solaris, and even has a dash of Jason X for balance. An odd mix to be certain, but even with all of those flavors, director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland make it all seem fresh.

It is an evenly paced film that explores the effects of long-term space travel on the crew, as well as the super-serious ramifications of the success of their mission. It is a movie that travels in the realms of hard science and the metaphysical aspects of communing with God. I admit that some of the material escaped my grasp with only one viewing, but that failed to dampen the enjoyment I was able to extract from it. It is a movie that has some interesting things going on, and not all of it has to do with the primary plot.