STUDIO: Fox | DIRECTOR: Sean Durkin | CAST: Elizabeth Olsen, Sarah Paulson , Hugh Dancy, John Hawkes
BLU-RAY & DVD RELEASE DATE: 2/21/2012 | PRICE: DVD $29.98, Blu-ray $39.99
BONUSES: short film; BD adds featurettes, conversation with filmmakers, music video, more
SPECS: R | 102 min. | Drama thriller | 2.40:1 widescreen | Dolby Digital 5.1/DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 | English and Spanish subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

Marking an impressive debut for writer-director Sean Durkin, Martha Marcy May Marlene is haunting drama-thriller about the realities of living in a cult.

Sarah Paulson (r.) attempts to unwind Elizabeth Olsen in Martha Marcy May Marlene.

Elizabeth Olsen (Silent House), sister of Mary-Kate and Ashley, turns in a mesmerizing performance as Marcy May, a young woman who has recently fled from a cultish sect based in upstate New York led by the charismatic but dangerously manipulative Patrick (John Hawkes, Contagion). While trying to adjust to living with her older sister Lucy (Sarah Paulson, TV’s Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip) and her architect husband Ted (Hugh Dancy, Confessions of a Shopaholic) at their vacation home, Marcy has visions of what her life was like with Patrick and his followers and wonders whether they are nearby, planning to force her back into living with them.

Durkin’s approach of slowly building tension by shifting time backwards and forwards and leaving out large chunks of the lead characters’ back-stories heightens the story’s inherent creepiness. The quietness of the proceedings plays off these and makes the time shifts jarring, leaving the audience off-kilter and trying to figure out at exactly when certain incidents have occured in Marcy’s life.

Olsen has received fine notices for her tour-de-force efforts—alas, no Academy Award nomination—and she is aided by fine support from all around her, particularly Hawkes, who was so menacing in last year’s Winter’s Bone. Eliciting such fine performances, dealing with the subtle time transitions and handling such intimate, disturbing material is a challenge for even the most seasoned filmmakers, which makes Durkin’s efforts here even more impressive.

While the Blu-ray edition of MMMM is outfitted with a bunch of supplemental featurettes and interviews, the only bonus on the DVD is Durkin’s 2010 short Mary Last Seen. A prequel to MMMM that Durkin made after financing issues delayed the production of his  feature-length project, Mary Last Seen is a similarly creepy piece that looks at the abduction of a young girl by a cult. The film was well-received at festivals, winning Best Short at the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes and thus jump-starting production on MMMM.

Buy or Rent Martha Marcy May Marlene
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STUDIO: Universal | DIRECTOR: Matthijs van Heijningen | CAST: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Ulrich Thomsen, Eric Christian Olsen, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Kim Bubbs
BLU-RAY & DVD RELEASE DATE: 1/31/2012 | PRICE: Blu-ray/DVD Combo $34.98 , DVD $29.98
BONUSES: commentary, featurettes, deleted and extended scenes
SPECS: R | 103 min. | Science fiction horror | 2.40:1 widescreen | DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1/Dolby Digital 5.1 | English, French and Spanish subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

It’s easy to dismiss a remake or a sequel or a prequel or a “re-imagining” of a not-all-that-old movie as simply being not necessary. It’s a cop-out of sorts that reviewers shouldn’t fall prey to, but it really must be said in regards to 2011’s The Thing.

A prequel that serves as a sequel to John Carpenter’s 1982 version of The Thing, which was itself a remake of by Christian Nyby and Howard Hawks’ 1951 film of the same name, this latest version, directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr., isn’t even a fresh “re-imagining” of the story, but rather a replay of what we’ve seen in the earlier films.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Ulrich Thomsen check out The Thing.

Like its predecessors, The Thing unfolds at a remote Antarctic research station where a group of scientists discover a mysterious organism that’s been buried beneath the ice  for thousands of years. Apparently an extraterrestrial lifeform (the buried spaceship uncovered near its body is a dead giveaway), the strange creature proves to be a gooey, mean-spirited, shape-shifting alien that’s eager to infiltrate the camp, unleash a flood of paranoia, wreak havoc and kill everyone.

The Thing’s action takes place in the weeks prior to the 1981 version of the film, ending at exactly the point where Carpenter’s version kicks off. That said, much of the action and slimy visual effects (a not-bad amalgam of CGI, models, prosthetics and splattery make-up) are nearly identical to that seen in the Carpenter version. There are some minor variations and flourishes to be found, but not enough to warrant a “re-imagining” or sequel or prequel or whatever you want to call it. Again, why make it if there’s nothing new to be said?

Leading lady Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) offers a little relief from a mostly forgettable cast of men who don’t have all that much do apart from fighting amongst each other and dying gruesome deaths. She definitely deserves a better genre project, though she does wield her flamethrower with a whole lot of confidence.

Picture and sound quality on the Blu-ray are solid, even if the movie is not.

The bonus features are rather standard, with a chatty commentary by director van Heijningen and producer Eric Newman and a pair of featurettes that look at the action scenes, visual effects and, most enjoyably, the admiration everyone has for the John Carpenter film. Yes, we admire that one, too.

Buy or Rent The Thing (2011)
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STUDIO: Universal | DIRECTOR: Jim Sheridan | CAST: Daniel Craig, Naomi Watts, Rachel Weisz, Elias Koteas
BLU-RAY & DVD RELEASE DATE: 1/31/2012 | PRICE: DVD $29.98, Blu-ray/DVD Combo $34.98
BONUSES: featurettes
SPECS: PG-13 | 92 min. | Thriller | 2.40:1 aspect ratio | 5.1 DTS-HD audio | English, Spanish, French subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

When Dream House screened in theaters, critics gave it the big raspberry, but it’s a much better film than they’d have you believe.

The movie tells the story of Will Atenton (Daniel Craig, Cowboys & Aliens) and his wife (Rachel Weisz, The Whistleblower) as they move with their two daughters into their dream house, only to discover that a family was murdered there years ago.

Sounds like fodder for a horror movie; the killer’s back and slashing up the new owners or some such genre plot. But this isn’t a horror film. It’s a psychological thriller that unspools as Craig’s character makes discoveries about the house as well as his own past. And that’s where the marketing went wrong for this film.

Dream House boasts a tidy, twisty script by David Loucka (Borderline), good performances across the board, and sensitive direction by Jim Sheridan (Brothers). It’s not a perfect movie. The pacing is slow in places, and you do have to accept certain things (one big one, like why some characters would even be allowed to be walking around in society if they’re supposedly a “danger to themselves and other people”). Dream House also almost ends up being two films tacked together, the outer mystery and the psychological one. But through all that is a good story about love, trauma and what we consider reality.

Shot with silhouettes and dreary days contrasting with their bright warm home, the movie’s high-definition presentation on the Blu-ray is great. The blacks are deep and the colors sharp. They play beautifully against John Debney’s (No Strings Attached) enchanting score, which is clear and haunting in the Blu-ray’s DTS-HD.

Universal kept the special features on the Blu-ray minimal, with just four featurettes that are so quick, they’re almost non-existent. The most interesting one looks at the scene in which the filmmakers burned the house. The others reveal that the neighbor’s house was built for the movie, interviews with the cast and a promotional piece with the actors telling the story between scenes from the film.

Buy or Rent Dream House
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STUDIO: Fox | DIRECTOR: David Frankel | CAST: Steve Martin, Jack Black, Owen Wilson, Joel McHale, Jim Parsons, Rashida Jones, Angelica Huston, Dianne Weist, Brian Dennehy, Kevin Pollak, Anthony Anderson
BLU-RAY & DVD RELEASE DATE: 1/31/2012 | PRICE: DVD $19.99, Blu-ray/DVD Combo $29.99
BONUSES: extended version; BD adds featurette, gag reel, 12 deleted scenes
SPECS: PG/NR | 100 min. | Comedy | 2.35:1 widescreen | Dolby Digital 5.1/DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 | English and Spanish subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

A major studio movie about birding, the comedy The Big Year seems struck from the indie film template if not for the fact that it stars Jack Black (Gulliver’s Travels), Owen Wilson (Midnight in Paris) and Steve Martin (It’s Complicated).

Steve Martin (l.), Jack Black (c.) and Owen Wilson look to the skies in The Big Year.

The three play hyper-competitive bird enthusiasts (not “bird watchers”) on simultaneous quests for a “Big Year,” in which they travel North America attempting to break the record for most species spotted in 365 days. The record holder is Kenny Bostick (Wilson), a smug ornithologist who deceives and sabotages others and runs “afowl” of his wife as he tries to break his own mark – while preventing others from eclipsing it.

Martin and Black’s characters, both in crises, are painted as being more enamored of the quest itself than the acclaim that comes with winning the Big Year. Black’s Brad Harris, in particular, is as interested in earning the respect of his disapproving father (Brian Dennehy, The Next Three Days) as the recognition itself.

Unfortunately, the big trouble with The Big Year is one of scale. While the story certainly lends itself to some humor, the three oversized comedic personalities go full-tilt when the quirky, esoteric plot demands subtlety. And the script just doesn’t support their efforts, with precious few laughs. Why hire three comedy icons and then muzzle them? Three unknowns, maybe including one with a British accent, would have done more with less given the material. Granted, The Big Year is based on a true story, but that’s never stopped Hollywood from concocting characters or playing with the facts before.

Appropriately, the best performances come from Dennehey, who exhibits irritation, pride and almost everything in between, and Rashida Jones (The Social Network), whose breezy, on-the-birding-fringe Ellie becomes Brad’s object of affection while tempering his obsessive nature.

Most of the movie takes place in natural settings, and the DVD serves them up with the vitality of an Audubon Society fundraising calendar. Strangely, for a movie about birds, we don’t see many colorful species, at least not in close up. One scene, though, of two bald eagles in a mating ritual, is breathtaking and looks like it could’ve been lifted from the BBC/Discovery Channel series Life.

The soundtrack never has the need to wow but is feathered with a nice selection of contemporary pop tunes (including Coldplay’s anthem “Viva La Vida,” always welcome) to complement lots of bird calls.

The DVD includes both the theatrical and extended edition of the movie, which runs about five minutes longer. That’s it for extras, however, the Blu-ray adds the featurette “The Big Migration” and a dozen deleted scenes, along with the extended cut.

The Big Year is a flighty piece of entertainment that will probably have mixed company smiling, but it could have soared much higher.

Buy or Rent The Big Year
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STUDIO: Image Entertainment | DIRECTOR: Michael Brandt | CAST: Richard Gere, Topher Grace, Michael Sheen, Tamer Hassan, Stephen Moyer, Odette Annable
BLU-RAY & DVD RELEASE DATE: 1/31/2012 | PRICE: DVD $27.97, Blu-ray $29.97
BONUSES: commentary, featurette
SPECS: PG-13 | 98 min. | Thriller | 2.35:1 aspect ratio | 5.1 DTS-HD audio | English, Spanish subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

The Double harkens back to the spy thrillers of the 1980s when the Russians are the bad guys. The movie stars Richard Gere (Brooklyn’s Finest) playing a character similar to that of The Jackal‘s Declan Mulqueen, minus the Irish accent. He’s a retired CIA agent who in his heydey brought down six of the Cassias 7, a group of Soviet assassins.

Now, a senator has been killed in the style of Cassias and Gere’s Paul Shepherdson is brought out of retirement to finish the job he started. Trouble is, he’s paired with a young FBI agent (Topher Grace, Take Me Home Tonight), who thinks he knows more about Cassias than Shepherdson, which complicates things for the CIA agent.

I won’t reveal any of the movie’s secrets, but The Double fits its name, with lots of twists and turns. Writers Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, the team behind Wanted and 3:10 to Yuma, reveal the surprises well. But the best part of their script is that the characters aren’t as two-dimensional as many in this genre. They all have secrets — that we don’t know until the end — but it’s those secrets that drive them and help us like even the bad guys a little.

Gere strides through his role like it’s an old comfortable shoe. Grace, on the other hand, is the film’s main negative. His comic, cheery good ole’ boy schtick worked in a similar kind of role in In Good Company, but it falls horribly flat and unbelievable in The Double. Grace gets a grade for trying, but he can’t get the subtle depth that’s needed for a thriller like this.

In its high-definition Blu-ray presentation, the movie looks good, showing off the differences in color between the present and the flashbacks of the past. The sound is fine too, with gunshots blazing but quiet dialog still clear.

The special features list on the Blu-ray is small, just a brief featurette with interviews and a commentary with Brandt, who also made his directorial debut with The Double, and Haas.

Brandt and Haas are comfortable in their track, chatting like the old friends they are. They made this film themselves, having sold the script to MGM 10 years before and bought the rights back after the movie was never produced. As such, they talk about their experiences with indie filmmaking, including why locations were chosen (film tax incentives), among other tips.

Although the Blu-ray menu says the featurette is “Producer Interviews,” don’t be fooled. The interviews are actually with Gere, Grace, Brandt and Haas discussing the movie, the story and the characters. Gere is the most interesting, describing how the bad guys aren’t all bad, which makes them more human. “Very few of us have the strength to do the right thing all the time,” he says. One warning: This featurette does reveal the movie’s twists, so watch it after you’ve seen the film itself.

Buy or Rent The Double
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STUDIO: Magnolia | DIRECTOR: Takeshi Kitano | CAST: Beat Takeshi, Kippei Shiina, Ryo Kase, Tomokazu Miura, Jun Kunimura
BLU-RAY & DVD RELEASE DATE: 1/31/2012 | PRICE: DVD $26.98, Blu-ray $29.98
BONUSES: making-of featurette, cast interviews, panel interview, premiere Q&A, Cannes premiere
SPECS: R | 109 min. | Foreign language crime drama | 2.35:1 widescreen | Dolby Digital 5.1/DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 | Japanese with English subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

Takeshi Kitano, aka Beat Takeshi, is one of the most versatile individuals in contemporary Japanese culture. He has done everything from writing poetry and painting to sportscasting and hosting tacky gameshows. As an actor, he has played a wide variety of roles, but is best known for his turns as an unemotional yakuza. Outrage: Way of the Yakuza marks his return to the yakuza drama, and it offers all of the pleasures of a great gangster movie with the wonderfully precise visuals and editing that are characteristics of his best work.

Beat Takeshi takes out one of his many betrayers in Outrage.

Fans of “Beat” (his nickname for acting and standup comedy) are sure to embrace this 2010 film as American fans would a new western with Clint Eastwood. The movie’s plot consists of nothing but one betrayal after another, but narrative construction isn’t the point with Kitano — his films strip genres down to the bare essentials, and then present those essentials in a refreshingly off-kilter fashion.

For instance, the film contains numerous sequences of imaginatively nasty violence, but in nearly every instance, Kitano dotes on the insinuation (and aftermath) of the action, not the action itself. The cruel violence dished out by his characters is either glimpsed briefly or happens between the edits. (Along with being its star, Kitano also served as the film’s co-editor, as well as director, writer and executive producer.)

The joy of watching Kitano tackle such an overly familiar genre is watching him play with the conventions as he delivers the mayhem. Thus, it’s not a matter of who will die in this film — it’s more of a matter of when they will be killed by a deceitful “brother” yakuza and how the betrayer will do him in. (Women exist in this universe, but only as spouses and collateral victims.)

The DVD extras offer several interviews with Kitano and the other stars of the film, at a cumulative running time that is nearly the same length as the movie. The cast are as polite as they can be, but a few of the actors note their dismay at finding out that Kitano dislikes the rehearsal process, so he often skips over it entirely.

Outrage is not Kitano’s all-time best film (that honor would still go to the out-of-print Fireworks), but it serves as a good introduction to his very unique style of moviemaking. And as a potent reminder to never doublecross a Japanese gangster…

Buy or Rent Outrage: Way Of The Yakuza
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STUDIO: Criterion | DIRECTOR: IshirĂ´ Honda | CAST: Akira Takarada, Momoko Kochi, Akihito Hirata
BLU-RAY & DVD RELEASE DATE: 1/24/2012 | PRICE: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $39.95
BONUSES: commentary, U.S. version, featurettes, new interviews
SPECS: NR | 96 min. | Foreign language monster drama | 1.37:1 fullscreen | monaural | Japanese with English subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

Godzilla, the movie debut of the undisputed King of the Monsters (and sequels), continues to command respect in the digital domain with Criterion’s handsome new two-DVD set, which includes both IshirĂ´ Honda’s original 1954 Japanese version and the re-edited, additional-scenes-laden 1956 American movie starring Raymond Burr (TV’s Perry Mason).

Godzilla stomps across Tokyo in his 1954 movie debut.

Without a doubt, the original 98-minute Japanese Gojira is the better film of the pair, featuring a stronger human element to the story as well as a more effective anti-war (specifically, anti H-bomb) message.

Like Classic Media’s excellent 2006 DVD edition of the film, Criterion’s Godzilla DVD comes filled with supplemental features, though they’re all completely different.

Included this time around are new interviews with actor Akira Takarada, Godzilla perfomer Haruo Nakajima, effects technicians Yoshio Irie and Eizo Kaimai and Japanese film critic Tadao Sato.

There’s also an excellent new essay by Stateside film critic J. Hoberman, who contrasts the film with Akira Kurosawa’s (High and Low) 1955 nuclear war-themed I Live in Fear.

The best DVD bonuses of the batch are the commentary tracks by film historian David Kalat, author of A Critical History and Filmography of Toho’s Godzilla Series. Energetic and informative — particularly in passages when he points out the political background and reasoning behind certain scenes that were excised for the U.S. release — the tracks on the two films are also delivered with a good sense of humor and fun. Kalat certainly is aware that he’s delivering lectures on a giant fake monster with atomic breath, after all.

The visual and audio quality of the films are quite fine, though I don’t know if it’s that much better than that of the Classic Media edition.

Buy or Rent Godzilla
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STUDIO: Fox | DIRECTOR: Andrew Niccol | CAST: Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy, Vincent Kartheiser, Olivia Wilde
BLU-RAY & DVD RELEASE DATE: 1/31/2012 | PRICE: DVD $29.98, Blu-ray/DVD Combo $39.99
BONUSES: deleted/extended scenes; BD adds featuette
SPECS: PG-13 | 109 min. | Sci-fi thriller | 2.35:1 widescreen | Dolby Digital 5.1/DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 | English, Spanish and French subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

A perfectly engaging concept if you don’t think about it too hard, In Time is set in a society in the near future in which time — added to or deducted from your life — has replaced money as currency. Every second counts as people stop aging at 25 and are engineered to live only one additional year. They then spend, earn, borrow and steal additional minutes, hours and days, until they either amass enough to essentially become immortal (the “rich”) or until they “time out” and die (the other 99 percent).

Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfriend have a dance before the running begins in In Time.

Following a traumatic loss and an unexpected gift of over a century of time, Will Salas (Justin Timberlake, Friends With Benefits) sets out on his own version of the Occupy movement to eliminate the inequity between the two classes, mounting an action-filled, Robin Hood-esque campaign to give back time to the deserving masses and exact revenge on the corrupt system.

In Time adheres well to its own plot rules, but it begs many questions. For example, why isn’t the theft of time more rampant given that timing out — unlike losing your last penny — results in instant death? Where is the middle class — those people who aren’t rich and therefore immortal, but aren’t living day-to-day either? And what government entity agreed to this cockamamie idea that implants countdown clocks in your forearm?

Oh well, it’s still a fun ride that calls to mind such society-bending movies as Gattaca (also directed by Andrew Niccol), Logan’s Run and even Soylent Green. The performances by Timberlake, Cillian Murphy (Inception) as a “timekeeper” (cop), Amanda Seyfried (Letters to Juliet) as a kidnapped debutante and Vincent Kartheiser (TV’s Mad Men) as her father are uniformly wooden, as if the actors are resigned to playing in what’s basically a comic book premise.

Roger Deakins’ colorful cinematography depicts the lower class neighborhoods in desert-like orange and sepia tones and bathes the high society enclaves in blue. It all looks more than acceptable on DVD. The soundtrack is even more impressive, with a vibrant low-frequency throughline in much of Craig Armstrong’s score.

This isn’t a loaded disc by any means, but it includes eight deleted/extended scenes, a few of which simply play with the time-currency concept a bit more.

Though there have been many better examples of speculative science-fiction in the past few years, this one won’t be a waste of your time.

Buy or Rent In Time
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STUDIO: Shout! Factory | DIRECTOR: Steve Carver, Cirio H. Santiago | CAST: Pam Grier, Margaret Markov, Pat Anderson, Lenore Kasdorf, Tara Strohmeier, Lindsay Bloom, Vic Diaz
DVD RELEASE DATE: 1/24/2012 | PRICE: DVD $24.98
BONUSES: commentary, featurette
SPECS: R | 225 min. | Action thriller | widescreen | stereo

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movies | Audio | Video | Overall

Lethal Ladies Collection, Vol. 2., the latest group of 1970s grindhouse movies issued by Shout! Factory as part of their “Roger Corman’s Cult Classics” imprint, includes three films: Cover Girl Models (1975), Fly Me (1973) and The Arena (1974).

Watch our Russell Crowe!: Pam Grier is a lethal lady gladiator in 1974's The Arena.

The Arena, directed by Steve Carver and starring the incomparable Pam Grier (Jackie Brown) and Margaret Markov (Pretty Maids All in a Row), is a sexy action-adventure movie about a female gladiator uprising in an ancient Roman city. It’s filled with lots of bloody if unimpressively staged fighting, some naughty sex and lots of nudity (led by an inevitable outdoor shower scene). Leading ladies Grier and Markov had teamed up together a couple of years earlier in the Corman-produced female prison break-out movie Black Mama, White Mama, which, not surprisingly, also included a shower sequence, albeit a more modern one.

Cover Girl Models and Fly Me are directed and produced by Cirio H. Santiago, a prolific Filipino exploitation filmmaker who cranked out more than a dozen films in the 1970s, including the irresistibly titled She-Devils in Chains.

Both films revolve around trios of shapely career gals — models Pat Anderson, Lindsay Bloom and Tara Strohmeier in Cover Girl Models and stewardesses Anderson, Lyllah Torena, and Lenore Kasdorf in Fly Me — who find themselves plunged into action, adventure and espionage while on the job. That they still find time to shed their garments and have some sex through it all is a tribute to their strong work ethic and their dedication to the demands of the genre. Neither of the films is all that great, even by exploitation standards, but Fly Me scores extra points for including kung-fu fights, a couple joining the Mile High Club and a white slavery ring all in the same movie.

The three films looks pretty good in their anamorphic widescreen presentation (The Arena and Cover Girl Models have been issued previously on DVD and VHS), though they all contain lots of scratches, flecks and sprocket holes. But the damage pays tribute to their grindhouse origins (they weren’t maintained in some state-of-the-art archive!) and is actually, in this case, part of their appeal.

The only film in the set that receives support via supplemental materials on this DVD is The Arena, which makes sense as it’s the best and most popular of the bunch. Director Carver contributes a solid, informative commentary on his directorial debut helming a Roger Corman (Sharktopus) production (which was shot at Italy’s legendary Cinecittà studios).

A new making-of featurette includes interviews with Corman, Carver, producer Mark Damon and star Markov, all of whom have pleasant memories of the production, which launched one-time actor Damon’s career as a producer. One thing that both he and Markov remember quite clearly is that they met while making The Arena, a first date of sorts that led to their marriage that is currently going on 40 years.

Buy or Rent Letha Ladies Collection, Vol. 2
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STUDIO: Disney | DIRECTOR: Shawn Levy | CAST: Hugh Jackman, Evangeline Lilly, Dakota Goyo, Anthony Mackie, Kevin Durand, Hope Davis, James Rebhorn
BLU-RAY & DVD RELEASE DATE: 1/24/2011 | PRICE: DVD $29.99, Blu-ray/DVD Combo $39.99, Three-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo $44.99
BONUSES: deleted/extended scenes, featurettes, Second Screen, bloopers
SPECS: PG-13 | 127 min. | Family Science-fiction | 2.35:1 aspect ratio | 7.1 DTS-HD audio | English, French, Spanish subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

Despite the title and all the robots in this movie, Real Steel is really a family film disguised as science-fiction.

Hugh Jackman (X-Men) stars as Charlie Kenton, former boxer turned robot boxing promoter. Things aren’t going well for Charlie. He owes money all over town and his latest bot was beaten up by a bull. And then he gets summoned to court because his ex-girlfriend has died and he now has to claim custody for his son (played with great character by Dakota Goyo of Thor) — a son Charlie hasn’t met.

Reluctantly taking his Max along for the ride, Charlie tries to rebuild his drowning robot boxing business. But it’s Max to the rescue, when he finds an old sparring bot in a dump and believes he can be a champion. They resurrect Atom, but not before they resurrect their own relationship.

The feel-good underdog movie boasts good performances and well-paced direction by Shawn Levy (Date Night). The fight scenes are pretty brutal, but they’re balanced with the smaller moments between Charlie and Max and Charlie and his on-again-off-again girlfriend (Evangeline Lilly, TV’s Lost). Sure, there’s a little corn in the movie. The film’s villains are over-the-top — Kevin Durand’s (I Am Number Four) Texan Ricky is dripping with nasty, and Olga Fonda’s (Little Fockers) Farra Lemkova is reminiscent of Brigitte Nielsen’s Ludmilla is Rocky IV — but that can be forgiven in favor of the movie’s real story.

And in Blu-ray’s high-definition, the film shines. The colors pop off the screen, especially the scenes with the flashy, glitzy robot fights. But the best part of the Blu-ray presentation is the sound. The 7.1 DTS-HD rockets the crunches and stomps and slaps of the bots through the speakers.

The real standouts in the film are the robots, which look amazing. Their making is explored in the featurette “Building the Bots,” included on both the DVD and Blu-ray. An enthusiastic Levy explains that, thanks to advice from the movie’s executive producer Steven Spielberg (War of the Worlds) — who also shows up in the piece — both practical robots and computer-generated visual effects were used. The practical robots helped the actors respond more realistically, so say Jackman, Goyo and Lilly in interviews. All sincerely seem to be in awe of the bot models. And when they’re blended with the visual effects, the audience is in awe too.

Another behind-the-scenes featurette, “Making of Metal Valley,” looks at the production of the movie’s dramatic pivotal scene, when Max disappears over a cliff and is saved by his throw-away sparring bot and dad Charlie. All look like they’re having a great time on the set, and it’s interesting to see the stunt double at work and how all the footage was mixed together to make the brief final sequence.

Our favorite special features on the Blu-ray are “Sugar Ray Leonard: Cornerman’s Champ” and “Countdown to the Fight: The Charlie Kenton Story.”  The first shows Jackman working with the real-life boxing champion — so much fun — and the second is a fictional promotional piece for the big fight in the movie, with Jackman, Goyo, Kevin Durand (I Am Number Four), Anthony Mackie (Night Catches Us) and others playing their characters as they tell about the boxing life of Charlie Kenton. It’s a fun way to extend the movie’s story.

Also worth a look are the deleted and extended scenes, which feature an entire story thread that was cut from the film. It shows another side of Goyo’s Max and a deeper connection between Max and Charlie, which is great to see.

Buy or Rent Real Steel
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STUDIO: Paramount | DIRECTOR: Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman | CAST: Chloe Csengery, Jessica Tyler Brown, Christopher Nicholas Smith, Lauren Bittner
BLU-RAY & DVD RELEASE DATE: 1/24/2012 | PRICE: DVD $19.99, Blu-ray/DVD Combo $44.99, DVD/Blu-ray Combo $44.99
BONUSES: unrated version included, bonus footage
SPECS: R/NR | 84 min./93 min. | Horror | 2.35:1 widescreen | DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1/Dolby Digital 5.1 | English, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

The chills are far more frequent and often more acute in Paranormal Activity 3 — the third installment of the incredibly successful horror movie franchise — than in Part 1 and 2, which makes sense for this “origin” story.

Yes, Part 3 depicts events that occurred about 17 years prior to those in the original movie, with the character of the child Kristi (Jessica Tyler Brown) from the other film appearing in forgotten videotapes as a young tyke talking to an unseen, malevolent entity named “Toby.” Hints are dropped as to why Kristi becomes the target of this demonic force, which will follow her from home to home throughout her life. But the exposition isn’t the point — the scares are. And when Kristi and her sister (Chloe Csengery) play “Bloody Mary” in the bathroom or when things go crash in the night, Paranormal 3 starts to sizzle.

Chills are in store for Chloe Csengery (l.) and Jessica Tyler Brown in Paranormal Activity 3.

The shrewd direction by helmers Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman (the pair previously co-directed Catfish) effectively mixes been-there, done-that happenings with some clever feints to keep the viewer on edge. Not everything happens when you expect it to, and with a family of four and a hapless babysitter on the scene, the opportunities for the hairs on the back of your neck to stand up exponentially.

Since Paranormal Activity 3 is comprised of 1980s-era videotape, all the accompanying grain that goes along with it is on the screen. But as the movie is presented in widescreen and high definition, there’s nothing ambiguous in the picture, even when the creeps are as ephemeral as shadows or vague outlines. The audio is crisp, hard-hitting and enhanced with a healthy dose of low frequency just about every time the titular activity occurs, a trademark of the series.

The Blu-ray/DVD combo pack caters to all tastes, with both theatrical and extended, unrated cuts on the Blu-ray platter, the latter adding nine additional minutes. Along with a standard DVD, the pack includes an UltraViolet digital copy, so the film can be downloaded to your PC or streamed from the cloud on almost every platform.

The Blu-ray also includes a couple of rudimentary extras, including the “Lost Tapes,” which run a scant three minutes and aren’t nearly as intriguing as the title implies.

Fans of the Paranormal Activity series will find much to like the third time around, or the first time around, depending on how you look at it.

Buy or Rent Paranormal Activity 3
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STUDIO: Criterion | DIRECTOR: Luis Buñuel | CAST: Catherine Deneuve, Jean Sorel, Michel Piccoli, Genevieve Page, Pierre Clementi
BLU-RAY & DVD RELEASE DATE: 1/17/2012 | PRICE: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $39.95
BONUSES: new commentary, featurette and interview; vintage French TV clip
SPECS: NR | 100 min. | Foreign language drama | 1.66:1 widescreen | monaural | French with English subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

Luis Buñuel’s (Viridinia) first color film, 1967′s Belle de Jour remains the filmmaker’s most provocative work, as darkly funny as it is challengingly psychological as it is downright erotic … and funny … and undeniably disturbing. True, the movie’s story might not play as shockingly today as it did nearly 50 years ago,  but who cares?

Catherine Deneuve is a Parisian housewife up against a psychologial wall in Belle du Jour.

The film puts us into the head of the beautiful Séverine (Catherine Deneuve, Potiche), a bourgeoisie Parisian housewife who loosens up — emotionally or sexually — with her young doctor husband (Jean Sorel). To that end, Séverine joins a local brothel, where she serves as a prostitute during the day before returning to her chilly nighttime life at home.

SĂ©verine’s festishistic experiences with various clients at the brothel — including a gynecologist (Marcel Charvey), a wealthy businessman (Francis Blanche) and a high-octane gangster (Pierre ClĂ©menti) — unleash a series of fantasies in her head (as well as ours). The fantasies might even be stronger and steamier than the “daydream” realities SĂ©verine is living at the brothel.

Buñuel the Surrealist firmly plants us in his home turf in Belle je Jour. The movie is a tunnel into SĂ©verine’s subconscious, filled with the filmmaker’s trademark imagery and open-ended ponderings. Memorably, at one point, a herd of bulls, one named “Expiation, the others called “Remorse,” stampede through SĂ©verine’s head,  representing two of countless  possible futures. Whew! But our journey through the tunnel is a one-way trip and, like all exquisite puzzles, no easy answers are provided. We have to decide whether our heroine is moving in the right direction, in her head and with her body. But is there a right direction?

The beautifully remastered DVD (gorgeous colors!) includes a fine collection of bonus features, notably a new featurette, “That Obscure Source of Desire,” wherein activist/writer/”sexpert” Susie Bright offers her take on the films, and a new interview with co-writer and frequent Buñuel collaborator Jean-Claude Carriere.

The DVD also has an excellent commentary by Princeton professor Michael Wood, an enthusiastic fan of the movie who penned the 2001 BFI Film Classic book Belle de Jour. Wood offers an in-depth discussion of all aspects of the film, which he describes as the one that kicked off Buñuel’s “late period” wherein his reputation garnered him better budgets and bigger stars. Most interestingly, Wood contrasts Belle de Jour’s fantasy passages, the ones that unfold inside Séverine’s mind, with its reality sequences. He proposes that viewers might mistake one for the other and that what we’re accepting as “reality” might actually be one of Séverine’s fantasies — a fantasy reflecting her view of reality.

Surreal, man….

Buy or Rent Belle de Jour
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STUDIO: Sony | DIRECTOR: George Clooney | CAST: George Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Marisa Tomei, Paul Giamatti, Evan Rachel Wood
BLU-RAY & DVD RELEASE DATE: 1/17/2012 | PRICE: DVD $30.99, Blu-ray $35.99
BONUSES: commentary, featurettes
SPECS: R | 101 min. | Political thriller | 2.40:1 aspect ratio | 5.1 DTS-HD audio | English, Spanish subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

Nominated for four Golden Globe awards, The Ides of March features a good cast exploring the dirty side of politics.

Clooney ably plays Governor Mike Morris, a Presidential candidate who has the potential to really make a difference if he makes it to the White House. Set in the time leading up to the pivotal Ohio primary, the movie follows Morris’ campaign workers, mostly Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling), who believes the work he’s doing will help change the world.

After meeting with the campaign manager (Paul Giamatti) of the opposing candidate, Meyers tumbles into problem after problem until the levels of deviousness on the both sides are revealed. There are no nice guys in this story, from Meyers who feels it’s fine for him to have an affair with an intern but not his candidate, to Meyers’ boss (Philip Seymour Hoffman) who will happily ruin a man’s career if it makes a move look better in the press, and even to the political reporter (Marisa Tomei) who doesn’t mind a little blackmail if it’ll get her a scoop.

All the movie’s actors do a fine job, and Clooney’s direction is precise and keeps the tension high.

The original play on which the movie is based, Farragut North, doesn’t feature the candidate and instead focuses specifically on the background antics — many illegal — of the people running the campaign. For the film, Clooney and producer Grant Heslov wanted to “up the stakes,” as they say in the Blu-ray featurette “Developing the Campaign: The Origin of The Ides of March.” So they brought in the candidate and made him the immoral center of the story.

That move gives the film a very different feel. Sure, it’s still the dirty side of politics, but a Presidential candidate who’s not a saint? That’s nothing new. And with the focus on his actions, the scandalous dealings of the campaign managers is pushed to the back-burner.

While “Developing the Campaign” is an interesting looking at the background of the film and how it evolved from the play, another featurette on the Blu-ray, “George Clooney: Believe” is great for Clooney fans, just skip over all the “he’s such a genius” parts by actors at the beginning. About halfway through the six-minute piece, we see footage of Clooney joking around behind the camera as he directs the film, which is fun, but the rest plays like a Vote For Clooney campaign ad.

Perhaps the most interesting featurette if you’re interested in the behind-the-scenes workings of politics is “What Does a Political Consultant Do?,” which features political consultant Stuart Stevens talking about how closely the film mirrors real life campaigns.

The movie’s casting in discussed in the brief piece “On the Campaign: The Cast of The Ides of March,” and the only other special feature on the Blu-ray is a commentary with Clooney and Heslov. They are comfortable and Clooney is funny in the track, offering behind-the-scenes stories and pointing out the shots featuring various members of Clooney’s family. It’s an interesting listen.

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STUDIO: First Run | DIRECTOR: Jeanne Labrune | CAST: Isabelle Huppert, Bouli Lanners, Sabila Moussadek, Richard Debuisne
DVD RELEASE DATE: 1/17/2012 | PRICE: DVD $27.95
BONUSES: Q&A with director
SPECS: NR | 95 min. | Foreign language drama | widescreen | stereo | English with French subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

Truly qualifying as fearless, Isabelle Huppert (Merci Pour le Chocolat) seems to seek out difficult characters to play. While her American counterparts play women who are either lovable or at least mildly relatable, Huppert often explores the “darker side” in her work, meaning she has created quite a varied and unique portrait/gallery of troubled women in the last three decades.

She frequently is the most interesting thing in the movies she stars in, and such is the case with 2010′s Special Treatment. The film’s plot — which counterpoints the lives of a hooker (Huppert) and a psychoanalyst (Bouli Lanners, Mammuth), who are both becoming heavily disillusioned with their lines of work — is never less than transparent. This is especially true at the beginning, where we learn that in both professions, the practitioners take on high-paying customers merely to pay for certain pieces of furniture.

Isabelle Huppert puts herself together in Special Treatment.

The film continues on with comparisons between the two professions, and then the proceedings kick into higher gear at the midway point when the two protagonists finally meet. By this time, most viewers, and not just libidinous males, will have decided that Huppert’s kinky profession is far more interesting than Lanner’s rather perfunctory psychology practice and his slow, staid meltdown.

Filmmaker Jeanne Labrune (Cause toujours!) follows the narrative through to a sudden conclusion and complicates matters in the third act by introducing another psychotherapist (co-scripter Richard Debuisne) who is more grounded and content with his vocation. Perhaps intended as a counterbalance to Huppert’s mellow hooker friend (Sabila Moussadek), the grounded psychotherapist takes the film into an even more mundane space.

Special Treatment hints at a world of carnality that it never shows. At age 58, Huppert looks terrific in the fetish costumes she wears for a few minutes each. But Labrune wants to reaffirm that we are watching a character study and not a sex movie, and thus the only sexually explicit scene is a brief one where Lanners’ character attends a debauched invitation-only orgy and then flees it suddenly, running through the woods.

Special Treatment is worth a viewing, but primarily for fans of Huppert, who continues to dazzle as she breathes life into underwritten characters and takes no short cuts whatsoever in her acting. Labrune spotlights this aspect of Huppert’s immense talent in randomly spaced sequences where we watch Huppert merely staring into space as her character ruminates over her sordid and dangerous profession.

The DVD’s bonus Q&A with director Labrune was unavailable at press time.

Buy or Rent Special Treatment
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STUDIO: Oscilloscope Laboratories | DIRECTOR: Andrea Blaugrund Nevins | CAST: Jim Lindberg, Art Alexakis, Mark Mothersbaugh, Tony Hawk
DVD RELEASE DATE: 1/31/2012 | PRICE: DVD $29.99
BONUSES: commentary, outtakes, acoustic performances, music videos, post-screening Q&A, more
SPECS: NR | 99 min. | Documentary | 1.78:1 widescreen | Dolby Digital 5.1 | English subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

What happens when yesterday’s second-wave punk rockers — the mohawked, pierced and tatted rebels who eschewed authority by flaunting their hedonistic freedom — become fathers? It’s a good question, and according to the 2011 documentary The Other F Word’s well-crafted, skillfully edited series of interviews with music, the answer is that the rockers become suburban dads who drive their kids to schools in new SUVs.

Punk daddies rule in The Other F Word.

How disappointing. But no. Director Nevins goes deeper as the featured artists begin revealing how their own childhoods — some of them horrific, all of them sad — influence their change in values once the responsibility for a child becomes the driving force of their lives. Their decision to become respectable citizens (despite their still punkish outward appearances) is entirely understandable, and by the final third of the film, there arises an unexpected poignancy that will have you shedding a tear along with Flea, the ever-colorful bassist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The main narrative follows skate-punk’s Pennywise singer Jim Lindberg as he says goodbye to his three young daughters prior to departing on a grueling 200-plus day tour. Lindberg’s longing never becomes mawkish, but the emotions are genuine and we’re right there with him. We’re also taken into the homes of Blink 182′s Mark Hoppus, Rise Against’s Tim McIlrath, Black Flag’s Ron Reyes and others who reflect on their upbringing and their response to having kids. Added poignancy arises when we learn that two of the dads have lost children. Oy.

The interviews are driven at a frantic pace by the bands’ songs and snippets of performances spanning the past 20 years, many of which are included in the DVD’s bonus section. One of the standouts is Everclear’s Art Alexakis’ acoustic performance of “Father of Mine,” another bit that might choke up the vulnerable among us.

The audio commentary is expansive and informative and the videos of Black Pacific (Lindberg’s new band) are fine, but the real highlight on this DVD is the post-premiere Q&A from this year’s  SXSW festival, where the cast expands on how the film was made.

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STUDIO: Fox | DIRECTOR: Mark Mylod | CAST: Anna Faris, Chris Evans, Ari Graynor, Blythe Danner, Ed Begley, Jr., Chris Pratt, Joel McHale
BLU-RAY & DVD RELEASE DATE: 1/10/2012 | PRICE: DVD $29.99, Blu-ray/DVD Combo $39.99
BONUSES: extended flashback dates, gag reel, deleted scenes
SPECS: NR/R | 106 min. | Romantic comedy | 1.85:1 widescreen | Dolby Digital 5.1/DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 | English and Spanish subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

Even a so-so Anna Faris (Take Me Home Tonight) film is watchable as long as Faris is allowed to do her perky, silly thing. Ms. Faris is definitely the best part of the disappointing romantic comedy movie What’s Your Number?. That said, it was tough to make it through this one.

Based on Karyn Bosnak‘s novel 20 Times a Lady, What’s Your Number? finds Faris playing a freshly fired marketing babe who, on the eve of her young sister’s (Ari Graynor, Lucky) wedding, is worried that she’ll never find the right man. Having slept with 19 guys, she decides to check up on all of them and target one for marriage, particularly because she read a survey that states gals who sleep with 20 or more men will never find a mate.

Anna Faris pulls her hair out over her romantic predicament in What' Your Number?

And so, with the help of her studly nextdoor neighbor (Chris Evans, Captain America), Anna sets out on a series of encounters with her past boyfriends, intercut with a bunch of flashbacks of her original dates with those same fellahs. It’s a cute idea that plays into the recent wave of sexually aggressive, naughtier-than-usual chick flicks led by this year’s Bridesmaids. But the jokes and scenarios aren’t that funny or clever, and they come at such a rapid clip that, even if they worked, they aren’t given enough time to sink in.

Faris has some fun in the role, but her character gets mired in a little too much self-loathing and wine-drinking to be as appealing as she could be. And though it’s ridiculous to point this out in a Hollywood romantic comedy, should a young, unemployed woman have such an extensive wardrobe of designer clothes?

Faris’ co-stars — including guys Chris Pratt (Deep in the Valley), Joel McHale (Spy Kids 4: All the TIme in the World) and Andy Samberg (Friends With Benefits), who all get a chnce to act silly, and Blythe Danner (Waiting for Forever) and Ed Begley Jr. (Fatal Secrets) as her central casting-ish parents — are all up to snuff for their one-note, generally silly roles.

For a studio romantic comedy, What’s Your Number? is shot and edited in a style that isn’t all that conducive to the material. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with hand-held camera, off-center shot compositions and jagged cutting. But this is the kind of film that would enjoy smoother sailing with the kind of studio sheen that one sees in a Katherine Heigl (Life As We Know It) or Jennifer Aniston (The Switch) movie. Anna Faris is fresh and off-beat, yes, but What’s Your Number? is not, and director Mike Mylod’s shaggy-dog approach is more suited to premium cable’s Shameless and Ali G Indahouse, two of his earlier efforts.

The bonus features on the DVD are a small lot primarily comprised of deleted scenes and extended flashback sequences, neither of which are all that funny.

The gag reel shows the cast frequently missing cues and screwing up lines, which, as usual, results in them bursting into laughter in front of the camera. And, as usual again, the cast is having a better time than the viewers (and they’re getting paid for it!).

Buy or Rent What’s Your Number?
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STUDIO: KimStim/Zeitgeist | DIRECTOR: Béla Tarr | CAST: Miroslav Krobot, Tilda Swinton, Erika Bók, István Lénárt
BLU-RAY & DVD RELEASE DATE: 1/10/2012 | PRICE: DVD $29.99
BONUSES: none
SPECS: NR | 132 min. | Foreign language crime drama | 1.66:1 widescreen | stereo | Hungarian, French and English with English subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

Anyone who has never experience the art of Hungarian filmmaker BĂ©la Tarr (Satantango) should pay attention to the opening shot of his 2007 film The Man From London. For a solid 13 minutes, the camera luxuriates in a chiaroscuro worthy of Rembrandt as it moves at a controlled pace back and forth across a small harbor, capturing conspiratorial whisperings, sinister intrigue and rough seamen changing shifts. The shot is as rich with information as it is deliberately and hypnotically mounted.

Tilda Swinton gets involved in a mystery involving her husband in The Man From London.

Based on the 1934 novel by celebrated Belgian writer Georges Simenon (best known for his “Inspector Maigret” mysteries), The Man From London tells the story of a man named Maloine (Miroslav Krobot), who works in a lighthouse where the railroad meets the shipyard. As he looks out at the infinite possibilities of the sea, his own life is mired in crushing routine: mundane work, a dissatisfied wife (Tilda Swinton, Orlando) and a daughter (Erika BĂłk) stuck in a demeaning job. His only respite is wordless checker games with the local cafe owner. When Maloine finds a suitcase stuffed with cash, he sees a chance to break free until the ominous forces of a corrupt world begin to close in.

All the acting in the movie is excellent, especially Krobot as Maloine and Swinton in the small but pivotal role of his wife. But acting in a Tarr film is often facial topography as his camera slowly pans weathered visages and buried truths. No Abercrombie & Fitch models here.

Admittedly not for everyone, The Man From London is still one of Tarr’s most accessible films. Additionally, it clocks in at two hours and 10 minutes, which makes it one of his shorter films. (Others have 5-, 6- and even 7-hour running times.) That said, this is a chance for the uninitiated to savor Tarr’s unique stylized filmmaking in a more palliative form. And for those who are fans of the director, this movie is, of course, a must-see.

The DVD has no special features, but we don’t need any.

Buy or Rent The Man From London
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STUDIO: HBO/Warner | DIRECTOR: Various including Martin Scorsese | CAST: Steven Buscemi, Michael Shannon, Gretchen Mol, Kelly MacDonald, Dabney Coleman
BLU-RAY & DVD RELEASE DATE: 1/10/2012 | PRICE: DVD $59.99, Blu-ray $79.98
BONUSES: character dossiers, featurettes
SPECS: TV-MA | 732 min. | Drama | 1.78:1 aspect ratio | 5.1 Dolby Digital audio | English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese, Thai subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): TV Show | Audio | Video | Overall

HBO’s Boardwalk Empire is sprawling and sumptuous on DVD. The gorgeous Prohibition-era sets and costumes no doubt look even better in the TV show’s Blu-ray version, but they are stunning even on standard-definition DVD.

The Emmy Award-winning show boasts smart writing and sharp acting, reminiscent of HBO’s earlier dramatic series Rome and even Carnivale, minus the supernatural elements.

Boardwalk Empire is set in Atlantic City during the decadent 1920s, when the Prohibition helped the rise of organized crime. Corruption? Check. Violence? Check. Some episodes can be a little slow, but mostly, it’s an intriguing television series, and the performances alone — including politician/gangster Steve Buscemi (The Big Lebowski), his heavy Michael Pitt (Funny Games), poor mother Kelly MacDonald (Nanny McPhee), FBI agent Michael Shannon (Take Shelter) and dancer Gretchen Mol (Tenure) — are worth a look.

As well as all 12 episodes of season one, the five-disc DVD set comes with some great special features.

The most interesting is the featurette “Atlantic City: The Original Sin City,” in which historians and filmmakers talk about the real town and people that inspired the TV show. Even Martin Scorsese (Cape Fear), who directed the pilot, shows up in a brief bit about the baby incubators on the Boardwalk, saying the businesses, which showcased premature babies, actually saved lives.

The 30-minute featurette describes how Atlantic City became the entertainment capital of the 20s. “It was Vegas before Vegas,” says Vicki Gold Levi, author of Atlantic City: 125 Years of Ocean Madness. There’s lots of good information here, expanding on what’s shown in the television series.

Hosted by actor Greg Antonacci (TV’s The Sopranos), “Speakeasy Tour” takes you around the cities that were supplied by booze coming out of Atlantic City, including Chicago and a visit to the infamous bar The Green Mill. The piece is entertaining and informative, a great companion to the show.

Each DVD in the set offers dossiers on the nine main characters, with a brief text bio and pictures from the show.

And six episodes have commentaries with series creator Terence Winter, Buscemi and others. The speakers keep things moving, giving behind the scenes information and even get personal. During episode four, actor Michael Kenneth Williams (TV’s The Philanthropist) describes how one violent scene on the show reminded him of when he was attacked.

Buy or Rent Boardwalk Empire: The Complete First Season
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STUDIO: Sony | DIRECTOR: Bennett Miller | CAST: Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Wright, Chris Pratt, Brent Jennings
BLU-RAY & DVD RELEASE DATE: 1/10/2012 | PRICE: DVD $30.99, Blu-ray $35.99, Blu-ray/DVD Combo $40.99
BONUSES: blooper reel, featurettes, deleted scenes
SPECS: PG-13 | 133 min. | Sports drama | 1.85:1 aspect ratio | 5.1 Dolby Digital audio | English, Chinese, French, Korean, Spanish subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

Moneyball looks at a time when the institution that is baseball got shaken up by statistics, and not the kind fans usually like to look at. Based on a true story, it’s an underdog makes good film about Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane’s (Brad Pitt, The Tree of Life) attempt to build a winning team with a fraction of the budget of competitors. He finds inspiration in analyst Peter Brand (Jonah Hill, Cyrus), who posits that players should be hired based on runs, not batting averages.

Of course, there’s plenty of pushback, from the team’s scouts, coaches and especially the manager (Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Ides of March), plus the media, which is quick to criticize anything new. Even Beane’s daughter (Kerris Dorsey, TV’s Brothers & Sisters) is scared.

Moneyball is sentimental — what sports movie isn’t? — but it flows well and gets viewers cheering for the underdogs. And, it makes a case for why the strategy used by Beane and Brand (not the name of the real man) worked (the same strategy helped the Red Sox break their curse).

But the strength of the film, as in any good sports tale, is its portrayal of the struggles of the people. It’s David and Goliath, the poorest team against the whole of baseball. And Beane, Brand and the undervalued players they give jobs to make great Davids. Pitt’s performance as the battled Beane is admirable, as is Hill in one of his most understated and most meaningful roles yet.

Beane’s strategy and the accomplishments of the Oakland A’s are explored in the featurette “Billy Bean: Re-Inventing the Game.” The filmmakers and others, including author Michael Lewis, who wrote the book on which the movie is based, discuss the real-life events. The piece doesn’t offer much insight that’s not in the film, but it’s an interesting companion.

The filmmakers are also shown in the making-of featurette “Moneyball: Playing the Game,” which looks at the movie’s locations, product placement and the choices made by director Bennett Miller (Capote), among others.

Perhaps the best special features on the DVD are the deleted scenes, which offer more with Pitt and Seymour Hoffman, expanding their relationship, and gives a lot more depth to the end of the movie. These scenes could easily have been part of the film and made it even better, so it’s great to see them here.

The only other extra is a blooper appropriately titled “Brad Pitt Loses It.” The roughly two-minute piece shows Pitt and Hill shooting a scene while Pitt tries to fight a case of the giggles.

Buy or Rent Moneyball
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STUDIO: Virgil Films/National Geographic | DIRECTOR: Dereck  Joubert
BLU-RAY & DVD RELEASE DATE: 1/3/2012 | PRICE: DVD $19.99, Blu-ray $29.99
BONUSES: behind-the-scenes footage, deleted scenes, filmmaker interviews, more
SPECS: PG-13 | 88 min. | Documentary | 1.85:1 widescreen | Dolby Digital 5.1/DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 | English subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

Lioness Ma di Tau means business when it comes to her cubs in The Last Lions.

Focusing on a proud lioness and her three cubs in Botswana’s Okavango Delta, The Last Lions is one of the most beautifully photographed nature documentaries I’ve ever seen.

And it offers a helluva story, one that’s at least as engaging as any Hollywood family drama or revenge piece. It follows the struggle for survival of the widowed lioness Ma di Tau (“Mother of Lions”) and her three offspring as they’re driven from their land and forced to confront such formidable foes as a swamp of crocodiles, a herd of buffaloes, a gaggle of stalking hyenas and a rival pride of big cats.

The story contains more chases, fights and overall tension than it does frothy scenes of a mommy and her kids at play. The movie’s episodic narrative is filled with  heroes (Ma di Tau), villains (a scarfaced, hulking buffalo) and others whose story arcs change as the film progresses (a rival lioness previously injured by Ma di Tau). And it’s pretty hard to resist feeling something for the travails of the lions as they let their instincts guide them.

There’s one overriding false note and it’s in the voiceover narration provided by a suave-sounding Jeremy Irons (Margin Call), which insists on “humanizing” the “performers” by telling us what’s going on in their minds.

Coupled with some slick editing, the overall effect heightens the emotional impact — and there’re a lot of inevitable sadness on the kill-or-be-killed African plains — and it comes off as a bit exploitative. They are animals and this is how they live; there’s no need to overdo it with Irons declaring that their struggles are “the eternal dance of Africa.”

Bonus materials on the DVD include the inevitable behind-the-scenes footage and making-of bits (it took the Jouberts years to shoot and edit the film) and a collection of deleted scenes that are as strikingly photographed as the main film.

There’s a conservational angle in this National Geographic movie, of course. After the story proper finishes, viewers are informed that the African lion population is dwindling, having dropped from 450,000 to about 20,000 in the past 50 years. A link to Nat Geo’s Big Cat Initiative is listed for interested parties to donate money or obtain more information.

Buy or Rent The Last Lions
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