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New releases on DVD, Blu-ray
"Wreck-It Ralph."
Updated: March 5, 2013 8:14AM
NEW THIS WEEK
PLAYING FOR KEEPS
★★
Rated
PG-13 for some sexual situations, language and a brief, intense image
Stars
Gerard Butler, Jessica Biel, Dennis Quaid
This might look like a light-hearted romcom, but it’s really more of a surprisingly painful family melodrama crossed with tawdry sex-farce. Only without the farce. Butler plays George, a former soccer star who’s broke and down on his luck after an injury forced him out of the game. Previously a philandering husband and absentee dad, George decides the time is right to patch things up with his wife (Biel) and 10-year-old son — a project he gets underway by taking over as coach for the boy’s soccer team. A “Bad News Bears” sort of redemption movie in the making? Not quite. The kids quickly become an afterthought while George tries to avoid an onslaught of desperate, needy and manipulative soccer moms eager to get him into bed. Extras include featurettes and deleted scenes.
RED DAWN
★★
Rated
PG-13 for sequences of intense war violence and action, and for language
Stars
Chris Hemsworth, Isabel Lucas, Josh Hutcherson, Josh Peck
If you can get over the fact that it’s entirely preposterous and you happen to be in desperate need of a macho fantasy fix, “Red Dawn” might not be a complete drag to sit through. Don’t count on it. There are two major problems with this weak remake of director John Milius’ 1984 Cold War-era hit, which detailed teenage resistance to a Russian invasion. First, full-scale armed invasions probably don’t rank high any longer on most people’s lists of nail-biting anxieties. Second, after distributor MGM went bankrupt in 2009, the producers changed the attacking nation in the new “Red Dawn” from China to North Korea. Hemsworth and his commando squad of high school cheerleaders, football players and assorted nerds take on the North Koreans, after about 15 seconds of combat training. “Dude, we’re living ‘Call of Duty’ and it sucks,” says one disgruntled young warrior. Dude, you said it.
WRECK-IT RALPH
★★★½
Rated
PG for some rude humor and mild action/violence
Stars
John C. Reilly, Jane Lynch, Jack McBrayer, Sarah Silverman
While it touches all the right bases for kids, this clever, fast-paced and occasionally very funny film almost seems to have been secretly made for adults. “Wreck-It Ralph” commits to its wholesome messages about friendship, loyalty and not judging books by their covers, yet does so with some grown-up attitudes and concerns — delivered in surprisingly hip, intelligent and emotionally resonant fashion. It’s the story of the overgrown and under-appreciated vintage video game bad guy (Reilly), who leaves in a huff to prove he can be a hero too, resulting in increasingly strange adventures in other nearby games. Especially a candy-themed road-racing game where he joins forces with an obnoxious little girl (Silverman) who’s even more of a social outcast. Extras include the Oscar-winning “Paperman” animated short, alternate and deleted scenes.
ALSO NEW THIS WEEK
BREAKING DAWN — PART 2
When the half-vampire child of Edward and Bella is born, right-thinking vampire clans gather to protect her from the governing Vulturi. Extras include a seven-part making-of documentary, commentary by Condon and a “forgotten” Green Day music video.
H2O: JUST ADD WATER
Each quadruple-disc set of the first three seasons features 13 episodes from the Teen Nick series about three Australian girls who discover an ancient cave where they are transformed into mermaids with magical powers. Extras include cast photos.
THE INTOUCHABLES
This irreverent fable about a rich white quadriplegic (Francois Cluzet) who hires a street-smart black guy (Omar Sy) to be his chauffer/caretaker broke box office records in France and across Europe. Extras include deleted scenes.
MIDNIGHT STALLION
A young girl and her family are on the verge of losing their farm when their fortunes change thanks to a mysterious guest: a wild stallion that appears in a nearby meadow. Kris Kristofferson is featured in the DOVE-approved, direct-to-DVD family drama.
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET
All seven Freddy movies from the ’80s and early-’90s are included in this Warner Brothers Blu-ray collection.
SCHINDLER’S LIST 20TH ANNIVERSARY LIMITED EDITION
This anniversary edition of Spielberg’s multi-Oscar winning drama features a new, hi-def restoration supervised by the director. Extras include a “Voices from the List” documentary featuring people who survived the Holocaust thanks to Schindler and a documentary on the Shoah Foundation.
TOM AND JERRY: MUSICAL MAYHEM
Seven Tom and Jerry cartoons featuring classical music concerts, evenings at the opera and waltzing are included in this music-themed collection — along with the usual cat and mouse mayhem.
WESTWORLD
A malfunction involving a gunslinger robot (Yul Brynner) at a futuristic Western theme park makes things a bit too exciting for rich vacationers. Novelist Michael Crichton wrote and directed the 1973 thriller making its Blu-ray debut.
AVAILABLE NEXT WEEK
Steve McQueen fights outer-space ooze in the drive-in classic “The Blob,” Victor Mature has a very bad hair day in the Cecille B. DeMille’s “Samson and Delilah” and soaring cameras capture high-flying circus performers in “Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away.”
