Recently released on DVD and Blu-ray

"Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" (PG-13, 113 minutes): Michael Douglas makes a triumphant return to form as Gordon Gekko, one of American cinema's great villains in the 23-years-later sequel to the movie that captured the go-go '80s. In its own way, this film evinces just as strong a hold on its times, when terms like "subprime" and "credit default swaps" -- which would have been meaningless two decades ago -- are the lingua franca of the financial realm. The crimes that Gekko went to jail for in Oliver Stone's original film now seem like child's play compared with the shady deals his spiritual heirs have been confecting during his years in prison. Now released, Gekko has renounced his past and published a book called "Is Greed Good?," a clever turnabout on his famous line from the first film. With style, wry humor and a healthy dose of cautionary polemic, Stone has made some of our troubling recent history great fun to watch. Contains brief strong profanity and thematic elements.

Also on DVD and Blu-ray December 21: "Devil"; "Family Guy: It's a Trap!"; "Soul Kitchen"; "Step Up 3."

December 17

"Legend of the Guardian: The Owls of Ga'Hoole" (PG, 90 minutes): "Through our gizzards, the voices of the ages whisper to us, and tell us what's right," intones a dignified owl in the sepulchral inflections of Hugo Weaving. How you respond to this bit of feathery hokum will determine how you'll feel about this film, which combines very old-fashioned storytelling with an of-the-moment 3-D ticket price. Does its majesty send a shiver up your spine? Or does the very idea of an animated owl delivering this line induce -- pardon me -- hoots of laughter? The animated film follows two owlet brothers whose destinies come into conflict. Owlnapped by a clan of evil owls, the brothers are pulled into a plot to enslave all of owlkind. Kludd (voiced by Ryan Kwanten) eagerly signs on as a soldier in the Pure Ones' army, while Soren (Jim Sturgess) escapes to seek out a legendary flock of warrior owls who protect owlkind from owl evil. Contains scenes of scary owl action.

"The Town" (R, 130 minutes): A big, ambitious action crime thriller directed by Ben Affleck, this film is a smart, bold genre exercise that's enormous fun to watch, harking back to gritty urban thrillers of the 1970s with an assured sense of tone and style. Affleck has cast himself in "The Town's" lead role of Doug MacRay, a native of Boston's tough Irish Charlestown neighborhood, which as an opening title card informs us, has produced more bank and armored car robberies than any place in the United States. Doug and his best friend, Jem (Jeremy Renner), are lifelong members of one of Charlestown's most notorious and successful crews. When the guys rob a bank and take a manager hostage, the episode sparks a series of events that leads Doug to question whether he's ready to leave Charlestown's tribal life of murder and mayhem while being pursued by an FBI agent (Jon Hamm). Contains strong violence, pervasive profanity, sexuality and drug use.

December 14

"The A-Team" (PG-13, 117 minutes): Co-starring Bradley Cooper, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Sharlto Copley, this film engages in the same blurry, incoherent close-up action to which young filmgoers have now become accustomed. During a preamble set in the Mexican desert, we meet the guys: the unflappable Hannibal Smith; Face, the ladies' man; Murdock, the crazy-like-a-fox pilot; and Bosco "B.A." Baracus, the Mohawked muscleman. The movie proceeds to ever-more-risible lengths to up the action ante. In case watching a guy machine-gun his enemies from atop a tank isn't enough, the filmmakers treat viewers to an elaborately staged climax at the Los Angeles piers. Jessica Biel also appears as one of Face's love interests. Between the electric baby-blues of Cooper, men worshipfully assessing one another's Ranger tattoos, and a final-act cameo from a male heartthrob, this film might be selling itself as an action flick, it's really just a hopeless bromantic. Contains intense sequences of action and violence throughout, profanity and smoking.

"Cyrus" (R, 92 minutes): This movie announces its confrontational intentions from the get-go, when in the opening scene the film's hero, John (John C. Reilly), is interrupted in an intimate moment by his ex-wife Jamie (Catherine Keener), who has stopped by to tell him she's getting remarried. Later, John meets Molly (Marisa Tomei), a knockout who thinks his penchant for drunken confessions and public urination is kind of cute. The future looks bright for John and Molly, until he discovers that she has been hiding something. That would be her 21-year-old son Cyrus, played by Jonah Hill. He lives in a deeply enmeshed relationship with his devoted mother, who has home-schooled him and encourages his techno-emo noodlings on synthesizer keyboards. When John meets Cyrus, his face reflects the very questions come up for the audience: Is this kid gifted? Or is there something darker at the core of his devotion to his mom? Contains profanity and sexual material.

"Despicable Me" (PG, 95 minutes): The nasty streak that animates its protagonist, a hollow-eyed supervillain named Gru (voiced by Steve Carell), is so deep and wide as to seem insurmountable. But the film turns into an improbably heartwarming, not to mention visually delightful, diversion. After another evildoer impresses the world by stealing the Great Pyramid of Giza, Gru looks for his big comeback and hits on the idea of stealing the moon. He adopts three sweet girls from an orphanage run by a sadistic Southern belle (Kristen Wiig), and, along with an army of tiny yellow "minions," begins to bring his plan into action. Carell's expert timing is in full force as his character tries mightily to resist the parental tug of his three young charges. The film features some ace voice talent, including Russell Brand as Gru's elderly henchman, Dr. Nefario, Jason Segel as Gru rival Vector and Will Arnett as the president of the Bank of Evil. Contains rude humor and mild action.

"Exit Through the Gift Shop" (R, 87 minutes): A celebration of pranksterism and perhaps a superb prank in its own right, this documentary captures the outlaw, monkey-wrenching glee of the graffiti artists who became art stars at the turn of this century. It purports to be directed by Banksy, the shadowy British street artist whose stencils of rats and puckish acts of mischief have made him a huge international success. Thierry Guetta, a Frenchman living in Los Angeles, turns out to be the real star here, even though the film features Banksy and the equally famous Shepard Fairey. The film offers an absorbing glimpse of a bracingly subversive slice of the culture, as well as some tantalizing images of Banksy at work. It may raise a lot of questions, but they're all the right ones. Contains profanity.

"Micmacs" (R, 105 minutes): Fate, revenge and imagination at its most extravagant propel "Micmacs," Jean-Pierre Jeunet's whimsical story of a man named Bazil (Dany Boon), who embarks on a labyrinthine mission to destroy two Paris arms manufacturers. After his father is killed in North Africa by a land mine and, later, when he's seriously wounded himself by an errant bullet, Bazil vows revenge on the arms dealers who ruined his life, joining ranks with a rag-tag underground community of gleaners, tinkerers and urban castaways. Infused with an eccentric, wildly imaginative visual design, a stealthily dynamic camera and a sensibility inspired by Charlie Chaplin, Jacques Tati, Rube Goldberg and Tex Avery, this film brings an infectious note of caprice to the old-fashioned caper film, sending Bazil and viewers alike on an increasingly loopy journey through a Paris that is both modern and nostalgically timeless. Contains some sexuality and brief violence. In French with subtitles.

"Mother and Child" (R, 125 minutes): Rodrigo García brings his finely calibrated sense of drama to the subject of adoption in this film with characteristic restraint and insight. Annette Bening plays Karen, who gave her baby up for adoption at 15. Naomi Watts plays Elizabeth, Karen's biological daughter, now a successful lawyer. In a parallel story line, Lucy (Kerry Washington) decides to adopt and meets a potential birth mother named Ray (Shareeka Epps). In a series of spiky, highly charged encounters, the filmmaker creates intimate, refreshingly frank portraits of women coming to grips with the joy, grief, unresolved longing and ineffable mystery that make the adoption narrative such an abiding cinematic fascination. García examines Karen's guilt, Elizabeth's abandonment issues, the eternal question of nature vs. nurture, but too often plays into tired stereotypes about adoption. Contains sexuality, brief nudity and profanity.

"Nanny McPhee Returns" (PG, 108 minutes): Emma Thompson reprises her 2005 role as the title character, a strict old bag, who looks more Roald Dahl than Mary Poppins. Her appearance is startling: Along with some spectacularly hairy moles, Nanny McPhee touts a bulbous nose, a unibrow and one colossal front tooth. But her physical disarray is balanced by her supernatural ability to clean up a chaotic scene. Such is the plight of Isabel Green (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a quirky, loving mother who tries to protect her children from the horrors of World War II. To complicate matters, her scheming brother-in-law wants her to sell her half of the family farm so he can pay off gambling debts, and her hoity-toity niece and nephew are visiting from London. As expected, the Green children are at odds with their spoiled big-city counterparts. One slam of Nanny McPhee's cane and the kids are abusing themselves instead of one another. Contains rude humor, some language and mild thematic elements.

"The Other Guys" (PG-13, 107 minutes): Steve Coogan brings a squirrelly charm to the role of David Ershon, a Bernie Madoff-style bad guy whose financial chicanery is the focus of the investigation in this comedy about a pair of wildly mismatched cops, played by Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell. As Allen Gamble, an embarrassingly nebbishy police accountant, Ferrell is the geeky yin to Wahlberg's hyper-macho yang, represented by Terry Hoitz, a disgraced former hot shot who has been exiled to desk duty after an accidental shooting. Gamble is Hoitz's punishment. And we're the ones who reap the rewards. The title itself presents Gamble and Hoitz as alternatives to even bigger jerks, played by Dwayne Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson. As supercops Danson and Highsmith, they're what Gamble and Hoitz aspire to become, even after the film dispenses with the flashy, high-wire duo in a gloriously ignominious -- and hilarious -- end. Contains pervasive crude language, sexual humor, brief sensuality, gunplay, vehicular mayhem and assorted comedic violence.

Also on DVD and Blu-ray Dec. 14: "24: The Complete Eighth Season"; "Army Wives: Complete Fourth Season"; "Gasland"; "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work"; "True Grit: Blu-ray."

December 7

"Inception" (PG-13, 148 minutes): This highly anticipated science-fiction thriller by writer-director Christopher Nolan opens with a dramatic shot of huge waves breaking on a nameless shore. Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) makes his living navigating the minds of other people, sharing their dreams and stealing ideas in an elaborate psychological gambit known as "extraction." Cobb has worked mostly with businesses engaged in super-complicated corporate espionage. But rather than steal an idea, a client named Saito (Ken Watanabe) hires Cobb to plant one in the mind of Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), the would-be heir to an energy conglomerate, in a process called "inception." It's a tough job, and Cobb proceeds to assemble a crack team of dream-weavers to help him pull it off, including a wily forger named Eames (Tom Hardy), a chemist named Yusuf (Dileep Rao) and a young architect named Ariadne (Ellen Page). Contains sequences of violence and action.

"Shrek Forever After" (PG, 98 minutes): The Shrek we meet at the start of this film is a shell of an ogre: mean and green on the outside, but all mellow yellow inside. In an attempt to get back some of his mojo, Shrek (voice of Mike Myers) makes a deal with Rumpelstiltskin (Walt Dohrn) for 24 hours in his old life. In return, Rumpelstiltskin gets to take a day from Shrek's life. Rumpelstiltskin picks the day Shrek was born, meaning that, while Shrek now finds himself in a world of responsibility, it's also a world in which all the good he's done has had no effect. He didn't rescue his wife, Fiona (Cameron Diaz). Rumpelstiltskin is now king and the kingdom a police state run by witches who hunt down ogres. Fiona is the leader of the ogre resistance movement. Fortunately, there's an escape clause: If he and Fiona share "true love's kiss," Shrek gets his life back. All he has to do is make Fiona fall in love with him -- all over again. If he doesn't, he'll evaporate come sunrise. Contains slapsticky action and bathroom humor.

Also on DVD and Blu-ray Dec. 7: "The Bob Hope Collection"; "Cronos: Criterion Collection"; "A Dog Year."

December 4

"The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" (PG-13, 121 minutes): In this installment of the "Twilight" series, 17-year-old heroine Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) inches ever closer to becoming a vampire and joining her forbidden love, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). Bella is also being pursued by Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard), who is amassing an army of "newborn" vampires to wreak vengeance on Bella and the Cullen clan. With all the talk about the Big Change to come and Bella longing for physical intimacy with Edward and Edward valiantly resisting, the cardinal "Twilight" themes of longing, chastity and protection are stronger than ever. More deeply psychological than the first two, "Eclipse" goes further not just in advancing the story but also illuminating the tension that Bella embodies -- between autonomy and surrender -- and clarifying her desire to become a bloodless being with no human connections. Contains intense sequences of action and violence, and sensuality.

November 30

"Going the Distance" (R, 103 minutes): When record-company flunky Garrett (Justin Long) meets newspaper intern Erin (Drew Barrymore) one summer in New York, there's no expectation that the relationship will go anywhere. He's on the rebound, having just broken up with someone that night. And she's about to leave town to return to journalism school on the West Coast. Cue the marijuana-induced, millennial-generation bonding followed by a standard-issue falling-in-love montage featuring surf frolicking. Fast-forward to the airport, where they suddenly announce that they're crazy about each other. Neither makes enough money to visit more frequently than once every few months. So, between the occasional rutting-filled holiday weekend, they have to resort to phone sex, late-night Skype-ing and texting each other every five minutes, much to the annoyance of Garrett's friends. Contains graphic sexual humor, frequent obscenity, sensuality, brief nudity and drug use.

"Knight and Day" (PG-13, 109 minutes): Roy Miller (Tom Cruise) is, in his own words, good at what he does. A master of hand-to-hand combat who can put a bullet exactly where he wants it, he's also unfailingly polite. It's no wonder June Havens (Cameron Diaz) falls for him when they meet on a flight. He's cute, charming, smart and almost freakishly competent. Too bad that trouble, in the form of gun-toting government agents and an arms dealer's ruthless henchmen, is following him -- and now her -- all over the globe. The film follows Roy and June as they bounce from country to country, all while Roy is trying to protect a nebbishy inventor and keep his top-secret invention out of the wrong hands. As an ordinary woman caught up in a world of jet-setting espionage, Diaz makes a delicious comedic and romantic foil to Cruise's Roy. Yes, at first she's a little freaked out by the people dropping like flies all around him, but she soon shows herself to be a capable partner. Contains action violence, mild obscenity and brief suggestive humor.

"The Sorcerer's Apprentice" (PG, 109 minutes): This live-action film stars Nicolas Cage as Balthazar Blake, an ancient wizard at work in modern-day New York. Though it is based loosely on Disney's animated classic "Fantasia," the connection is tenuous. This, despite a sequence in the new movie that depicts out-of-control animated mops and buckets, as in the old one. The CGI upgrade, although visually impressive, lacks the charm of the hand-drawn original. It follows a geeky wizard-in-training named Dave (Jay Baruchel) and his grizzled mentor (Cage). Dave is a kind of chosen one -- a powerful yet unseasoned sorcerer known as the "Prime Merlinian" -- who, prophecy foretells, will one day rise up to defeat the forces of black magic, in the person of evil sorcerer Horvath (Alfred Molina) and his sidekick, a Vegas-style magician named Drake (Toby Kebbell). Contains fantasy action and violence, mildly crude language and brief bathroom humor.

"Vampires Suck" (PG-13, 82 minutes): "Vampires Suck," is a painfully unfunny "Twilight" spoof. Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer have set their comedic crosshairs on the most obvious of targets: the hugely successful film franchise based on the equally successful novels by Stephenie Meyer. The plot is based on a pastiche of moments from the first two "Twilight" films, "Twilight" and "The Twilight Saga: New Moon." Becca (Jenn Proske) moves to a glum little town called Sporks. There she listens to teen-angst mixes on her iPod, engages in desperately awkward conversations with her single father (Diedrich Bader of "The Drew Carey Show") and eventually finds herself torn between Edward (Matt Lanter), a vampire who "looks like he's constipated" and sparkles improbably in the sunlight, and Jacob (Chris Riggi), a kindhearted werewolf who is contractually obliged to remove his shirt every 10 minutes. Contains sexual content, comic violence, language and teen partying.

Also on DVD and Blu-ray Nov. 30: "Fantasia and Fantasia 2000: Special Edition"; "Parks and Recreation: Season 2"; "The Special Relationship."

November 23

"Eat Pray Love" (PG-13, 133 minutes): Julia Roberts portrays author Elizabeth Gilbert as she recovers from a disastrous divorce, painful rebound relationship and general spiritual ennui on a year-long trip through Italy, India and Bali. The book's rabid fans are likely to feel well served by Ryan Murphy's adaptation, which hews pretty faithfully to Gilbert's memoir. And even newcomers, men included, can enjoy being swept up in the film's lavish third chapter, where Gilbert meets a seductive Brazilian named Felipe (Javier Bardem) and embarks on a luscious love affair. Her supporting characters get more time in India, where Gilbert meets "Richard from Texas," played here by Richard Jenkins as a broken man healing his scars through bravado and spiritual seeking. It's in India that Gilbert makes peace with her ex-husband, played by Billy Crudup in a thankless but accomplished performance. Contains brief strong profanity, some sexual references and male read nudity.

"The Expendables" (R, 103 minutes): This action thriller written and directed by Sylvester Stallone is designed to leave filmgoers feeling pummeled into submission. Just when the film threatens to sink under its own weight, Terry Crews blows a guy's brains out, silhouetted through a backlit doorway, and the entire groaning enterprise levitates on a ludicrous plume of pure camp. Stallone plays Barney Ross, leader of the titular gang of mercenaries with names like Lee Christmas (Jason Statham) and Gunnar Jensen (Dolph Lundgren); Crews himself plays Hale Caesar. Hired by a man named Mr. Church to unseat a despot in South America, Ross and the boys lay waste to everything they see: At one point Ross, after catching a seaplane, strafes and sets fire to a pier. Later, bullets, knives and bare hands fly as arms and body parts get thrown into the melee. Primarily, this movie is about bros and the bros who love them. Contains strong action and bloody violence throughout, and some profanity.

"I'm Still Here" (R, 108 minutes): The fascinating, frustrating new documentary -- by actor Casey Affleck, who is married to Phoenix's sister Summer and who seems to have been granted unfettered, round-the-clock access -- purports to chart Phoenix's bizarre career suicide since announcing he was quitting movies after his 2008 art-house film "Two Lovers." You'll find yourself wondering one thing as Phoenix snorts coke off the breast of a naked hooker; weeps openly; dives into an audience to assault a heckler during a rap performance and then vomits; and consistently berates his assistants so badly that one of them defecates on his face while he's sleeping. It's this: Why doesn't Affleck put the camera down and do something? Why doesn't Phoenix's manager say anything? Then come the film's closing credits, which include a "cast" list crediting such performers as Affleck's father, Tim, in the role of Phoenix's father. Contains prodigious obscenity, nudity, drug use and some fistfights.

Also on DVD and Blu-ray on Nov. 23: "Flipped," "The Family That Preys," "The Pillars of the Earth," "The Tudors: Complete Series."

November 16

"Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore" (PG, 82 minutes): Plagued by cheap-looking special effects and a crummy 3-D conversion, this film leans heavily on its only real asset, the cuteness of its fuzzy stars. Kitty is a hairless feline with the voice of Bette Midler who is bent, natch, on world domination. Opposing her are a team of super-spies: a cat with the voice of Christina Applegate, and two dogs, Butch and Diggs (Nick Nolte and James Marsden, respectively). Butch is the old pro; Diggs is the unreliable rookie. The three are tasked with protecting a pigeon (voice of Katt Williams) who has gotten hold of secret blueprints that could endanger Kitty's plan. Yes, there are references to "The Silence of the Lambs" and "Lethal Weapon." Yes, there are fire hydrants. Yes, there's a ball of yarn that's actually a bomb. The only thing that might surprise you is the waterboarding joke, although the surprise is not a pleasant one. Contains animal action and humor.

"Disney's A Christmas Carol" (PG, 96 minutes): The umpteenth iteration of the holiday classic -- about the miserly, miserable Ebenezer Scrooge and his Christmas Eve redemption at the hands of a trio of ghosts -- gets a manic makeover under the direction of Robert Zemeckis, who applies the same motion-capture animation he used to mixed effect in "The Polar Express" to create a fable that is by turns antic, scary, sweet and, in the end, slightly soulless. This, despite the Herculean efforts of the voice cast, which includes Jim Carrey as Scrooge and the ghosts that visit him, and Gary Oldman as Scrooge's dead partner, Jacob Marley, Scrooge's clerk, Bob Cratchit, and Cratchit's son Tiny Tim. Just because something can be done with computers doesn't mean it should be. Make no mistake. Dickens's story has good bones. And its lesson -- that it's never too late to make a difference in someone else's life -- more than carries the day. Contains creepiness.

"The Kids Are All Right" (R, 106 minutes): This is the perfect midsummer movie, a comedy about a flawed-but-functional family that captures the drama of growth and separation in all its exhilaration and heartache. Eighteen-year-old Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and her little brother, Laser (Josh Hutcherson), are pretty typical teens growing up in Southern California today: They're good kids, even if they roll their eyes at their overprotective mother. Actually, make that mothers: Joni and Laser have two moms, one a doctor named Nic (Annette Bening), the other a dreamer named Jules (Julianne Moore). They've clearly formed a close, healthy family, which makes it all the more disruptive when Laser persuades Joni to find their biological father, Paul, a bedroom-eyed underachiever. Paul is the last guy anyone would consider a threat, but when Joni and Laser undertake to find out about him, his presence shakes the family. Contains strong sexual content, nudity, profanity and teen drug and alcohol use.

"The Last Airbender" (PG, 95 minutes): Noah Ringer plays the title role of Aang, a messianic child with the power to manipulate all four elements. Meant to be something akin to the young Dalai Lama, Aang is still an avatar in training. Having run away from the monastery where he was being groomed for his role, Aang left before he had mastered control of water, earth and fire. His only real expertise is in the "bending" of air. That means he can stir up mini-tornadoes with his hands, and blast people with puffs of strong wind. Katara and Sokka (Nicola Peltz and Jackson Rathbone), a teenage earthbender and her brother, team up with Aang to do battle with firebender Zuko. Zuko is hoping to capture Aang so that his people, known as the Fire Nation, can suppress the Earth, Air and Water tribes. He has been banished by his father, the Fire Lord Ozai (Cliff Curtis), until he returns with the prize. Contains martial arts and mildly violent action.

"Lottery Ticket" (PG-13, 95 minutes): A long Fourth of July weekend is all that stands between recent high school graduate Kevin (played by rapper Bow Wow) and a $370 million dollar jackpot. Owner of the winning ticket, Kevin can claim his prize once the next workday begins, but until then he has to contend with the other inhabitants of his housing project, including a gold digger, a muscley ex-con and a wealth of questionably intentioned friends. Most people in such a quandary would, perhaps, hide in a closet at a friend's house. But co-writers Erik White (who also directs) and Abdul Williams have the young man make decisions far beyond the potential for suspended disbelief. Disclosing his new wealth to the whole neighborhood? Check. Taking money from a loan shark with a brigade of Bentleys in a dark warehouse? Check. Getting busy with an unabashed gold digger who wants to be his "baby mama"? Yes, check. Contains sexual content, language including a drug reference, violence and brief underage drinking.

Also on DVD and Blu-ray Nov. 16: "Avatar: Three-Disc Extended Collection," "Best Worst Movie," "The Extra Man," "The Complete Metropolis," "Modern Times: Criterion Collection," "The Night of the Hunter: Criterion Collection."

November 9

"Antichrist" (NR, 104 minutes): A horror film tricked out in the trappings of psycho-sexual dynamics and exegetical musings, this latest provocation from Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier qualifies as torture porn for art-house fans. Von Trier has made a specialty of female martyrdom and putting his actresses through hell. Here, Charlotte Gainsbourg plays an unnamed woman grieving the loss of her young son. When she and her therapist husband (Willem Dafoe) repair to their cabin in the woods, they plunge into a battle between irrational, "female" nature and logical, "male" reason, a fight that culminates in the film's shocking final moments featuring graphic scenes of sexual mutilation and torture. The film finally embodies the contradiction of von Trier: He's a gifted, even visionary, artist mired in his own pulp pretentiousness. Contains brief scenes of graphic sexuality, as well as torture, mutilation, bloody violence, nudity and disturbing images and thematic material.

"Charlie St. Cloud" (PG-13, 99 minutes): Zac Efron plays the titular Charlie, a young man whose guilt and grief over his 11-year-old brother's death -- in a car Charlie was driving -- has paralyzed him emotionally. The scenes in which he plays catch with dead brother Sam (Charlie Tahan), with whom Charlie has a daily play date in the woods, are particularly touching. And when Tess (Amanda Crew), a former high school classmate of Charlie's, tries to reconnect with him, Charlie's reluctance to allow himself real-world pleasure is almost palpable. A promising high school sailor with an athletic scholarship to Stanford, Charlie has put his plans -- and his life -- on hold after Sam dies, taking on a job as cemetery caretaker so that he can be near his brother. Five years after the accident, when Charlie and Tess start falling for each other, Charlie's connection to Sam, or Sam's spirit, is threatened. Contains brief crude language, mild sensuality, a bar fight and a frightening car accident.

"Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" (PG, 108 minutes): Based on a graphic novel, this hyper-kinetic pop-culture pastiche stars Michael Cera as the title character, a 22-year-old Lothario and would-be rocker who meets the girl of his dreams, then sets out to defeat her seven exes to gain her love. Love, actually, has little to do with it in a story populated by progressively snarkier, self-involved characters. Stripped of his doe-eyed looks and indie-nerd style, Pilgrim is actually a selfish jerk; Ramona V. Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) isn't much warmer, looking on with a blase shrug as her suitor risks life and limb on in her behalf. The two are surrounded by a posse of equally snarly, eye-rolling hipsters. The story and characters of the film are negligible. But fans of the novel aren't likely to care, reserving their most passionate interest for how director Edgar Wright has brought their precious antihero to the screen. Contains stylized violence, sexual content, profanity and drug references.

Also on DVD and Blu-ray: "Elia Kazan Film Collection," "The Golden Girls 25th Anniversary Collection," "Grown-Ups," "Love Ranch," "Ramona and Beezus," and "Sherlock Holmes."

November 2

"Toy Story 3" (G, 103 minutes): Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks), Buzz (Tim Allen), Jessie (Joan Cusack) and their toy-box friends return to the screen in a film set during the week before Andy goes to college. Buzz and Jessie and the gang are sent to a day-care center that winds up being, as one survivor puts it, a place of squalor and despair, "run by an evil bear who smells of strawberries." The toys' break-out from the day-care center winds up being the ballast of the film. Woody meets a new group of toys, including a hedgehog who approaches pretend tea parties with the thespian seriousness of Daniel Day-Lewis. Ultimately, every "Toy Story" movie is not just about the film's plot or narrative, but the stories the characters want to be in when Andy plays with them. It's just this deep sense of longing that will bring adult viewers to that Disney-approved point of smiling even as they weep openly. Contains some themes that may be frightening for the youngest viewers.

Also on DVD November 2: "The Bing Crosby Collection," "The Bridge on the River Kwai: Collector's Edition," "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," "The Goonies 25th Anniversary Collector's Edition," "The Larry Sanders Show: The Complete Series," "The Sound of Music 45th Anniversary Edition."

October 26

"The Girl Who Played With Fire" (R, 129 minutes): In the second in a series of films based on Stieg Larsson's best-selling mysteries, we learn a bit more about Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace), the computer hacker and avenging angel introduced in the first film. "Fire" manages to reveal more of the old hurts that drive her. Having used her high-tech skills in to help her sometime lover, investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist), solve an old murder, she has now fled Sweden, only to find that she has been implicated in a triple homicide, in which one of the victims is her parole officer. (The others are a journalist and his girlfriend, both of whom were working with Mikael on an exposé) This pulls Lisbeth back into Mikael's orbit. But for much of the film, the two remain apart, communicating only via e-mail while Mikael tries to clear Lisbeth's name and while Lisbeth tries to stay one step ahead of the law. Contains strong, violent imagery, sex, nudity, obscenity and smoking. In Swedish with English subtitles.

"Sex and the City 2" (R, 140 minutes): This movie picks up the story of Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her friends Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Samantha (Kim Cattrall) two years after the last film ended. Carrie, happily married to Mr. Big (Chris Noth), has been feathering their handsome Upper East Side nest, while the others navigate motherhood, careers and menopause. As the story takes them to a freebie junket in Abu Dhabi, the script visits one indignity after another upon "the girls," from Miranda's desperate whoops of fake glee to Samantha's compulsive penchant for dirty puns. Carrie & Co. run amok, dressed like the offspring of Barnum & Bailey and Alexis Carrington, making jokes about burqas and, in Samantha's case, engaging in exhibitionistic displays that border on the psychotic, making a mockery of the surface pleasures that the series could always be counted on to provide. Contains strong sexual content and profanity.

"Winter's Bone" (R, 100 minutes): Adapted from Daniel Woodrell's novel, this movie limns the impoverished backwoods culture of the Ozark Mountains in southern Missouri, a landscape of drug labs, rural detritus and foreclosed hopes. Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence), 17, is trying to keep her fragile household together, taking care of her younger siblings, as well as her invalid mother. Her father, Jessup, has been away for weeks when a sheriff arrives to tell her that he was arrested for cooking meth and has put the family's house up as bond. He's due in court, and if Ree can't find him, she'll lose her home and her family will be torn apart. Co-written and directed by Debra Granik, "Winter's Bone" teeters uncomfortably between patronizing its hard-bitten characters and romanticizing their folkways, from the gorgeous musical interludes that punctuate the film to their terse rhetorical flourishes. Contains drug material, profanity and violence.

Also on DVD October 26: "Back to the Future: 25th Anniversary Trilogy."

October 19

"Holy Rollers" (R, 89 minutes): Jesse Eisenberg plays Sam Gold, an innocent 20-year-old breaking away from his overbearing family. Older, wiser characters introduce him to girls, booze and nightclubs. He stutters through awkward romantic encounters, saying things like, "I think I should talk more -- or less, I can't tell." The film is based on the true story of a Hasidic drug ring in Brooklyn, N.Y., in the late 1990s. Sam is recruited to carry the "medicine" from Amsterdam to New York in his suitcase. The central conflict of the film is whether Sam will stay a drug mule or return to his traditional Jewish community. As Sam slides deeper into his role as a drug mule, the business skills he learned in his father's humble fabric shop on Delancey Street serve him well in his negotiations with kingpins. That's just about the only upside to this one-dimensional depiction of the Hasidic Judaism, and it's no match for a flood of serotonin. Contains drug content throughout and brief sexual material.

"Oceans" (G, 87 minutes): This French-made Disneynature movie that was released on Earth Day, is 87 minutes of gorgeous visuals of curious sea creatures set to soaring orchestral music. But for all it does to please the eyes and ears, it does nothing to engage the brain. The narrator, Pierce Brosnan, rarely tells viewers about the wildlife's mating rituals, hunting tricks or even which ocean they live in. Instead, he says such things as "Big fish eat little fish." Wow, thanks for clearing that up, 007! There's neither a narrative arc nor organizing principles of any kind. It's not like the film starts in the Pacific and travels to the Indian or starts in shallow water and plunges deeper as it goes on. Instead, it flits from creature to creature with no transitions in between. Contains wildlife violence.

"Predators" (R, 106 minutes): Adrien Brody plays the de facto leader of a bunch of terrestrial tough guys who have been transported to an alien game preserve, where they must use their survival skills to avoid being killed by the same bloodthirsty critters that first stalked Ah-nuld in the 1987 "Predator." Black-ops agent Royce is hurtling pell-mell through the sky after being air-dropped into an unfamiliar jungle. When his parachute opens, he lands with a thud next to seven other battle-hardened warriors, including: a Russian soldier (Oleg Taktarov); an enforcer for a Mexican drug cartel (Danny Trejo); a member of a Sierra Leone death squad (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali); a Japanese mobster (Louis Ozawa Changchien); a convicted murderer and rapist (Walton Goggins); and a token female G.I. (Alice Braga). There's also a doctor (Topher Grace). Stylishly directed by Nimród Antal ("Control"), "Predators" is good if gory grindhouse fun. Contains sexual humor, a drug reference, frequent obscenity and prodigious amounts of violence, gore and alien goo.

Also on DVD October 19: "Bionic Woman: Season One," "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Ultimate Edition," "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Ultimate Edition."

October 15

"How To Train You Dragon" (PG, 90 minutes): Our hero in this briskly paced computer-animated 3-D film, Hiccup (voice of Jay Baruchel), is a young Viking who has his hurdles cut out for him. Hiccup's father, a burly giant named Stoick (voice of Gerard Butler), sports a belt-length red beard and looks as if he begins each day by downing a dozen mead shooters on his way out to slay scaly adversaries. Hiccup develops his own approach to dealing with the dragon threat; he prefers communication and attempts to help all scaly creatures find their inner Puff (-the-Magic). With a school assignment hanging over him to slay a dragon, Hiccup instead befriends a potential victim, Toothless. Filmmakers Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders are best known for 2002's "Lilo & Stitch"; this one is better -- and even for those seeing it on a flat screen -- funnier. Contains sequences of intense action and scary images, plus brief mild language.

October 12

"I Am Love" (R, 120 minutes): The film opens on a snowy evening in Milan, where the wealthy Recchi family has gathered for the birthday of their elderly patriarch, Edoardo (Gabriele Ferzetti). At a dinner overseen with prim propriety by his daughter-in-law Emma (Tilda Swinton), the old man tells the assembled guests that he is handing over the family textile business to his son Tancredi (Pippo Delbono) and Emma and Tancredi's eldest son, Edo (Flavio Parenti). Is that a look of alarm that passes across Emma's face when Edo's grandfather makes his announcement? And just what events are set in motion when an acquaintance of her son stops by with an impromptu gift? Promising director Luca Guadagnino makes the most of a medium too often straitjacketed into shots of people talking to one another, using it to lead viewers to an entirely new realm of the senses, with unsettling, intoxicating results. Contains sexuality and nudity.

Also on DVD October 12: "The Darjeeling Limited," "The Extreme Hangover Edition," "Jonah Hex," "The Tudors: The Final Season."