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'Juno'
Teen pregnancy becomes less of a burden when the mother involved is the coolest, sharpest-tongued kid in school and sets out to find the perfect adoptive parents for the baby she's hatching. Ellen Page earned a best-actress Academy Award nomination as the title character, an almost impossibly glib teenager whose support crew includes a best-friend beau (Michael Cera), a sympathetic dad (J.K. Simmons), bold stepmom (Allison Janney) and a seemingly ideal couple (Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman) looking to adopt. The movie comes in single-DVD, two-disc DVD and Blu-ray high-definition releases that include 11 deleted scenes, plus commentary with director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody, who won the Oscar for original screenplay. The two-disc set and Blu-ray disc also have digital copies of the film for portable media players and a handful of featurettes, among them segments on Reitman and Cody. Single DVD, $29.98; two-disc DVD set, $34.98; Blu-ray, $39.98. (20th Century Fox)
'Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem'
The clash of the space beasts resumes in this second movie in a series that revived two long-dead sci-fi franchises by making the creatures fight each other. This one sets the relentless aliens loose in Colorado after a space ship crashes there, with an alien-predator hybrid joining the hunt. Available as a single DVD, a two-disc DVD set or a Blu-ray release, the home-video version is an unrated edition that adds 10 minutes of extra gore to the R-rated theatrical movie, accompanied by two commentary tracks with the filmmakers. The two-disc set and Blu-ray release come with digital copies for portable media players and a batch of behind-the-scenes segments. The Blu-ray disc has both the theatrical and unrated versions of the movie. Single DVD, $29.98; two-disc DVD set, $34.98; Blu-ray, $39.98. (20th Century Fox)
'Lars and the Real Girl'
A social misfit orders a mate by mail -- a life-sized, anatomically correct doll that he proceeds to introduce to family and acquaintances as his new girlfriend, whom he met online. It sounds more like a prelude to a "Psycho" horror knockoff than one of the year's sweetest and most chaste romances. But this weird little charmer turns out to be the latter, with Ryan Gosling turning in a wonderfully muted performance as Lars, a recluse working out his many issues with the help of a doll he calls Bianca. Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson and Paul Schneider co-star in the film, which comes to DVD accompanied by a deleted scene and two making-of featurettes. DVD, $27.98. (MGM)
Other new releases:
"Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" -- Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke star as brothers whose scheme to make easy money by robbing their own parents' jewelry store goes awry. The film is accompanied by cast and crew interviews and commentary with Hoffman, Hawke and director Sidney Lumet. DVD, $27.98; Blu-ray, $35.98. (Image)
"I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With" -- Jeff Garlin of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" wrote, directed and starred in this quirky tale of a tubby actor living with his mother whose struggle to lose weight is complicated by a chance at romance with a woman (Sarah Silverman) he meets at an ice cream shop. Garlin offers commentary, and the DVD includes a deleted scene. DVD, $19.95. (Genius)
"A Passage to India" -- The final film from director David Lean ("Lawrence of Arabia") returns in a new two-disc DVD edition and debuts on Blu-ray, each packed with seven background featurettes and including commentary with producer Richard Goodwin. The 1984 epic stars Peggy Ashcroft, Judy Davis, Alec Guinness and Victor Banerjee in an adaptation of E.M. Forster's saga about a British woman whose misfortune on a cave-exploration trip in India leads to false accusations against an Indian man. DVD set, $24.96; Blu-ray, 28.95. (Sony)
David Germain
The Associated Press |
