DVD Watch

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Not going to the movies this weekend? Check out what's new on DVD this week!

Ride with the Devil - Ang Lee has tackled many different genres. He´s done comedies, dramas, and directed the highly successful martial arts epic, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." Most folks probably don´t realize Lee has also directed a Western in "Ride with the Devil." Universal intended to release the movie as a summer blockbuster, but was largely forgotten despite being well-received by critics. This was due in no small part to its harsh depiction of the Civil War and violence in the Old West. Lee re-teams with his "Ice Storm" star Tobey Maguire who is backed up by a cast that includes Skeet Ulrich, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Jewel, Simon Baker, Tom Wilkinson, Mark Ruffalo,
and Jeffrey Wright.

"Ride with the Devil" provided Lee his first opportunity to direct action scenes, and the results are mixed. An early siege sequence is a masterpiece of precise coverage and marrow-cut editing that

keeps a host of characters involved in a very fast-moving scene. Lee is somewhat less successful at staging larger outdoor battle sequences where men and horses do a lot of shuffling about, but it´s a convincing war movie and Lee has subsequently proven he´s no slouch at staging action set pieces. Forget about "Crouching Tiger," his underrated "Hulk" has some of the best battles in any CGI super-hero film.

Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus - Set in the present day, director Terry Gilliam's fantastical morality tale follows the traveling show of the mysterious Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) -- a man who once won a bet with the Devil himself, and possesses the unique ability to guide the imagination of others. Many centuries ago, Dr. Parnassus won immortality in a bet that found the malevolent Mr. Nick (Tom Waits) coming up short. While few would be foolish enough to try their luck against the powers of darkness a second time, Dr. Parnassus did precisely that -- this time trading his mortality for youth on the understanding that his firstborn would become the property of Mr. Nick when the child reaches his or her 16th birthday.

Flash-forward to the present day, and Dr. Parnassus' daughter, Valentina (Lily Cole), is about to celebrate her sweet sixteen. Dr. Parnassus is desperate to save his little girl from her fiery fate, so when Mr. Nick arrives to collect, he senses the good doctor's malaise and cooks up a wager too enticing to refuse: Dr. Parnassus and Mr. Nick will each compete to seduce five souls, with possession of Valentina going to whoever manages to complete the task first. As the competition begins to heat up, a mysterious man named Tony (Heath Ledger) appears. Could Tony be the one man capable of helping Dr. Parnassus win the competition and save Valentina? While the sudden death of prominent Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus player Heath Ledger in January of 2008 left Gilliam
and company scrambling to find a means of salvaging the film -- which was already well into principal photography at the time -- the cavalry soon arrived in the form of Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell, who each serve as alternate-dimension versions of Tony when the character crosses through a paranormal mirror.

Five Minutes of Heaven - Oliver Hirschbiegel, director of Das Experiment and The Invasion, takes the helm for this film about a killer who dares not seek forgiveness, and another who feels incapable of granting it. The political divide in Ireland runs as far as it does deep. Alistair (Liam Neeson) and Joe (James Nesbitt) each stand on opposing sides of that gaping chasm. Alistair killed Joe's brother, and for than man who's lost family, absolution simply isn't an option.

District 13: Ultimatum - The loud, intense, and explosive action saga Banlieue 13: Ultimatum is a sequel to the 2004 European blockbuster Banlieue 13. This second installment was directed by Patrick Alessandrin but initially gestated from the vision of writer-producer Luc Besson, also responsible for scripting and producing the first go-round. Ultimatum unfurls three years after the original, in the slightly dystopian realm of suburban Paris, circa 2013. Ultra-violence now riddles that sphere -- to such a degree that cops have imposed a lockdown on the area, to little avail. Significantly, the neighborhood is also formally subdivided into ethnic enclaves, including Arabic, Asian, Caucasian, and African. As the tale opens, a crack team of rogue cops pulls off a police assassination inside of the district, prompting the police chief (Daniel Duval) to try to persuade the president (Philippe Torreton) to bulldoze the area and let the cops cash in on the turf's real estate value. In response, two of the said rogues, Damien (Cyril Raffaelli) and Leito (David Belle), hit the streets, guns blazing, and exude all of the force at their disposal to save the region from complete obliteration.

It's Complicated - An aged, divorced mother becomes "the other woman" in her ex-husband's life when the pair enters into an unexpected affair during an out-of-town trip. Jane (Meryl Streep) has been divorced from Jake (Alec Baldwin) for a decade. The mother of three grown children, she owns a successful Santa Barbara bakery/restaurant and maintains a friendly relationship with Jake, who has since been remarried to the much younger Agness (Lake Bell). Jane and Jake are attending their son's college graduation when they agree to an innocent meal together. Before long a simple dinner date has erupted into an all-out affair, and when
architect Adam (Steve Martin) falls for Jane, he realizes he's been drawn into a most peculiar love triangle. Is love sweeter the second time around, or should Jane and Jake just be happy with what they had, and finally move on with their lives?