The bulk of these new DVD releases are straight-to-video titles, and there was a reason they didn't make it into theaters.
"American Son" (Miramax, 2008; R for language, sex, drugs; $29.99). Nick Cannon stars as a young Marine on Thanksgiving leave who doesn't want to tell his dysfunctional family about his upcoming deployment to Iraq, and he also finds himself drawn to a young woman he's just met on the bus ride home.
Cannon and the rest of the cast are very good, and when it's subtle this observant look at a teenager stepping into the responsibilities of adulthood and facing terrifying prospects in a war zone, is universal and quite moving. But too much time is wasted flailing about amid soap opera cliches.
Extras: widescreen, deleted scenes, audio commentary, featurette, trailers
"How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" (Paramount, 2003, PG-13, $14.98). This was a theatrical film, of course, and this reissue is loaded with bonus features for fans.
Kate Hudson is a magazine columnist who decides to win a guy, then chase him away with ill-mannered behavior. Meanwhile, adman Matthew McConaughey bets that he can be so sensitive he'll make a woman fall in love with him within 10 days. But it's not funny or warm enough to overcome its contrivances.
Extras: widescreen, deleted scenes, audio commentary, featurettes, music video, trailers (also in Blu-ray, $29.99)
"Nights and Weekends" (IFC, 2008, $24.98). Low-key independent romance about a relationship strained by his living in Chicago while she's in Brooklyn. Naturalistic style by writer-directors Joe Swanberg and Greta Gerwig, who also star, will either be off-putting or charming, depending on your tolerance for this sort of thing.
Extras: widescreen, audio commentary, test short, teasers, trailer
"Almost Heaven" (E1, 2006, $24.98). This comic romance has Donal Logue as a TV director who takes a job in Scotland only to find that he must work with his ex-wife. Bolstered by location photography and the presence of Tom Conti, but it never quite comes together. (The deleted scenes are surprisingly much more raunchy than the movie.)
Extras: widescreen, deleted scenes, audio commentary, featurette, trailers (also on Blu-ray, $34.95)
"The Informers" (Sony, 2009; R for sex, nudity, drugs, language; $24.96). Obnoxious and disgusting rich kids and their equally obnoxious and disgusting parents are the focus of this ensemble melodrama set in the early 1980s amid sex and drug addiction in Los Angeles. Truly awful, despite an A-list cast — Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, Winona Ryder, Mickey Rourke.
Extras: widescreen, audio commentary, featurette, trailers
"Rudo y Cursi" (Sony/Blu-ray, 2009; R for language, nudity, sex, drugs; $28.96). A pair of brothers in a small town are recruited for different big-league soccer teams in Mexico City, where big-city temptations get the better of one of them. Uneasy blend of comedy and dark melodrama never jells, but there are solid performances by Gael Garca Bernal and Diego Luna (both of "Y Tu Mama Tambien").
Extras: widescreen, in Spanish with English subtitles, deleted scenes, audio commentary, featurettes, music video, trailers (also on DVD with one less featurette, $28.96)
"Green Street Hooligans 2" (Vivendi, 2009, $26.99). More soccer, this time inside a prison that is supposed to be in England but was filmed in Southern California, with lots of screaming and fighting but no discernible plot.
Extras: widescreen, featurette, trailer
"Spirited Killer Trilogy" (Mill Creek, 1994-98, $14.98). Tony Jaa, the amazing martial-arts star of "Ong-Bak" and "The Protector," is featured prominently on the box but is only briefly in the first of these three Thai films — "Spirited Killer," "Spirited Killer 2: Awakened Zombie Battles," "Spirited Killer 3: Ghost Wars" — about a supernatural forest demon battling infidels. Silly but filled with action.
Extras: widescreen, dubbed in English
"50 Movie Pack: Horror Classics" (Mill Creek, 1932-67, 12 discs, b&w and color, $29.98). A few of these are genuine "classics" — "Nosferatu," "The Phantom of the Opera," "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (all silents), and maybe "The House on Haunted Hill" and "The Last Man on Earth," both starring Vincent Price. Along with "Carnival of Souls," primarily filmed in Salt Lake City and Saltair. But most are, of course, B-level or C-level campy horror films from the 1930s through the 1960s.There are some iconic stars, though, such as Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jr. and Barbara Steele.
Extras: full frame/widescreen, 50 movies
"Gorehouse Greats Collection" (Mill Creek, 1962-91, three discs, $14.98). Well, "greats" is relative. These dozen flicks are mostly low-budget, exploitation, drive-in horror flicks, with such titles as "Blood Mania," "Brain Twisters," "Blood of Dracula's Castle," "Satan's Slave," etc., and featuring John Carradine, Robert Alda, Michael Gough and Cameron Mitchell, all in their waning years.
Extras: widescreen, 12 movies
e-mail: hicks@desnews.com