DVD releases for Tuesday
“Australia” (PG-13): A wildly ambitious, luridly indulgent spectacle of romance, action, melodrama and historic revisionism, the film is windy, overblown, utterly preposterous and insanely entertaining. Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) is being driven across Faraway Downs by a mysterious, cynical cattle hand simply named the Drover (Hugh Jackman). Upon arriving at her husband’s battered farmhouse near Darwin, Sarah discovers that he has been killed.
Although she came to Australia to coax her husband back to Britain, Sarah decides to stay and drive her best cattle to Darwin, where the story shifts to a military action thriller. But even as he wraps his country in an adulatory glow, director Baz Luhrmann reserves the right to find fault, especially in the government’s historic oppression of Australia’s indigenous people.
Contains violence, a scene of sensuality and brief strong language. DVD Extras: Deleted scenes; Blu-ray contains multiple featurettes.
“Beverly Hills Chihuahua” (PG): Disney’s attempt to cash in on the Taco Bell talking-dog craze that peaked 10 years ago could be dismissed as the pop-cultural detritus that it is. But it’s actually not that bad. Drew Barrymore voices the part of Chloe, the pampered title character who, while in the care of a feckless baby sitter (Piper Perabo), is taken to Mexico and promptly gets lost.
The movie’s concept is lame, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with watching a passel of adorable pooches with human voices. The secret weapon is Andy Garcia’s growling former K-9 German shepherd, who befriends Chloe and serves as sort of a film-noirish Rin Tin Tin. As for Barrymore’s plucky little pup, she’s got verve, spunk and telegenic charm.
Contains mild thematic elements. DVD Extras: Commentary with Director Raja Gosness; deleted scenes; bloopers; featurette.
“I’ve Loved You So Long” (PG-13): It isn’t very long before you figure out what’s eating Juliette (Kristin Scott Thomas), the film’s haunted heroine who’s reunited with little sister Lea (Elsa Zylberstein) after a 15-year separation. Turns out that Juliette hasn’t been away on a trip, as Lea tells her two daughters, but in prison.
The shameful reason why — and another, even more deeply buried secret — unspool with deliberate mystery in French writer-director Philippe Claudel’s exquisitely rendered story of reconciliation and redemption. The dynamic between Juliette and Lea is the most fraught.
And, in the hands of Scott Thomas and Zylberstein, the most rewarding to watch. Their characters’ desire to repair their fragile bond feels as achingly real as the mother lode of hidden pain that gets exposed by the work of these two great actresses.
Contains mature themes and smoking. In French with English subtitles. DVD Extras: Deleted scenes with optional commentary by Claudel.
Also: “7th Heaven: Season 8,” “ER: Season 10,” “Exit Speed,” “The Hills: Season 4,” “In the Electric Mist,” “The Inauguration of Barack Obama,” “Lake City,” “True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet,” “Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic” and “Wonder Woman 2009.”
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