New on DVD: July 9

Admission

Princeton University admissions officer Portia (Tina Fey) likes her rigid lifestyle both at work and in her personal life, but finds them both rocked when she meets John (Paul Rudd), the free-spirited principal of an alternative high school in this romantic comedy.

The Host

Based on the novel by Twilight author Stephanie Meyer, this sci-fi thriller tells the story of a “wild” human (Saoirse Ronan) that breaks free of her extraterrestrial bonds to track down the man (Jake Abel) she loves.

Spring Breakers

Disney stars Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens leave their goody-goody images far behind them in this wild and uneven drama about a group of college girls who go to work for a sleazy drug dealer (James Franco, who steals every scene he’s in) after he bails them out of jail while they are on vacation from college.

Tyler Perry’s Temptation

Perry wrote and directed this drama about a marriage counselor (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) who should take  some of her own advice when she falls in love with one of her patients and finds her life spinning out of control because of it. If that’s not enough, Kim Kardashian co-stars.

Boy

James Rolleston stars as Boy in this 2010 drama from New Zealand. Boy lives with his younger brother and grandmother on a remote farm where he gets a sharp shock of reality when their estranged ex-con father returns looking for some buried loot he had left behind years earlier.

CLASSIC RE-ISSUES

Street Trash

If you like your horror flicks gory, weird and surprising, you have to check out this 1987 film about a case of wine that has gone off. That doesn’t stop the liquor store owner from trying to make a few extra bucks by selling it to the local street people at a buck a bottle even though it causes the imbiber to literally melt within seconds of drinking it. This film has been carefully restored from the original negative for this blu-ray release and contains countless EXTRAS including audio commentaries from producer Roy Frumkes and director James Muro; a feature-length “making of” documentary; deleted scenes and much more. (Synapse Films)

Hands of the Ripper

In this gory Hammer horror classic from 1971 (released here in a newly restored high-def blu-ray for the first time in North America), a young prostitute named Anna (Angharad Rees) is under the care of a psychic with questionable credentials and motives. After another woman is brutally murdered, a psychiatrist (Eric Porter) suspects Anna may be the killer and psychoanalyzes her only to discover that she may be possessed by the spirit of Jack The Ripper – who was her own father. EXTRAS include a feature entitled The Devil’s Bloody Plaything: Possessed By Hands Of The Ripper; vintage TV spots and more. (Synapse Films)

Cohen and Tate

Adam Baldwin (the co-star of the cult TV series Firefly and no relation to the other acting Baldwin) was beginning to make a name for himself in films like My Bodyguard and Full Metal Jacket when he starred with Roy Scheider (Jaws) in this 1989 thriller written and directed by Eric Red (The Hitcher and Near Dark). In it they play an odd couple of ruthless hit men who are sent to abduct a young witness (Harley Cross) and bring him back to Houston for some mob-style justice. But like the famous O. Henry story The Ransom of Red Chief, the boy plays his bickering captors off of each other to his benefit. (Shout Factory)

TV ON DVD:

Portlandia: Season Three

Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein return for another season of satiric sketch comedy in this series which pokes fun at Portland, Oregon but hits “hipster” pop culture in every big city. Chloe Sevigny and Kyle MacLachlan are just two of the returning guest stars that appear among these 11 episodes on this 2-DVD set.

Robot Chicken: DC Comics Special

Batman, Superman and several other superheroes from the DC Comics Universe get the mickey taken out of them in this half-hour special from Seth Green and the folks at Robot Chicken. (Warner)