New on DVD: May 22

Pick of the Week

The Woman in Black

Daniel Radcliffe makes his first big attempt to graduate from Hogwarts and his Harry Potter role with this chilling new adaptation of the gothic British ghost story. Here he plays a young lawyer who is sent to a seaside town to look after the estate of an old woman, whom none of the townspeople will even talk about above a whisper. When he begins to see a strange apparition of a woman in black, his curiosity leads him to a dark and terrifying secret. Thanks to the atmospheric direction of James Watkins and a creepy script by Jane Goldman, this turns out to be one of the scariest films of the year proving that less can often be frighteningly more. EXTRAS include audio commentary from Watkins and Goldman; a “making of” featurette and more. (Alliance)

DVDs:

Red Tails

This labour-of-love from executive producer George Lucas (who has wanted to make this film for 20 years) tells the true story of a group of African-American during the Second World War who battled more segregation than they did Nazis during their time overseas. Spectacular in-the-air battle footage barley saves this film from its old-fashioned characters. EXTRAS include an hour-long history of the Tuskegee airmen featuring interviews with many of the surviving pilots. (Fox)

This Means War

Two friends (Tom Hardy & Chris Pine), who work as CIA operatives, find themselves on opposite ends of a romantic tug-of-war when they both secretly fall in love with the same woman (Reese Witherspoon) in this action-packed comedy from director McG (Charlie’s Angels). (Fox)

The Grey

When a group of oil-rig workers (led by Liam Neeson) find themselves stranded in the Alaskan wilderness after a plane crash, they have only a few days to escape the freezing cold in order to survive. Oh, and did I mention that a blood-thirsty pack of wolves are hunting them down as well? (eOne)

Perfect Sense

Ewan McGregor and Eva Green star in this surrealistic drama about the romance between two people during an epidemic in which everyone in the world begins to lose their senses beginning with smell and taste and finally ending with their hearing and sight.

The Secret World of Arrietty

This is a Japanese animated version of the classic British children’s book The Borrowers, (available in both the original language and an English dubbed version) about a family of little people that secretly live beneath the floors of a family’s home and the young human boy who befriends one of them. (Disney)

Ray Romano: 95 Miles to Go

Everybody Loves Raymond star Ray Romano hits the road with his friend (and opening act) Tom Caltabiano in this documentary that chronicles their 8-week tour by car. Part road trip, part stand-up special, this film offers fans a more intimate look at the less-than-glamorous side of show business. (VSC)

American Warships

In yet another low-budget rip-off from Asylum Studios designed to separate the gullible consumer from their money comes this blatant copycat (right down to the DVD cover design, which incurred an instant lawsuit) of the new film Battleship. In this cheapo, Mario Van Peebles and Carl Weathers star as military officers who find themselves in a war against an alien invasion while accompanying the last American battleship to a maritime museum.

Beyond

When a little girl goes missing from her home in a small Alaskan town, a veteran detective (Jon Voight) finds his investigation hampered by the involvement of a “psychic” radio talk show host (Pretty Little Liars’ Julian Morris) in this supernatural thriller. (Anchor Bay)

Carol Channing: Larger Than Life

This documentary of the Broadway and film legend Carol Channing follows the actress as she approaches a rare stage appearance to celebrate her 90^th birthday. Combined with personal film footage, archival TV appearances and new interviews with friends like Lily Tomlin and Debbie Reynolds, this film captures the charismatic star in the twilight of her long life. (eOne)

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Alpha

As a tie-in with the new video game Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Future Soldier, this film is just a glorified promotional commercial. At only 20-minutes, this is an all-action tale of the Ghost Recon team battling their arch enemy Chevchenko in an abandoned military outpost. If you’re into the game, you don’t need this and if you aren’t, you may feel ripped off buying or renting it. (eOne)

MUSIC ON DVD:

Simply Red Live at Montreux

This live concert, taped in 2003 at the famed music festival, captures Mick Hucknall and the band promoting their then hit album Home as well as cranking out their better known hits like “Holding Back the Years” and “Money’s Too Tight to Mention”. As a bonus, this disc also includes a half-hour concert of the band from 2010, from the same venue. (Anchor Bay)

TV ON DVD:

Sherlock: Season Two

The hugely successful modern-day BBC version of Sherlock returns for its second season with three new feature-length episodes beginning with “Scandal in Belgravia”, which finds the super sleuth (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his trusty sidekick Watson (Martin Freeman) attempting to recover compromising photos of a royal family member from the camera phone of a alluring woman (Lara Pulver), who turns out to have a strange hold over Sherlock. In the new version of “The Hounds of Baskerville,” the strange sightings of a giant beast roaming the moors attracts the attention of the clever London detective, who with Watson, head up an investigation that leads them to a highly-secure military base. Finally you get “The Reichenbach Fall” in which Holmes goes head to head with his archenemy Moriarty, a man whose genius knows no bounds when he slowly begins to destroy the great detective’s reputation and sanity. (Warner)

My Babysitter’s a Vampire: Season One

In its first live-action project, Teletoon presents this comedy horror series about a teenage boy named Ethan (Matthew Knight) whose parents still believe needs a babysitter. It’s even tougher to try to look cool when your minder is also the hottie you’ve been crushing on (Vanessa Morgan of Harriet the Spy) and it only gets worse when it turns out that she’s a vampire. Fans of quirky Canadian cinema may be interested to note that the pilot film (which is also included in this 13-episode set) is directed by none other than Bruce McDonald, the man behind Hard Core Logo and Roadkill.

Teen Wolf: Season One

Tyler Posey is the nocturnally hirsute high school student Scott McCall, who after being bitten by a werewolf becomes a creature of the night himself. Now, he must hide his dark secret from his friends and family while trying to maintain a normal teenage life. This 3-disc set features all 12 episodes from this supernatural thriller’s first season as well as tons of bonus features including an extended version of the cliff-hanging season finale and a montage of Posey’s many shirtless moments. (ABC Studios)

SWAT: The Final Season

After several years now, the second and final season of this 1970s cop series (which inspired the 2003 Samuel L. Jackson film of the same name) is now available on DVD. Steve Forrest and Robert Urich star as members of an elite Special Weapons and Tactics squad in Los Angeles who are only called out on the most dangerous of cases. This 6-disc set features all 24 episodes from the second and last season of the show including ones with guest appearances by Sal Mineo, Donna Mills, Leslie Nielsen and others. (Shout Factory)

The River: Season One

Six months after famous explorer Dr. Emmett Cole (Bruce Greenwood) went missing while on an exploration deep within the Amazon, a sign that he may still alive surfaces. When his wife, Tess (Leslie Hope) and their son Lincoln (Joe Anderson) agree to let a shady producer (Paul Blackthorne) join their search party in order to film it as a documentary the adventure truly begins. As they journey deeper into uncharted territory on their search for Cole, they discover countless different horrors (courtesy of Paranormal Activity’s Oren Peli) to keep viewers on the edge of their seats throughout these 8 episodes.

Rizzoli and Isles: Season Two

Based on the novels by Tess Gerritsen, Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander star as police detective Jane Rizzoli and Dr. Maura Isles, two Boston-based women who use their different professional skills to team up and solve often horrific and violent cases. This 3-disc set features all 15 episodes from the series sophomore season as well as many bonus features including unaired scenes and bloopers. (Warner)

Route 66: The Complete Series

This dramatic series (which ran from 1960 until 1964) starred Martin Milner, George Maharis (and later Glenn Corbett) as friends who travel the famed highway of the title with their Corvette sports car in search of endless adventure. Over the next 116 episodes, they find plenty of it as they help strangers out of a series of predicaments along the way. The guest stars that passed through this series is a “who’s who” of familiar faces including relative newcomers like Robert Duvall, Robert Redford, James Caan and Walter Matthau to Hollywood legends like Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Lon Chaney Jr. and Buster Keaton. This 24-disc collector set features all the episodes as well as many unique bonus features. (Shout Factory)

Mega Builders: Season One

The first season of this Discovery Channel series looks at six different modern-day engineering marvels from around the world including the world’s fastest jet car and a man-made island in Dubai. (eOne)