New DVD Releases

This Week's New Releases on DVD/Video

World Wrestling Entertainment's John Cena stars in this frenetic actioner directed by Renny Harlan. Danny Fisher (Cena) is a New Orleans police officer who catches criminal mastermind Miles Jackson (Aidan Gillen), but in the process the villain's girlfriend is killed. A year later, Jackson breaks out of prison and kidnaps Fisher's girlfriend Molly (Ashley Scott). The villain then sets up a series of 12 challenges that Fisher must meet if he's ever going to see his beloved Molly alive again, and half the city gets destroyed along the way. The movie showcases lots of stunt work.

The Jonas Brothers — Kevin (21), Joe (19) and Nick (16) — comprise a boy band that achieved fame on the Disney Channel. This movie, which showed theatrically in 3D, contains musical numbers from a concert tour, with footage shot in an Anaheim arena and New York's Madison Square Garden. Included are "S.O.S." and "Burnin' Up." The three brothers are backed by additional musicians, and guest stars Demi Lovato and Taylor Swift perform. There are also interviews, footage shot around Manhattan, and the boys use hoses to spray a mostly young female audience with sticky, white liquid.

Joaquin Phoenix gives a strong performance in this subtle, intense romantic drama co-written and directed by James Gray. Set in the Brighton Beach neighborhood of Brooklyn, the story may sound conventional in summary form, but the film's treatment of it is nontraditional. The protagonist is the tormented Leonard Kraditor (Phoenix), whose middle-class parents hope he will marry a nice, attractive woman (Vinessa Shaw) who likes him and seems perfect for him. But he is drawn to a troublesome blonde (Gwyneth Paltrow) who has a married boyfriend and a drug problem.