Susan Granger’s DVD Update for Fri., Dec. 2:
If you enjoy thought-provoking sci-fi, “Another Earth” visualizes a parallel world on which another version of you lives, as co-writer/actress Brit Marling plays a guilt-ridden teenager, hoping for a redemptive second chance, while “One Day” is a depressingly maudlin melodrama about two young Brits (Anne Hathaway, Jim Sturgess) whose lives intersect every July 15, St. Swithin’s Day, for 20 years.
A caper comedy, “30 Minutes or Less” finds an aimless pizza-delivery guy (Jesse Eisenberg) abducted by bickering sociopaths (Danny McBride, Nick Swardson) who strap a ticking bomb to his chest and force him to rob a bank, demanding that he come up with $100,000 in 10 hours – or else.
Lifetime offers four, new direct-to-DVD stocking stuffers: “A Christmas Wedding,” with Eric Mabius, Sarah Paulson and Dean Cain in a holiday misadventure… Joanna Garcia and Luke Perry in “A Very Merry Daughter of the Bride”… “Under the Mistletoe” about a single mom (Jaime Ray Newman) whose love life is taken over by a local radio station following a call from her eight year-old son…and “Holiday Wishes (AKA All I Want for Christmas)” in which a rich, spoiled child switches bodies with an orphan after a visit with Santa in the mall.
Looking ahead to Hanukkah, Sesame’s “Shalom Sesame” 12-dvd series not only introduces the Hebrew language but finds furry Grover exploring the diversity of the people of Israel, along with “The Sticky Shofar” and “Monsters in the Sukkah.”
For preschoolers, “Thomas & Friends: Merry Christmas, Thomas!” travels to the ho-ho-home of the Island of Sodor, while “Barney: A Very Merry Christmas – The Movie” journeys to Santa’s Workshop to discover that giving and caring for others is the true spirit of the season. Plus there’s “Shaun the Sheep: We Wish Ewe A Merry Christmas” and “Angelina Ballerina: Holiday 3-DVD Gift Set.”
PICK OF THE WEEK: Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis have a happy hookup in the sweet ‘n’ salty “Friends With Benefits,” sealing their vow on a cell phone Bible app – with Olympic snowboarder Shaun White in a crazy cameo and Woody Harrelson as a coolly gay co-worker.