The week’s DVDs celebrate Mother’s Day:

DVDs for May 8 by Boo Allen

This week, we begin with mom:

Mother’s Day (**1/2)

Three brothers have mommy issues in the blu-ray debut of this deliciously
perverse 2010 slasher re-make loosely based on the 1980 original of
the same name. Rebecca de Mornay plays mother to three sons who have
just robbed an Omaha bank. When things go wrong, they flee to what
they believe is still her house. But she had been recently evicted,
and the new owners are at home having a party when the brothers
arrive. A hostage situation develops, and before long, mom and the
boys’ sister arrive to find out where the new owners hid the money
the boys had been sending home. And as everyone knows, it’s not nice
to lie to mother. Director Darren Lynn Bousman smoothly escalates the
blood and violence.

Rated R, 112 minutes. The DVD, available in all formats and various combo
packs, includes commentary.

Bright Road (**1/2), Bewitched (**1/2)

Two notable films arrive this week from On Demand Warner
Archives. Harry Belafonte made his acting debut in Bright Road
(1953, 68 minutes) playing an elementary school principal in a small
southern town. Legendary Dorothy Dandridge stars as a new teacher who
helps a problem student blossom. Based on a well known short story,
Bright Road touches on race relations in a subtle yet
ground-breaking way for 1953, and it was also one of the few times a
major studio (M.G.M.) released a film with a virtual all
African-American cast. Bewitched (1945, 65 minutes),
not connected to the popular TV show, marked one of the first
cinematic attempts to examine the then-novel concept of multiple
personalities. Phyllis Thaxter plays Joan, engaged and a model
citizen. Inside her, however, rages an evil persona who forces her
into committing murder. Her impending execution allows a psychiatrist
(Edmund Gwenn) to draw out her other sides. Arch Oboler directed and
wrote the screenplay, based on his radio play.

The Front Line (***)

This polished South Korean film resembles many 1940s and
1950s World War II American films, as it is set on the border between
North and South Korea in the final days of their conflict. Armies for
both sides grumble, express fear, and undergo the same universal
soul-searching. They fight to recapture an area that has already
changed hands often. But commanders-in-charge know the war nears end
and borders will be drawn depending on who then holds the territory.
Some recognizable types appear: the crusty sergeant, the unstable
soldier, the cold-blooded sniper.

Not rated, 132 minutes. The DVD comes in all formats and
various combo packs.

The Bling Ring (***), Girl Fight (***1/2)

The Lifetime Channel offers these two powerful unrated, fact-based
dramas. In The Bling Ring (88 minutes), Zack (Austin
Butler), a Los Angeles high school student, transfers to a new
school, where he makes friends with a group of females. The leader,
mean girl Natalie (Yin Chang ), proves to be an unrepentant
sociopath, as she coerces her tight group into a series of burglaries
of celebrities’ homes. Zack shows remorse, while Natalie revels in
her newly found booty from the homes of such as Paris Hilton and
Lindsey Lohan. Meanwhile, the police zero in, slowly bringing a halt
to this impending disaster. Girl Fight (88 minutes)
examines the consequences of bullying with its story of Haley
(Jodelle Ferland), a bright but not popular student. Eventually, she
believes she has made friends with a group of popular girls she had
previously ridiculed. When they discover some snide comments Haley
had made about them on-line, they brutally take it out on her. One
girl films the event, which eventually lands on-line and in the hands
of Haley’s parents (Anne Heche and James Tupper). They back their
daughter but want to make sure the girls are prosecuted, which leads
to a media onslaught as well as community conflict.

She’s Not Our Sister (**1/2)

Playwright Johnnie Johnson wrote and Snoop Robinson, directed this music-filled
family comedy about three sisters who unite when their father dies.
But they only come together when they learn that dear ole pop had a
secret family, and that they have a half-sister. What makes it even
worse is that it looks like the interloper may weasel herself into a
share of the father’s estate. With Kellita Smith, Drew Sidora, Tony
Grant, Azur-De, Christian Keyes.

Not rated, 90 minutes. The DVD also includes a photo gallery.

Ralphie May: Too Big to Ignore,

Bobcat Goldthwait: You Don’t Look the Same Either

With these two new releases, it looks like it will be, as Stephen Sondheim
said, comedy tonight. Ralphi May stars in Too Big
(108 minutes), a recorded performance for a Comedy Central special. The
popular comic delivers his irreverent humor that takes on race
relations, his dysfunctional family and even tackles politics. The
DVD also includes a “behind-the-scenes” featurette. Bobcat
Goldthwait is the titular star on You Don’t Look
the Same (57 minutes), an original performance on Showtime in which he looks
back on, with comic glee, his eventful career which has given him
plenty of comic material.

Happiness is Peanuts: Team Snoopy

Charlie Brown and the world’s most famous beagle return in this sports
related collection of unrated TV specials: Lucy
Must Be Traded, Charlie Brown, The Pelicans, Great Pumpkin, and
Spike.
48 minutes.

Cold War (****)

This excellent 1998 documentary now arrives for the
first time on DVD. First seen on CNN, the Peabody Award winning work
examines in detail how the U.S. and the Soviet Union fell into and
then extended their long-term detente. In the 24 episodes, on six
discs, documentarian Jeremy Isaacs presents not only fascinating
extant footage but also some rarities, such as at the meetings of the
Big Three at Yalta and in Tehran during World War II. A luminous
array of guests sits for interviews, including George H. W. Bush,
John Kenneth Galbraith, George Kennan, Jimmy Carter, Lech Walesa, and
Mikhail Gorbachev. Fidel Castro contributes and is also the subject
of a separate interview. Kenneth Branagh narrates, and a
distinguished cast helps supply the voice-overs.

Not rated, 1122 minutes. In addition to the Castro
interview, the collection includes the 36 minute Oscar-nominated
documentary “The Hoaxters.”

Also on DVD: Chuck—season five, The Genesis Code, Last
Breath, Playback, Underworld: Awakening, The Vow.