New on DVD and Blu-ray disc

“Desperate Housewives: Fifth Season”
Desperate? Oh, you could say they’re desperate. Still, if it were just desperation that drove the women of Wisteria Lane, "Desperate Housewives" would have been just another soap opera and not the hit ABC television show it became. In this fifth season of the show, Wisteria Lane and the "ladies" who lunch there remains a place where friendship and neighborly love don't exactly go down like spoonfuls of sugar. Saccharine, yes, and a few heapings of bitters--but rarely sugar. Teri Hatcher, Marcia Cross, Eva Longoria, Felicity Huffman and Nicollette Sheridan go to the ends of the Earth to mix it up this time (they had to, really, if only to keep this baby rolling), and so they are more salacious than ever. Grade: B


“Earth” DVD, Blu-ray
For fans of the BBC's excellent "Planet Earth" series, Disney’s "Earth" feels carved from parts of it, and for good reason. This beautifully shot movie is produced by the BBC, among a host of others, and their influence is felt throughout--even if a good deal of the detail and depth they usually bring to such projects is lacking in this effort. That said, “Earth” still is satisfying on many levels, not the least of which is that a good deal of its focus is on climate change and how that very real problem is affecting our planet and its inhabitants. Plunging with deceptive ease into the Earth’s nooks and crannies, the movie raises questions (and awe) about how the filmmakers captured certain shots. For instance, when a Great White Shark leaps from the ocean to snatch a seal in its jaws, the combination of luck and skill possessed by the filmmakers is right there on the screen, with the moment slowed down to such a degree, you watch in pity for the seal, but also in admiration that this unique shot now is in the archives. Other scenes also resonate, such as the struggle of elephants to find water before dehydration defeats them. Later, across continents in New Guinea, the showy pluck of a bird of paradise is at once comic and surreal. If RuPaul was a bird, he’d be the one on display here. Scenes of cute ducklings and penguins abound, which intentionally recall Disney’s nature films of the past, but parents should know that young prey do fall hard in this movie, often due to a predator’s outstretched claw. As difficult as those moments can be to watch, they at least are honest, which in the end helps to deepen the movie in spite of its flaws and the fact that it never fully develops its global warming angle. In “Earth,” you come away grateful for experiencing something new about the world you likely wouldn’t have seen otherwise. Rated G. Grade: B

“Gladiator” Blu-ray
Beefcake! Blood! Body slams! Boring! Boring? Well, not quite, but at 150 minutes, Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator,” now on Blu-ray disc, isn’t entirely the thrilling, action-packed Roman epic some fans of the genre were hoping for when the film was initially released. Too long by a third, the film features a terrific opening in its vicious, well-staged battle against Germania, but then it quickly dissolves into 90 minutes of dull chatter before getting on with what audiences want--gore, political upheavals and fantastic betrayals. As Maximus, a general from Spain who loses everything -- his freedom, his wife, his son -- after the actions of his arch nemesis, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), Russell Crowe has presence, but no core. His character is an enigma, the suffering hero we never truly get to know. That’s no fault of Crowe’s -- his passion holds the movie together in spite of his character’s two dimensions -- but more a fault of the screenwriters, who made the timeworn mistake of focusing their attention almost entirely on the film’s plot. “Gladiator” isn’t entirely beaten down by its moments of tedium. Once the stage is set for Maximus to overthrow Commodus, the film comes to life in its terrific last hour, which is so rousing, it seems as if somebody else is at the helm. In the end, though, the film ultimately is clouded with historical inaccuracies, the worst of which is Crowe’s thick Australian accent, which proves something of a problem since Australia wasn’t discovered until 1,800 years after “Gladiator” is set. Rated R. Grade: B-

“Sunshine Cleaning” DVD, Blu-ray
Amy Adams is Rose, a single mother trying to make it in the world while keeping her dignity intact and her family in check. Rose’s day job is spent unfulfilling her potential by cleaning homes for those wealthier than she, such as former high-school girlfriends who are startled when they realize that it’s Rose scrubbing their toilets and who then try to stifle their surprise with an awkwardness that's palpable. Rose’s side job is a 24-hour gig that involves keeping tabs on her sketchy sister Norah (Emily Blunt); their well-meaning but befuddled father Joe (Alan Arkin); and also Rose's 7-year-old son Oscar (Jason Spevack), a sweet kid with a knack for landing into trouble. In between all this, Rose manages to have a love life with a cop named Mac (Steve Zahn), who once was her high school sweetheart, but who now is married to another woman pregnant with his umpteenth child. Back in the day, when Mack and Rose were young and in love, they were the "It" couple on campus. Mac was the quarterback of the football team, Rose was a spirited cheerleader, but now that each are somewhere in their mid-thirties, the dreams of their youth have been reduced to lies and deceit, and quick trysts in out-of-town motels. And yet here's the thing about Rose. In spite of her moral shortcomings, you like her and pull for her. This is due in large part to how Adams approaches the character, which is with a mix of grace and vulnerability, hurt and pride, all of which shade over her face seemingly at once. Her performance in this movie is beautifully measured, with Adams resonating a groundswell of emotions that feel lived-in and real. Rose knows she can do better in her life. For her, it’s finding out what and how that's the problem. When Mac offers a clue--there is a niche market in cleaning up after the dead--Rose pays attention and soon, along with her sister, she starts Sunshine Cleaning, for which there seems to be no shortage of customers. Subplots abound in this movie, and occasionally they detract, but the best and most meaningful involves the potential for Rose to find a much healthier relationship with Winston (Clifton Collins Jr.), a single man of the same age who owns a hardware store and who is physically challenged by having only one arm. The movie doesn’t make much of his disability, which is nice--it is what it is. But his quiet presence in the film gives it additional weight, particularly since his growing relationship with Rose allows the focus to be kept where it needs to be--on Rose, who, through a lot of introspection, starts to come into focus herself. Rated R. Grade: B

“Supernatural: Fourth Season” DVD, Blu-ray
Delivers what its title promises and then it goes a step farther--it improves upon the very good season that came before it. Jared Padalacki and Jensen Ackles return as Sam and Dean Winchester, two brothers working through a traumatic past--their mother was viciously killed by a monster, grisly depicted in the first season. Now, the family business is in hunting down ghosts, particularly the elusive one who killed their mother. What ensues is supernatural at every turn, with this season focused on all sorts of troubles for the two brothers, not the least of which is a looming battle with Lucifer himself. Naturally, the situation proves dire, with hell initially held at bay until--that’s right--all hell breaks loose. Grade: B

Also on DVD and Blu-ray disc:

Several additional titles are new to DVD and Blu-ray disc, including the eighth season of “Scrubs,” which remains a highlight. It’s smart, well-balanced lunacy with an undercurrent of romantic and dramatic tension that cuts through the laughs.

In the halls of Sacred Heart Hospital, where the series takes place, the joke is that nothing is as sacred as it should be. Everything here is free to be lampooned--hypochondriacs, love, cancer, you name it--but the writers know that there are consequences to such behavior, and they deliver the fallout. What's admirable about the show is that it consistently tries for something new, and while it doesn't always succeed in its leaps of faith, it does make an effort, which on television is becoming something of a rarity.

Four additional television shows are recommended, including "CSI: Sixth Season" and “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: The Ninth Season,” the latter of which is amplified beyond reason. And it had to be, particularly since it needed to compensate for the loss of Warrick (Gary Dourdon). The show comes through, with Warrick’s death actually giving the series a shot of new life. Fairing equally well is "90210: First Season," a saucy remake of the original series, and “Sons of Anarchy: Season One (DVD, Blu-ray), which follows a band of outlaw bikers through all sorts of dramatic hell. Ron Perlman, Charlie Hunnam and Katey Segal star.

The sixth season of “One Tree Hill” is available, not that anyone should cheer its arrival. Soap drives the series into rooms bursting with flurries of tiny melodramas, though no substance. Add to this a clutter of storylines that choke the momentum--the chief focus is the marriage of Peyton and Lucas, who define annoying--and you have a show seriously lacking the tension and interest featured in the first few seasons.

Things look up for the third season of “Brothers & Sisters,” in which the Walkers successfully heave and sigh through their own familial dramas with the help of a super cast that includes Rachel Griffiths, Tom Skerritt, Sally Field, Rob Lowe and Balthazar Getty. And then there’s the third season of “Heroes” (DVD, Blu-ray), which is an improvement over the rotten second season, but which doesn’t exactly recapture the greatness of the first season. This season is a mixed bag of confusing storylines, a few genuinely thrilling episodes that lend themselves to the promise of improvement, and then an ending that gives itself over to a groundswell of disappointment. Abilities, Villains and Fugitives abound here--and they all come into question in a show that still hasn’t figured out what to do with them.