New on DVD and Blu-ray Disc

"Grey's Anatomy: Complete Fifth Season" DVD, Blu-ray
After a good but abbreviated fourth season, this fifth season got its act together and is a fine return to form. Given the show’s title, the focus presumably is on Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), who is in an intense relationship with surgeon Derek Shepherd (Maine native Patrick Dempsey), and who, like him, must mine the personalities surrounding her, from Izzie (Katherine Heigl), Alex (Justin Chambers), Cristina (Sandra Oh) and George (T.R. Knight), to several newcomers such as Owen (Kevin McKidd), who develops a relationship with Cristina. What becomes clear in this season is that more than ever, the show is less about Meredith than it is about the maelstrom of stories surrounding her, including a pivotal ending that put’s George’s life (not to mention Izzie’s) literally on the line. It’s a moving ending, the series at its best, and that its focus isn’t specifically on Meredith suggests just how crowded the corridors of Seattle’s Grace Hospital have become. And how rich. Grade: B

"High Crimes" Blu-ray
One of those glossy, well-acted potboilers that doesn't aim high enough. Moments fly thanks to the talented cast, but since the film eventually steamrolls into a middling mess of courtroom cliches and dumb plot twists that no actor can surmount, the experience is ultimately as weak as the poison in Botox--though without the refined results. Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman star in a movie that gets off to a promising start with Judd as Claire Kubick, a high-powered attorney for a high-powered law firm whose high-powered life is about to be hit by a high-powered wrecking ball. During an innocent evening of holiday shopping in San Francisco, Claire and her sensitive, doe-eyed husband, Tom (Jim Caviezel), are ambushed by the FBI. Apparently, Tom's real name is Ron Chapman, something Claire didn’t know. Now, she must deal with the knowledge that her husband allegedly went on a killing spree in a Salvadorian village in 1988, leaving nine women and children dead in his wake. Is he a murderer? Or could it be that the killing actually was committed by Maj. Hernandez (Juan Carlos Hernandez), a shifty little man with a droopy left eye who might, in the end, only be a decoy for the real person responsible here--brigadier general William Marks (Bruce Davison). With the help of Charlie Grimes (Freeman), Claire fights the good fight in spite of being beaten up, harassed and threatened by an evil band of military personnel determined to bring her to silence. Without a genuine surprise or, worse, a moment that doesn’t feel as if it was first distilled and then diluted for the approval of a test audience, “High Crimes” is actually rather low, a film whose cast proves the only heartbeat in a story that otherwise was dead on arrival. Rated PG-13. Grade: C

“The Office: Season Five” DVD, Blu-ray
Examines what happens when your boss isn't exactly the brightest bulb in the office. This fifth season of the show mocks and skewers authority with the same verve of the previous four seasons, with Steve Carell once again pitch perfect as the geeky moron nobody respects. The supporting cast--including Rainn Wilson, Jenna Fischer and John Krasinski--is excellent, and while the show never has bested its BBC counterpart, it can be beautifully cutting in its damning observations of who’s in charge, why they’re in charge, and the sad realization that they have no business being in charge. Grade: B+




“Van Helsing” Blu-ray
As chaotic as it is, "Van Helsing" never wants for energy, it doesn't take itself seriously, and as a whole, it's rather fun. Loosely based on Bram Stoker's stake-wielding character from his 1897 novel "Dracula," the film gathers several well-known monsters and villains from the past, and allows them to go at each other's undead throats for the better half of two hours. Hugh Jackman is Van Helsing, a swarthy hero multitasking for the Vatican who has been charged to kill Count Dracula, who is played by Richard Roxburgh in the sort of buckles-and-brocade attire favored by Michael Jackson during his "Bad" period. Drac's drag is unsettling, yes, but more disturbing is that in order to kill the count, Van Helsing first needs to go through Frankenstein's Monster (Shuler Hensley), who turns out to be an intellectual softy, and the Wolf Man (Will Kemp), whose bite apparently holds the key to killing Dracula. Who knew? Tossed into the mix is Kate Beckinsale's Anna Valerious, who sounds like an invasive species of plant for good reason. Onscreen, Beckinsale uncoils like a vine, undulating in ways that would make the folks in a red light district blush. Her rolling Romanian accent gives the film the necessary jolt of camp it needs, but then so do the three shrieking, winged vamps who take to the skies to do Dracula's dirty work. In a bloodthirsty, dead-three-centuries sort of way, they're all perfectly charming if a bit high-strung and unmannered, which proves perfect for this empty but entertaining blockbuster that embraces the same qualities. Rated PG-13. Grade: B