New on DVD: January 29

PICK OF THE WEEK

Downton Abbey: Season 3

As the third season of the overwhelmingly-popular British drama Downton Abbey begins, Shirley MacLaine joins the cast as Cora’s mother, who arrives from America with a manner that upsets the manor especially when it comes to the Dowager Countess (Maggie Smith).  Meanwhile, Lord Grantham discovers that his investment idea has failed leaving the family near financial ruin and the future of Downton Abbey in jeopardy. This 3-disc set features all 8 episodes as well as the 2012 Christmas special entitled A Journey to the Highlands. (eOne)

Hotel Transylvania

Adam Sandler voices Count Dracula in this animated feature about a high-end resort getaway strictly for monsters that gets a surprise visit from a human boy (Andy Samberg). Things get even more complicated when the boy falls for the Count’s teenage daughter (Selena Gomez). (Columbia Pictures)

Paranormal Activity 4

Now that these evil poltergeists have haunted several generations of one family, this latest sequel finds the people across the street being terrorized when Katie (Katie Featherston), the woman from the first two films, moves in across the street. Of course, once again everything is being covered by several security cameras and, to keep it up to date, the teenage daughter’s laptop webcam. (Paramount)

The Awakening

In 1912 England, an author (Rebecca Hall) who is an expert on debunking hoaxes is invited to a remote private school where the ghost of a little boy has been spotted several times. Believed to be the spirit of a boy killed years earlier, the woman begins to track down what happened to him and discovers answers better left unasked in this supernatural thriller.

Coriolanus 

Ralph Fiennes, who also stars in the title role, makes his directorial debut with this modern-day take on the Shakespearean tragedy about a former hero who teams up with his enemy to take revenge on the city that turned its back on him.

The Inbetweeners Movie

The raunchy and hilarious British comedy series jumps to the big screen with this film in which the boys (Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, James Buckley and Blake Harrison) use their school vacation to take a trip to Crete on a hunt for love, sex and fun. (eOne)

Cold Light of Day

Future Superman Henry Cavill stars in this thriller as a businessman whose family (including Bruce WIllis as his father) is kidnapped while vacationing in Spain. Only he can get them back as he takes on mysterious agents (including Sigourney Weaver) in search of a briefcase full of secrets. (eOne)

The Love Section

Lawrence P. Adisa wrote and stars in this romantic drama about a ladies man who may have finally met the woman (Davetta Sherwood) who could make him change his ways. But when he is offered an amazing job opportunity that could threaten his new relationship, he must decide what is more important.

All Superheroes Must Die

In this low-budget Avengers, Charge (Jason Trost, who also wrote and directed) and several other superheroes are forced to battle through a series of challenges after their arch-enemy kidnaps them. (Image)

Fascination: Coral Reef 3D
Fascination: Coral Reef 3D – Mysterious Worlds Underwater
Fascination: Amazing Ocean 3D

This trio of documentaries (sold separatley as 2D and 3D combos) are the perfect complement to your 3D TV set as they travel beneath some of the bluest waters in the world to examine the creatures that live there including manta rays, dolphins and sharks. (Universal)

Amy Schumer: Mostly Sex Stuff

Schumer, who gained her first taste of fame on Last Comic Standing (where she placed fourth) and went on to become a regular on the “roast” circuit, brings her often riotous and sexually explicit (as the title gives away) act to the stage for her first stand-up special. You have been warned. (Paramount)

The Duellists

In this film, the first from director Ridley Scott, two French soldiers (Harvey Keitel and Keith Carradine) whose personal battle is waged on for decades as they fought through the Napoleonic war. (Shout! Factory)

To Catch a Dollar: Muhammad Yunus Banks on America

This inspiring documentary follows Nobel Prize winner Muhammed Yunus, a man who believes that through a revolutionary method of non-collateral micro-loans the poor of America can rise out of their personal slumps.

TV ON DVD

Agatha Christie’s Partners in Crime: The Tommy and Tuppence Mysteries

Aside from her more familliar characters Poirot and Marple (more about them later), Agatha Christie also created these two: Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, a failed team of blackmailers that became accidental detectives. She first wrote of them in 1922 and they went on to show up in three other novels (including the final one the author wrote in 1973) as well as a collection of short stories. In 1983, they moved to TV in a short-lived 10-episode series starring James Warwick and Francesca Annis as the sleuths. Now the entire series is available again on DVD in a package that includes the 2-hour feature The Secret Adversary, which aired earlier that year as a sort of pilot film. (Acorn)

Poirot & Marple: Fan Favorites Collection

This 6-disc set is like a “greatest hits” of the two Agatha Christie detectives with a combined 11 episodes of some of their most famous mysteries. With Hercule Poirot (played marvelously by David Suchet for over 20 years) you get everything from Murder on the Orient Express to The ABC Murders, while with Miss Marple (played by Geraldine McEwan in the early episodes and later by Julia McKenzie) you get selections such as A Murder is Announced and The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side. (Acorn)

Wodehouse Playhouse: The Complete Collection

John Alderton and Pauline Collins star in this comedy anthology series bringing to life some of the short stories of P.G. Wodehouse (whose most famous creations are arguably Jeeves and Wooster). This 6-disc set offers up all 20 episodes from this series which first aired in Britain in the 1970s (minus the 1974 “pilot” episode which is now considered “lost”).  (Acorn)