Soldered soldiers

This week we begin in the ring: Real Steel (***) Rated PG-13, 127 minutes. Available Tuesday on DVD.

In this entertaining, high-tech sci-fi thriller, based partly on a Richard Matheson story, Hugh Jackman stars as Charlie Kenton, a one-time boxer now reduced to robot fighting. He travels the circuits with his various boxes of reconstructed junk piles, letting his mechanical wards face off and be pummeled by other robots. Out of nowhere, his 11-year-old son Max (Dakota Goyo), whom he only vaguely knows, becomes his responsibility for the summer. One night while ferreting through a junk pile, Max finds the discarded robot Atom and reconstitutes him on his own. From there, the movie turns into a sports cliche, with robots taking the place of professional fighters.

The Transformers-like special effects deliver a succession of engaging battles, with Atom becoming a steel Seabiscuit - deemed too small but overcoming great odds to persevere. Director Shawn Levy, usually known for his comedies, delivers action-filled entertainment.

The Blu-ray release, also available as a digital copy and on demand, includes bloopers, a 14-minute featurette on the Charlie Kenton character, six minutes with expert boxing adviser Sugar Ray Leonard, 18 minutes of deleted and extended scenes, a 14-minute "making of" featurette and six minutes on the effects behind making the robots and more.

*

Belle de Jour (***1/2) The Criterion Collection premieres on Blu-ray the 1967 biting satirical classic from director Luis Bunuel. A young, ravishing Catherine Deneuve plays Severine, a bored Parisian housewife who takes a part-time job in a brothel. There, during the day, she becomes Belle. Frigid at home, she opens up once she plies her trade. But at home, she consistently denies her husband Pierre (Jean Sorel), driving him into a frenzied state. Bunuel deliciously attacks class structures and moral hypocrisy.

Not rated, 100 minutes.

The high-definition, digitally restored disc includes commentary from film scholar Michael Wood; the 18-minute "making of" featurette "Obscure Source of Desire"; a 10-minute interview with screenwriter and frequent Bunuel collaborator Jean-Claude Carriere; a seven-minute clip from the French TV program Cinema, featuring a discussion with Carriere and Deneuve; and a 30-page booklet on the film.

*

Dead Poets Society (***1/2) In the Blu-ray debut of this revered 1989 drama, Robin Williams plays the teacher we all wish we had in school. He plays high-spirited John Keating, who brings a new approach to learning to upscale Welton Academy. But not everyone accepts Keating's novel new methods. His students include such future stars as Ethan Hawke, Josh Charles and Robert Sean Leonard.

Director Peter Weir nabbed an Oscar nomination and Tom Schulman won for best original screenplay.

Rated PG, 129 minutes.

The new Blu-ray includes commentary with Weir and cinematographer John Seale and the 27-minute featurette "Dead Poets: A Look Back," featuring extended interviews with Weir, Hawke, Leonard and other cast and crew, as well as David Lynch. In the 15-minute "Cinematography Master Class," John Seale talks of his craft. Sound engineer Alan Splet discusses his approach to his work in "Raw Takes: Master of Sound."

*

Monogram Cowboy Collection - Volume Two Fort Osage, Wagons West, Canyon Raiders, The Gunman, Stage to Blue River, Night Raiders, Montana Incident, Wyoming Roundup

The on-demand Warner Archives return with the second batch of these entertaining cowboy movies from long defunct Monogram Pictures. Rod Cameron, in two, and Whip Wilson, in six, star in this batch of eight films on three discs. They again show the care taken by Monogram with their Westerns, as these are no-nonsense sagas, with engaging, tightly constructed plots filled with surprising twists, along with the requisite colorful outlaws.

Six-foot-four Canadian Cameron, born Nathan Roderick Cox, one of Monogram's most popular cowpokes, receives star treatment in the first two, both in color, Osage and Wagons (both around 70 minutes). Cameron plays a wagon-master in both, an obviously prestigious position in settling the frontier.

The burly, stolid Wilson, born Roland Charles Meyers, represented the iconic cowboy: He wore a white hat and rode a white horse (but he should have reconsidered his form-fitting cowboys shirts). In his six films in the collection (all slightly less than an hour running time), he rides into town to right wrongs, acquits himself in bar-room brawls, and usually finds a way to nab a bad guy with his whip.

Familiar character actors pop up throughout the collection, such as Lyle Talbot, Iron Eyes Cody and bandleader-turned-stuttering-cowboy Fuzzy Knight.

All eight films were made in the early 1950s, and none are rated.

*

Hell and Back Again (***) Documentary filmmaker Danfung Dennis delivers a frightening film, one that is uncomfortable yet familiar. He breaks his narrative into two equally harrowing parts, both focusing on a soldier stationed in Afghanistan. Dennis then follows him back to his U.S. home.

The first part shows the constant danger he faced while in combat in Afghanistan. One sequence has him and the filmmaker caught in gunfire. The second half focuses on the soldier once home. His volatile and erratic behavior becomes almost understandable after seeing what he has endured as a soldier.

Not rated, 88 minutes.

*

50/50 (***) In this unlikely but likable comedy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Adam, a 27-year-old man diagnosed with a cancerous spinal tumor. He grudgingly goes along with his best friend (Seth Rogen) to use the malady to meet women. But his past relationship problems still haunt him, and he must also put up with his hovering mother (Anjelica Huston) as well. An inexperienced counselor (Anna Kendrick) ends up helping him when least expected but only after he learns some lessons about living life and not fearing death.

Director Jonathan Levine, from Will Reiser's semi-autobiographical script, renders a lumpy mixture of morbid insights and black humor.

Rated R, 99 minutes.

*

Young ones might find something this week in several new titles aimed at them: Angelina Ballerina: Sweet Valentine, Barney: I Love My Friends, Timmy Time: Timmy Needs a Bath and Thomas and Friends: Curious Cargo.

In the five episodes of Angelina, the title mouse and Alice become better friends with Marco while discovering the identity of Angelina's secret admirer. In his story, Barney shows how to learn about sharing and even dancing. In the five episodes from Timmy Time, the newest creation from Aardman Animation, Timmy learns valuable lessons while engaged in chores. In Thomas' four episodes, he joins friends Belle and Toby to deliver more curious cargo.

None of the above are rated, and all are available on demand or download.

Angelina: 61 minutes. Includes an additional game and a music video. Barney: 57 minutes. With separate read-along and singalong features. Timmy Time: 45 minutes. Contains a music video and a bonus episode. Thomas: 60 minutes, with a bonus episode.

*

Also available Tuesday on DVD: Paranormal Activity 3, The Whistleblower, Annie Hall (Blu-ray), Godzilla (Criterion Collection)

DR. BOO ALLEN is an award-winning film critic for the Denton Record-Chronicle.