This week we start in a London lockup:

The Escapist (***1/2) Not rated, 102 minutes. Coming Jan. 26 to DVD.

Vertigo Films

Brian Cox, left, and Damian Lewis co-star in The Escapist, available Jan. 26 on DVD.

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This prison drama creates consistent tension and delivers sufficient action, while also serving as a showcase for three generations of British film actors. The oldest, Brian Cox, plays Frank Perry, a grizzled lifer who hatches a plan to break out when he receives disturbing news about his daughter. A nearly unrecognizable Joseph Fiennes plays a younger inmate who suffers a severe beating in order to put himself in line for the escape. And representing the future of British films, Dominic Cooper (Mamma Mia!, An Education) appears as James Lacey, Perry’s cellmate and a naive Londoner who quickly learns how to survive in prison. England’s Damian Lewis (Life) co-stars.

First-time director Rupert Wyatt mixes the film’s chronologies, documenting the harrowing escape while jumping back and portraying what led up to it.

The DVD offers eight minutes of deleted scenes, a 13-minute “making of” featurette and interviews with Wyatt, Cox, Fiennes, Cooper and others.

*

Magnolia (****) Making its Blu-ray debut is Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1999 interlocking drama, which received three Academy Award nominations: best supporting actor, best original screenplay and best song. The excellent cast weaves its way through Anderson’s connected world, as a parade of colorful, troubled characters struggle to find meaning in their lives in a narrative that was to be much-imitated in the coming years. Tom Cruise garnered an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a sleazy self-help huckster, and Philip Seymour Hoffman shows the blooming of a great actor. With Jason Robards Jr., Julianne Moore, William H. Macy, John C. Reilly and others.

Rated R, 188 minutes.

The good-looking Blu-ray disc features greater clarity and definition than previous DVD versions. New supplements include the “making of” featurette “Magnolia Video Diary,” a filmed T.J. Mackey (Cruise) seminar along with one of his infomercials, and an Aimee Mann music video.

*

Smokin’ Aces 2: Assassins’ Ball (**) The original Smokin’ Aces, directed by schlockmeister Joe Carnahan, was a chaotic, brainless exercise in violence. This sequel resembles its unhinged progenitor but never equals its unabashed absurdity. Carnahan returns as executive producer while also pitching in on the story, which features characters he previously created. P.J. Pesce directs this saga about several groups of assassins who, in order to gain a big payoff, must kill a federal agent (Tom Berenger) by a certain time. Meanwhile, the FBI encloses the target in what they think is a safe place, leaving the door open for a third-act assault in which various maniacs unwittingly coalesce.

Rated R (86 minutes) and unrated (88 minutes) versions.

The DVD, also on Blu-ray, is surprisingly generous, with 10 minutes of deleted scenes, seven minutes of bloopers, a seven-minute interview with Carnahan and a 26-minute “making of” featurette. There are also several brief segments on particular aspects of the film: the weaponry, the set and a hilariously cheesy scene in which a clown is shot out of a cannon.

*

Black History Collection: Soul of the Church (HHH1/2) Gospel music is the focus of this two-disc set filled with performances from a legendary lineup of African-American artists. The Chicago-based program TV Gospel Time broadcast Sunday morning worship services from 1962 to 1965 on NBC. The included performances were captured on kinescope, resulting in an understandably uneven quality. Revered musicians such as Ruth Brown, Sallie Martin, Five Blind Boys of Mississippi, The Barrett Sisters, Mighty Clouds of Joy, Jessie Mae Renfro and many others contribute.

Not rated, 496 minutes.

The set includes “Mahalia Jackson Sings,” featuring 12 gospel songs.

*

Breaking Point (**1/2) Tom Berenger, again, stars as a criminal defense attorney who has not overcome his bad reputation brought on by drug problems. He stumbles onto what looks like a convoluted drug dealing/money laundering scheme possibly connected to an ambitious assistant district attorney, played by human bobblehead doll Armand Assante. Busta Rhymes and Kirk “Sticky Fingaz” Jones co-star as implicated gang members.

Rated R, 97 minutes.

*

Artie Lange: Jack and Coke (**) Howard Stern sidekick Artie Lange gives a live performance at a New York comedy club. An acquired taste, Lange delivers even more uncensored material here than he does on Stern’s show.

Not rated, 87 minutes.

*

The Waltons Movie Collection A collection of six TV movies originating from the beloved series captures the get-togethers at various big Walton family events: A Wedding on Walton’s Mountain, Mother’s Day on Walton’s Mountain, A Day for Thanks on Walton’s Mountain, A Walton Thanksgiving Reunion, A Walton Wedding and A Walton Easter. The films, on three discs, originally aired between 1982 and 1997 and feature some of the series’ original cast: Richard Thomas, Ralph Waite, Michael Learned, Ellen Corby, etc.

Not rated, 562 minutes.

*

You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown Charlie Brown returns in a song-and-dance presentation best known as a Broadway musical. Clark Gesner wrote the songs that accompanied the sketches that evolved into a Broadway sensation, before it finally became this animated TV special (giving it a lineage nearly as complicated as the current movie Nine).

Not rated, 48 minutes.

The DVD holds the featurette “Animating a Charlie Brown Musical.” It examines how Gesner’s work progressed through its various incarnations.

*

Sing Along with Barbie Barbie and her friends return for 12 singalong songs, along with two separate music videos.

Not rated, 37 minutes.

And yes, I watched every one of these and memorized the songs.

*

Also this week: Death in Love, Gamer, No Greater Love, Outrage, Weeds — Season Five, Renegade — The Complete First Season

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