‘Sucker Punch’ comes to DVD

Sucker Punch

Warner Bros., $28.98; Blu-ray, $29.98/$35.99

“Watchmen” and “300” director Zack Snyder finally works on an original story with “Sucker Punch,” a truly bizarre action fantasy starring Emily Browning as an institutionalized woman who retreats into an alternate reality in which she is both a stripper and a warrior woman. The plot primarily provides an excuse to show scene after scene of scantily clad ladies fighting bad guys in slow motion, set against surreal CGI landscapes. The movie is eye-popping, and might even be saying something relevant about the exploitation of the female body in genre films, but the nonstop spectacle is so wearing that it’s hard to make much sense of it. The DVD/Blu-ray combo-pack does help though, thanks to an extended cut and a picture-in-picture commentary track by Snyder.

Barney’s Version

Sony Blu-ray, $38.96

Mordecai Richler’s beloved novel “Barney’s Version” gets a fine big-screen adaptation by director Richard J. Lewis and screenwriter Michael Konyves, starring Paul Giamatti as a curmudgeonly, thrice-married Montreal TV producer with a shady past. The movie is ostensibly about the hero correcting the mistakes in a tell-all book about his life, but it’s more a romp through 30 years of bohemian and Jewish culture, as seen through the eyes of a perpetually dissatisfied man. Marvelously acted and rich with drama and comedy, “Barney’s Version” barely made a ripple at the box office but deserves to be discovered on home video. The DVD and Blu-ray are worthy of the film too, thanks to a Lewis-Konyves commentary, a Giamatti interview and a featurette on Richler.

Beastly

Sony, $28.95; Blu-ray, $34.95

Based on Alex Finn’s popular young adult novel, “Beastly” resets the beauty-and-the-beast fairy tale in the modern day, with Alex Pettyfer as a vain high schooler who has his appearance marred by a witch, and Vanessa Hudgens as the bright young woman who has to fall in love with the monster to break the spell. The details of Finn’s revamp are clever, but writer-director Daniel Barnz errs by turning the world of “Beastly” into blunt-force teen drama, with all its emotions and motivations right on the surface. Adolescents might like this movie, but if they show an interest, try to redirect them toward the multiple better versions of this story. The DVD and Blu-ray come with deleted scenes and featurettes.

Season of the Witch

20th Century Fox, $29.99; Blu-ray, $39.99

Even fans of bad movies — and bad Nicolas Cage performances — will have a hard time slogging through “Season of the Witch,” a tedious medieval adventure with Cage and Ron Perlman as two knights who quit the Crusades and agree to transport a young woman believed to be a witch. Perlman has the right spirit, and Stephen Graham delivers a funny turn as the traveling party’s roguish guide, but Cage’s acting is distractingly stiff, and the preponderance of rote action scenes and Middle Ages clichés suck the life out of the film early. Even at only 98 minutes, it feels interminable. The DVD contains deleted scenes and featurettes; the Blu-ray edition adds a commentary track.

And…

Bloodworth

Sony, $24.96

Gettysburg/Gods & Generals

Warner Bros., $69.98; Blu-ray, $84.99

The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy — Extended Edition

New Line Blu-ray, $119.98

People on Sunday

Criterion, $29.95; Blu-ray, $39.95

Rizzoli & Isles

Warner Bros., $39.98