Following a bloody civil war, young Ofelia enters a world of unimaginable cruelty when she moves in with her new stepfather, a tyrannical military officer. Armed with only her imagination, Ofelia discovers a mysterious labyrinth and meets a faun who sets her on a path to saving herself and her ailing mother. But soon, the lines between fantasy and reality begin to blur, and before Ofelia can turn back, she finds herself at the center of a ferocious battle between good and evil.

Aimed directly at a mainstream audience, The Patriotqualifies as respectable entertainment, but anyone expecting a definitive drama about the American Revolution should look elsewhere. Rising above the blatant crowd pleasing of Stargate, Independence Day, and Godzilla, director Roland Emmerich crafts a marvelous re-creation of South Carolina in the late 1770s (aided immeasurably by cinematographer Caleb Deschanel), and Robert Rodat's screenplay offers the same balance of epic scale and emotional urgency that elevated his earlier script for Saving Private Ryan. Unfortunately, Emmerich embraces clichés and hackneyed melodrama that a more gifted director would have avoided. Instead of attempting a truly great film about the most pivotal years of American history, Emmerich settles for a standard revenge plot with the Revolutionary War as an incidental backdrop.

On those terms, the film is engrossing and sufficiently intelligent, especially when militia leader Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) cagily negotiates with British General Cornwallis (Tom Wilkinson) in one of the most rewarding scenes. For the most part, the story concerns Martin's anguished quest for revenge against ruthless redcoat Colonel Tavington (played with snide relish by Jason Isaacs), and the rise to manhood of Martin's eldest son, Gabriel (Heath Ledger), whose battlefield honor exceeds even that of his brutally volatile father. At its best, The Patriotconveys the horror of war among innocent civilians, and the epic battle scenes, while by no means masterful, are graphically intense and impressive. And although Ledger's love interest (Lisa Brenner) is too bland to register much emotion, the focus on family (which frequently relegates the war to background history) provides a suitable vehicle for Gibson, who matches his achievement in Braveheartwith an effectively brooding performance. —Jeff Shannon

A critically acclaimed film that won a total of eight 1970 Academy Awards (Including Best Picture) Patton is a riveting portrait of one of the 20th century's greatest military geniuses. One of it's Oscars went to George Patton the only Allied general truly feared by the Nazis. Charismatic and Flamboyant Patton designed his own uniforms sported ivory-handled six-shooters and believed he was a warrior in past lives. He outmanuevered Rommel in Africa and after D-Day led his troops in an unstoppable campaign across Europe. But he was rebellious as well in sight and poignancy his own volatile personailty was one enemy he could never defeat.System Requirements:Running Time: 170 minutesFormat: BLU-RAY DISC Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/CLASSICS Rating: PG UPC: 024543519782 Manufacturer No: 2251978

Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 03/10/2009

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN - AT WORLD'S EN (BLU-RAY DISC)

Disney Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (Blu-ray) 

"Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" pulses with heart-pounding excitement in a Blu-ray 2 disc-set created from the original digital source files. Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley set sail for uncharted adventure in Disney's epic swashbuckler - now more thrilling than ever in this mind-blowing format. Captain Jack Sparrow has a blood debt to pay: He owes his soul to ghastly Davy Jones unless he can cheat death - and eternal damnation - by seizing the fabled "Dead Man's Chest." Totally immerse yourself in crystallinevisual clarity as every eye-popping frame surges over the screen. Tremble in terror as the mighty "Kraken" roars from the ocean depths to split planks, crush hulls and snap bones in enhance theater-quality audio. Experience this action-packed hit asif you're watching it for the very first time with Disney Blu-ray - Magic in High Definition!

Disney Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl (Blu-ray) 

From producer Jerry Bruckheimer("Pearl Harbor") comes "Pirates Of The Caribbean:The Curse Of The Black Pearl," the thrilling high-seas adventure with a mysterious twist. The roguish yet charming Captain Jack Sparrow's (Academy Award(R) Nominee Johnny Depp) idyllic pirate life capsizes after his nemesis, the wily Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), steals his ship, the Black Pearl, and later attacks the town of Port Royal, kidnapping the governor's beautiful daughter Elizabeth (Keira Knightley). In a gallant attempt to rescue her and recapture the Black Pearl, Elizabeth's childhood friend Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) joins forces with Jack. What Will doesn't know is that a cursed treasure has doomed Barbossa and his crew tolive forever as the undead. Rich in suspense-filled adventure, sword-clashing action, mystery, humor, unforgettable characters, and never-before-seenspecial effects, "Pirates" is a must-have epic onthe grandest scale ever.

Pixar's unprecedented string of hit animated features was built on the short films in this collection. John Lasseter and Ed Catmull used these cartoons the way Walt Disney used the "Silly Symphonies" during the 1930s: as a training ground for artists and a way to explore the potential of a new medium. Although it's only 90 seconds long, "Luxo, Jr." (1986) ranks as the "Steamboat Willie" of computer animation: For the first time, audiences believed CG characters could think and feel. (It was also the first CG film to make audiences laugh.) When the artists began work on Toy Story, they had learned so much from the shorts, they were ready to undertake that landmark creation. In the later shorts, the viewer can see the artists continuing to experiment: with a more realistic human figure in "Geri's Game" and with new ways of suggesting atmospheric effects in "Boundin'." Some of the more recent shorts continue the adventures of the characters from the features. "Jack-Jack Attack" reveals what happened to the hapless baby-sitter while the Incredibleswere off fighting Syndrome, while "Mater and the Ghost Light" shows that life goes on for the inhabitants of Radiator Springs. When Sully from Monsters, Inc.tries to adjust his seat in "Mike's New Car," the animators prolong the moment to wring every drop of humor from the situation—just as an earlier generation of animators milked Wile E. Coyote's antics for all they were worth. The long-unseen films for Sesame Street are an unexpected bonus. A delightful collection of entertaining shorts, and a significant chronicle of the growth of computer animation. (Rated G: suitable for all ages: cartoon violence) —Charles Solomon

The makers of The Blue Planet present the epic story of life on Earth. Five years in production over 2000 days in the field using 40 cameramen filming across 200 locations this is the ultimate portrait of our planet. A stunning television experience that combines rare action unimaginable scale impossible locations and intimate moments with our planet's best-loved wildest and most elusive cre

TouchStone The Prestige (Blu-ray)
Award-winning actors Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine and Scarlett Johansson star in "The Prestige", the twisting, turning story that, like all great magic tricks,stays with you. Two young, passionate magicians, Robert Angier (Jackman), a charismatic showman, and Alfred Borden (Bale), a gifted illusionist, are friends and partners until one fateful night when their biggest trick goes terribly wrong. Now the bitterest of enemies, they will stop at nothing to learn each other's secrets. As their rivalry escalates into a total obsession full of deceit and sabotage, they risk everything to become the greatestmagician of all time. But nothing is as it seems,so watch closely. And be prepared to watch it again and again.

Studio: Tcfhe/mgm Release Date: 03/17/2009 Run time: 98 minutes Rating: Pg

One key point: if you can get over the natural gag reflex of seeing hundreds of rodents swarming over a restaurant kitchen, you will be free to enjoy the glory of Ratatouille, a delectable Pixar hit. Our hero is Remy, a French rat (voiced by Patton Oswalt) with a cultivated palate, who rises from his humble beginnings to become head chef at a Paris restaurant. How this happens is the stuff of Pixar magic, that ineffable blend of headlong comedy, seamless technology, and wonder (in the latter department, this movie's views of nighttime Paris are on a par with French cinema at its most lyrical). Director Brad Bird (The Incredibles) doesn't quite keep all his spinning plates in the air, but the gags are great and the animation amazingly expressive—Remy—Remy's shrugs and nods are nimbler than many flesh-and-blood actors can manage. Refreshingly, the movie's characters aren't celebrity-reliant, with the most recognizable voice coming from Peter O'Toole's snide food critic. (This fellow provides the film's sole sour note—an oddly pointed slap at critics, those craven souls who have done nothing but rave about Pixar's movies over the years.) Brad Bird's style is more quick-hit and less resonant than the approach of Pixar honcho John Lasseter, but it's hard to complain about a movie that cooks up such bountiful pleasure. —Robert Horton

Sony Pictures Resident Evil 1-3 (Blu-ray)
Collection includes: "Resident Evil" - Something rotten is brewing beneath the industrial mecca known as Raccoon City.Unknown to its millions of residents, a huge underground bioengineering facility known as The Hive has accidentally unleashed the deadly and mutatingT-virus, killing all of its employees. To containthe leak, the governing supercomputer, Red Queen,has sealed all entrances and exits. Now a team ofhighly-trained super commandos including Rain (Michelle Rodriguez - "The Fast And The Furious," "Girlfight"), Alice (Milla Jovovich - "The Fifth Element") and Matt (Eric Mabius - "Cruel Intentions") must race to penetrate The Hive in order to isolate the T-virus before it overwhelms humanity. To doso, they must get past the Red Queen's deadly defenses, face the flesh-eating undead employees, fight killer mutant dogs and battle The Licker, a genetically mutated savage beast whose strength increases with each of its slain victims. "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" - After narrowly escaping the horrors of the underground Hive facility, Alice (Milla Jovovich) is quickly thrust back into a war ragingabove ground between the living and the Undead. As the city is locked down under quarantine, Alice joins a small band of elite soldiers, led by Valentine (Sienna Guillory, "Love, Actually") and Carlos (Oded Fehr, "The Mummy Returns"), enlisted to rescue the missing daughter of Dr. Ashford, the creator of the mutating T-virus. It's a heart-poundingrace against time as the group faces off against hordes of blood - thirsty zombies, stealthy Lickers, mutant canines and the most sinister foe yet. "Resident Evil: Extinction" - Milla Jovovich is back to kill more zombies in the third chapter of thehit "Resident Evil" franchise! An action/horror film filled with huge special effects and edge-of-your-teat terror! Survivors of the Raccoon City catastrophe travel across the Nevada desert, hoping to make it to Al

It took more than 25 years for another Clive Cussler novel to come to the screen after the financial and critical disaster of Raise the Titanic. Based on Cussler's oddly landlocked adventure, Sahara finds the author's hero, Dirk Pitt (Matthew McConaughey)—a sort of all-American, high seas variation of James Bond—in Africa looking for a Confederate ironclad ship that impossibly might have ended up there. Soon he and his faithful sidekick Al Giordino (Steve Zahn) are lost in another adventure, discovering a deadly contaminate being tracked by a beautiful doctor (Penelope Cruz). The results are checkered: there's no one outstanding sequence, but the action is enjoyably varied, while the thrills are mild yet not bombastic or gratuitous. The cast are all adept in their roles, yet the only one who sparkles is the scene-stealing Zahn, cast against type; McConaughey, who also produced, knows he might be starting a franchise character and plays it safe. He's never as dangerous as Cussler's hero is on the page (except in his introduction), and in fact, the whole movie plays towards comedy, infused by a soundtrack of 70s FM radio monsters. Cussler fanatics may not like this lighter fare, especially with the archeological portion (a Cussler strong point) not fully embraced, but with a very, very likable cast and colorful settings, Sahara is a kindler, gentler action film that has all the elements in place for a better, more memorable franchise if anyone cares to attempt it. —Doug Thomas