Gary Thompson

THIS WEEK'S DVD cart is full of guilty pleasures. The first is the generically named "Edge of Darkness," a political thriller featuring Mel Gibson, whose pariah status no doubt contributed to the movie's lame box office. It's pretty nifty, though, boiled down to feature length by Martin Campbell from a long-running BBC series he directed many years ago. Gibson plays a Boston cop investigating the murder of his daughter, leading to a high-level conspiracy involving defense contractors and such.

THIS WEEK'S DVD roster includes the kiddie hit "Megamind," the Todd Phillips comedy "Due Date" and one overlooked goody - "Get Low," starring Robert Duvall. First "Megamind," a B-game DreamWorks animated comedy about an evil genius (Will Ferrell) who vanquishes a superhero (Brad Pitt), then finds he doesn't know what to do with the spoils (including Tina Fey). Fast, jokey in the DreamWorks style, but overstuffed with characters, some of whom are unintentionally creepy. It's also unfortunately similar to "Despicable Me," a better movie.

THANK HEAVEN for March Madness - you're going to want to bypass the DVD bin this week. There's "Skyline," a worse version of "Battle: Los Angeles," about aliens using a blue ray (available on Blu-ray?) to suck Angelenos into their spaceships for inspection and torture. That's how the aliens get you, they bore you to death. Also "How Do You Know?," a James L. Brooks movie every bit as bland as its title. Reese Witherspoon is a confused young woman torn between a shallow baseball star (Owen Wilson)

STRANGE-BUT-TRUE Jeff Bridges fact: His last two movies, "Tron: Legacy" and "True Grit," each made almost exactly the same amount of money, $171 million. They were, however, of differing quality. "Tron: Legacy" is a wacky sequel to the ahead-of-its-time 1982 animation/effects movie (the DVD extras include an informative look back at the original), slicker and better-looking, but strapped with a story that managed to be incomprehensible and predictable at the same time. Bridges, though, had fun as the digitized hippie locked in a virtual world of his own design, visited by his son (Garrett Hedlund)

OSCAR CO-HOSTS James Franco and Anne Hathaway also co-host this week's DVD releases. Franco stars in the unfortunately notorious "127 Hours," playing hiker Aron Ralston, who cut off his arm to survive a fall in an isolated desert canyon. It's another inspiring endorsement of human connection from director Danny Boyle - two hours of inspiration, two minutes of amputation. Hathaway co-stars with Jake Gyllenhaal in "Love and Other Drugs," an ambitious story from Ed Zwick about a shallow Viagra salesman who falls for a woman with Parkinson's.

SOME GOOD movies in the bin this week, starting with the Coen brothers' Oscar-nominated "True Grit. " It's their more grounded-in-reality take on the iconic John Wayne classic, with Jeff Bridges as the U.S. marshal who helps a girl (Hailee Steinfeld) find the man (Josh Brolin) who killed her father. Superb support from Matt Damon, though I fear this movie will suffer in a small-screen downsizing. There's a featurette on "True Grit" novelist Charles Portis - it's a great book, well worth a read.

"THE FIGHTER" earned Oscars for Christian Bale and Melissa Leo, but don't be surprised if you see better performances on the DVD. "The Fighter" is the fact-based story of "Irish" Micky Ward, a talented boxer poorly served by his crack-addict trainer-brother Dicky (Bale) and his manager mother (Leo), who won't admit to Dicky's problem or its effect on Micky's career. Enter Amy Adams as Micky's new girl, who sees that Micky isn't going anywhere until his family situation gets straightened out. Bale and Leo give us the fireworks, but Mark Wahlberg as Micky is subtle and generous, the kind of performance that makes movies work, but rarely wins awards.

SINCE ARGUMENTS over whether to go see "The Expendables" or "Eat Pray Love" may result in divorce proceedings or couples-counseling, a compromise is in order. The DVD bin has just the thing - "Date Night" - an action-comedy featuring Steve Carell and Tina Fey that might satisfy both parties. The comics play a suburban couple mistaken for mob targets on a night out, with frantic consequences. The action is so-so, but Carell and Fey have good chemistry and comic timing. Also available: "Death at a Funeral," a remake of the obscure but hilarious British original about a man (Chris Rock)

"DRIVE ANGRY" is not a sequel to "Changing Lanes. " It's another Nicolas Cage movie that did not screen for critics, and did not make a heck of a lot of money. Cage is an angry driver out to kill the cultists who murdered his daughter. He's not looking for the guy who killed his career, which would be Cage himself. Although if he made another "Bad Lieutenant" with Werner Herzog, I'd be right there. For a more nuanced leading-man performance, try Javier Bardem in "Biutiful. " He plays a dying single dad trying to ensure some sort of future for his two kids.

YOU HAVE these choices in the DVD planet this week: "Toy Story 3," "Toy Story 3," or "Toy Story 3. " The Disney-Pixar smash finds Woody trying to rescue his pals from a prisonlike day care center, and arrives in several configurations this week, including a basic DVD copy that includes featurettes about the vocal talent, the new (and old) toy characters, and an informational piece about the international space station (hosted by Buzz Lightyear). The theatrical release is now the highest grossing animated movie ever, and it may play even better on DVD. The movie was shown in 3-D in theaters, where the version I saw had problems.

Somewhere, as his former team prepares to face La Salle on Thursday in their unlikely West Regional matchup, Gary Thompson must be thankful the NCAA conducts its tournament at neutral sites. In Philadelphia basketball's long and rich history, it's doubtful any coach ever enjoyed a visit here less than the late Wichita State mentor. After his No. 2-ranked Shockers were upset by St. Joseph's in the 1964 Quaker City Tournament final, Thompson called Palestra fans "horrible," the officials "atrocious," and the whole experience "a damn farce.

OSCAR-NOMINATED "Silver Linings Playbook" star Jacki Weaver says she loved her time in Philadelphia, and why not - it sounds an awful lot like club-hopping. "I went to a lot of pubs," said Weaver, speaking on the day she won a best-supporting-actress nod for the movie, which today goes into wider release to capitalize on its awards-season success (eight Oscar nods, a Golden Globe win for Jennifer Lawrence). The goal for the pub-crawling Aussie (nominated a few years ago for that country's "Animal Kingdom")

"LINCOLN" TALLIED the most Oscar nominations Thursday, but the biggest winner may have been Philadelphia's own "Silver Lining Playbook. " The low-profile movie picked up eight Oscar nominations - fewer than the 12 for "Lincoln" - but "SLP" is the only movie to be nominated in all of the most important categories - best picture, best director (David O. Russell), best actor (Bradley Cooper), best actress (Jennifer Lawrence), best supporting actress (Jacki Weaver) and best supporting actor (Robert De Niro)

HOLLYWOOD had a bounce-back year in 2012, mostly deserved. Movie attendance was up more than 5 percent to about 1.36 billion, as the industry did a good job giving folks what they wanted and often more than they expected. And the year closes with a strong roster of movie-making talent on view - works by Steven Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis, Peter Jackson, Ang Lee, Quentin Tarantino, David O. Russell and Judd Apatow, with Kathryn Bigelow on the way in a few weeks. The year also closes with the industry on the list of collateral suspects in the wake of recent tragedies like the one in Newtown, Conn., prompting questions about the role of popular culture.

SEEING A movie star like you've never seen him before - it's an old pitch in movies but decidedly true of Bradley Cooper in "Silver Linings Playbook. " Writer-director David O. Russell said his top priority was to give heartthrob Cooper a significant makeover in the movie, and a fresh start with audiences. "I knew that I wanted to reintroduce him," said Russell, who cast the Abington native as Pat Solatano, an Upper Darby man just sprung from an institution where he received treatment in lieu of a criminal sentence stemming from an assault.

DENZEL WASHINGTON came to the set of "Flight" every day with no idea what he was going to do. At least that's what he told his director, Robert Zemeckis, who didn't believe Washington for a minute, because every day, Washington ended up doing everything exactly right. "I love Denzel because he never really lets you know exactly what he's up to," Zemeckis said, laughing. He was in town for the city's recent film festival, which closed with his engrossing new movie, a character study about a pilot (Washington)

I thought the hockey comedy "Goon" (opening in theaters this weekend) was funny, but I lack certain street cred. The kind that comes with having your brawls with Erik Gudbranson and Brandon Dubinsky posted on hockeyfights.com, or your bout with Gregory Campbell honored as Hockey Fight of the Day on fighters.com, as recently as March 18. Such are the credentials of Flyer tough guy Zac Rinaldo, who this season has compiled two goals, six...

"THE DEVIL Wears Prada" made Meryl Streep a hot box office commodity, and was a nice showcase for star Anne Hathaway. But think back to when you first saw it, to the performance that really jumped out at you, to the question on everyone's lips when they left the theater - who was that British girl? Her name is Emily Blunt, and she readily acknowledges that "Prada" launched her to top-of-the-marquee stardom, the title character in "Young Victoria," romantic lead to Matt Damon in "The Adjustment Bureau," to Jason Segel in next month's rom-com "The Five-Year Engagement," to Ewan McGregor in "Salmon Fishing in Yemen," opening today.

THE ACADEMY Award favorites this year - "Hugo" and "The Artist" - are movies about the wonder of movies, the sort that do well at Oscar time. "The Artist" is a love letter to cinema's adaptive power; "Hugo" a celebration of pioneer Georges Melies, an early effects wizard and audience-wowing showman. But here's a question: If Melies were alive today, what movie would he be watching? "Hugo" or that other backward-looking piece of nostalgia, "The Artist"? I think Melies would be scratching his head, wondering why the latter is not even tinted.

'TIS NEARLY Valentine's Day, fellas, when you're expected to sit down with your gal to see "The Vow," or something like it. Something very dangerous to your relationship, your self-esteem. Starring someone like Channing Tatum - bigger, better-looking, unafraid of commitment, supplied by screenwriters with an endless supply of cute things to say and do. In "The Vow" Tatum asks his girlfriend to move in with him by spelling out the question in the blueberries he places next to the pancakes he's just made for her. See what I mean?