New on DVD: ‘Solitary Man’

Solitary Man

Anchor Bay, $29.98; Blu-ray, $34.99

Michael Douglas gives a terrific performance in “Solitary Man” as Ben, a disgraced, divorced car dealer trying to restart his business while hitting on any nearby young lady. A health scare remakes Ben into a man of rare honesty, and the best parts of the film show him sharing his views on salesmanship and sex with anyone who’ll listen in scenes that showcase Douglas’ mature charm. Douglas is strong enough to overcome the movie’s worst parts too, which try to turn mundane midlife crises into high drama. It’s the kind of turn that deserves to be remembered come awards season; here’s hoping the various voting bodies pick up the “Solitary Man” DVD or Blu-ray, which come with a commentary track and a featurette.

Killers

Lionsgate, $29.95; Blu-ray, $39.99

Fresh off making one of last year’s worst films, “The Ugly Truth,” Katherine Heigl and director Robert Luketic re-team for the not-quite-as-atrocious “Killers,” with Heigl as an unhappy single woman who falls in love with an assassin-for-hire played by Ashton Kutcher. Heigl’s screen presence is as bright and appealing as ever, and Kutcher is much better at playing suave and dangerous than he is at playing goofy. But nearly everything about the movie — from the quippy dialogue to the mistaken-identity plot — is annoyingly strained. At least everyone had a good time making it, according to the DVD and Blu-ray’s featurette, deleted scenes and gag reel.

MacGruber

Rogue, $29.98; Blu-ray, $39.98

Give director Jorma Taccone and writer-star Will Forte credit for making a version of Forte’s recurring “Saturday Night Live” sketch “MacGruber” that looks like it cost $100 million, even though they spent only about a tenth of that. But while the big-screen “MacGruber” captures the mood and machismo of ‘80s action movies — along with the cheesiness of TV shows like the sketch’s source material, “MacGyver” — Forte and Taccone go overboard with the violence and vulgarity, counting on shock instead of jokes. Sometimes they get laughs; more often, they wear the viewer out. The DVD and Blu-ray add an even-more-profane unrated cut, plus a deleted scene, a gag reel and a commentary track.

Prime Suspect: The Complete Collection

Acorn, $144.99

Helen Mirren spent 15 years playing DCI Jane Tennison in seven series of the British police procedural “Prime Suspect” between 1991 and 2006. Now the entire 25-hour run is available in one box set, complete with an hourlong look back that considers the amount of research that went into each series. These are some of the smartest, grittiest cop stories every aired on television, graced by a Mirren performance that grows richer as the character ages.

That Evening Sun

Image, $27.97; Blu-ray, $29.97

Writer-director Scott Teems’ “That Evening Sun” (based on a William Gay short story) won an award from the Southeastern Film Critics Assn. as 2009’s best Southern film, which is apt, because it has that mix of the laconic and the dangerous that defines a lot of art from the United States’ lower regions. Hal Holbrook gives one of his best performances as an old man trying to reclaim his estate from the family who now lives there, and Teems avoids turning the story into rote melodrama, instead exploring homes and the people who inhabit them with real sensitivity. “That Evening Sun” arrives on DVD and Blu-ray in a nice package, with a commentary track and cast interviews.

And...

“The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond” (Screen Media, $24.98; Blu-ray, $29.98); “The Norm Show: The Complete Series” (Shout! Factory, $59.97); “The Office: Season Six” (Universal, $59.98; Blu-ray, $69.98); “Tommy: The Movie” ( Sony Blu-ray, $30.99); “Videocracy” (Kino, $29.95)

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