Gremlins 2: The New Batch
(Warner Bros., $20)
People didn’t understand this subversive sequel when it was released in 1990, said Gawker.com. The new Blu-ray’s commentary reveals that the filmmakers intentionally intended it as a postmodern send-up of their original hit about cute creatures who turn evil. “The result is nothing short of a riot.”
Rampart
(Millennium, $29)
The plot can be convoluted in this dark character study, but its star, Woody Harrelson, is “mesmerizing,” said USA Today. Harrelson is “casually malevolent” as a bigoted cop whose life increasingly spirals out of control. With Anne Heche, Sigourney Weaver, and Cynthia Nixon.
My Perestroika
(Docudrama, $30)
This little-seen documentary “masterfully chronicles” the fall of the Soviet Union and its aftermath by focusing on the lives of five everyday people, said the San Francisco Chronicle. The result is a “distinctly Russian-flavored mix of nostalgia and disillusionment that never fails to be interesting.”
