Freedomland ***|In going from page to screen, Richard Price’s 1998 novel “Freedomland” has shifted its weight slightly. Detective Lorenzo Council and mother Brenda Martin (Julianne Moore) are still front and center in Price’s potent adaptation, directed by Joe Roth. Samuel L. Jackson gives one of his fuller performances as the New Jersey cop trying to keep the lid on race relations set aboil by Brenda’s assertion that a black man stole her car with her young son in it. In casting Edie Falco as a missing-child activist, the filmmakers push beyond black-and-white and keep the movie from being overstated or dated.|R|113 minutes|Released today|Lisa Kennedy
Date movie * 1/2|From the makers of “Scary Movie” and “Spy Hard” comes a nonstop spoof on romantic comedies. Don’t expect enlightenment, but it’s fair to expect a good number of crude laughs at the expense of an overworked Alyson Hannigan, who manages to keep it all sweet. And there are plenty of “I can’t believe they did that” moments.|PG-13|70 minutes|Released today|Michael Booth
Winter Soldier ***|This documentary focuses on the Winter Soldier Investigation that took place in January 1971 in Detroit. The hearings were intended to make plain that the atrocities revealed by the My Lai massacre were not an aberration. In some ways, the event resembled South Africa’s more recent Truth and Reconciliation hearings. Only the reckoning here takes place between the soldiers and their consciences, as well as the soldiers and some of the citizens they represented. “Winter Soldier” is rich with moments of excruciating eloquence. Without a doubt, the re-release of this spare, important document has the advantage of potent timing. More than a few people will find in “Winter Soldier” yet another prescient warning about the dangers of wars founded on fear and false reports.|Not rated|105 minutes|Released today|Lisa Kennedy
The Cecil B. DeMille Collection| This five-disc box set offers an excellent overview of this often underrated filmmaker’s fine work from the 1930s. The first film in the collection, “The Sign of the Cross” (1932), is ostensibly a tribute to the early Christian martyrs, though DeMille, of course, spends far less screen time on the suffering of the Christian faithful than with an effeminate, heavily made-up Charles Laughton, as Nero, and a seriously underdressed Claudette Colbert as the Empress Poppaea. Also in the collection are “Four Frightened People” with Colbert, Herbert Marshall and William Gargan shipwrecked on a tropical island; “Cleopatra” with Colbert as the Egyptian queen; “The Crusades” (1935); and the Western “Union Pacific” (1939).|Not rated|$59.98|Released May 23|Dave Kehr, The New York Times
TV ON DVD
The Closer – The Complete First Season|Kyra Sedgwick plays Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson in “The Closer.” Johnson is known for her ability to close a case and alienating co-workers with her less- than-sensitive personality. “The Closer” is a solid police procedural with a solid cast, including J.K. Simmons as Johnson’s boss. Segwick, with her Southern drawl, makes Johnson a memorable TV figure.|$39.98|Released May 23|Rob Lowman, Los Angeles Daily
OTHER RELEASES | These DVDs are also available today
Alf Season 3
All Passion Spent
American Muscle Car Season 2
Dark Shadows DVD Collection
Dead Broke
The Doris Day Show Season 3
The Doris Day Special
Dukes of Hazzard: The Complete Sixth Season
The Flats
Frankenstein Meets
the Space Monster
Joey: The Complete First Season
Lovesick
The Marilyn Monroe 80th
Birthday Celebration Collection
A Most Mysterious Murder
Night Stalker: The Complete Series
Numb3rs: The Complete First Season
Oh! Calcutta!
Ozzie
Portrait of a Marriage
Saint Christopher
