Grades for this week's new movies on DVD

The Bucket List (2007) Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson make the most of Justin Zackham’s script, but there just isn’t enough substance behind their characters to prop up the carpe diem platitudes. The result is a semi-comedic, geriatric "Brokeback Mountain" minus the sex and with a Himalayan summit. Grade: C-

Funny Games (2008) Writer/director Michael Haneke’s "Funny Games" has a current of bleak humor that comes through more clearly when you’re not reading subtitles. It remains a horrifying, implacable mind-fuck, liable to be widely misunderstood and widely despised. Grade: C-

The Grand (2008) Typical of bad improv, the inmates take over the asylum, leaving a movie that’s little more than a loose, wildly uneven assemblage of individual comedic shtick. Grade: C+

Jumper (2008) Director Doug Liman and a trio of writers eventually forget the rules they set up and hurl combatants to places they could never have seen or even known about: Who’d willingly project himself into the middle of a Chechnyan war zone? Grade: D+

The Other Boleyn Girl (2008) Can’t quite figure out what it wants to be. At times it strains to be a stately period drama about 16th-century political intrigue. Then it devolves into soap opera muck and emerges as a rather tame bodice ripper. Grade: C

Out of the Blue (2007) Chilling, often moving docudrama focuses not so much on the mayhem or murderer, but on the bewildered, occasionally courageous reactions of ordinary citizens caught in the inexplicable violence. Grade: B

The Signal (2008) Part 1, directed by David Bruckner is superb, with affecting performances, a sense of dread reminiscent of John Carpenter’s "Prince of Darkness" and many striking images. Part 2, directed by Dan Bush aims for George Romero-style ghastly humor, but it’s more grating than funny. Part 3, directed by Jacob Gentry, adds a splash of tragic love, but its preference for gore over feeling becomes monotonous. Grade: B-

Witless Protection (2008) Larry The Cable Guy is a cancerous boil on the ass of comedy, but it’s still sort of shocking how little effort he puts into his movies. Grade: F