Grades for new movies to be released Tuesday on DVD

The Counterfeiters (2008) Swift and compelling, winner of the most recent Oscar for best foreign-language picture, "The Counterfeiters" may not be destined for the large international audience that embraced last year’s winner, "The Lives of Others." But it’s a tougher film, with a more provocative moral dilemma at its center. Grade: A-

The Killing of John Lennon (2008) The film never moves past a superficial understanding of its subject, whose transcribed ramblings may not be the best key to unlocking his fractured mind. The movie gets inside Chapman’s head but never under his skin. Grade: C-

Miss Conception (2008) Miscast and miscalculated, this move hopes to collect on Hollywood’s recent baby-on-board craze, delivering instead the least credible take on human pregnancy since Arnold Schwarzenegger gave birth in "Junior." Grade: D

My Brother Is an Only Child (2008) This film isn’t a critique of the left but a film about the consequences and responsibility of "political action." Director Daniele Luchetti measures social justice not in ideals but in positive change and the compassion with which it is accomplished. Grade: B+

Nim’s Island (2008) Jodie Foster seems to be having real fun, twitching and skittering around, that steel jaw of hers comically tense. But this family movie shouldn’t be about a shut-in trying to get from A to B; it needs to be about an unconventional girl growing up and helping an equally unconventional grownup cut loose on a volcanic island. Sadly, this movie is a missed opportunity. Grade: C+

Rogue (2008) A killer crocodile and a sturdy cast do what’s required in this competent horror yarn filmed in eye-catching Aussie outback locations. More restrained than his no-holds-barred psycho-thriller hit "Wolf Creek," director Greg McLean’s film wants only to be a good B-movie and succeeds with regular scares and a monster worth the rental price. Grade: B+