New movies to be released tomorrow on DVD

Appaloosa (2008) **½ Actor-director Ed Harris is a major asset in a film that is entertaining but somewhat unfocused and occasionally badly cast.

Brick Lane (2008) **½ One of those feminist cries in the dark in which the heroine, a saintly sufferer, is more admirable than interesting.

Brideshead Revisited (2008) **½ The remarkable thing about director Julian Jarrold’s movie is how much of the book it manages to capture.

Bustin’ Down the Door (2008) **½ Jeremy Gosch’s documentary about the origins of professional surfing shines a light on four wave riders – three Australians and a South African – who helped transform a counter-culture life style into a billion-dollar industry.

Choose Connor (2008) ** Once the movie ventures into the larger political arena, it begins to work against itself.

Humboldt County (2008) **½ These characters are fully alive. But the movie attaches them to a conventional, not to say creaky, hip-meets-square drama.

Mirrors (2008) *½ Softcore horror at best, failed allegory at worst, the film reflects little beyond Splat Pack auteur Alexandre Aja’s desire to push his genre into less punishing and more profitable territory.

My Best Friend’s Girl (2008) *½ Dane Cook plays a smug jerk in this dismal comedy. Strike that: He’s only ACTING like a smug jerk.

Swing Vote (2008) ** Dusted off and brought up to date, it’s still the same old Capracorn – minus the populist pizzazz he might have provided.

Tyler Perry’s The Family That Preys (2008) **½ Though better than most of Perry’s broad comedies, it still suffers from excessive predictability and mawkish sentiment, which detracts from the story’s believability.