New movies to be released this week on DVD

Elegy (2008) *** Cultural critic David Kepesh (Ben Kingsley) sits comfortably in his ivory tower, divorced from any romantic or familial entanglements, that is, until a striking 24-year-old daughter (Penélope Cruz) of Cuban exiles reawakens his sense of sexual excitement. Sparse, low-budget drama,directed by Spaniard Isabel Coixet, intelligently translates novelist Philip Roth's meditation on lust and mortality without soft-pedaling its narrator's brutally honest, unabashedly sexist views.

Punisher: War Zone (2008) * Frank Castle (Ray Stevenson), a one-man force of vengeance known as "the Punisher," battles mob boss Billy Russoti (Dominic West). Left disfigured by the encounter, Russoti reemerges as Jigsaw, a psychotic villain with a small army at his command. So unrelentingly violent that all but teen boys might as well stay away from the rental counter.

Twilight (2008) **½ Based on Stephenie Meyer's best-selling novel, the film follows the saga of Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), who moves to a small town to live with her father. At school, she meets Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), a mysterious classmate who reveals himself to be a 108-year-old vampire. Bummer. The vampires have no fangs. The humans are humdrum. The special effects and makeup define cheeseball. And the movie crowds in so many characters from Meyer’s book that Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen) is less a director than a traffic cop. But there’s a reason that Twilight has already become the movie equivalent of a bestseller: The love story has teeth. (Will be released Saturday).