The Karate Kid and Jonah Hex among new DVD releases 

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Extras: **

PLEASE GIVE (2010). The Martin Scorsese-Leonardo DiCaprio and Tim Burton-Johnny Depp partnerships have become famous in their own right, so why not the team of writer-director Nicole Holofcener and actress Catherine Keener? All four of Holofcener’s films to date have featured Keener heading impressive ensembles, and all have proven to be smart, engaging watches. In Please Give, Keener stars as Kate, who runs an antique furniture store in New York City with her husband Alex (Oliver Platt). The couple buy their items from the kids or grandkids of elderly folks who have just passed away and have no use for the dearly departed’s possessions. This morbid approach to business extends to their home life as well, as they’ve purchased the apartment unit next to them and plan to expand as soon as its 91-year-old tenant, the perpetually grouchy Andra (Ann Morgan Guibert), passes away. Tending to Andra is her sweet and shy granddaughter Rebecca (Rebecca Hall); doing her best to avoid the old lady is Rebecca’s tart-tongued sister Mary (Amanda Peet). With the exception of Rebecca, nobody in Please Give is a saint — in fact, most can be downright infuriating — but that, as always, is Holofcener’s strength as a filmmaker. Compare these wonderfully flawed, beautifully insecure and wholly believable characters with the preprogrammed mannequins seen in such chowderheaded efforts as, say, The Back-Up Plan or Killers, and the contrast is startling. Holofcener doesn’t dumb her women down, but neither does she place them on pedestals. Instead, she treats her females (and males) as real people, and that’s the highest compliment she could give them.

DVD extras include a 12-minute making-of featurette; an 8-minute Q&A with Holofcener; and 4 minutes of outtakes.

Movie: ***

Extras: **

THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES (2009). The most recent Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film, Argentina's The Secret in Their Eyes (El secreto de sus ojos) is a dizzying mix of suspense, intrigue and romance. Cowriting the script with Eduardo Sacheri (the author of the source novel), director Juan Jose Campanella has crafted a story that's set in both the mid-1970s and roughly a quarter-century later. The '70s segment centers on Benjamin Esposito (Ricardo Darin), a midlevel employee in the Buenos Aires court system. Esposito is smitten with his boss, Irene Menendez-Hastings (Soledad Villamil), and has his hands full keeping his perpetually drunk colleague Pablo Sandoval (Guillermo Francella) out of trouble. But such matters are pushed to the back of his mind after he's sent out to investigate a rape-murder, although various factions work against his best intentions. Twenty-five years later, Esposito, now retired, elects to write a book about the whole ordeal. He visits Irene and tries to get her help in reexamining the events of the day; clearly, a spark remains between them. To reveal more would be criminal, since one of the film's pleasures is the manner in which it doles out crucial information one parcel at a time. The relationships between the characters are fully formed, and Campanella proves to be as adept a director as he is a writer, as witnessed by a remarkable sequence set inside a soccer stadium. It's all exhilarating stuff, and it builds to a twist that will haunt — and satisfy — just about anyone who's ever mulled over the inadequacies of the world's courts.

DVD extras include audio commentary by Campanella; a 5-minute behind-the-scenes piece; and 10 minutes of screen tests.

Movie: ***1/2

Extras: **1/2

WINTER'S BONE (2010). Memorable movie characters often pop out at us from the most unlikely of places, and this understated indie effort surprises by serving up such a figure in Ree Dolly. Ree, played by Jennifer Lawrence in a breakthrough performance, is 17 years old, smarter than everyone around her, sports a lip that sometimes gets her into trouble, and takes a screen beating as impressively as anyone since Brando's Terry Malloy got clobbered in On the Waterfront. But Ree won't back down. Living in poverty somewhere in Missouri's Ozark terrain, she learns that her dad has skipped bail after putting up their house for collateral. Not thrilled by the prospect of being homeless, she sets out to locate her wayward pop, running into resistance from all manner of dangerous and ignorant people. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize (as well as a screenwriting award) at this year's Sundance Film Festival, Winter's Bone, adapted by writer-director Debra Granik and co-scripter Anne Rosellini from Daniel Woodrell's novel, is suffused with pungent backwoods flavor (the film was shot on location), which adds an unsettling authenticity to Ree's quest. An assured directorial effort from Granik, the picture offers a rare look at a region that will seem as foreign to most moviegoers as the forest moon of Endor.

DVD extras include audio commentary by Granik and director of photography Michael McDonough; a 47-minute making-of featurette; four deleted scenes; an alternate opening; and an extensive listing of music credits.