Susan’s DVD UPDATE for week of Dec. 24:
In “Salt,” Angelina Jolie is a top-notch CIA agent who is accused of being a Russian spy and goes on the run to figure out who set her up. In a role originally written for Tom Cruise, Jolie becomes Hollywood’s most alluring female fighting machine.
Filled with energetic, hip-hop dance sequences, “Step-Up 3-D” takes up where “Step-Up 2: the Streets” left off, as Adam G. Sevani and Alyson Stoner enroll at NYU.
“Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole” is a savage, scary animated fantasy about a young owl who is kidnapped, ‘moon-blinked’ and enslaved until he escapes and enlists help from mythic, noble warriors. Peppered with Australian names and allusions, its perilous good-vanquishes-evil plot is confusing and very young children may be terrified by the excessive violence.
Adolescence is tough enough without worrying about parenthood, as a teen mom discovers in ABC’s original Family drama, “The Secret Life of an American Teenager.”
And A&E releases five heartwarming Lifetime Original holiday movies: “Comfort and Joy” starring Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell and Nancy McKeon; “Holiday Switch” about an overwhelmed mom who wonders what her life would have been like if she’d married another man; “Recipe for a Perfect Christmas” about a first-time food critic and her free-spirited mother; “The Road to Christmas” with “Dancing With the Stars” winner Jennifer Grey as a bride whose Christmas Eve wedding goes awry; and “Home by Christmas” featuring Linda Hamilton as a dedicated homemaker who discovers that her husband is cheating on her, leaving her flat broke and living in her car.
THREE PICKS FOR THE HOLIDAY WEEKEND: 1) If you’re looking for a fresh, original, funny high school comedy, “Easy A” updates Hester Prynne’s dilemma in “The Scarlet Letter” with teenage Emma Stone radiating genuine, unpretentious vitality. 2) Reprising his iconic Gordon Gekko role, Michael Douglas teams up with Shia LeBeouf in the compelling, if cynical “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.” 3) Actor/director Ben Affleck crafts “The Town” into a street-smart, suspense-filled thriller about a masked gang of Charlestown crooks who brazenly rob Boston banks.