DVD
It's the end of the world as we know it Starting with the long-held misapprehension that the Mayan calendar picks 2012 as the date of humanity's doom, director Roland Emmerich fleshes out that bit of pseudo-history with some pseudoscience -- some nonsense about solar flares and neutrinos heating the Earth's core -- and throws hundreds of millions of dollars and an expertly chosen cast at it in "2012." As a spectacle-delivery device, it has no peer. Other movies kill thousands; "2012" kills zillions without breaking a sweat. In an era in which Hollywood seems unable to execute even the most uncomplicated formulas, Emmerich's film gets everything right, including the actors: John Cusack as a sardonic failed novelist, Amanda Peet as his ex-wife, Tom McCarthy as her nice-guy new husband, Chiwetel Ejiofor as a conscience-stricken scientist, Oliver Platt as a snappish White House official, Woody Harrelson as a radio-host crackpot. You will never be bored, for there will always be questions to answer. This is the way the world ends: with a bang. The DVD and Blu-ray (Sony, $29-$40) include a music video, commentary by Emmerich and co-writer Harald Kloser, deleted scenes, an alternate ending and a featurette.
WASHINGTON POST
Also out Tuesday: "Alice" (2009 miniseries); "Castle in the Sky," "My Neighbor Totoro" and "Kiki's Delivery Service" (special editions); "Clash of the Titans" (Blu-ray); "Designing Women" (Season 3); "Elvis" (1979 TV biopic ); "Have Gun, Will Travel" (Season 4, Vol. 1); "Poldark " (Series 1); "Ponyo "; "Where the Wild Things Are."
GAMES
Go after a puzzling piece of the pie For all the wonderful ways 2008's "Braid" combined art, music, storytelling, "Super Mario Bros."-style action and some truly mind-melting puzzles built around time manipulation, the production struck many as unnecessarily stuffy. For those folks, "The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom" ($10 for Xbox 360 via Xbox Live; rated Everyone) is a double victory, because in addition to sparkling on all the same facets, "Winterbottom" does it with a sly grin and under the silliest pretense possible (a thief manipulating time and space to steal pies). "Winterbottom's" puzzles aren't quite as elaborate as "Braid's," if only because the game elects to break them into single-screen challenges instead of larger levels. But the intellectual itch this one scratches is completely the same and, in the hardest challenges, every bit as rewarding. That victory alone makes "Winterbottom" a no-brainer to recommend. But the game significantly sweetens the deal with an outstanding audiovisual presentation that brilliantly recalls the whimsical style of an old silent film serial.
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