Tuesday's DVD releases

Miley Cyrus not quite convincing as a troubled high schooler in "The Last Song."

August 14, 2010 at 6:44PM
FILE - In a Sunday, Oct. 25, 2009 photo singer and actress Miley Cyrus arrives at the "Concert for Hope" in Los Angeles. A Georgia grand jury decided Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009 against indicting 53-year-old Mark McLeod on charges of attempting to stalk teen star Miley Cyrus. McLeod has been jailed since Aug. 4 after police arrested him twice on Tybee Island, where 16-year-old Cyrus was filming "The Last Song."
FILE - In a Sunday, Oct. 25, 2009 photo singer and actress Miley Cyrus arrives at the "Concert for Hope" in Los Angeles. A Georgia grand jury decided Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009 against indicting 53-year-old Mark McLeod on charges of attempting to stalk teen star Miley Cyrus. McLeod has been jailed since Aug. 4 after police arrested him twice on Tybee Island, where 16-year-old Cyrus was filming "The Last Song." (Associated Press - Ap/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

In "The Last Song," based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks, Miley Cyrus tries on emo-inspired black outfits and a bad attitude as she not-quite-convincingly plays troubled high schooler Ronnie Miller. Fresh from a shoplifting arrest at home in New York, Ronnie is shipped off, along with little brother Jonah, to their father's beach house in Georgia. You might not think summer at the beach sounds like much of a punishment, but Ronnie -- a piano prodigy who hasn't played since her parents broke up -- does. Salvation comes, of course, in the form of a boy, hunky Will Blakelee (Liam Hemsworth). It's no spoiler to anyone who has seen a Sparks movie, however, that someone gets sick and dies. It's not hard to make a sad, satisfying movie out of the ingredients assembled here. But it is hard to make a good one. The DVD and Blu-ray (Disney, $30-$40), which come out Tuesday, include commentary and a making-of featurette. WASHINGTON POST

Also out Tuesday: "Cemetery Junction," "The City of Your Final Destination," "Cougar Town" (Season 1), "Dexter" (Season 3), "Friday Night Lights" (Season 4), "Furry Vengeance," "The Good, the Bad, the Weird," "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" (Season 3), "The Lost Skeleton Returns Again," "One Tree Hill" (Season 7), "Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends" (Season 4), "Temple Grandin," "Ugly Betty" (Season 4), and Blu-rays of "Black Orpheus," "Hamlet" and "Nanny McPhee."

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