It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a new action/adventure film that didn’t fall short of the hype. After a long dry spell there’s The Dark Knight Rises, Christopher Nolan’s final installment in his Batman trilogy.

The trilogy began auspiciously with 2005’s aptly named Batman Begins bringing authority and awe to a beloved classic that suffered over the years from a too jokey TV concoction in the mid-1960s and a depressingly downward spiraling series of films produced by Warner Bros. from 1989 through 1997.

That film was followed by 2008’s even better The Dark Knight highlighted by Heath Ledger’s very dark indeed portrayal of the Joker for which he received a well-earned posthumous Oscar.

Topping even that entry, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman return in The Dark Knight Rises as respectively, Bruce Wayne AKA Batman; faithful butler Alfred; Police Commissioner Gordon and Wayne’s business manager. Joining them are Tom Hardy as villain Bane; Marion Cotillard as Wayne’s new love interest and most memorably Anne Hathaway as a Catwoman who fights for the poor and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a righteous young cop who emerges as Robin.

This grand entertainment is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD both of which are sold separately and as part of the trilogy.

A surprisingly good family drama, The Odd Life of Timothy Green is Peter Hedges’ sixth film as a writer and third as a director. His first film as a writer was 1993’s What’s Eating Gilbert Grape from his novel of the same name, followed by adaptations of A Map of the World and About a Boy for which he shared an Oscar nomination with Chis and Paul Weitz. As a writer/director, he gave us Pieces of April and Dan in Real Life. His screenplay for Timothy Green is based on a story by Ahmet Zappa.

Poorly marketed by Disney as a ho-ho-ho comedy, like all of Hedges’ work, this is a touching and ultimately moving piece of work involving families in crisis. In this case, the crisis is the inability of young marrieds Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton to conceive a child. Enter CJ Adams as Timothy, the boy who emerges from their garden. More I will not tell you as it will spoil your enjoyment of the film which also features such stalwarts as Shoreh Aghdashloo, Dianne Wiest, Lois Smith, M. Emmett Walsh, David Morse, Rosemarie DeWitt and Ron Livingston.

The Odd Life of Timothy Green is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

A film about a child in crisis that I do not recommend is Beasts of the Southern Wild. The critics went gaga over this amateurishly produced film with a non-professional cast, hand-held camerawork that focuses on actors’ backs and the ground while their lines are delivered mostly in voice-over in this cautionary tale about the melting of the polar ice cap, but I, sad to say, was pretty much bored by the whole thing.. Quvenzhané Wallis does have a presence as six year-old Hushpuppy but it’s difficult to tell on the basis of what’s on screen whether she’s acting or play-acting. Time will tell as her career progresses.

Directed by Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild is available on Blu-ay and standard DVD.

Classified as a comedy, David Frankel’s Hope Springs has a few laughs, but is mostly a tortured drama about two pitiful people, a husband and wife who have grown apart. Tommy Lee Jones does a creditable job as the husband – disdainful and embarrassed at discussing his sex life with therapist Steve Carrell, but Meryl Streep is miscast as his frumpy wife. A Sally Field or Debra Winger could have put some spark into the character, but Streep after so many years of playing strong, indomitable women is just not believable as a mousey housewife. Jean Smart, Elisabeth Shue and Mimi Rogers are wasted in nothing roles.

Hope Springs is a available on Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Christian Bale was all of 13 when he played the starring role in Steven Spielberg’s 1987 film, Empire of the Sun. Newly given a Blu-ray upgrade, the film, Bale’s talent was already unmistakable playing the English boy struggling to survive the Japanese occupation of Shanghai. Based on J.G. Ballard’s autobiographical novel, the film is one of Spielberg’s best.

Another Spielberg classic being given a Blu-ray upgrade is 2002’s Catch Me If You Can with Leonardo DiCaprio in one of his best roles as real-life imposter Frank Abagnale, Jr. Ably supported by Tom Hanks and Christopher Walken, the film was one of its year’s best. It was also turned into an award- winning musical last year with Aaron Tveit, Norbert, Leo Butz and Tom Wopat.

Before there was Anthony Minghella’s 1999 version of Patrica Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley there was Rene Clement’s equally impressive 1960 version called Purple Noon with astonishingly good performances by Alain Delon and Maurice Ronet in the roles later played by Mat Damon and Jude Law. It is one of two new Blu-ray upgrades from Criterion.

Criterion has also released its long-awaited Blu-ray upgrade of Terry Gilliam’s 1985 science fiction classic, Brazil. This is the uncut version as opposed to the theatrical release version previously given a Blu-ray upgrade by Universal.

Kino has released a Blu-ray upgrade of Josef von Sternbberg’s 1930 classic, The Blue Angel which brought stardom to Marlene Dietrich opposite Emil Jannings. The standard DVD release from Kino featured both German and English versions of the film which were filmed simultaneously. The Blu-ray features only the German version with English subtitles, but the German version with a more daring Dietrich interpretation of the night club singer/temptress is the one to see.

Hugh Jackman’s first international success in a musical was as the star of the acclaimed 1999 London revival of Oklahoma! which was filmed as a TV movie but held back from U.S. showings until 2003 after the run of the Broadway version of the 2002 revival with Patrick Wilson in Jackman’s role. It, too, has been given a Blu-ray upgrade timed with the theatrical release of Jackman’s new musical, Les Miserables.

New DVD releases this week includeThe Bourne Legacy and Ted.