In Bruges (Focus, $29.98)
Buyers beware: The trailers for playwright Martin McDonagh’s feature filmmaking debut made In Bruges out to be an oddball hitman comedy, along the lines of Pulp Fiction, Snatch or Assassins (okay…so the last one wasn’t an intentional comedy).

But while this film is frequently hilarious—just try to keep a straight face when Colin Farrell’s hired gun insults a family of overweight American tourists—there’s a serious emotional edge to the proceedings not hinted at in any of the ads.  Farrell and Brendan Gleeson play low-rent British assassins Ken and Ray, who are dispatched to the medieval Belgian city of Bruges by their boss after they botch an assignment, accidentally killing a little boy.  Ray is the one that pulled the trigger and his conscience has been eating away at him ever since.  While Ken tries to interest his partner in dull sightseeing tours, a guilt-ridden Ray prefers to get wasted on booze and make time with beautiful drug peddler Natalie.  Eventually Ken is informed that his newest assignment is to put the young man out of his misery…permanently.  He can’t go through with this job, of course, which forces his boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes) to make the trip to Bruges to sort out the situation.  This story would be compelling on its own terms, but McDonagh weaves in a fascinating allegorical element, setting the city of Bruges up as purgatory, the way station the three killers have  to pass through before they find out whether the crimes they’ve committed put them in heaven or hell.  It’s a potentially ruinous theme, but McDonagh pulls it off, thanks largely to the stellar performances of the film’s stars.  Gleeson is wonderful as the world-weary Ken and Farrell does some of his very best work in what’s easily the most demanding role he’s had in ages.  And then there’s Fiennes, who completely upends his refined screen image as the down-and-dirty Harry.  Swearing a blue streak and dispatching friends and enemies alike with a maniacal glee, he’s the scariest angel of death since Ben Kingsley put the fear of God into us in Sexy Beast.  (Now there’s a team-up I’d love to see!)  In Bruges may not be the film the trailers promised, but that’s okay—it’s better.
Extras: The main attraction is the collection of deleted and extended scenes, which run about twenty minutes and contain some choice moments.  (Favorite cut line: “He’s a priest—he should be prepared to get what’s coming to him.”)  These scenes are actually funnier than the five-minute gag reel that’s also included here, along with two making-of featurettes and a five-minute boat tour of Bruges accompanied by facts about this picturesque city.  The Bruges City of Commerce should remember to thank McDonagh for any spike in tourism they receive this year.

My Blueberry Nights (The Weinstein Company, $19.98)
Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar Wai has long been a favorite amongst snooty critic types, who flip for such languid, almost plotless films as In the Mood for Love and 2046.  (Full disclosure: I’m one of those snooty critic types.)  But his loyal fanbase largely deserted him after they caught a glimpse of his first American feature, My Blueberry Nights, which stars singer Norah Jones (in her silver screen debut) as a New York City gal who takes to the open road after a bad breakup, spending time in Memphis and Nevada, where she learns all about life and love and from such folks as David Strathairn, Rachel Weisz and Natalie Portman.  Along the way, she sends postcards of her travels back to a lonely Manhattan café owner (Jude Law), the guy she was almost seeing before deciding to go on her journey of self-discovery.  Like almost all of Wong’s films, Blueberry‘s story is wispy at best; the reason people keep coming back to his work is for his command over mood and atmosphere.  Shot on digital video, My Blueberry Nights is just as visually sumptuous as his other work, but unfortunately, in this case, it’s not enough to make up for the lack of an interesting narrative or complex characters.  Wong’s first mistake may have been anchoring the movie around a novice actor like Jones; the singer/songwriter has an appealing screen presence and the camera clearly loves her, but she can’t effectively communicate her character’s internal emotional state.  Her greenness is exposed whenever she shares a scene with an actor like Strahairn or Portman, both of whom are able to add layers to their roles not suggested in the screenplay.  Clocking in at a brief 90 minutes, My Blueberry Nights is by no means a painful sit and there are several moments that are quite beautiful.  Ultimately though, this is a case where Wong allowed his sense of style to completely overwhelm any kind of substance.
Extras: A short, uninformative making-of documentary and a half-hour Q&A with the director recorded after a screening of the movie at New York’s Museum of the Moving Image.

Drillbit Taylor (Paramount, $34.99)
Judd Apatow has been on a winning streak for so long, it was inevitable that he’d put his name on something that audiences and critics would soundly reject.  That movie turned out to be Drillbit Taylor, which scored an anemic $30 million at the box office (and a whopping 27% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes) when it made its way into theaters last March.  Based on an idea developed by reclusive ’80s icon John Hughes, Drillbit casts Owen Wilson as the titular homeless dude who passes himself off as an expert bodyguard to a trio of picked-upon teenagers looking for someone to protect them from two psychotic bullies.  In a featurette included amongst the copious bonus features, the movie’s screenwriters—Seth Rogen (yes, that Seth Rogen) and Kristofer Brown—talk about the many different versions their script went through on its way to the big screen.  The constant rewriting is apparent onscreen as the movie can never quite decide whether it’s a high-school comedy about three super-nerds or an adult comedy about a loser in need of a lifestyle change.  In the end, it doesn’t actually matter as both of these stories are lame and unfunny.  It’s a shame to three good comic actors like Wilson, Stephen Root and Leslie Mann (a.k.a. Mrs. Judd Apatow) wasted on such sub-par material.  At least Apatow and Rogen can take comfort in knowing that they have a much stronger movie (Pineapple Express) coming in August.
Extras: Although Drillbit doesn’t get the deluxe DVD treatment that most Apatow productions receive, it does come with a surfeit of deleted scenes, outtakes and short, gag-oriented featurettes, none of which are really worth the price tag.

Also on DVD:
If you passed on the opportunity to watch Matthew Weiner’s brilliant series Mad Men when it made its debut on AMC last July, here’s your chance to rectify that grievous mistake.  Just in time for the July 27th debut of the show’s second season, Mad Men: Season One (Lionsgate, $49.99) arrives in stores in a beautiful 4-disc box set (shaped like a Zippo lighter!) that contains all 13 episodes, commentary tracks galore and a documentary about the show’s fantastic ’60s-era production design.  Pour yourself a martini, grab a cigar and settle down with the best show on television (next to Battlestar Galactica of course).  Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns (Lionsgate, $34.98) is the third directorial effort from the wildly successful writer/director/actor and it marks the first time he’s donned the wig and outfit of his most popular character Madea since 2006′s Madea’s Family Reunion.  But Madea is just a supporting role in this film, which mainly revolves around the trials and tribulations of a single mother (Angela Bassett) trying to start her life over in a new town and with a new man.  This two-disc special edition comes with a digital copy of the movie and a number of behind-the-scenes featurettes.  Finally, the multi-perspective thriller Vantage Point (Sony, $34.95) was a surprise box-office champ during its February release.  Apparently, moviegoers were so desperate for something to see, they willingly forked over money for this ridiculously implausible flick, which presents a presidential assassination through the eyes of several different witnesses, including a Secret Service agent (Dennis Quaid), a TV news producer (Sigourney Weaver) and a family man on a solo vacation (Forest Whitaker).  All of the actors do their best to sound enthusiastic about the movie in a half-hour documentary included on the DVD, while director Pete Travis yaks away on a self-serving commentary track.