Lots of really awesome DVD releases this week, everyone. So stock and enjoy. Just click on the corresponding links to purchase the movie posters.

• Hairspray (Musical/Comedy) – Cast: John Travolta, Nicole Blonsky, Amanda Bynes, Christopher Walken, Zac Efron, Elijah Kelley, Queen Latifah, Michelle Pfeiffer, Brittany Snow, James Marsden, Allison Janney, Taylor Parks, Jesse Weafer; Directed by: Adam Shankman

  View the Hairspray Movie Trailer

• Live Free or Die Hard (Action) – Cast: Bruce Willis, Timothy Olyphant, Maggie Q, Justin Long, Jeffrey Wright, Mary Elizabeth Winstead; Directed by: Len Wiseman

• Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (Comedy) – Cast: Tim Allen, Martin Short, Elizabeth Mitchell, Ann-Margret, Alan Arkin; Directed by: Michael Lembeck

• Titanic (Drama/Romance) – Cast: Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, Jonathan Hyde, Danny Nucci, David Warner, Bill Paxton, Bernard Hill, Victor Garber, Suzy Amis, Bernard Fox; Directed by: James Cameron

• Rescue Dawn (Action/Drama) – American pilot Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale) is shot down during a top secret mission to destroy Viet Cong strongholds in Laos at the beginning of the Vietnam War. Cast: Christian Bale, Zach Grenier, Marshall Bell; Directed by: Werner Herzog

• Ghosts of Cite Soleil (Documentary) – In the slum of Cité Soleil, President Aristide’s most loyal supporters were ruling as kings. The five major gang leaders were controlling heavily armed young men; the Chiméres. The Secret army of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. “Ghosts of Cité Soleil” is a film about Billy and Haitian 2pac. Cast: Winson ’2Pac’ Jean, Wyclef Jean, James ‘Bily’ Petit Frère, Éleonore ‘Lele’ Senlis

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Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause is good clean fun, but not condescending. Read on:

The Santa Clause franchise began, in 1994, as the ultimate collision of workaholic-Dad-snapped-into-line-by-fantastical-intervention cinema (see The Family Man, Liar Liar, Click, et al) and high concept piffle (ordinary guy becomes… Santa Claus). The movies have since served as one of the two twin pillars, alongside the Toy Story films, in star Tim Allen’s otherwise scant big screen career. Eight years passed between the original and its sequel, but the $172 million worldwide gross of The Santa Clause 2 (almost on par with its forebear) cemented plans for a trilogy.

While the films have taken a turn for even more family-friendly terrain (the original was rated PG, the latter two flicks both G), the result — somewhat paradoxically, when stacked up against many other live action family franchises — is not a movie that feels tame or uncertain, but one emboldened by the clear purpose and vision of its mission. Yes, there are still, dishearteningly, reindeer flatulence jokes and a sound mix full of cartoon cacophonies, but for the most part The Escape Clause succeeds as a credible adventure flick for little tykes.

Michael Lembeck returns as director from The Santa Clause 2, and guides the movie with a sure hand. He’s aided by a solid screenplay by Ed Decter and John Strauss — the original writers of There’s Something About Mary, who’ve generally refocused their efforts on younger audiences, going on to pen scripts for The Wild and The Lizzie McGuire Movie, among others — and an engagingly colorful villainous performance by Martin Short as the jealous Jack Frost.

After having become Santa in the first movie, Scott Calvin (Allen) has tried to juggle the demands of the job with his personal life. The Escape Clause finds Santa taking on new challenges as his extended family continues to grow. At the risk of giving away its secret location, Scott invites his in-laws, Sylvia and Bud Newman (Ann-Margret and Alan Arkin, a rich pair) to the North Pole to share in the holiday festivities and be near their daughter, Carol (Elizabeth Mitchell), as she prepares for the eagerly anticipated birth of Baby Claus. The problem, of course, is that Carol’s parents don’t know about Scott’s secret identity (they just think he’s a north-of-the-border toymaker), so he disguises the North Pole as Canada, instructing all his elves to cover up their pointy ears and go about appending, “ehh?” to the end of every other sentence.

Further complicating matters are Scott’s own blended brood — ex-wife Laura (Wendy Crewson), her new husband Neil (Judge Reinhold), their daughter Lucy (a very effective Liliana Mumy) and Scott’s son Charlie (Eric Lloyd) — who beg on for a trip of their own, and have to be entertained as well as keep the secret from the Newmans.

The main complication, though, is Jack Frost (Short), an icy-browed outcast on the Council of Legendary Figures, a group which includes the Easter Bunny, Father Time, Mother Nature, Cupid, et al. Jack wants his own holiday, and when rebuffed by the council he hatches a mischievous scheme to wreck Scott’s holiday and make him unwittingly invoke the titular “escape clause,” thus freeing the path for Jack to become the new Santa Claus.

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Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause Movie Posters

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