new on home video This week’s DVD releases

Available Tuesday:

“Chandni Chowk to China” (PG-13, 154 minutes): Sidhu travels east from the New Delhi neighborhood of Chandni Chowk, fooled into believing he’s the reincarnation of a great Chinese warrior. Overmatched in a battle with a local crime boss, he transforms himself into a kung fu expert. With his long, handsome face, Akshay Kumar resembles Sacha Baron Cohen, and he plays Sidhu like a more pathetic Borat, bumbling through a land he knows nothing about. Warner Bros., presumably hoping to piggyback on the success of “Slumdog Millionaire,” is giving the film the widest U.S. release for a Bollywood film. But be warned: the Bollywood-lite of “Slumdog” is no preparation for the toll that 21‚Ñ2 hours of this film can take on a person. Interspersed with amazing sequences are stretches of amateurishness, wretched excess, tedium and weirdness that will likely have you grimacing a lot of the time, but grinning more frequently than you might expect. Contains violence, adult situations and language. In Hindi and Cantonese with subtitles.

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (PG-13, 165 minutes): Brad Pitt plays the title character, who is born in 1918 as an elderly man, then ages backward through the cataclysmic changes of the 20th century. Button is a naif, passively moving through a world and meeting colorful characters who continually amaze him and — what else — teach him how to live. Meanwhile, he nurtures a lifelong love for Daisy, played by Cate Blanchett at her most ethereally beautiful. Much of the narrative tension derives from watching Pitt drastically alter his appearance, going from a wizened, hunched “E.T.”-like creature to a young man at the height of ripe handsomeness. The movie, directed with a firm hand by David Fincher, is often astonishingly beautiful, but it plays too safe when it should be letting its freak flag fly. Contains brief war violence, sexual content, profanity and smoking. DVD Extras: 2-Disc edition contains commentary with Fincher; a four-part making-of documentary.

“Last Chance Harvey” (PG-13, 99 minutes): This quiet romantic comedy takes a cinematic chestnut (two meet fleetingly, spend time together and embark on a tentative romance until fate intervenes) and somehow infuses it with a sense of rue and regret that makes it seem new. Dustin Hoffman plays the title character, a New York-based jingle writer who travels to London for his daughter’s wedding. It’s obvious almost immediately that Harvey is close to washed-up professionally. But once he gets to London, it becomes increasingly clear that he’s on the outs personally as well. He’s even shot down by his own daughter, who chooses her stepfather to give her away. But when he meets Kate (Emma Thompson), a mutual recognition of souls transpires. Thompson and Hoffman develop an easy, unforced chemistry, resulting in a touching portrait of that rarity in the movies: a recognizably human couple with recognizably human problems and quirks. Contains brief strong profanity. DVD Extras: Commentary with writer/director Joel Hopkins, Hoffman and Thompson; featurette.

“Wendy and Lucy” (R, 80 minutes): A deliberately spartan tone poem of need and desperation, the film stars Michelle Williams in a role that is one long moment. Wendy is trying to make her way from Indiana to Alaska, because she has a vague promise of work in a fish-packing plant. When her Honda breaks down, she’s faced with repair bills she can’t pay. Wendy steals food for her dog, Lucy, and becomes the victim of a self-righteous store employee: “If a person can’t afford dog food, they shouldn’t have a dog!” Wendy later searches desperately for Lucy, who disappeared while she was under arrest. Williams’ performance is nuanced, moving and well worth any awards she gets. But Wendy is also anonymous, since we are provided almost nothing about her background. Contains vulgarity.

Also: “Bones: Season 2,” “Enchanted April,” “Higher Ground,” “Grin Without A Cat,” “Incendiary,” “Ivanhoe,” “Momma’s Man,” “Smother” and “Under the Bombs.”

—The Washington Post