Chris Barsanti has been a Filmcritic reviewer since 2002. So there.Brave chameleons and wily lawyers: a heroic lizard (Johnny Depp) fights to save a town in the animated Western Rango, while Matthew McConaughey does the legal profession proud in The Lincoln Lawyer; these and other films both worthwhile (Insidious, Arthur, a Blu-ray of Brazil) and not ([REC] 2) are coming this week to DVD and Blu-ray. Rango 
Since apparently Johnny Depp and director Gore Verbinski had so much fun playing pirates in the Caribbean, it made sense for them to team up for this in-jokey animated film about a hapless chameleon (looking a lot like the late Hunter S. Thompson) who becomes a reluctant hero when his adopted town is threatened. "Rango is an absolutely wonderful film that almost inexplicably blends adventure with introspection," our critic wrote, calling it "a sumptuous Western with surrealist tendencies about the infuriating but ultimately rewarding quest for identity." On sale July 15.
The Lincoln Lawyer 
Matthew McConaughey plays the Lincoln-chauffeured lawyer of the title in this by-the-numbers legal drama (based on a Michael Connelly novel) wherein the cool and detached attorney takes the case of a spoiled, rich murder suspect -- a case that quickly upends his cozy life. "This is a film that occasionally approaches the gritty, profane, and darkly wise legal thriller that it wants to be," our writer said, "but never quite knows how to get there."
Insidious An old-fashioned scary movie from the makers of the Saw franchise, this horrorshow about two parents who are told by a psychic that their son (whom they think is in a coma) is actually being attacked by evil spirits, is, according to our writer, "the most delightful celluloid dark ride of this or any other year" and "a classic just waiting to be confirmed."
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
A critically-ill man returns to his family farm in this surreal and mystical Thai film where all manner of supernatural beings and events occur in the dark jungles surrounding the farm, very few of which are explained (including ghost monkeys, strangely romantic fish, and visions of reincarnation). We called this moody, spiritual story "humorous, delicate and oddly moving."
Arthur 
Russell Brand's no Dudley Moore, you say? True, but then this isn't 1981, when the original Arthur was released, and this one has Helen Mirren, so that should count for something. The story, if you need to be enlightened, follows the titular spoiled man-child (Brand) who's resisting an arranged marriage to a woman he doesn't love (Jennifer Garner), falling instead for a goofy and unapproved dame (Greta Gerwig) and thus threatening his inheritance. Mirren plays the disapproving nanny/butler in a remake that our critic found surprisingly good and well-acted, praising the filmmakers for giving "this latest Arthur a likable life of its own." On sale July 15.
Miral
This sprawling work by artist-turned-filmmaker Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) takes on a large cast of characters and casts its story-net over some 60 years of history, starting with the 1948 founding of Israel. Hiam Abbass and Slumdog Millionaire's Frieda Pinto star in a film that our critic thought was ambitious and brave enough to deserve "being applauded," but whose lack of a solid dramatic core ensures that it ultimately "misses the mark."
[REC] 2 
Since there's yet to be a smart, scary, innovative horror film (like, say, 2007's [REC]) that producers didn't want to mangle with an uninspired sequel, [REC] 2 - which picks up right where the first one left off -- with a SWAT team trapped inside an apartment building full of flesh-eating zombies -- was perhaps inevitable. Our writer thought that the ending tries to make up for the film's many failings, "but ends up rehashing the first film's night vision climax and failing to muster even half of the original's breath-holding horror."
Brazil 
When Terry Gilliam's sci-fi Orwellian comedy-nightmare freakout opened in 1985, it was considered by some (particularly the people who paid for it) a confusing downer whose more outré elements (the torture-happy police state, especially) seemed a bit far-fetched. These days, it's still a downer, but an exhilarating one that looks more and more prophetic. "Visionary? Timeless? Indulgent?" Our critic wrote, "Call it what you will, Brazil had its fingers firmly on the pulse ... long before the War on Terror." Now available on Blu-ray.
