Reel Advice: Wolves and sheep

In theaters

The Wolverine (20th Century Fox): Does it really matter whether or not Hugh Jackman is gay, as is often speculated? If he is, then he's doing his best acting work to date as a straight, married man. Because he sure doesn't do much acting (unless you count grunting, groaning and looking startled) in The Wolverine. Nowhere near as incomprehensible as Man of Steel, The Wolverine benefits from a shred more humanity.

Beginning in a POW camp in Nagasaki, where prisoner Logan (Jackman) rescues a young Japanese soldier named Yashida (Ken Yamamura) from the nuclear bomb blast, The Wolverine is initially a story about debt and honor, about heroes and villains, about dreams and nightmares. Years later, the ageless Logan is summoned to Japan where elderly, wealthy business mogul Yashida (Hal Yamanouchi) is dying of cancer.

Escorted by psychic redhead Yukio (Rila Fukushima), Wolverine makes the journey to where Yashida is being kept alive by machines and various experimental techniques. His slithery "twisted mutant bitch" doctor Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova) is there to monitor everything. When Logan becomes suspicious, Yashida reveals that he really called upon the retired soldier to keep his granddaughter Mariko (Tao Okamoto) safe from the Yakuza who have been hired to kill her.

With his powers suppressed by Viper, Logan embarks on a fever dream of a mission in which he sustains multiple injuries and must fight the urge to join Jean (Famke Jansen), the great love of his life, in the afterlife. Coming face to face with his most lethal adversary, a Samurai robot made of Adamantium, Logan may have met his match, especially when it is revealed who is operating the destructive piece of machinery.

Relentless fight scenes and unnecessary 3D aside, for a series known for its special effects, The Wolverine is surprisingly patchy. However, a duel atop a bullet train more than makes up for that, putting a similar scene in the lackluster Lone Ranger to shame. Is it too much to ask for a moratorium on redundant comic book character movies? As in, enough already, it's getting boring. Besides, even with all the time Jackman spends shirtless and flexing, The Wolverine still can't compare to X2, the best (and queerest) film in the X-Men series.

At home

Writer/director Harmony Korine delivers on years of promise with the pitch-dark drama Spring Breakers (Lionsgate). But Korine isn't the only who triumphs here. James Franco, desperately in need of a memorable, quality performance also comes through, as does Korine's young female cast, including Disney divas-in-training Vanessa Hudgens and Selena Gomez.

Bored (and broke) college students Candy (Hudgens), Brit (Ashley Benson), Cotty (Rachel Korine, wife of the director) and Faith (Gomez) want to join the spring break crowd but don't have the funds. While the deeply religious Faith attends a campus Christian group meeting, her unscrupulous pals don ski masks to hold up a diner, wielding sledgehammers and squirt guns. Now with enough cash to make the trip, the girls hit the road for the beach in Florida.

It's all sun, fun and games, and lots of drinking and drugging. That is until the girls are among a group of revelers busted at a bash where there is under-aged drinking and other violations. Only given a citation and a fine (there were no narcotics involved) that they can't afford to pay, the girls are bailed out by Alien (James Franco), a sleazeball white gangsta rapper complete with cornrows, grill and tats. The drama is more than Faith can handle and she is soon aboard a bus for home.

Turns out it's a good thing she left. A violent run-in with Archie (Gucci Mane), another more powerful gangsta, leaves Cotty with a gunshot wound (and soon she is on a bus home). With the increasingly reckless Candy and Brit in tow, who have essentially become his concubines/gun molls, Alien plots his violent revenge.

Spring Breakers is probably going to be more entertaining and enjoyable to those without teenage daughters at home or away at college. The four actresses prove their mettle here and make it easier than you might expect to forget (and forgive) their past Disney excesses. Alternately, shocking, surreal and amusing Spring Breakers breaks new ground for all involved. Blu-Ray/DVD special features include deleted scenes, outtakes, directory Korines's commentary, a three-part doc and more.

Bowing on Blu-Ray in a double disc DVD/Blu-Ray package, Mel Brooks' classic 1967 writing/directing debut The Producers (Shout Factory) is still wickedly funny more than 45 years later. The inspiration for the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical of the same, The Producers ranks among Brooks' most inspired and hilarious films.

It's hard to go wrong with Zero Mostel, as shyster theatrical producer Max Bialystock, and Gene Wilder, as high strung accountant Leo Bloom. The pair makes an unlikely team when Bloom discovers that a producer can make more money with a flop than a hit. Their quest for the worst script ever written leads them to WWII war criminal Franz (Kenneth Mars), whose dismal script Springtime For Hitler seems to be a sure thing as failures go.

From there, Max, the gigolo, calls on his cadre of little old lady backers who finance his shows in return for sexual favors (don't ask!) and the money comes rolling in as fast as they can count it. Switching hats, Max the producer brings Leo to a meeting with flaming stage director Roger De Bris (Christopher Hewett), a character made less offensive by the pre-Stonewall setting of the movie. Finally, hippie-actor Lorenzo St. DuBois aka LSD (Dick Shawn) is cast in the lead, virtually guaranteeing the failure of the show. But, of course, there would be no laughs if anything went as planned.

A comic masterpiece that, aside from a few politically incorrect conventions, deserves another look (or repeated viewings for those so inclined). Mostel and Wilder are a perfect team, playing off of each other like pros. Wilder would, of course, go on to work with Brooks in Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, forever linking the two. Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack special features include a "making of" doc, a deleted scene and much more.