By Peter Covino

Lifestyles Editor

Tired of sitting through blue Smurfs and singing chipmunks on family movie night?

Well Real Steel (just out on Blu-ray DVD from Dreamworks/Disney) is that perfect kind of film that should appeal to almost everyone in the family.

This near future boxing movie uses just about every cliché from every boxing movie you have ever seen (Rocky, The Champ etc.)

It is the very near future and perpetual loser Charlie (Hugh Jackman) has once again lost all of his money (and his robot) in a match pitting his robot against a gargantuan bull at a county fair.

Charlie, a former boxer, in a world where boxing with real humans has been outlawed, is always moving onto the next robotic boxer and the next bet.

He barely has time for his girlfriend (an old-time boxing enthusiast played by Evangeline Lily) and never knew his now 11-year-old  son Max (Dakota Goyo).

Out of money again, he proposes a deal with his rich sister-in-law's husband, who want to adopt the boy: give him $100,000 so he can continue his robot boxing endeavors. Part of the deal lets the kid tag along with dad for the summer while the new prospective parents go to Europe.

Father and son are almost clones of each other, and the initial feuding, turns into a strong bond, and they find and restore yet another robot named Atom (one discarded in the trash heap) and build him up to be the hottest thing on the fighting robot circuit.

The action scenes are a lot of fun as the little-robot-that-could beats his bigger, stronger competitors thanks to the father-son tandem in his corner. The boxing clichés really are everywhere including a Muhammad Ali/Rocky rope-a-dope sequence, but this mostly family friendly film works  in the tradition of The Champ.

Outside of the Rocky and The Champ comparisons, if Real Steel seems vaguely familiar, it just might be because it is based on a old Twilight Zone episode about an old robot (in a world where human boxing has been outlawed) who has been thrust into the ring one more time by his owner.

Real Steel is available as a single DVD, 2-disc Blu-ray combo pack (Blu-ray and DVD), 3-disc Blu-ray combo pack (Blu-ray disc, DVD and digital copy). Real Steel also is available on-demand.

Bonus features include a “making of” feature and Building the Bots feature (DVD and Blu-ray versions) plus  Countdown to the Fight—The Charlie Kenton Story; Sugar Ray Leonard: Cornerman’s Champ; deleted and extended scenes  (Blu-ray versions).

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50/50 came up short at the Golden Globe Awards   (Best  Musical or Comedy and Best Actor Musical or Comedy) and was shunned by Oscar, but this uplifting film starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt (he got the actor nomination) and Seth Rogen is still every bit a winner.

Gordon-Levitt (500 Days of Summer,  Inception) and Rogen are an excellent pairing  in this   film about a guy who has been diagnosed with spinal cancer (Gordon-Levitt) and his best buddy who helps him through the ordeals of chemo and more.

Inspired by the true story of writer Will Reiser, Gordon-Levitt is wholly believable as Adam, who must not only navigate his way through cancer, but also deal with his smothering mother (Angelica Huston). Things are further complicated by the breakup of his relationship with his girlfriend, and his growing attraction to the inexperienced therapist assigned to his case (Anna Kendrick.

You will laugh and fight back a few tears in a film that won best screenplay by the National Board of Review as well as the Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics Association.

50/50 will be released on Blu-ray and DVD Tuesday.

Bonus features include audio commentary with the filmmakers, deleted scenes and The Story of 50/50.

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Two Robin Williams classics, Dead Poets Society and Good Morning Vietnam have just made their  Blu-ray debuts  (Buena Vista Home Entertainment).

Dead Poets Society is reminiscent of many films featuring young men struggling through adolescence, while attending prep school. But thanks to a stellar cast (Williams, Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard), screenplay (Tom Schulman won the 1989 Academy Award) and direction Peter Weir, this film is definitely a cut above your standard schoolhouse drama.

Williams has one of his best roles ever  as new professor John Keating, who has just returned to teach at his alma mater.

The students are expecting yet another year boring year of literature, but he makes them all take a closer look at themselves always inspiring them to carpe diem (seize the day).

Blu-ray bonus features include Dead Poets: A Look Back featuring an interview with director Weir, Hawke, Leonard and others from cast and crew; Raw Takes; Master of Sound: Alan Splet; audio commentary with Weir and more.

The wait for Blu-ray has been a lot longer for Good Morning, Vietnam which first hit the big screen in 1987, 25 years ago.

While Williams is very good in both films, he gets a lot of help in Dead Poets Society. With Good Morning, Vietnam, more often than not, it is a one-man show.

Williams plays real life American disc jockey Adrian Cronauer, who spun records and entertained troops on Armed Forces Radio in Saigon during the Vietnam War.

If you are a Williams fan, you will simply love this movie which features Williams at his improvised best.

The plot revolves around Cronauer's often-crazed radio show, which usually doesn't set well with his superiors. But the service crowd are wild about him.

The film also stars Forest Whitaker, Bruno Kirby and J.T. Walsh. The popular soundtrack reintroduced to a new audience the now classic Louis Armstrong song What a Wonderful World.

Bonus features for the Barry Levinson directed film include the Production Diary which includes five features (How the Movie Came to Be; Actor Improv; Music of the Movie; Origin of The Good Morning, Vietnam Sign-On; Shooting in Thailand and overview of the film.

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If you don't set your expectations too high you will survive a night of movie-viewing watching with Shark Night, your typical stay out of the water story featuring a shark, or in this case sharks.

Shark Night (Twentieth Century Home Entertainment) features the usual assortment of characters all set to have a great getaway weekend in Louisiana.

Sara (Sara Paxton) is the one with the house, or her parents house, and she is returning home with her new pals for the first time in years. It has all the makings of  a great time until they find out there are man and woman eating sharks in the water. The sharks are winning the battle as they  get picked off one at a time in this film directed by David R. Ellis, The Final Destination.

This is quite watchable, but it does have what has become a cliché ending for the genre.

The film is available in both Blu-ray and DVD

Bonus features on the Blu-ray and DVD include Ellis' Island, the cast looks at what the director brought to the film.

Blu-ray only features include Shark Night's Survival Guide; Fake Sharks Real Scares, a behind the scenes feature focusing on the sharks in the film. The Blu-ray also includes a digital copy.

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There are more scares per square foot in Dream House (released this Tuesday from Universal Studios Home Entertainment), a psychological thriller starring Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz and Naomi Watts.

Will (Craig) and his wife Libby (Weisz) couldn’t be happier to finally get out of the big city and movie into the house of their dreams. But there is just one problem: the previous occupants were slaughtered in a murderous rampage.

Will and Libby and their two young daughters didn’t know about the killings, but they did find out right away that there is something amiss in their beautiful home.

As Will investigates he finds out there is a lot going wrong in his dream house.

Director Jim Sheridan (The Boxer, In America, My Left Foot) has certainly been involved in better projects, but the acting of Craig, Weisz and Watts more than hold this sometimes suspenseful film together.

The ending probably won’t be much of a surprise. One of the complaints this flick had on its release in late 2011 was that the trailer gave too much away.

The film is available in DVD and Blu-ray combo pack.

The Universal Blu-ray combo packs not only offer the best picture available via Blu-ray, but the new Ultraviolet option means you can have your movie in the cloud and stream it instantly to your computer, tablet and smart phone.

Other Blu-ray and DVD bonus features include

Burning Down the House — a  behind-the-scenes look at the special effects of the film.

The Dream Cast — The stars and director talk about the film.

Building the Dream House — A walk through of the home from its initial construction and design.

A Look Inside — A behind-the-scenes look a the film.

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You just can’t kill that Thing.

The Thing From Another World (1951) first  turned up in one of the great early sci-fi films (with James Arness  masquerading as “The Thing”) and showed up again in blood-curdling color in the very good John Carpenter version in 1982.

If you still need more to the story Universal Home Entertainment is glad to oblige with this 2011 The Thing (in stores Tuesday) which serves as a prelude to the 1982 film.

If you saw the Kurt Russell film, you should remember that beginning when some Norwegians  in a helicopter are shooting at a poor defenseless dog as he heads for the safety of an American camp  in Antarctica.

Then you undoubtedly would also remember that that was no dog at all, but that wretched Thing with rearranged cells looking like a dog.

The beginning of the 1982 film is the end of the 2011 film and that isn’t giving anything away.

Even though this newest version of The Thing features as many Norwegians as it does Americans, it is actually closer in tone to the 1951 film.

The expedition finds a crashed space ship and an alien frozen in the ice. They cut the alien out of the ice, put him in what they think is a safe place. He thaws and just like in the original film, he has a thirst for blood.

If you have seen the first two films, there are absolutely no surprises here and that is its  major weakness. It is a nice enough effort, but there isn’t much in the way of a fresh idea.

You could hope for a few more scares and a bit more of the unexpected, but at least it remains faithful to the original premise and doesn’t go off on some illogical tangent.

The special effects  are good as well making this a decent Blu-ray choice for the home theater as well.