'Nothing But the Truth' among new DVD releases

This week's new-to-DVD movies are led by a newspaper yarn that might have given "State of Play" a run for its money if it had gone to theaters instead of straight to video.

"Nothing But the Truth" (Sony, 2009; R for language, sex, violence; $24.96). This piece of dramatic fiction is based loosely on the Valerie Plame scandal, when a CIA operative was outed by a newspaper story and a journalist went to jail for contempt because she wouldn't name a source.

The film's focus is primarily on a reporter (Kate Beckinsale), who writes an investigative piece for a fictional Washington, D.C., paper that names a covert agent (Vera Farmiga). This prompts a federal investigator (Matt Dillon) to quickly find a judge who will send her to jail if she won't reveal her source. And, of course, she won't.

So the paper hires a high-profile defense attorney (Alan Alda) but it becomes a prolonged jail stretch for which the reporter pays a very high price. Writer-director Rod Lurie, a former journalist, also tosses in a tragic killing — and a twist ending that you will find either inspired or insipid.

Alda's performance is a real stand-out, but all the actors are in fine form, to include Angela Basset, Noah Wyle and David Schwimmer. And the film is an entertaining mix of conventional melodrama and discussions of First Amendment issues.

Extras: widescreen, deleted scenes, audio commentary, featurette, trailers

"What Doesn't Kill You" (Sony, 2009; R for violence, language, sex, drugs; $24.96). Although this is "a true story," the plot about a husband and father who has trouble breaking the cycle of his life of crime comes off as fairly routine.

The saving grace is provided by a bevy of rich performances, led by Mark Ruffalo as the aforementioned career criminal, Amanda Peet as his long-suffering wife and Ethan Hawke as his best pal, who is no help when Ruffalo tries to go straight.

Extras: widescreen, deleted/alternate scenes, audio commentary, featurette, trailers

"Hotel for Dogs" (Dreamworks/Nickelodeon, 2009, PG, $29.99). Emma Roberts and Jake T. Austin are siblings in foster care who hide their dog in an abandoned hotel and gradually take in other strays until the dogs take over their lives. Predictable kids comedy has its moments and some clever Rube Goldberg-style gadgetry in the hotel, but many of the gags fall flat, including the inevitable dog-doo gags, and Lisa Kudrow and Kevin Dillon seem ill-equipped comic foster parents. Don Cheadle lends occasional class as a social worker.