New on Blu-ray & DVD: January 8

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a time-traveling hit man battling his elder self -- played by Bruce Willis --- in Looper; Tim Burton brings his signature style to Frankenweenie; Julianne Moore channels Sarah Palin in Game Change; plus the first seasons of Anger Management, SMASH, Dallas and more in this week's new releases.

From executive producer Steven Spielberg comes this highly entertaining, compelling tale of the inner-workings of a Broadway show, from the heated rivalry between up-and-coming starlets and the stress of a writing team in need of a new hit to a Broadway producer finding her own way. Chronicling the production of a Broadway musical based on the life of Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe, the potent fusion of music, dance and storytelling stars Debra Messing, Anjelica Huston, Megan Hilty and American Idol star Katharine McPhee. Guest stars include Uma Thurman, Nick Jonas and Broadway legend Bernadette Peters.

Tim Burton brings his signature style to this charming stop-motion animated tale about a young boy, Victor Frankenstein (voiced by Charlie Tahan), who unexpectedly loses his dog Sparky. Determined to bring him back to life, he sets up a laboratory in his attic and manages to stitch him up and reanimate the beloved creature. But when Sparky gets loose, the entire town learns that getting a new "leash" on life can be monstrous. Burton favorites Winona Ryder, Martin Landau and Catherine O'Hara also lend their voices to the film, and Danny Elfman is on hand to provide the score. Special features include an all-new, original short featuring Victor and Sparky’s home movie, Captain Sparky vs. The Flying Saucers; the original, live-action Frankenweenie short film by Burton and much more.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a time-traveling hit man tasked with taking out the older version of himself -- played by Bruce Willis -- in this futuristic thriller. In Looper, time travel is illegal and only available on the black market. When the mob wants to get rid of someone, they send their target 30 years into the past, where a "looper" -- a hired gun, like Joe (Gordon-Levitt) -- is waiting to mop up. Joe lives the good life with his job as a looper – until one day the mob decides to "close the loop," sending back Joe's future self (Willis) for assassination. Will he kill himself, or team up to get revenge? Written and directed by Rian Johnson, Looper also stars Emily Blunt, Paul Dano and Jeff Daniels.

Now available on 3D Blu-ray, DVD, digital download and pay-per-view, Karl Urban (Star Trek, The Bourne Supremacy, The Lord of the Rings) takes on the dark comic-book character Judge Dredd in this gritty, futuristic thriller. Set in the vast, violent metropolis of Mega City One in future America, the only force of order lies with urban cops called "Judges," who are judge, jury and executioner all rolled into one. Known and feared throughout the city, Dredd must rid the city of its latest scourge: a dangerous "Slo-Mo" drug that has users experiencing reality at a fraction of its normal speed. Taking on ruthless prostitute-turned-drug lord Ma-Ma (Game of Thrones star Lena Headey) and her ruthless clan, Dredd and his psychic rookie sidekick Cassandra Anderson (Bored to Death star Olivia Thirlby) find themselves trapped in Ma-Ma's 200-story vertical slum with no way out, and must engage in a relentless battle for survival.

Real-life couple Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard team up with a dreadlocked Bradley Cooper for this outrageous action-comedy written and co-directed by Shepard. Shepard plays Charlie Bronson, a nice guy with a questionable past who risks it all when he busts out of a witness protection program to drive his girlfriend (Bell) to L.A. for the job opportunity of a lifetime – and finds inept federal agents (including Tom Arnold) and a vengeance-crazed criminal (Cooper) on their trail. Jason Bateman, David Koechner, Joy Bryant and Beau Bridges also star.

Julianne Moore channels real-life vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin with an uncanny performance in this HBO movie directed by Jay Roach (The Campaign, Recount). Based on John Heilemann and Mark Halperin's bestseller, the film goes behind the scenes of Senator John McCain's (played by Ed Harris) 2008 presidential campaign, showing how he came to choose Palin as his running mate -- and how the failures of his team's choices led to his ultimate loss to Barack Obama.

Charlie Sheen rises from the ashes of his very public Two and a Half Men meltdown with the hilarious Anger Management, now on Blu-ray, DVD and digital download. The sitcom is loosely based on the 2003 movie starring Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson, with Sheen playing a non-traditional therapist who specializes in anger management – all the while battling his own anger issues. Selma Blair, Shawnee Smith and Daniela Bobadilla also star.

The historic, first-ever feature-length "talkie" is now on Blu-ray to coincide with the 90th Anniversary celebration of Warner Bros. Studios. The landmark 1927 film, about a would-be entertainer whose showbiz aspirations conflict with his devoutly religious father, brought Broadway superstar Al Jolson "alive" and seemingly singing from the screen -- an immediate sensation that created a revolution in the history of cinema. In addition to 90 pages of photos and vintage documents, bonus features on the new Blu-ray include vintage shorts and cartoons, a 1947 radio show adaptation featuring Jolson, and more than four hours of extraordinary Vitaphone shorts, unique and historic rarities that capture performances from the era's great entertainment legends: Burns & Allen, Baby Rose Marie, Weber & Fields, Blossom Seeley and Benny Fields and many others.

Now available in a two-season set with all 16 episodes, Matt LeBlanc plays Matt LeBlanc in this clever Showtime comedy that follows an English couple (Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig) with a hit BBC program who are lured by a U.S. network president to recreate the show for American audiences. The BBC version stars a prestigious Shakespearean actor, played by Richard Griffiths, but the network president wants to cast Matt for the American version. As British and American cultures clash, the couple becomes increasingly exasperated by the system – and by their star!

One of the longest-running series on TV returns with a new cast (including Jordana Brewster, Julie Gonzalo, and Desperate Housewives stars Jesse Metcalfe, Brenda Strong and Josh Henderson) and old favorites (including the late Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy and Linda Gray) as the Ewing oil clan locks horns with all-new dramatic and steamy situations, showing that Texas oil is still thicker than blood.