"The Rum Diary" (R) Format: DVD and Blu-ray

The stench of cheap booze, stale cigarettes, newsprint and pre-air conditioning sweat wafts off the screen in "The Rum Diary," Johnny Depp's second shot at paying tribute to his friend, the late journalist Hunter S. Thompson.

Though it only rarely reaches the level of gonzo farce that it might have been, "Diary" is still an agreeably drunken stagger through the novel Thompson based on his formative year as a writer — 1960 — which he spent drunk, getting into trouble and first tangling with "The Man" in Puerto Rico.

Paul Kemp (Depp) has come to San Juan for a job interview at the San Juan Star newspaper. He's made a bad impression by being late and seriously hung-over for his meeting with Lotterman (Richard Jenkins), the editor.

Writer-director Bruce Robinson ("Withnail & I") packs the script with pithy Hunterisms. Puerto Rico, with its two languages and two flags, is "like England with tropical fruit," Lotterman explains.

Kemp settles in, but his cynicism (he's a failed novelist) works its way into his stories. He has to learn "nobody wants what's wrong with the place," and if not from Lotterman, perhaps from Paul's cynical colleagues, roommates and fellow drunks — photographer Bob Sala (Michael Rispoli, pretty good) or columnist-on-a-bender Moberg (Giovanni Ribisi, WAY out there).

It's the oily press agent Sanderson (Aaron Eckhart) who sells Paul on Puerto Rico's place within the American Dream, which was to become a running obsession with Hunter S. Thompson. The island is "a gold mine" thanks "to something that doesn't exist — land."

And Paul listens to Sanderson, because the guy is offering to pay him off and because Sanderson has the most gorgeous blond girlfriend this side of Monroe (Amber Heard).

Among the supporting players, Ribisi stands out as he plays Moberg as almost a Thompson prototype — ever blitzed, always in sunglasses, stealing soaked filters from the Bacardi rum factory to distill his own high-test brew from.

Nothing much happens here that we don't see coming — cops and cockfights, flirtations and drug trips. Depp is entirely too old to be starring in a coming-of-age-as-a-journalist tale. (Thompson himself was 21-22 while he was there.) But Depp makes the performance work by suggesting a burn-out case in need of a second chance, someone world-weary enough to recognize the ethical temptations of the job and the alcoholic temptations of the island.

In these politically correct times, we've lost the "amusing drunk," except in fratboyish "Hangover" movies. "Rum Diary," however, is worthy because it's just plain fun to watch the actor who nailed Thompson in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" work through the earlier version of what would become Thompson's obsessions — Nixon, hallucinogens and writing "the truth," as he sees it.

— Roger Moore, the Orlando Sentinel

"Paranormal Activity 3" (R) Format: DVD, Blu-ray

This sequel goes back to where it all began. The cameras are on and recording the chilling moments when evil begins to terrorize young sisters Katie and Kristi for the first time.

"Take Shelter" (R) Format: DVD, Blu-ray

A haunting tale that will creep under your skin and expose your darkest fears. Curtis LaForche lives in a small town in Ohio with his wife, Samantha, and daughter, Hannah, a 6-year-old deaf girl. When Curtis begins to have terrifying dreams, he keeps the visions to himself, channeling his anxiety into obsessively building a storm shelter in his backyard. His seemingly inexplicable behavior concerns and confounds those closest to him, but the resulting strain on his marriage and tension within his community can't compare with Curtis's privately held fear of what his dreams may truly signify.

Other releases: "The Dead" (DVD, Blu-ray), "Human Centipede II: Full Sequence" (DVD, Blu-ray), "Woody Allen: A Documentary," "All Quiet on the Western Front" collectors series (Blu-ray), "Beavis & Butthead: Volume 4" (DVD, Blu-ray), "American Teacher," "Storage Wars, Volume 2," "Mozart's Sister" (DVD, Blu-ray), "Frontline: The Interrupters" (DVD, Blu-ray)