You have the gold standard of sci-fi space epics: "2001," "Star Wars," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "Alien."

And then you have the yellow standard: "Sunshine."

Director Danny Boyle, who in previous films got us addicted to heroin ("Trainspotting") and zombies ("28 Days Later"), this time takes us 50 years in the future when the sun is fizzling instead of sizzling. All of Earth has become a polar ice cap, and the only thing that can save it is a spaceship and a crew of astronauts whose nuclear payload is designed to reignite the sun.

I guess Al Gore was wrong after all.

Anyway, it's an interesting premise done in by an uninteresting pace. Despite amazing special effects (in a relatively modest $20 million film) and a workable cast, the story moves along like a very elderly motorist with his signal flashing. Signaling nothing, of course.

Out this week on DVD (Fox; $29.98), "Sunshine" is slick enough to have earned mostly positive reviews after its theatrical release. It's a technical gem with moments of high tension. Still, I have no trouble raining on "Sunshine's" parade. The film has no soul -- even though a terrific Cillian Murphy tries hard to represent one.

In many respects, I enjoyed the extras more than the movie. Boyle's commentary is ... well, illuminating, particularly with regard to his casting choices. And a feature focusing on science adviser Dr. Brian Cox is thought-provoking.

But in the final evaluation, "Sunshine" is too slow, too shallow and, like a yellow traffic light at an intersection of speedsters, too cautious.

-- Allan Walton, Post-Gazette AME/Multimedia

The golden age of the Western, when the hats and film stock were black and white, is long gone, but the well-crafted "3:10 to Yuma" glints like a small nugget in a miner's pan.

James Mangold ("Walk the Line") has remade the 1957 Western starring Glenn Ford as the outlaw and Van Heflin as the cash-strapped rancher whose paths and fates cross.

He takes the building blocks of the genre -- stagecoach robberies, quick trigger fingers, frontier justice, campfires, the threat of Indians, saloons with whiskey and a familiar female, posses of lawmen and criminals -- and gives them a fresh coat of paint, if you will.

Russell Crowe playing a ruthless rogue and Christian Bale as a desperate rancher looking to regain his equilibrium is a master class in acting.

The DVD arrives with deleted scenes, featurettes and commentary with Mangold.

-- Barbara Vancheri, Post-Gazette movie editor

Never aired in America after A&E mishandled season four, the 10-episode fifth season of the British spy drama continues to follow the cases of England's version of the FBI, beginning with a two-part story about a civil liberties-curtailing coup within the British government. Granted, this entails a lot of white dudes sneering, but after the most recent season of "24," "MI-5" is hugely preferable terrorism thriller.

Extras include commentaries on two episodes and cast interviews that are accompanied by a thoughtful spoiler warning.

Fans of "Jericho" take note: Actor Lennie James guest stars in episode eight.

The sixth season of "MI-5" (called "Spooks" in the U.K.) finished airing last month, and the British press has reported that star Rupert Penry-Jones (heroic agent Adam Carter) will leave the show early in season seven (Adam begins cracking up in season five). Whether seasons five or six will air on cable stateside -- mostly likely on BBC America -- remains to be seen.

-- Rob Owen, Post-Gazette TV editor

'Joshua'

If "Sunshine" is slow, "Joshua" is standing still.

It's the latest in a long line of evil child flicks, with Jacob Kogan playing the 9-year-old title character, Joshua Cairn.

I'll leave Jacob's performance alone out of respect for his age, other than to say he would make a great Pinocchio. Instead, I'll level a finger at director George Ratliff, who manages to waste the talents of Sam Rockwell and Vera Farmiga, who play Joshua's Manhattanite parents. The former is only given an opportunity to shine when the film is all but over, and the latter does nothing but cry. Over and over again.

Ratliff looks as if he mixed one part "Omen" to three parts "Bad Seed" only to serve us a final product that's all parts awful for lack of originality. Though atmospheric and tense at times, we're wise to the kid from frame one. So what that leaves us is a long, loooong trip to a disappointing payoff.

The DVD (Fox; $27.98) offers the usual extras plus the music video for Dave Matthews' intriguing "Fly." A better extra would have been a flyswatter, for obvious reasons.

-- Allan Walton

"Death Sentence" ( ): Like "Death Wish," the 1974 film starring Charles Bronson, "Death Sentence" is based on a Brian Garfield novel. But this vigilante drama has been updated to account for widespread drug and gun dealing and gang violence. Kevin Bacon is riveting as a formerly mild-mannered executive whose family is attacked in a gang initiation crime. The violence is ridiculously over the top, and the killings don't feel cathartic; they feel sickening and senseless.

"Eagle vs. Shark" (): Comparisons to "Napoleon Dynamite" are inevitable, due to the misfit quality of the main characters: Jarrod (Jemaine Clement), a video game store clerk suffering from depression and anger-management issues, and Lily (Loren Horsley), a shy, awkward fast-food waitress at Meaty Boy. But "Eagle," set in New Zealand, is much darker than "Napoleon," and Jarrod has a more serious psychodrama.

"The Invasion" (): New take on "The Body Snatchers," starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig.

"Dragon Wars" (): Jason Behr plays a cable TV news reporter privy to info about an ancient Korean legend.

"White Noise 2": Sequel to the supernatural thriller arrives without Michael Keaton.

Special: "Cary Grant 4-Disc Collector's Set"; "Zodiac (2-Disc Director's Cut)."

TV on DVD: "The All-New Superfriends Hour: Season 1, Vol. 1"; "Gunsmoke: The Second Season, Volume One"; "Lovejoy," season 2; "The Naked Brothers Band," season 1; "Rob & Big," season 1 and 2; "The Tudors," season 1; "The Waltons," season 6.