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All bent out of shape: In the fifth installment in the darkly humorous horror series, a group of young people avoid a bus disaster, only to have fate catch up later in “Final Destination 5.”

Updated: December 27, 2011 4:30PM

NEW THIS WEEK

FINAL DESTINATION 5 ★ ★ ★

Rated: R for language and some sexual content

Length: 105 minutes

Stars: Nicholas D’Agosto, Emma Bell, Arlen Escarpeta

For a while now, this highly successful horror franchise about doomed teens and twenty-somethings narrowly escaping death only to have the Grim Reaper catch up with them, later, one by one (always in bizarre, unlikely and exceedingly grisly ways) has done a surprisingly good job of being better than it has to be. This latest installment, about a busload of young corporate employees who are extremely lucky as a group when they avoid a suspension bridge collapse, then extremely unlucky as individuals when death repossesses them in various painfully creative ways (“Final 5” will confirm any qualms you may have about laser eye surgery), does a nice job of being horrific and entertaining simultaneously. Director Steve Quale, who was visual effects supervisor for “Avatar,” keeps the pace brisk and the buildup to each gruesome repossession suspenseful, while injecting a generous amount of dark humor into the proceedings. Extras include alternate death scenes and a visual effects featurette.

LOONEY TUNE S SUPERSTA RS: PEPE LE PEW COLL ECTION★ ★ ★

Rated: No MPAA rating

Length: 119 minutes

It’s no secret that the hyper-amorous French skunk gets no love from that scent-sensitive kitty-cat he’s always chasing, but he’s never been shown proper appreciation from Warner Brothers, either, until now. This “Looney Tunes Superstars” collects all 17 Pepe cartoons for the first time, from his 1945 debut to his final appearance in 1962, including the Oscar-winning “For Scent-imental Reasons” (1949). Created by Chuck Jones and frequently scripted by Termite Terrace genius Michael Maltese (and voiced by Mel Blanc as a parody of Charles Boyer’s Pepe Le Moko in the 1938 romance “Algiers), Pepe’s boundless passion for romance and blissfully ignorant confidence in his sex appeal, combined with the blind panic of his inamorata, made for rich comedy during his heyday — and may serve as an eternal commentary on the craziness of love.

RECENTLY RELEASED

BL ACKTHORN★ ★ ★

Rated: R for violence and language

Length: 98 minutes

Stars: Sam Shepard, Eduardo Noriega, Steven Rea

Sam Shepard is ideally cast as the aging Butch Cassidy, imagined to have survived the climactic gun battle at the end of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and spent decades as a horse rancher in Bolivia. Just as he’s about to return to America for final years, though, the outlaw becomes involved with a gold thief (Spanish star Noriega) and caught up in one last criminal adventure. The pace is slow and there’s a somewhat nostalgic tone throughout, but this latter-day western is tough as saddle leather, nonetheless.

MIDNIGH T IN PARIS★ ★ ★ 1/2

Rated: PG-13 for some sexual references and smoking.

Length: 100 minutes

Stars: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams

This enjoyable, lightly comic, lightly romantic fable features Wilson (an awkwardly agreeable and upbeat fit in the Allen stand-in-role) as a hopelessly romantic Hollywood screenwriter named Gill, who daydreams about jazz-age Paris while visiting with his cold fiancée Inez (McAdams). Somewhat predictably, Gill is whisked off nightly to his ideal place and time, where he hobnobs with Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Picasso, Bunuel, Dali, Man Ray, etc. Extras include a “Midnight in Cannes” featurette.

ALSO NEW

APOLLO 18

Secret footage from NASA’s abandoned Apollo 18 mission reveals the terrifying reason why man has never returned to the moon. Timur Bekmambetov (“Wanted”) produced the “Blair Witch Project”-style faux-documentary thriller. Rated PG-13 for some disturbing sequences and lang uage

A GOOD OLD FASHIONED ORGY

A group of friends (Jason Sudeikis, Will Forte, Leslie Bibb) who have been throwing an annual wild party at a parent’s vacation home since high school decide the last big blow-out before the house is sold should be a full-tilt orgy. TV comedy writers Pete Huyck and Alex Gregory make their feature writing-directing debut. Rated R for pervasive strong sexual content, graphic nudity and language. Extras include deleted scenes and a gag reel, commentaries by Huyck, Gregory and Sudeikis.

HOSTEL: PART III

Four friends visiting Las Vegas are enticed by sexy escorts to a private party where they become victims of The Elite Hunting Club. Scott Spiegel (“From Dusk Till Dawn 2:Texas Blood Money”) directed the latest installment in the torture-porn series. Rated R for strong, bloody, sadistic violence and torture, sexuality/nudity and pervasive language.

THE INCREASINGLY POOR DECIS IONS OF TODD MARGARET, SERIES I

An American office temp (David Cross of “Mr. Show”) bluffs his way into a senior sales job in the London office of an energy drink called Thunder Muscle. All six episodes of the IFC Channel TV series are featured.

JANE’S JOURNEY

A documentary on the later life of famed primatologist Jane Goodall, who left that field 20 years ago to devote herself to humanitarian and environmental causes. Angelina Jolie and Pierce Brosnan are among the Goodall admirers featured.

SHAMELESS: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON

An alcoholic dad who lives in a perpetual stupor (William H. Macy) is the head of a dysfunctional clan in this Showtime comedy series. Extras include commentary and deleted scenes.

ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE

After a plague turns 90 percent of the American population into zombies, a small group of survivors tries to reach the safety of Catalina Island. Ving Rhames (“Piranha”) stars in the thriller. Rated R for strong zombie violence and gore.

NEXT WEEK

Chomp, chomp. Seven friends vacationing at the Louisiana Gulf become shark bait in the horror thriller “Shark Night 3D.” And Brit-comedy stars Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant (co-creators of “The Office”) throw their friend Karl Pilkington to the sharks, metaphorically, by sending him on a disastrous trip around the world in the travel series “An Idiot Abroad.”