New on DVD and Blu-ray Disc

“The Brotherhood of the Wolf: 2-Disc Director’s Cut”
Not your typical horror movie--not even close--and that’s what sells it. Loosely based on French legend, the director’s cut of this 2001 film can best be described as an 18th century version of “The Matrix” shot through with the moves of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” It isn’t for everyone, but for those seeking a kung-fu period masquerade drama cum horror film about the search and murder of a blood-hungry wolf (and who isn’t?), this is it. Rated R. Grade: B


"Cirque du Soleil: Corteo" Blu-ray
It's between heaven and hell that this terrific show by the famed French-Canadian acrobats takes place. Men whirl on wheels, angels descend from the sky, a man on a bicycle floats gracefully off stage. All are central to a show that's built around a funeral procession, the Italian word for which is "corteo." That the funeral is for a clown gives all of the ensuing leaping, tumbling and juggling its dramatic, colorful punch. Grade: A-


“Desperate Housewives: Season 4”
Desperate? Oh, you could say they’re desperate. Still, if it were just desperation that drove the women of Wisteria Lane, "Desperate Housewives" would have been just another soap opera and not the hit ABC television show it became. In this fourth season of the show, Wisteria Lane and the "ladies" who lunch there remains a place where friendship and neighborly love don't exactly go down like spoonfuls of sugar. Saccharine, yes, and a few heapings of bitters--but rarely sugar. Teri Hatcher, Marcia Cross, Eva Longoria, Felicity Huffman and Nicollette Sheridan go to the ends of the Earth to mix it up this time (they had to, really, if only to keep this baby rolling), and so they are more salacious than ever. This season is, after all, the one in which a tornado rips through town (who lives? who dies?), and also the season in which Dana Delany is introduced as the secretive Katherine Mayfair. Grade: B+

“Heroes: Season One” Blu-ray
“Heroes: Season Two” DVD, Blu-ray
The first season of this superhero sensation is the one to watch--it showcases the most promise and ingenuity, and it generates the most interest in its tormented characters, all of whom discover they have superpowers, and all of whom are faced with the ramifications of what it means to have those powers. Now that the series is available on high-definition Blu-ray disc, it looks and sounds just as good as you’d expect. As for the second season, what in fresh superhero hell happened? The initial shows are a disaster, and while the series does improve as it goes along, it doesn’t improve enough, which makes for a frustrating experience, to say the least. The trouble with this season is that it doesn’t go anywhere. Plots thicken--and stall. Characters appear--and are stymied by the writing. Entertaining moments ignite--and then fizzle, with irritating frequency. At the time, it was in vogue to blame the second season’s pitfalls on the writers’ strike, but please. It stunk because it stunk. As for its crisp Blu-ray release, here’s what can be said for it--it’s amazingly clear how they screwed this one up. Grades: Season One: B; Season Two: D+

“The Office: Season Four”
Examines what happens when your boss isn't exactly the brightest bulb in the office. This fourth season of the show mocks and skewers authority with the same verve of the previous three seasons, with Steve Carell once again pitch perfect as the geeky moron nobody respects. The supporting cast--including Rainn Wilson, Jenna Fischer and John Krasinski--is excellent, and while the show never has bested its BBC counterpart (it’s tough not to miss Ricky Gervais), it can be beautifully cutting in its damning observations of who’s in charge, why they’re in charge, and the sad realization that they have no business being in charge. Grade: B+

“Son of Rambow”
A children’s movie with loneliness at its core, at least for Bill Milner’s young Will Proudfoot, and how sheltered, creative kids, when introduced to the likes of something larger than themselves (in Will’s case, Sylvester Stallone’s iconic character, Rambo), can break free from their shells and realize the person they never knew was inside them. Helping Will to that end is his polar opposite, Lee Carter (Will Poulter), who is fearless and, in the movie’s quirky way, also kind of dangerous. Their budding friendship is the catalyst for a movie that’s an odd, appealing mix of religious strife, lively ‘80s music, the love of moviemaking, the discover of movies as entertainment and as an artform, and the hipness and happiness that can come along with it all. Rated PG-13. Grade: B

“Supernatural: Complete Third Season”
Delivers what its title promises and then it goes a step farther--it improves upon the very good season that came before it. Jared Padalacki and Jensen Ackles return as Sam and Dean Winchester, two brothers working through a traumatic past--their mother was viciously killed by a monster, grisly depicted in the first season. Now, the family business is in hunting down ghosts, particularly the elusive one who killed their mother. What ensues is supernatural at every turn, with this season focused on the ramifications of what it meant for Dean to sell his soul to the devil at the end of the previous season in an effort to save Sam’s life. The consequences prove dire, with hell initially held at bay until--that’s right--all hell breaks loose. Grade: B

"The Transformers: Special Edition” Blu-ray
Clocks in at nearly 21⁄2 hours but greases by without ever feeling as long. Shia LaBeouf is Sam Witwicky, a genial nerd caught in a plot that finds Earth under attack by the Decepticons, huge robots in search of the Allspark, a giant cube that, if found, will allow these beasts the devastating powers of evil they seek. Working against them are the Autobots, who also are seeking the Allspark but who instead want to use its power for good. Since neither the Decepticons nor the Autobots know where the Allspark is located on Earth, anything goes in their efforts to find it. Though Megan Fox, Anthony Anderson John Voight and John Turturro co-star, the real stars of the show are the Transformers themselves, whose incorporation into the film's real-life surroundings is as seamless a feat as you could imagine. Rated PG-13. Grade: B+

Also on DVD and Blu-ray Disc:

The week’s strongest is the excellent PBS series “American Experience: The Presidents Collection,” a comprehensive, 15-disc set that details the lives and presidencies of our last 10 presidents, from Roosevelt to the senior Bush, with the discs on the Kennedys, Reagan, FDR and Nixon proving the most interesting and revealing.

Also high on the list is the fifth season of “NCIS,” with Mark Harmon and company once again solving any number of harrowing situations at any number of harrowing crime scenes. As good as the action is, that isn’t the reason the series succeeds. It’s because of the sharp dialogue, the nicely drawn characters and how the cast gets behind each that this crime series is among the best of its kind.

The sixth season of “The Shield” is available, but don’t fall asleep just yet--this is an improvement over the mediocre fifth season. In it, Vic (Michael Chiklis) is determined to avenge the death of Kenny Johnson’s Lem--not that Kavanaugh (Forest Whitaker) is having any of it. Franka Potente (“Run Lola Run,” “The Bourne Identity”) co-stars and her energy lifts a series that was shrewd to feature her in it.

That’s hardly is the case for the third season of “Everybody Hates Chris,” a solid sitcom about the highs and lows of childhood (mostly the lows), which itself is based on comedian Chris Rock’s own tumultuous childhood. The show is sweet and punchy, never sentimental or cloying, with race issues tackeled and the often ugly truth about adolescence coming through in ways that can be cringe-inducing, sure, but that’s just as it should be. This show tells the truth.


“Smart People” is just out on DVD and Blu-ray disc, so what better time than now to turn to the dictionary for a few words to describe the experience of watching it? Here are a few: Horrible. Boring. Smug. Pointless. Unfunny. Stupid. Misguided. Pretentious. Okay, so we didn’t exactly need a dictionary for those words, just as “Smart People” apparently didn’t need a script to tell its story of so few laughs and so little substance.

Throughout, the film’s cast (Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Hayden Church and Ellen Page) slums through a movie that uses its unlikable characters (the exception is Church’s character, who at least has a few funny lines) to fuel an artsy con that has nothing interesting to say about people who presumably are bright, but who nevertheless continue to do dumb things. The result is a banal piece of drivel that has such disregard for its characters, it’s difficult to feel anything for them yourself. They’re just sort of there, going through their canned situations while generating a colossal waste of time for us in the process.

Bolstering the week are three DVDs from the History Channel, including the first seasons of “Shockwave,” which explores a slew of catastrophes caught on video, and then explores in detail what caused each to go wrong. In “Battle 360,” the World War II battleship USS Enterprise has its day in a series that uses computer-enhanced reenactments to reimagine how that infamous ship weathered the storms of war. And the series “UFO Hunters” looks to the heavens for something--anything--to prove the existence of UFOs. Conspiracy theories abound--Roswell naturally factors into the picture--but most are balanced by a measure of science amid the tomfoolery.

Two other titles are recommended, beginning with “The Untouchables: Season Two, Vol. One,” with Robert Stack as Eliot Ness, who in 1920s Chicago took on Al Capone and company in a series that understood noir and used its elements to nice effect. The molls, the gun battles, the questionable happenings stirring within the shadows--it’s all here, with Stack anchoring it with authority.

Meanwhile, for something completely different (and engaging, even if some might find it flawed in its delivery), check out “Chicago 10,” a part-animated, part live-action documentary about troubling and animated times. The year is 1968, the place is Chicago, the event is the Democratic National Convention, and the situation is dire for the 10 Vietnam War protesters on trial for conspiracy.

Sound familiar? It should. Director Brett Morgen (“The Kid Stays in the Picture”) based his film on the Chicago Seven--Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and Tom Haiden, among others--and he expertly uses archival footage to tell their story by igniting (and embellishing it) with trippy animation. That animation can detract from a story powerful enough to be told without it, but if viewed as a vehicle that underscores an unreal slice of American history, the use of that animation works more often than not.

Rounding out the week are several new Blu-ray offerings, with the standout being the celebrated 1989 Western miniseries “Lonesome Dove,” with Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, Anjelica Huston and others nailing an engrossing adaptation of Larry McMurtry’s novel. Golden Globes and Emmy Awards followed.



Oliver Stone’s “Nixon: The Director’s Cut” is recommended, albeit with reservations--it’s overly long (what Stone film isn’t?), but Anthony Hopkins does get to the core of Nixon’s corruption, his brilliance, and his ultimate self-destruction.





Finally, there’s the rich, stop-action animated world of “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas: Collector’s Edition,” which is the week’s best new Blu-ray release. The film is alive with sorrow, evil, humor and menace, not to mention some beautifully macabre songs, all wrapped around a story that involves the kidnapping of Santa. And who wouldn’t love that?