New on DVD and Blu-ray Disc

"Boston Legal: Season Four"
A marvelous show--a spinoff of "The Practice"--with one of the best casts working on television. Dialogue, characters and story come together seamlessly in this jaunty legal dramedy, with James Spader and William Shatner mining a chemistry no one could have expected. The ending of each show is the mint on the pillow, with these two cutting loose over brandy and a cigar in ways that nicely loosen up network TV. Add the acidity of Candice Bergen, who continues to ride a high here, and you have one of the best series on television. Grade: A

“Deception” DVD, Blu-ray
This dead-on-arrival sex-thriller is a mess and, worse, it manages to be a mostly dull mess at that, with screenwriter Mark Bomback’s script piling on so many heated (and telegraphed) twists that the movie might as well be the cinematic equivalent of a stripped-down version of the Kama Sutra--one without the surprises, the promised peaks, the necessary thrills to make this tangled effort worth it. Ewan McGregor is Jonathan McQuarry, a lonely New York accountant who one day meets Hugh Jackman’s Wyatt Bose, a striking man who has the sort of charisma Jonathan always wanted but couldn’t achieve for himself. Essentially, Wyatt is a devil in a blue suit, and the dark corridors he leads Jonathan down might initially have the glimmer of glamour, but which quickly falls apart through the damaging vehicle of one ugly cell phone deception. For a dose of trouble, the movie offers up a gorgeous blonde named S (Michelle Williams), just S, who in typical femme fatale form turns out to causes some difficulties for poor Jonathan. Watching him fall into her clutches, you want to scream at him, “Deception!” But why bother? At this point, all is lost, save for a kidnapping, a wealth of double-crosses and more than a few sniggers from those who watch. Rated R. Grade: D+

“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Season Three”
A dark, irreverent series that always has felt like a hybrid of “Seinfeld,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Arrested Development,” with a dash of "Cheers" thrown in since the show takes place at a bar. The premise is simple--in fact, it's about nothing. The three male owners of Paddy's Irish Pub (Rob McElhenney, Glenn Howerton, Charlie Day) spar daily with their bartender, Sweet Dee (Kaitlin Olson), who will remind plenty of Elaine from "Seinfield"--only amplfied. Danny DeVito joined the cast in the second season, and as you'd expect, his involvement only lifts an already engaging comedy. Grade: B

“Sex and the City” DVD, Blu-ray
It’s curious--the film is more concerned with being a drama than it is with being a comedy. Yes, there are funny scenes here, but did it have to be this glum? This serious? Maybe on one level it did. It would, after all, seem a little ridiculous and desperate if Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall), Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) and Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) hadn’t matured in the four years that have passed since the popular HBO television show ended. But watching the movie versio of that show--the middle of which is one depressing, dreary slog of heartbreak and sentiment--it’s difficult not to feel as if the fizz had been let out of a production best known for delivering more than its share of it. Only Charlotte is the happy one here, smiling defiantly through the hardships, though even her high-wattage smile can’t save the movie from the title it really deserves: “Strife in the City.” Where, after all, is the sex in this show? It’s rarely happening to these women. Even Samantha, of all people, is forced to be a sexual voyeur. While the film isn’t short on throwing down the fashion, some might long for more of the film’s sharper, bawdier scenes, such as when Charlotte has a disastrous moment in which she likely wishes she had been wearing Depends, or when Samantha covers her naked body in sushi so Smith can have a uniquely fishy feast, and another scene in which Miranda’s lack of personal grooming recalls the series at its best. While the movie itself is involving enough to never be dull--an underused Jennifer Hudson goes a long way in making something out of a nothing role as Carrie’s hip new assistant, and the game performances lift the material through its transitional period--this “City” nevertheless seems oddly small when compared to what came before it. It’s strange. Now, it feels as if we’re in a bedroom community, with the film’s fifth character--New York City--barely allowed to sparkle. Rated R. Grade: B-

“Torchwood: Complete Second Series”
From the BBC, a sci-fi spin-off of the network's "Doctor Who" franchise, with a solid dose of sex meant to spice up the proceedings. Often, it does. Thematically, the two shows are so closely interlinked, the very name "Torchwood" is an anagram of "Doctor Who," but in terms of quality, this second season of the series suggests it still has a ways to go before it matches the sheer inventiveness of its inspiration. That said, it’s a major improvement over the first series. Set in Cardiff, Wales, the show stars John Barrowman as Capt. Jack Harkness, who leads a small taskforce of geeks gleaning alien technology to undo their share of aliens, while in this season Harkness is faced with his former lover (James Marsters), not to mention the fleeting, unexpected presence of his brother Gray (Laclan Nieboer). Grade: B+

Just out on Blu-ray disc is Mikael Hafstrom’s “1408,” a horror film that gets back to the basics. In this case, that means forgoing torture porn in favor of shrieking ghosts, clock radios that spring to life even though they're unplugged, scratchy sounds that come from behind bleeding walls, and a sense of claustrophobia that nibbles away at the screen like one of the rats in "Ratatouille." You know, the good stuff. From Stephen King's 2002 short story, John Cusack is Mike Enslin, a trashwriter of kitschy guide books that seek out presumably haunted locales for those interested in visiting them. Though Enslin himself doesn't believe in ghosts, he soon changes his tune after a stay at New York City's dusty Dolphin Hotel, where 56 people have died tragic deaths over the years in room 1408 and where the manager (Samuel L. Jackson) tells him he won't live to see the next hour. Enslin scoffs at the idea. Besides, if there is a satanic hellfire burning in that room--and he seriously doubts it--it's nothing he can't handle. Naturally, those who believe he's wrong--and there wouldn't be amovie if he wasn’t--should raise up their Bibles now and turn up their Christian rock, because for Enslin, he’s in for one hell of a ride.

The eighth and final season of “Will & Grace" now is available, with Debra Messing, Eric McCormack, Megan Mullally and Sean Hayes having a final go of it in a series that came to mean plenty to plenty for good reason. Whether it was just in how the show provided mostly consistent laughs via the bizarre behavior of its shallow characters or in how it dealt directly with sexuality (usually with humor, though unfortunately sometimes with sentiment), the show succeeded in taking the latter half of that conversation to a primetime audience, which had little choice but to chew it over when they weren’t distracted by laughs.

The week’s best new release is the DVD and Blu-ray appearance of “The Godfather Collection: The Coppola Restoration.” Fully remastered and restored literally pixel by pixel, this impressive, five-disc set includes all three “Godfather” films, with the high-definition Blu-ray release especially noteworthy since it’s the first time many fans will see the movies as closely as Coppola intended them to be seen. The crisp transfers and top-notch sound quality are on par with the film’s theatrical releases and, if you have the right television and sound equipment, perhaps even better than what was shown in theaters. While no amount of restoration can save the third film in the series from being the weakest in the lot, the other two are among the greatest gangster movies of all time. As a bonus, the set is filled with documentaries, interviews and featurettes, all presented by the director himself. So, take the cannoli--and if you’re a fan of these movies, definitely take this set.