New on DVD and Blu-ray Disc

“The Day the Earth Stood Still” DVD, Blu-ray

This bum remake of the 1951 sci-fi classic casts Keanu Reeves as the alien Klaatu, who is here to usher in the end of the world. And what a relief--few watching the movie will argue that the dumb humans the film employs aren’t deserving of their fate. The movie’s premise is that we are the virus destroying Earth (tough to argue with that one), and so the only way to save it is to rid it of us. That’s Klaatu’s job and Reeves goes through the motions of doing so with such restraint, you’d swear the actor left his body before showing up onset. Jennifer Connelly, Kathy Bates and John Cleese co-star, but don’t get too excited just yet--in this busy movie of so much chaos and comic disorder, they’re only here to slum along the sidelines. Meanwhile, sentiment is encouraged, then demanded, then whipped from the cast, while swarms of metallic bugs pull a Joan Crawford on the world by trying to rid it of dirt. Rated PG-13. Grade: C-

"Ravenous"
Antonia Bird’s culturally bulimic film, “Ravenous,” is about people--people who eat people. It’s not very good. It makes “Flesh Eating Mothers,” “Rabid Grannies,” “Bloodsucking Pharaohs of Pittsburgh” and, yes, even “Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death,” look as if they were farm raised by Julia Child. The film, which suggests humans are the other white meat, isn’t a complete waste of time; parts of it are beautifully shot and there are moments of tension. Bird, who took a memorable jab at audiences with the eyebrow-raising “Priest,” has a camp sensibility that lightens what could have been a truly pungent stew. She knows she can’t take much of this seriously, so she leavens her film with much-needed humor. That saves some of it. What undermines most of it is Ted Griffin’s script, which cranks out such stunning lines as “He’s licking me!” before trudging on without a conscience to destroy whatever credibility its stars, Guy Pearce and Robert Carlyle, had before coming to the project. The film takes place during the Mexican-American War, but it never featured a Taco Bell tie-in, proving, in the end, that this bloody, soupy mix wasn’t completely without restraint after all. Rated R. Grade: C-

Also on DVD

Also available on DVD are three television series from Paramount, including the eighth season of “Wings,” where comedy and melodrama slam awkwardly into each other over the friendly skies. This season ended the series, and it’s easy to see why--much of it is a groaner.

"Dynasty: Season Four, Vol. 1," on the other hand, is a howler, bringing with it such torrid episodes as “The Arrest,” “The Bungalow” and “Tender Comrades.” Essentially, the show is a defecation of diamonds, scotch, botched affairs, bitch slaps and mud fights, with John Forsythe, Linda Evans and Joan Collins continuing to embrace their low-rent doom with high-end style.

Camp also can be found in the seventh season of “Beverly Hills 90210,” which is fueled by the amusing wrecking ball that is Tiffani-Amber Thiessen’s Valerie Malone. No, she didn’t take humanity to the lows achieved by Shannen Doherty’s Brenda, but you have to give it to Thiessen--she had her moments.

Once again, more turmoil boils in Beverly Hills--particularly in such episodes as “Unnecessary Roughness,” “Spring Breakdown” and “Phantom of CU”--and also because Tori Spelling’s face and body continue to morph in ways that have zip to do with leaving adolescence’s grasp. In between, there’s more gossip to fill a week’s worth of posts at PerezHilton.com, which is just how fans want it. On those terms, the seventh season succeeds.