New on DVD and Blu-ray Disc

“Beverly Hills 90210: Sixth Season”
Shannen Doherty’s Brenda Walsh was sent out to pasture at the end of the fourth season, so it was up to the producers to find a new bad girl. They did so in Tiffani-Amber Thiessen’s Valerie Malone, who didn’t take humanity to the amusing lows achieved by the wrecking ball that was Brenda, but you have to give it to Thiessen--she had her moments, which continue to spark this sixth season. Once again, more turmoil boils in Beverly Hills, particularly in such episodes as “Home is Where the Tart Is,” “Gypsies, Cramps and Fleas” and “Breast Side Up,” 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 sixth season succeeds. Grade: B

“Fred Claus” DVD, Blu-ray
Reindeer roadkill, with long stretches of silence passing before a good laugh hits. Vince Vaughn is Fred Claus, brother to Nicholas (Paul Giamatti), a.k.a. Santa, whose fame and stature in the worldwide community has turned Fred into something of a grinch. Saddled with debt and stuck in jail, Fred finds himself in the sort of pinch that necessitates him going to the North Pole to help out the big guy for the big night of gift-giving. This displeases his girlfriend (Rachel Weisz) and Mrs. Claus (Miranda Richardson), allows for his mother (Kathy Bates) to belittle him, smooths the way for Kevin Spacey's mean-spirited efficiency expert, Clyde, to try to undo him, and also allows for the two brothers to come to terms. This is, after all, a family movie with redemption on its mind, which it unleashes while piling on a big slop of forced sentiment at the end. There is one sly scene that hints at the sharp, inspired movie "Fred Claus" could have been. It involves appearances by Roger Clinton, Stephen Baldwin and Frank Stallone all bemoaning their fates at being siblings to more famous brothers. The scene has an edge, it's funny and it comes close to the dark truth about brotherly rivalry that "Fred Claus" courts, but which it doesn't have the guts to fully skewer and explore. Rated PG-13. Grade: C-

“Hancock” DVD, Blu-ray
One of the most abrasive, crass “family” movies to hit theaters this year. Can a studio purchase a PG-13 rating? Publicly, the studios would laugh at the idea. But given this film’s sheer amount of blood violence, graphic dismemberments, adult themes and liberal use of colorful language--not to mention its unfortunate streak of homophobia and obvious issues with race--you have to wonder whether that’s the case. Will Smith is Hancock, a sexist, booze-swilling buffoon saddled with superhuman powers whose life is going nowhere. People are sick of him, but when into his life comes Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman, good as always), a PR man with a heart of gold, Hancock finds himself faced with the opportunity to turn his life around and become the respected superhero Ray believes he can be. It won’t be easy, but it works. And so does the movie in these early scenes, especially since Smith has enough weight as an actor to make us feel the isolation that comes from Hancock’s addiction. Soon, he does pull himself together, only to be faced with his greatest challenge of all--a twist involving another character that’s such a stretch, it rattles the movie off its rails. Rated PG-13. Grade: C-

“Jarhead” Blu-ray
Takes us back to a past that feels oddly like the present. There's good reason for that. In the film, we’re in the Middle East, Bush is in office, and we’re fighting a war that few understand. The difference? The Bush in question is the senior Bush, Saddam Hussein is in power and the war being fought is the Gulf War. Jake Gyllenhaal is Swofford, who is recruited by Sykes (Jamie Foxx) to become a sniper along with Troy (Peter Sarsgaard), his sketchy partner with the unfavorable past, and a group of other men. With no action to be had on the ground in Saudi Arabia, the men find themselves fighting the war unraveling in their heads. It’s the mounting frustration that comes with the dawning realization that their time in the desert may have been for nothing that gives “Jarhead” its greatest, ugliest complexity in ways that won't be revealed here. Rated R. Grade: B

“The Kingdom” Blu-ray
After American oil workers and their families are slaughtered by terrorists in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, FBI Special Agent Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx) goes against the government's wishes and leads three colleagues--Jennifer Garner as a forensics specialist, Chris Cooper as a bomb expert, Jason Bateman as the intelligence guru--in a covert trip overseas to find out what happened. There, they are met with opposition, which they eventually work around thanks to the Saudi colonel (Ashraf Barhom) assigned to protect them. Initially, he does so with gruff assertiveness. But then, as he comes to question his country because, you know, these Americans have gleaned in 48 hours the sort of critical insights he himself hasn't been able to do in a lifetime, he starts to listen to them and help. If that carries with it a whiff of condescension, "The Kingdom" is filled with it. The movie is so manipulative and obvious, you see it for what it is--purely opportunistic, trading off our war in the Middle East and the fears surrounding it while offering audiences a pro and con look at the Arab community that grates with simplicity. Rated R. Grade: D+

“Tropic Thunder” DVD, Blu-ray
From Ben Stiller, a movie whose hilarious opening establishes its main characters in ways that are so rich, it won’t be revealed here. But it is ingenious. What can be said is that it cleverly introduces audiences to a group of famous actors struggling to find themselves mid-career by starring in what they hope will be a hit. Those men include Tugg Speedman (Stiller), a muscled action-adventure type on the downside of fame; Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson), a rap star best known for his popular soft drink, Booty Sweat; Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), a heroin addict beloved the world over for starring in such comedies as “The Fatties: Fart II”; and Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.), an Academy Award-winning thespian who takes his craft so seriously, he undergoes a controversial pigment transformation to become a black man for his latest role in the Vietnam War movie all are appearing in now. What springs from this is an unwieldy plot that relies so heavily on surprise to sell its laughs that revealing more would ruin the adolescent pleasures laced throughout the script. This isn’t a consistently funny movie, but when the laughs do hit (Tom Cruise helps), it’s as if you’ve been rocketed to the moon. Rated R. Grade: B

Also available:

Now out on DVD is the limited collector’s edition of "300,” which, regardless of all the extras includes in the set, is still just a movie about beefcake gone berserk. Set in 5th Century B.C., the film follows the three-day Battle of Thermopylae, in which 300 bellowing, muscle-bound Spartans got pumped up to rumble against a million Persians.

It's something of an understatement to say that they were outnumbered, but as the movie sees it, they nevertheless were gifted soldiers aided considerably (or screwed considerably--you decide) by Sparta's King Leonidas (Gerard Butler), who led the fight and, as history tells us, lost it in a crimson rush of valor.

For a film filled with so many characters, there isn't one fully realized character in the mix--not Leonidas, who bellows from his bowels as if he just sat on the Hot Gates themselves; not the Persian emperor Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), who is one wig shy from becoming RuPaul; and not Leonidas' enemy Theron (Dominic West), whose evil fails to spark a half-cooked subplot involving Leonidas' wife, Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey).

That said, you have to hand it to Warner--for fans of the movie (I’m not one), they’ve given them a collector’s edition to savor. The set includes a 52-page art/photo book, a lucite display that features an image from the movie, collectible post cards and a new bonus disc filled with extras.

Fairing better is Warner’s release of Oliver Stone’s “JFK,” which is just out on Blu-ray and stars Kevin Costner in one of his better performances, and also HBO’s Blu-ray release of “Band of Brothers,” the Emmy Award-winning, World War II series based on Stephen E. Ambrose’s best-selling book. The latter remains one of the most involving, well-acted examinations of war combat ever produced specifically for television, with the men of the Easy Company given their due in a grueling series produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.

By far, these last two titles are among the week’s best new releases.