DVD Corner

“Disney Holiday Video Collection”: From Disney, a collection of three lazily conceived holiday DVDs, a good deal of which belongs caught in the business end of a trap. The first is “Disney Channel Holiday,” a cloying clump of dimpled good cheer that features a compilation of older holiday episodes of “That’s So Raven,” “Even Stevens,” “Kim Possible,” “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody,” and Hilary Duff in her “Lizzie McGuire” show – all recycled. “Disney Princess: A Christmas of Enchantment” finds little enchantment, with Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and other Disney favorites gathering to look back at holiday segments of previously released titles. They shouldn’t have bothered. “A Very Playhouse Disney Holiday,” intended for very young viewers, digs into the Disney Channel archives to pull out holiday versions of “Jo-Jo’s Circus” and “Higglytown Heroes,” as well as two brief “Shanna’s Show” entries, each of which has zip to do with the holidays. For the adults who might find themselves watching these shows with children, expect a hallucinogenic effect. For kids, they’ve seen better material on a pack of gum. In the end, product for the sake of product. Disney Channel Holiday – Grade: C-; Princess – Grade: C+; Playhouse – Grade: C

“The Family Guy, Vol. 3 – 4th Season”: The most provocative season to date, with the envelope pushed on so many issues, the show usually is watched with an open mouth, with either laughter coming out of it, or with it just hanging open. Highlights include the episodes “Model Misbehavior,” which lives up to its title; “Peter’s Got Woods” (not going there); and “8 Simple Rules for Buying My Daughter,” which would do well in many third-world countries. The DVD extras are plenty and worthwhile, with the best coming down to the inclusion of the Petarded Song and how A-ha’s music video, “Take on Me,” is ingeniously used in the episode, “Breaking Out is Hard to Do.” Hardly for everybody, but subversive fun, nonetheless. Grade: B+

“40-Year-Old Virgin”: The summer’s funniest, most affectionate and, as it happens, dirtiest comedy. An outrageous film with Steve Carell as Andy Stitzer, a doe-eyed neophyte in need of some serious manscaping (but not Viagra) who has gone a stretch longer than most when it comes to having sex. The film is a deceptive sleight of hand. It sounds as if it’s purely low-brow, which it certainly is in parts, but not in total. No comedy this consistently laugh-out-loud funny could only be the result of sex jokes, which would lose their punch within minutes. Some will scoff at the idea that a picture so good-naturedly raunchy could also be bright and smart, but “Virgin,” armed with its excellent cast, proves them wrong. The movie is expertly conceived, acted and written. Rated R. Grade: A

“The Island”: Not exactly la isla bonita. The film borrows from any number of other sci-fi movies and books to find its hook and groove. Here, director Michael Bay creates a level of humanity that plays to his strengths – Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson as two Spandexed clones with stunted intellects. Perfect. Initially, the film disappoints in that it leaves behind its timely comment on cloning to become an action film. But when you realize that Bay (“Pearl Harbor,” “Bad Boys”) isn’t the best-qualified person to make such a comment on such a dicey subject, the reprieve of gunfire, collapsing buildings and the sight of two hot-looking stars running around in their tighty-whities is something of a relief. Rated: PG-13. Grade: C+

“24: Season Four”: Has a nice ring to it. Here, Kiefer Sutherland is back as Jack Bauer, the former special agent for the Counter Terrorist Unit who finds himself embroiled in recovering the U.S. Secretary of Defense (William Devane) when he is abducted by terrorists. Amid the intrigue, brooding glances and gunfire, love enters the equation, as do several entertaining twists. From the get-go, we’re off and running, with the series following “The West Wing: Complete Fifth Season,” reviewed below, in that it’s a departure from what came before it. In this case, the show is tighter and nastier, particularly in the harrowing final episodes, which lift the series considerably – and just in time to for its return this January on Fox. Grade: B+

“Valiant”: Polly want a mediocre movie? Feed her this. From Disney, which just can’t get a break this week, comes a computer-animated movie about the contributions of carrier pigeons in World War II. Good topic, fair animation, but the story quacks like a duck. The movie follows Valiant (voice of Ewan McGregor), a perky little Brit bird with a can-do attitude and a limited wingspan who dreams big of fighting the big fight with an elite squadron of British carrier pigeons. His mother is having none of it – she’d rather cough up something for Valiant to eat than hear about dreams – but Valiant has other ideas and soon is part of an underwhelming team of misfits whose job it is to deliver a crucial message for the war effort, which could either make or break Normandy. The work isn’t easy. In this curious movie of good versus evil, where the Nazis are depicted as falcons and Tim Curry’s menacing Von Talon likely will put a steel tremble in younger kids, the mix between comedy and terror is jarring, with none of it gelling at the end. Rated: G. Grade: C-

“The West Wing: Complete Fifth Season”: Abductions, terrorists, bombs – and all in the absence of series’ creator Aaron Sorkin. For the fifth season of “The West Wing,” the shakeup in the creative force shows in the diminished quality of the writing and the development of the characters, which are pressed against weaker subplots. Still, what’s a series to do when its creator gets busted for possession of cocaine, magic mushrooms and marijuana? This isn’t bad television – far from it – but there is a good deal of scrambling afoot here; since Sorkin drove the previous seasons, his mind wasn’t on tap to flesh out this crucial fifth season. It was left to a group of others, all saddled with the responsibility of carrying on without knowing what Sorkin himself had in store. It shows. The good news is that while this season has its share of disappointments, the acting always is strong and it does pull together to offer a satisfying climax. Grade: B-