DVD Corner

“Batman: Animated Series Vol. 4”: The Dark Knight continues his 2005 resurgence, which began in June with the release of Christopher Nolan’s excellent “Batman Begins,” extended into the fall with the release of the “Batman Anthology,” and now culminates at year’s end with “Batman: Animated Series Vol. 4” from Warner Home Video. It’s a fine boxed set, featuring a series that originally ran Saturday mornings on the WB before it was cancelled. The show gives Batman, his friends Robin and Batgirl, and his enemies – The Joker, The Riddler, The Penguin, Mr. Freeze, others – a makeover that recalls elements of Japanese anime. Fans might balk at the animation, but it can be beautiful. Better yet, for a time slot that normally is a creative coin toss, the stories are unusually strong and the fine voice work follows suit. Includes 24 episodes and a collectible animation cel. Grade: B+

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“The Brothers Grimm”: Imagines the Grimms not as the influential German folklorists who put to paper some of the best tales of their day, but as two con men in French-occupied Germany who are falsely exorcizing village demons in an effort to rob the villagers of their money. If the real Grimms were alive today, they’d have a libel suit on their hands. It’s this messing with history that assists in ruining the film, cheapening what the Grimms created while dumbing down their legacy for the masses. Lead actors Matt Damon and Heath Ledger are no help. Bamboozled as the Grimms, they join a cast of village idiots, with the knee-jerk acting, stunted dialogue and lack of a coherent story forming a noose that hangs them all. Rated: PG-13. Grade: D-

“The Exorcism of Emily Rose”: Just in time for the holidays, an exorcism – but with a twist. The film is courtroom drama first, an exorcism second, with Tom Wilkinson, Laura Linney and Campbell Scott in starring roles. Based on the real-life case of Anneliese Michel, a young Bavarian woman diagnosed with epilepsy who later died after undergoing an exorcism; the question is whether it was the Grand Mal seizures that did her in, or the devil? Since that’s up for debate, the movie takes the most commercial approach, with Wilkinson’s Father Moore going through the robust motions of an exorcism – in the middle of a thunderstorm, no less, and on Halloween (the real Anneliese died in July). Unfortunately, his efforts prove in vain. The movie is well-acted, but manufactured to the point of exhaustion, erring in that it never allows us to come to know Emily herself. Rated: PG-13. Grade: C+

“Garfield and Friends, Vol. 5”: Must love cats. Adapted from Jim Davis’ popular comic strip, “Garfield and Friends, Vol. 5” follows exactly what fans have come to expect – Garfield the cat picking on poor Odie, with their befuddled owner, Jon, caught in the fray. Much meddling ensues, as well as a fair amount of repetition. The series shows its age here, but not as much as the strip itself. Highlights in the 25 episodes include the inclusion of characters from Davis’ “U.S. Acres.” Other than Garfield, who can gorge himself with the best of them, there is no better character here than Neurmal the kitty, who is impossibly cute and thus never the saint he appears to be. Grade: B

“M*A*S*H: Season Nine”: More drama than comedy. There are laughs, for sure, but more than ever at this point in the series, you can feel the weight of the responsibility resting hard on the shoulders of the 4077th. In the absence of Radar, who left the show at the end of the eighth season, only three of the original cast members remain – Alan Alda’s Hawkeye Pierce, Loretta Swit’s Hot Lips Houlihan, Jamie Farr’s Klinger. They do some of their best work. If this disc set disappoints, it’s because it offers no special features, no commentary from the cast or crew. It just is. The good news is that what it is is solid television, perhaps timelier now than it has been since its original run. Grade: B

“The Mummy Collector’s Set”: Three of the more recent Mummy outings – “The Mummy,” “The Mummy Returns” and “The Scorpion King” – all in a handsomely packaged collector’s edition from Universal Home Video. The DVD extras are vast, the special effects are over the top, the plots are as thin as the sands through an hour glass. The weakest of the lot is “Returns,” which has so many subplots competing for screen time, the film is essentially a cinematic pi?ata, erupting until it bursts. “The Mummy” is better, though not as good as “King,” which features The Rock expanding the franchise. The series doesn’t touch the “Indiana Jones” movies it emulates – sometimes the dialogue is so bad, you just wish the characters would keep mum. Though as pop art, there is something to be said for all those flesh-eating scarab beetles, which do generate their share of creeps. Grade: B-

“Must Love Dogs”: Not exactly a howler, per se, but the film wouldn’t be much without the strength of its cast. Diane Lane is Sarah Nolan, a preschool teacher dumped by her husband because “he just stopped loving me.” It’s a situation that compels her lovably manipulative family (Elizabeth Perkins, Ali Hillis, Christopher Plummer) to pimp her out on the Internet so she can find love. There, she meets her share of weirdos and then Jake (John Cusack), who cries during “Dr. Zhivago,” so obviously he’s the one. But not so fast. Complicating matters is Bob Connor (Dermot Mulroney), a newly separated stud who has the sort of bedroom eyes that tend to beckon to the bedroom. Stockard Channing is the best part of the show. Like the movie itself, her character, Dolly, is cheap and quirky, exhausted by the situations but dependable in every one of them. Rated PG-13. Grade: C+

“Serenity”: Joss Whedon’s sci-fi powerhouse “Serenity” is a lively, visceral film that takes stock Asian, sci-fi and Wild Western elements and twists them into an intergalactic space adventure that somehow escaped being tweaked to serve the masses. The film presents a tricky balancing act, with humor, pathos, drama, wit, action and fear all roiling in the caldron of Whedon’s rich imagination. Based on the director’s excellent, ill-fated, 2002 Fox television show, “Firefly,” this deceptively fragile film, with its deceptively sturdy facade, could have collapsed if just the right tone wasn’t struck. And yet it is struck. Joins “Zathura” in being among the year’s finest sci-fi offerings. Rated: PG-13. Grade: A-