DVD Corner

“Black Dawn”: Steven Seagal – still chopping (it’s a struggle), still kicking (it’s exhausting), still in a career slump (it’s over, cookie). In his direct-to-DVD movie “Black Dawn,” Seagal is Jonathan Cold, a former CIA operative trying to prevent the selling of a nuclear bomb to Eastern European stereotypes. As rote as that sounds, the movie doesn’t disappoint – it follows through with the rote goods. Fight scenes lack imagination and intensity, with a sluggish Seagal absent in too many of them to suit. This iffy action movie of so many questionable action scenes constitutes only a continuation of Seagal’s long slide into twilight. Rated R: Grade: D

“Broken Flowers”: Here, as Don Johnston, Bill Murray finds himself facing his past with several beautiful women (Jessica Lange, Tilda Swinton, Sharon Stone, Frances Conroy) when he learns through a mysterious letter that he has a 19-year-old son who is trying to reach him. Really, the movie’s point is about Don reaching himself, which is something of a challenge considering his formidable indifference to just about everything. As the movie unfolds, a long look back at his life and his former loves unspools, with director Jim Jarmusch gently nudging audiences to do the same by recalling their own. A marvelous movie, with Jeffery Wright nicely cast as Don’s best friend and Bill Murray scoring again in the realm of drama. Rated: R. Grade: A-

“CryWolf: Unrated”: Death through e-mail. This wannabe chiller about a prank gone murderously wrong features some of the oldest teens on the planet – all played by actors nearing their 30s. To help suspend disbelief, here’s a tip – try watching it through gauze. What you’d sort of see through the mesh are a group of hateful boarding school twits trying to amuse themselves by terrorizing the campus with an e-mail prank that involves a made-up serial killer who turns out to be real. Sort of. Lies and knives in the back ensue. Jon Bon Jovi is the journalism teacher with the coiffed ‘do. The movie, on the other hand, is a don’t. Unrated. Grade: D

“Empire”: Set in Rome, where so much occurred amid the marble, this six-hour ABC miniseries takes a novel approach to its story. It begins with the death of Julius Caesar, where most movies with similar subjects culminate, and moves forward with the tale, spilling its share of television-appropriate blood and launching its share of intrigues. Acting is above par, but those who know their history might snigger at how it has been toyed with here. “Empire” scores in that it does get to the ever timely corruption of power – just look around you – but it faints in the presence of HBO’s superior “Rome.” Grade: C+

“Football Box Set”: Three weepies for men – “Rudy,” “Jerry Maguire” and “Radio” – all packaged in an affordable boxed set from Sony. The theme is football, but the undercurrent is melodrama, at least with “Rudy” and “Radio,” which are given to their share of blue moments, particularly with Cuba Gooding Jr.’s performance in “Radio.” The actor fares better in “Maguire,” in which he won the Academy Award and showed the promise he since has lost, and which famously features Tom Cruise having Renee Zellweger at hello. After a tumultuous 2005, you have to wonder if Cruise now would have to toss in dinner and drinks. Grades: Rudy: B-; Maguire: B+; Radio: C.

“Lord of War”: Amid all the spent bullets, the graphic depictions of genocide, the finger pointing at big government and the criticisms of our current president, there still is room for irony in the Nicolas Cage movie, “Lord of War.” Somehow, Cage agreed to appear in what’s essentially a public denouncement of the manufacturing of weaponry. It’s a twist that raises its share of eyebrows, particularly since Cage owes his career by starring in a wealth of films that relied on a certain level of ballistic bombast to fuel their box office receipts. “Lord of War” has flashes of good writing and acting, but for those who pay attention to the news, its story of gunrunning in foreign lands fails to seem particularly new. Rated: R. Grade: C

“Sam Peckinpah’s Legendary Westerns Collection”: An understatement. The films in this excellent boxed set – “The Wild Bunch,” “Ride the High Country,” “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid,” and “The Battle of Cable Hogue” – are iconographic, among the best of the genre, with Peckinpah pressing against the studio system to turn the Western into art. Like Orson Welles before him, the director paid for his self-indulgences, which in this case meant putting his vision before commerce, the cardinal Hollywood sin. Throughout this six-disc set, the extras are many, satisfying and comprehensive, with several proving vital viewing for the Peckinpah fan, such as the new documentary, “A Justified Life: Sam Peckinpah and the Hogue Country,” as well as the new featurette, ” The Ladiest Damn’d Lady with Stella Stevens.” Not to be missed is the 2005 special edition of “The Wild Bunch,” which was reconstructed from Peckinpah’s notes and thus presented in a form closer to what the directed intended. Grade: A

“Sin City: Recut, Extended, Unrated”: Recut, extended, unrated and fantastic, this blistering new version of the potboiler “Sin City” slaps audiences even harder with high-end style. The look is sexy and disarming, often beautiful and then, in an instant, drop-dead ugly. None of it comes at the expense of substance. From Frank Miller’s popular series of graphic novels – one of which is included in this new set, along with a wealth of new extras – this violent, sometimes boldly funny film cranks up the heat and dices up the double-talk with dialogue that snaps and an undercurrent of sleaze that thrums in its bones. Unrated. Grade: A-

“Walt Disney Treasures”: From Disney, four new inclusions to their Treasures series-“Disney Rarities: Celebrated Shorts, 1920s-1960s,” “The Chronological Donald, Vol. Two (1942-1946),” “Adventures of Spin & Marty” and “Elfego Baca and The Swamp Fox-Legendary Heroes” – all packaged in collectible tins. Inside those tins, Disney mines gold. The “Rarities” and “Donald” collections, in particular, are terrific. Check out the “Chicken Little” short in “Rarities” – it’s everything Disney’s recent computer-animated movie should have been-and the Academy Award-winning “Der Fueher’s Face” in “Donald,” which offers one of Disney’s hallucinogenic comments on the war years. Leonard Maltin introduces each series with his seemingly bottomless knowledge of pop culture. For kids, “Elfego” is something of a complement to the Peckinpah series, old-school fans of “The Mickey Mouse Club” will appreciate “Marty,” and, yes, that’s a young Leslie Nielsen in “Fox.” Grades: Rarities: A; Donald: A; Spin: B+; Elfego: B+.