DVD Corner

“The A-Team: Complete Fourth Season”: More like the C-Team. This go-for-broke, pop-culture oddity from the ’80s features four Vietnam vets outrunning the law for a crime they were ordered to commit. Meanwhile, in their downtime, they fight crime in their tricked-out van. Mr. T is the man beneath the bling as Sgt. Bosco “Bad Attitude” Baracus. Beautiful manners, that man. George Peppard, Dirk Benedict, Dwight Schultz and Tim Dunigan round out the cast, usually with a cigar, a joke and a machine gun at the ready. Thing is, in this wearying, live-action cartoon, which shows its age here, they’re usually stuck throwing bombs. Grade: C

“Breakfast on Pluto”: Not a comedy, though comedy certainly runs through it. Not a mystery or a thriller, though those elements come into play. Not a romance, though God knows there are times when the film practically overflows with it. And not a road movie, though the main character, Patrick “Kitten” Braden (Cillian Murphy), a transvestite with legs up to here and lashes out to there, has more adventures on the road than most could endure or even fathom. So what is this Neil Jordan movie, a good deal of which is set in Ireland and folds into its plot the bombings and bloodshed of the IRA? The quick answer is that you can’t peg it. “Breakfast on Pluto” is of its own universe. Adapted by Jordan from Pat McCabe’s novel, the film is as free-wheeling as the times, particularly when Kitten (whose name is a wee bit more salacious in the book) comes into his own just as the sexual revolution and drug culture of the 1960s and ’70s is gathering thrust. As played by Murphy in what is an excellent, absorbing performance, he’s sort of like a transvestite superhero – able to overcome impossible situations and look fabulous while doing it. Rated R. Grade: B

“Cirque du Soleil: Corteo”: It’s between heaven and hell that this terrific new show by the famed French-Canadian acrobats takes place. Men whirl on wheels, angels descend from the sky, a man on a bicycle floats gracefully off the stage. All are central to a show that’s built around a funeral procession, the Italian word for which is “corteo.” That the funeral is for a clown gives all of the ensuing leaping, tumbling and juggling its dramatic, colorful punch. Grade: A-

“Magnum P.I.: Complete Fourth Season”: Carried by Tom Selleck’s charm, the Hawaiian locations and, if you’re old enough to remember the heat the series generated in the media when it ran, apparently by the sensation caused by Selleck’s moustache. In this fourth season, Sellecks’ Thomas Magnum finds himself in more questionable situations, with a few in particular worth noting – the kidnapping of Higgins (John Hillerman) in “The Return of Luther Gillis,” Carol Burnett’s appearance in “Rembrandt’s Girl,” and a young, brainwashing Shannen Doherty in “A Sense of Debt.” The give-and-take between Magnum and Higgins remains the heart of the series. Includes all 21 hirsute episodes. Grade: B

“Mrs. Henderson Presents”: What Stephen Frears presents in “Mrs. Henderson Presents” is twofold – a stage filled with artfully exposed naked bodies, including one scene in which Bob Hoskins bares it all – the courage! – and a shift in form for Judi Dench, who at once courts and leaves behind the stuffy, ferocious costume drag for which she long has been type-cast. Here, as Laura Henderson, the real-life widow who once used her formidable wealth and societal clout during the war years to buy in London’s West End the famed Windmill Theatre, Dench is on a tear, tossing off the one-liners as if she came to have a good time. Before the movie leaches into sentiment toward the end, her good time is infectious. The film follows the anything-goes Henderson as she renovates the theater with the combative Vivian Van Damm (Hoskins), who imagines for Laura something called Revudeville, a cross between vaudeville and Broadway musicals that initially is a smash. But as with any successful outing, soon the competition is on, with Henderson brazenly deciding that in order to compete, she better offer her patrons a little skin. For three-quarters of the movie, this is spirited fun – but then we get Laura’s maudlin back story, which sucks the air out of a movie, but hardly sinks it. The movie comes recommended for all that comes before it. Rated R. Grade: B

“Knight Rider: Season Four”: Features David Hasselhoff versus a talking Trans-Am – who do you think steals the show? This fourth and final season of the ’80s television show saw a new character, Reginald Cornelius III, mixing things up, as well as additional tweaking to K.I.T.T., the Trans-Am that now features “pursuit mode” and the ability to stop even faster. You know, like the story lines. Included here are some real howlers – “Kittnap,” “Killer K.I.T.T.,” “Knight of the Juggernauts,” and the aptly titled “Deadly Knightshade.” As a bonus, the boxed set includes some helpful blueprints for the original K.I.T.T. car design, as well as the featurette, “The Great ’80s TV Flashback,” which will likely have some questioning just how great the ’80s were. With guest performances by Janine Turner and Lance Burton, the set includes 17 hours and 51 minutes of pure, undiluted Hasselhoff mediocrity. Grade: C-

“Thank God it’s Friday”: No, not the restaurant, though plenty is bubbling away on the back burner. In this Academy Award-winning 1978 movie (yes, an Academy Award, for Best Original Song), Donna Summer and the Commodores thank God for disco just before disco was whisked into hell. Sure, their prayers for a world of forever disco weren’t answered, but in this unrelentingly over-the-top museum piece, in which roller disco is part of the glittering mix and Summer plays an ingenue struggling to perform her hit song, “Last Dance,” it’s still fun to watch the scrappy characters hustle while doing the hustle. The drug culture of the day is wholly glossed over – there isn’t one dusty-white nose in the bunch – but what remains enjoyably toxic are the performances, particularly by Jeff Goldblum and Debra Winger, which are just awful enough to be good. Remastered in high definition, apparently so the sequins and the mirror balls could do their best work. Rated PG. Grade: B