DVD Corner

“Dukes of Hazzard: Complete Sixth Season”: As imaginative a lug nut. This sixth season of “The Dukes of Hazzard” gives viewers more of the same wrapped in more of the same, with good ol’ boys Bo and Luke Duke (John Schneider, Tom Wopat) back for a full year of trouble while Uncle Jesse (Denver Pyle) tends to the booze brewing in the back woods. Some might want to join him, particularly after viewing the episodes “Two Many Roscoes” and “Enos in Trouble.” With Boss Hogg tirelessly trying to foil the Dukes at every turn, there only is the lure of Daisy Duke’s derriere to throw him off balance. All of this hillbilly havoc is dim-witted and harmless, of course, but that’s part of its problem. Grade: C

“Eight Below”: This fine, moving film from director Frank Marshall follows the plight of eight sled dogs stranded in the Antarctic after the brutal winter forces the scientists who led them there to evacuate without them. Of the group, only guide Jerry Shepard (Paul Walker) is willing to fight for their survival, with months passing before he’s allowed to go back to the mountain in search of them. Meanwhile, the dogs depend on instinct and themselves to survive horrific conditions. The movie can be harrowing, particularly since so little of this is played for Disney cuteness. A remake of the 1983 Japanese film, “Antarctica.” Not a dog person? You might be after this. Rated PG. Grade: B+

“The Hills Have Eyes”: Trips on its own entrails. The last half of this ugly, violent remake of Wes Craven’s 1977 horror classic features a solid hour of unrelenting murder, cannibalism, rape, the grotesque torture of a pregnant woman, the rough handling of her infant child, a burning crucifix and other atrocities as the Carter family slowly is carved down by those disfigured years ago by nuclear fallout. Where is the fun in a movie like this? There are no jolts, no flashes of humor, no wink at the audience – just bloodletting that crosses the line. Hollywood can have it. Grade: D

“Hill Street Blues: Season Two”: In 1982, this groundbreaking series from Steven Bochco continued to mark a shift in the police procedural, which would turn more realistic, sexier and violent in its wake. The series didn’t deify cops, but instead revealed them to be human, capable of mistakes and addictions, which set it apart from all that came before it. Performances by Daniel J. Travanti and Veronica Hammel remain memorable, even if the series now seems staid in the wake of the shows it helped to spawn-from “Law and Order” and “NYPD Blue” to the “C.S.I.” shows. It’s ironic, but not unusual. This most influential of television shows has been weakened by its own influence. Grade: B-

“Kiss Kiss Bang Bang – HD DVD”: Underscores the idea that anyone can make it in Hollywood, particularly if one happens to be a crook. For instance, take New York thug Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.), who might just become the next big thing after he robs a toy store and then is mistaken for an actor when he stumbles into an acting audition. Next step for Harry? Hollywood, where he finds himself going for a screen test, mired in a murder mystery, reconnecting with a former love (Michelle Monaghan), and learning the ropes of being a gumshoe from a gay detective (Val Kilmer). A trippy, pop-happy movie that embraces noir. The dialogue is marvelous – so is Downey Jr. Rated R. Grade: B+

“The Missing: Extended Cut”: The opening is a charmer. Cate Blanchett, in full Western period drag, straddles a writhing Mexican woman, holds her down and forcibly yanks the last rotten tooth from her head. It’s 1885 and times are tough in New Mexico, particularly for a healer like Blanchett’s Maggie Gilkeson, a single woman raising two daughters with the help of Brake Baldwin (Aaron Eckhart), the scruffy cowpoke she loves, albeit secretly. Maggie is a force to be reckoned with, which is a good thing since her teenage daughter, Lilly (Evan Rachel Wood), has been kidnapped by a band of Apaches determined to sell her and other women in Mexico. Reminiscent of John Ford’s 1956 classic, “The Searchers,” Ron Howard’s “The Missing” conspires to reconnect Maggie with her father Samuel (Tommy Lee Jones), who abandoned her as a child and who has since re-entered her life to make amends. In spite of the cold fist of hatred Maggie feels toward him, she realizes she has no choice but to seek his help. The film never is as scenic as the films of Sam Peckinpah and Ford, but it does have passion, moments of real comedy, and it rises above its contrivances because Howard, Blanchett and Jones’ hearts are in it so completely. Grade: B+

“Mr. and Mrs. Smith: Unrated”: The biggest screen orgasm of 2005 just got bigger. Flashy, predictable and empty, with a trash plot driving it, the unrated version of “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” at last allows audiences to enjoy it as its stars and director obviously intended – in the privacy of their bedrooms, with the television on and the shades shut. Long before Namibia, the movie confirmed that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have something that transcends performance and goes deeper than chemistry; they’re the real deal. As rote as their roles are in this comedic espionage thriller, it’s clear from the first moment we see them as John and Jane Smith – a bored, supernaturally sexy husband and wife in the bickering throes of marriage counseling – that they like each other plenty and have come to have fun. That attraction and their good time prove transcendent. Unrated. Grade: B

“Syriana – HD DVD”: Big and sprawling – too sprawling, really – with oil and the Middle East at the center of its corruption. The film is reminiscent of “Traffic” for good reason – that film’s writer, Stephen Gaghan, is this film’s writer and director. George Clooney won the Academy Award for his performance as CIA operative Bob Barnes, a cagey man of measured words who knows too much of what nobody should know about. With Matt Damon in another shrewd career move as a devastated young oil broker, the film’s complexities are many and intriguing, with moments recalling the work of John Le Carre. Too unnecessarily dense to be great, but its timeliness and eagerness to take risks can make it riveting. Rated R. Grade: B+