DVD Corner

“Basic Instinct 2: Blu-ray”: Talk about a stiff upper lip. Fourteen years after the original film startled the screen, Sharon Stone finally gets her sequel. This time she’s in London, where her character, smut novelist-cum-potential-serial-killer Catherine Tramell, opens the movie rather salaciously with what may or may not be a murder. A police procedural and mind games ensue, with Stone slinking and slutting through material that needed to be so deliciously bad, it left you drained and spent, like Catherine often finds herself. Trouble is, that doesn’t happen often enough. It’s fun to watch the weirdly young-looking Stone bulldoze through the movie – her performance is hypnotically uncontainable, just as it should be – but the script can’t bring itself to really wallow in the camp that Stone instinctively knows the movie needs. Just as with the film’s infamous jacuzzi scene, which appears to go all the way but which really doesn’t, the same is true for the movie. Rated R. Grade: D+

“I Dream of Jeannie: Complete Second Season”: Forget Christina Aguilera. The only genie who ever will be worth her salt in a bottle is Barbara Eden, even if the censors did make her cover her navel. What this second season of “I Dream of Jeannie” had in spades was the increasingly combative chemistry between Eden and Larry Hagman’s Capt. Tony Nelson, the astronaut who found her while washed up on a beach in Cocoa Beach, Fla., only to take her home because, hey, she was hot in those pink pantaloons. Bill Daily is a fine foil as Tony’s leering friend, Roger. The series hardly was developed for the feminist – the lot of it is pure male fantasy, allowing for such episode titles as “My Master, the Great Caruso” and “My Master, the Pirate.” But it was, after all, the ’60s, free love was brewing along the horizon, and this show ran freely toward it. Grade: B+

“Dukes of Hazzard: HD DVD”: Hillbillies in high definition. A send-up of stereotypes and stupidity, with some of the lowest expectations for a movie in years. And still it fails. As far as Hollywood is concerned, it’s either hell being a hillbilly or a hell of a lot of fun being a hillbilly. The downside seems to be the bitter taste of moonshine (awful), infighting (brutal), a sheer lack of intelligence (rampant). The good news is that there apparently is something to be said for the obsessive caterwauling, hard drinking, fast driving, loose living and utter disregard for the law the Hollywood hillbilly enjoys. All of this and less is explored in “Hazzard,” a predictably dumb remake of the popular television series. Burt Reynolds, Willie Nelson, Seann William Scott, Johnny Knoxville and Jessica Simpson star, but their efforts in this middling effort offer discouragingly few laughs. Rated PG-13. Grade: D

“Lord of War: Blu-ray”: 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” looks undeniably good in high definition on Blu-ray, 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

“Monk: The Obsessive Compulsive Collection – Seasons One-Four”: Germ free – at least when it comes to the writing and acting, which are solid. In this unusual detective show, now released in a 16-disc compilation that includes all four seasons, Tony Shalhoub finds his niche. He’s Adrian Monk, the reluctant, San Francisco-based detective whose obsessive-compulsive disorder, complicated by his wife’s death, actually helps him solve mysteries; he is so hyper aware of his surroundings, he is able to see clues others can’t see. Echoes of “Columbo” abound, but this smart, entertaining show stands on its own. Grade: B+

“The Punisher: Blu-ray”: So much gunfire and beef, it becomes hamburger onscreen. Plucked from the pages of Marvel Comics, “The Punisher,” now available on Blu-ray disc, has no trouble living up to its title – the film is a masochist’s dream. Thomas Jane is Frank Castle, a buff, brooding undercover FBI agent whose entire family is massacred by the Saint, an ironically named villain played by John Travolta who enjoys sweeping into rooms in full tantrum, sputtering about who did him wrong and how they’re going to pay for it, all in an effort to rally the legion of black-suited minions toiling after him. Though Saint would never admit it, he’s essentially a diva. He makes paranoid accusations about his enemies, ridicules those close to him, dresses impeccably and makes outrageous demands from everyone in sight. If he weren’t in a suit, he’d be perfect as one of the backup singers in “Kinky Boots.” Too long by a third, though the movie hardly is the worst of the superhero lot. Rated R. Grade: C+

“Saw: Blu-ray”: The film doesn’t want to scare us – it only wants to disgust us. That taps into pop culture’s enduring fascination with the gross-out, which can be fun when done well. But “Saw,” just out on Blu-ray, fails to provide what the genre must have in order for it to work – characters worth rooting for and a seriocomic tone that’s infectious. During the few times the film offers traditional suspense, it succeeds. The scene in which one character uses his camera’s flash to light his way through his dark apartment, where a madman might be lurking, is creepy and effective. Also strong is a scene in which one of the madman’s victims struggles to remove an animal trap from her head. If it springs open, so will her skull – never pleasant, particularly in high-def. Those scenes have such heat, “Saw” should have been filled with them. Instead, it chose gore for the sake of gore, and in the process, it cut its own throat. Rated R. Grade: D