DVD Corner

Each week, BDN film critic Christopher Smith will review the latest DVD releases.

“Dallas: The Complete Sixth Season”: Where there’s oil, there’s usually drama – this series is a case in point. The sixth season of “Dallas” found J.R. ousted from Ewing Oil, Southfork in flames, Sue Ellen and J.R. considering another marriage, Pam and Bobby mulling divorce. As Miss Ellie, Barbara Bel Geddes, who for years lived in Northeast Harbor before her 2005 death, is the glue that keeps the series together. Amid all the fireworks, the alcoholic benders, the backstabbings, the kidnappings, the suicide attempts, and the adulteries, she’s the backbone. Grade: B-

“Flyboys”: The action scenes in this World War I movie are brisk and beautiful – too beautiful, really – polished to such a degree that you watch the planes get hammered with gunfire, catch fire and blow smoke with the same emotional investment you might bring to, say, a video game featuring the same material. This approach to the First World War is to ignore its grisly realities. People repeatedly are killed, but their loss doesn’t resonate. Instead, the film would rather romanticize and glorify war, so much so that the end result is a movie sucked free of authenticity. But what a lovely lack of authenticity. The undercurrent is that war is pretty, which is, shall we say, somewhat fractured from reality and a good reason why it’s so difficult to take the movie seriously. With the ongoing gloss, the tin dialogue and its broad echoes of “Star Wars,” “Fly Boys” is about as far removed from the best examples of the genre – “Wings” and “Hell’s Angels” – as it could get. Rated PG-13. Grade: C-

“Hart’s War: Blu-ray”: A leisurely paced World War II drama reminiscent of “Stalag 17” and “The Great Escape” crossed with “A Few Good Men” and “A Soldier’s Story.” The film takes place in December 1944, just months before the Germans surrendered and American troops were sent home. Colin Farrell is Lt. Tommy Hart, a Yale law student and senator’s son who, in the film’s memorable opening sequence, falls victim to a bloody German trap that leads to his imprisonment in a crowded Belgium POW camp. There, he meets Col. William McNamara (Bruce Willis), Nazi commandant Col. Werner Visser (Marcel Iures), and Lt. Scott (Terrence Howard). The latter is a black airman whose race becomes key in a murder rap that culminates in a sketchy court trial. In spite of its plodding midsection, the performances are routinely good and the film’s plot twists are satisfying and surprising. Rated R. Grade: B

“I Dream of Jeannie: Complete Third Season”: Hardly for the feminist – the lot of it is pure male fantasy – though when it comes to kitsch, it’s tough to beat this ’60s throwback. Here is the season in which Jeannie’s evil sister, Jeannie, added dice to the mix. But what this third season really had going for it was the chemistry between Barbara 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, he rather liked her in those hot pink pantaloons. As Tony’s leering friend, Roger, Bill Daily and his bumbling inappropriateness throws the show further off kilter. A guest appearance by Don Ho kicks it to the moon. Grade: B+

“The Marine”: This is almost exactly the sort of B-movie that used to be the standard for stock action cinema in the ’70s. The difference? It has bigger, better special effects – from the explosions straight down to the characters. The story is filled with assembly-line nonsense, but few coming to it will give a hoo-rah that it offers nothing new. What will matter most to its target audience are whether the ammo, action and attitude are in good supply. The short answer is yes. The film comes from World Wrestling Entertainment, with Vince McMahon serving as the movie’s executive producer. That either will excite you or leave you wanting to spend time surrounded by art and books, as will the idea that the Marine in the title is played by John Cena, the WWE superstar known for his quick wit and, well, other attributes. What the movie has going for it is that it understands what it is – cheap entertainment that takes itself just seriously enough to allow room to poke fun at itself. Hardly great, but also hardly awful. Rated PG-13. Grade: C+

“Open Season: DVD and Blu-ray”: It’s convention and cliches that drive this computer-animated movie from Sony, an overly familiar yet likable film that could have been exceptional had it attempted something fresh within the genre. The film is nicely animated – and not to the point where it appears to be trying for realism. The movie’s animation is content to look like animation, which these days is a bonus. In the wake of “The Wild,” “Over the Hedge” and “Barnyard,” 2006 was overloaded with similar fare, but “Season” features enough funny dialogue and clever action sequences to make it worth a look. Rated PG. Grade: B

“Walt Disney Treasures”: From Disney, four new additions to their Treasures series – “Your Host, Walt Disney,” “More Silly Symphonies (1929-1938),” “The Mickey Mouse Club Featuring the Hardy Boys” and “The Complete Pluto, Vol. 2” – all packaged in collectible tins. Inside those tins, Disney mines gold. While “Boys” and “Pluto” likely will satisfy their fans, neither offers the depth of the “Symphonies” collection, which highlights Disney’s superb black-and-white cartoon shorts. Strongest in the collection is the “Walt Disney” set, which uses its behind-the-scenes, insider’s glimpse to showcase Disney’s seemingly limitless vision, whether at his theme park, Disneyland, or in his shrewd embrace of Technicolor’s three-strip process. Known as Process 4, this cutting-edge entr?e into the world of color was so exciting when it was first introduced, it helped Disney to win the 1932 Academy Award for his animated short film, “Flowers and Trees.” Grades: “Pluto”-B+; “Boys”-B; “Symphonies”-A-; “Walt Disney”-A.