DVD Corner

“Bobby”: From writer-director Emilio Estevez, a biopic about Robert Kennedy that’s never as compelling or as thought-provoking as RFK’s ideas, nor as interesting as the time it depicts. The movie doesn’t brim with the edge of political and social unrest you expect; instead, it creates a blizzard of tiny melodramas within Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel that fit snuggly together – too snugly, really – when Kennedy was shot in the hotel’s kitchen by Sirhan Sirhan and later died from those wounds. The movie only fully realizes itself in the actual footage of Kennedy speaking around the country. Here, Kennedy delivers his own message, which is just as timely today as it was nearly 40 years ago. That he gives the best “performance” in a movie whose power comes from old newsreel footage doesn’t say much for all the many storylines and characters that grope for attention at the movie’s core. Rated R. Grade: C-

“Dog Day Afternoon” HD DVD and Blu-ray: On high definition, this “Dog” is reborn, with Al Pacino’s Sonny and his partner, Sal (John Cazale), taking down the First Brooklyn Savings Bank so that Sonny’s gay lover, Leon (Chris Sarandon), can afford a sex change. When it was released in 1975, just six years after Stonewall, the film tapped into the prevailing mood of homophobia, with director Sidney Lumet complicating matters considerably by deepening Sonny’s character – the man also is married with children. Outside the bank, the sweltering crowd of onlookers prove pivotal to the plot – they’re a teeming, secondary character – driving Sonny into escalating levels of madness and despair. An iconic movie, thoroughly New York, with Pacino in top form. Rated R. Grade: A

“The Ernest Hemingway Classics Collection”: Stick to the books. From Fox, five films adapted from well-known (and lesser-known) Hemingway works – 1957’s “The Sun Also Rises” and “A Farewell to Arms,” 1952’s “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” 1950’s “Under My Skin” and 1962’s “Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man.” The last two mark their first time on DVD, and they are the weakest of the set. “Arms” stars Rock Hudson and Jennifer Jones, whose lack of chemistry strips the story of romantic heat. “Sun” and “Snows,” however, are indeed involving, though no film in this collection comes close to the greatness of Hemingway’s best adaptations, “To Have and Have Not” and the unshakable “The Old Man and the Sea.” Grade: C+

“Everyone’s Hero”: Set in 1932, this final project from co-director Christopher Reeve, who died mid-production, is a computer-animated movie that will work best for very young viewers – all others will know its manufactured tale by heart. Fittingly from Reeve, this is a movie about perseverance, with 10-year-old Yankee Irving (voice of Jake T. Austin) rising up to learn plenty about that thanks to a talking baseball named Screwie (Rob Reiner) and a stolen bat named Darlin’ (Whoopi Goldberg), which belongs to Babe Ruth. The film is sweet and good-natured, but ultimately it’s as unremarkable as its animation. Rated G. Grade: C+

“The Good Shepherd” DVD and HD DVD: From director Robert De Niro, a chilly film about the dark early history of the CIA, with clear echoes of “The Godfather” ringing throughout. The movie’s 160-minute running time is self-indulgent, with many scenes dragging as a result. Still, as you would expect from a director whose chief job is that of an actor, this is indeed an actor’s movie, with Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, John Turturro and De Niro himself doing fine work. Those interested in seeing the film should come to it with reservoirs of patience – the payoff is satisfying, but it takes its time in coming. Rated R. Grade: B-

“Identity” Blu-ray: A high-concept thriller from James Mangold that leans hard on Agatha Christie’s “Ten Little Indians” to flesh out its plot. For the most part, it works. John Cusack, Rebecca DeMornay, Amanda Peet, Jake Busey, Ray Liotta, Clea DeVall and William Lee Scott are among several storm-struck travelers who collide at a creepy hotel, only to be gruesomely picked off one by one. Who’s murdering them? The answer is revealed too soon, which sucks some of the fun from the movie, but not all of it. The cast is game, the twists are clever, the writing is otherwise tight. Rated R. Grade: B

“The Shirley Temple Collection, Vol. 5”: Sinking ship. The set includes three films – the 1934 musical comedy “Stand Up and Cheer!,” in which Temple appears only fleetingly; the 1939 musical dramedy “The Little Princess,” which is the best of the lot; and 1940’s “The Blue Bird,” in which the Blue Bird of Happiness is sought with the help of the fairy Berylune. The latter is a rip-off of “The Wizard of Oz,” complete with cutaways from black-and-white to Technicolor, though it does allow Temple an opportunity to reach beyond the cuteness that came to smother her. This is the fifth volume in Fox’s Temple collection and the lack of memorable films is starting to show. Grade: B-

“W.C. Fields Comedy Collection: Vol. 2”: Some of the five films selected here find Fields at his best – particularly 1941’s “Never Give a Sucker an Even Break,” 1935’s “The Man on the Flying Trapeze,” and 1934’s “You’re Telling Me!,” with Fields’ barbed, biting bon mots toppling those who come too close. Other movies – 1936’s “Poppy” and 1934’s “The Old Fashioned Way” – favor schmaltz over the actor’s acerbic wit. We want the former, but this set also gives us the latter. The result is a surprise – a fuller, more complex picture of a comic genius. Grade: B+