DVD Corner

“D?j? Vu” DVD and Blu-ray: From director Tony Scott and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, this silly, high-concept thriller begins with an impressive display of pyrotechnics aboard a New Orleans ferry, which blows up and kills 543 people after a terrorist attack before its script sinks along with them. It’s up to Denzel Washington’s Doug Carlin to find the terrorist (James Caviezel), and also to discern how one woman (Paula Patton) was murdered. He does so in ways that evoke the title – by traveling backward in time thanks to a government device that gives him a brief window in which to piece together the clues and potentially alter the past. In spite of its title, few will want to hit rewind to visit the movie again. Rated PG-13. Grade: C+

“Dreamgirls”: This glittering adaptation of the long-running 1981 Broadway show has fine production values and it’s enjoyable in parts, but unlike our best musicals, you don’t leave the film exhilarated or spent. Instead, you leave it feeling somewhat ambivalent, with one major exception – Jennifer Hudson, who gives the film’s best, most heart-felt performance as Effie White, the brassy member of the 1960s girl group the Dreams, itself a thinly veiled version of the Supremes. Though Hudson falls short in those scenes where her lip sync is distractingly out of sync, her undeniable talent and powerful voice nevertheless pummel through the movie in ways that give it a generous lift (and which helped her to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress). Eddie Murphy, Beyonce Knowles, Anika Noni Rose and Jamie Foxx are good to bland, in that order. Unlike the superior “Ray,” the movie disappoints in that it could have been a revealing, powerful film about how blacks were treated in the music industry (in this case, during the 1960s and ’70s), and how they had to strategize to be successful. But it isn’t. Instead, Condon goes for the glitz and the infighting, which generates its share of energy but, in the end, no depth. Rated PG-13. Grade: B

“The History Boys”: From Alan Bennett’s celebrated play comes this beautifully acted adaptation directed by the play’s original director, Nicholas Nytner, and featuring the original cast. Set in Sheffield, England in 1983, the film follows eight boys – all unpolished, every one of them bright and middle class – who are preparing for their entrance exams into Cambridge and Oxford with the help of dedicated teachers – freewheeling, groping Hector (Richard Griffiths), straightlaced Irwin (Stephen Campbell Moore), and the one woman who strikes the balance between them, Dorothy Lintott (an excellent Frances de la Tour). The movie never shakes its theatrical feel, but that works in its favor – the best teaching is theater. With the writing way above board and insights fueling the story forward with heart and bawdy comedy, “The History Boys” is amiably off-center, sure, but it finds its core and leaves its mark. Rated R. Grade: B+

“James Cagney: The Signature Collection”: A James Cagney collection without “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” “White Heat” and “Public Enemy” is an oversight, to say the least, but this otherwise solid boxed set from Warner does include five noteworthy Cagney films. Featured are the 1941 comedy “The Bride Came C.O.D.,” with an unhinged Bette Davis happily wreaking havoc; 1942’s “Captains of the Clouds,” with Michael Curtiz directing; the 1940 World War I movie “The Fighting 69th,” with Cagney starring opposite close friend Pat O’Brien; the excellent 1940 comedy “Torrid Zone,” again with O’Brien; and 1950’s “The West Point Story,” with Doris Day, Virginia Mayo and Gene Nelson. The collection features several extras, the best of which are the cartoons that accompanied each film upon its theatrical release, including the Academy Award-nominated “A Wild Hare.” Grade: B+

“Little Children”: Todd Field’s terrific, satirical drama features adult characters who behave like the very worst sort of children – bullying, aggressive, selfish, judgmental. Yet the way Field exposes them here makes for an insightfully dark, often very funny experience. The film vilifies suburbia and its inhabitants, with outsiders Sarah (Kate Winslet) and Brad (Patrick Wilson) finding in their unlikely sexual affair an enthusiastic, empowering distraction from their otherwise disappointing marriages to other people. Each is so unsure of themselves, they tend to parrot the culture surrounding them, if only to give the illusion that they are anchored in this world, which itself is an illusion. Jackie Earle Haley stars in an unforgettable, Academy Award-nominated performance as the convicted neighborhood pedophile Ronnie McGorvey, who in spite of his mother’s many interventions, generates a situation designed to implode into deadly self-righteousness. Rated R. Grade: A-

“Not Just the Best of the Larry Sanders Show”: Like “Seinfeld” and “Sex and the City,” you watch this ingenious show wishing they would just bring it back. And HBO probably would, if Garry Shandling were willing, which he isn’t. Still, here’s the thing – in addition to the 23 episodes collected here, this boxed set stays true to its title and indeed offers more. Fans get eight hours of new material, with Shandling offering a mock documentary and several interviews with a number of celebrities, from Sharon Stone (tense!) to Seinfeld to this year’s Father of the Year, Alec Baldwin. Grade: B+

“One Day at a Time: Complete First Season”: Not Norman Lear’s best show, but “One Day at a Time” nevertheless broke new ground when it aired in 1975. It gave Nielsen viewers something they hadn’t seen before on network television – the story of a divorced single mother – with Bonnie Franklin’s Ann Romano bringing her two daughters (Mackenzie Phillips, Valerie Bertinelli) together while she galvanized herself against the world. She didn’t have Maude’s glowering presence, but the times suggested she didn’t need it – she could be feminine and strong. As the building’s super, Pat Harrington’s Dwayne F. Schneider works hard for the laugh track, which supports him even though his corny one-liners often fail. Grade: B-