DVD Corner

“Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” Blu-ray: Hironobu Sakaguchi’s 2001 sci-fi thriller, now out on high-definition Blu-ray disc, is a paradox – it’s at once exhilarating yet exhausting, thrilling yet boring, masterful yet banal. Its apocalyptic story of a ruined Earth overcome with soul-eating monsters is hardly new, but since “Fantasy,” upon its release seven years ago, featured such an enormous leap forward in computer animation, it was impossible to stop watching it even though it was a pleasure to stop listening to it. That still is true. Nothing here is ever as important as the animation, and it shows. The film, which Sakaguchi based on the video game he created, is convoluted, cliched, choppy and soulless. Watching it, you hunger for something more, a richer, deeper story filled with stronger characters that would rise to the level of the film’s countless technical breakthroughs and turn “Fantasy” into a new classic. The potential was there, but it didn’t happen. Rated PG-13. Grade: C+

“Fracture”: Sprained. With the exception of its twisty ending, this glossy courtroom suspense thriller is a middle-of-the-road potboiler all the way. Anthony Hopkins is sociopath Ted Crawford, a wealthy engineer who ends his wife’s torrid affair by putting a bullet through her head. He then puts several bullets through a few surrounding windows and then confesses to the shooting, which didn’t kill Jennifer (Embeth Davidtz), who now is in coma. Enter Willy Beachum (Ryan Gosling), an ambitious young lawyer in the D.A.’s office who has just been recruited by a top law firm in Southern California. Before leaving for that job, Beachum agrees to take this case and to wrap it up quickly. Who wants to bet that it all goes sour for him? Scenes between Hopkins and Gosling have a clipped edge that recall scenes between Hopkins and Jodie Foster in “Silence of the Lambs.” But by courting comparisons, Hopkins’ performance becomes at once disappointingly self-referential and, curiously enough, the best part of the show. Watching a first-rate actor like Hopkins do a second-rate riff on his most famous character can’t help but generate at least some energy and interest, which is the case here. Rated R. Grade: C

“Myrna Loy and William Powell Collection”: As an onscreen couple, Myrna Loy and William Powell, best known for their collaborations as the happily drunk Nick and Nora Charles in the many “Thin Man” movies, were beautifully shallow, sophisticated – and smart. This new collection of five films from Warner deepens their screen relationship by showcasing the duo’s other films, two of which were the 1934 dramas “Manhattan Melodrama” and “Evelyn Prentice,” the latter of which featured Rosalind Russell in her first feature film. The comedies that follow – 1937’s “Double Wedding,” 1940’s “I Love You Again,” and 1941’s outstanding “Love Crazy” – are so giddy, the plots become almost secondary to the chemistry blistering between Powell and Loy. Theirs was one of the great screen romances. Grade: A-

“The Simpsons: Complete Tenth Season”: Plenty of tongue planted firmly in cheek. Released on the heels of the new “Simpsons Movie” comes the 10th season of the popular show, which, like the movie, gives audiences exactly what they want – Homer making a fool of himself, Bart up to no good, Marge overwhelmed, Lisa taking matters into her own hands, Maggie coolly stealing her share of scenes. This isn’t the series at its best, though the laughs do flow easily, such as when Lisa joins a MENSA group and takes over Springfield in “They Saved Lisa’s Brain” or when Homer tragically taps into his inner hippie in the very funny “D’oh-in in the Wind.” Grade: B+

“Vacancy” DVD and Blu-ray: Snuffed. First and foremost, Nimrod Antal’s thriller is a compendium of familiar scenes and devices from other thrillers – the car that won’t start when it absolutely must, the creepy motel clerk at the out-of-the-way motel, the bickering couple who reconnect just when death seems imminent. The list of references is endless, though as with any homage that has studied and learned from its genre cliches, “Vacancy” initially employs them to fine effect. Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale are David and Amy, an attractive couple steamrolling toward divorce who seem to exist to promote each other’s miserable state of being. But when their car breaks down and they wind up at a fleabag motel, they find themselves fighting for survival from those who want to kill them by featuring them in a snuff film. David and Amy behave as if they’ve never seen the film’s bag of tricks, but the same likely won’t be true for audiences, who might watch the show in admiration for the looking glass it holds up to the past, but who would have been better served if that glass had been shattered with the unexpected. Rated R. Grade: C+

“What Dreams May Come: HD DVD”: Has two things going for it – its spectacular, Academy Award-nominated special effects, which look terrific on HD DVD, and the fact that it ends. Everything else about this ridiculous, three-hanky film sends it sharply into nightmare. Robin Williams is Chris Nielsen, a pediatrician who seems to be a magnet of bad luck. Not only have he and his wife, Annie (Annabella Sciorra), lost their family dog to that great hydrant in the sky, but their two children have been killed in a car accident, which, after Annie suffers a nervous breakdown and is eventually recuperated by her husband’s love, is precisely how Chris himself dies. It’s all too much for Annie, who eventually commits suicide, but that casts her soul into eternal damnation, from which her devoted husband – now an angel – must save her. Can you stand it? With Cuba Gooding Jr. already dead as Chris’ guide to the otherworld, that brings this film’s death toll up to six. Sound like fun? You’ve been warned. Rated PG-13. Grade: D