DVD Corner

“Charlie Chan, Vol. 3”

In his 16 films as Charlie Chan, Warner Oland played the Chinese sleuth as a man you could have over for dinner or a murder, preferably the latter, though his manners (not to mention his wit) certainly were good enough for the former. Four of Oland’s films comprise this lively set of B-movies from Fox – “The Black Camel” (1931), “Charlie Chan on Broadway” (1937), “Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo” (1937) and “Charlie Chan’s Secret” (1936). The set also includes 1929’s “Behind that Curtain,” with Oland not appearing, though Boris Karloff does – as a servant. The films were made on the cheap, but they were engaging. Now fully restored, they also almost look respectable.

Grade: B

“Doctor Who: Robot”

Well-oiled. When it comes to this long-running sci-fi series from the BBC, Tom Baker remains the most popular actor in the role. “Robot” marks his introduction as the Doctor in a four-part series that finds him forced to regenerate after being weakened by the Spider Queen. Not that he has long to do so; a robot is wreaking havoc and keeping the Doctor busy. Includes audio commentary by Baker and a new documentary about Baker’s reign, “Are Friends Electric?”

Grade: B

“Erin Brockovich” HD DVD

Based on a true story, the movie is about one woman’s crusade to find herself and her place in this world while fighting a $28 billion conglomerate knowingly dumping deadly carcinogens into the ground water. Julia Roberts landed the role of her life here. She’s Erin Brockovich, a smart, pretty, tough woman who takes on corporate America in a padded bra and six-inch stiletto heels. Perfect casting? You bet. But to director Steven Soderbergh’s credit, his film only treats Erin as the world treats beautiful women – as sex objects whose respect must be earned. Which brings us back to Julia Roberts. She’s so good in “Brockovich,” so convincing and consistently worth watching, she earns our respect, not to mention a $20 million paycheck and, of course, an Academy Award for her trouble. Rated R.

Grade: B+

“The Henrik Ibsen Collection”

It’s safe to say that the playwright Henrik Ibsen had little patience for Victorians; he liked to hit them over their heads with the realism they eschewed. That trait was part of the scandal he generated during the time he wrote, and a good reason for his appeal now. This terrific box set from the BBC features 10 productions of Ibsen’s most famous plays, including Ingrid Bergman and Michael Redgrave in “Hedda Gabler,” Judi Dench and Michael Gambon in “Ghosts,” Anthony Hopkins in “Little Eyolf,” among others.

Grade: A-

“The Lives of Others” DVD and Blu-ray

Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s harrowing, Academy Award-winning Best Foreign Language Film takes audiences back to 1984. We’re in East Germany. It’s five years before the fall of the Berlin Wall and there, von Donnersmarck mines a political thriller charged with heart, heat and erotic overtones. Martina Gedeck is Christa-Maria, an actress whose relationship with the playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch) comes under scrutiny by the icy Capt. Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Muhe), a member of the Stasi whose job it is to eavesdrop on the lives of others, particularly those who might be traitors, such as Dreyman. And yet what Wiesler finds in this couple isn’t what he expects – a reason to question the regime to which he’s given so much. A beautifully mounted movie that’s difficult to shake. Rated R.

Grade: A

“Meet the Fockers” HD DVD

Predictably disastrous, occasionally funny, though not as inspired as its title. This sequel to “Meet the Parents,” now out on HD DVD, brings together the Fockers and the Byrneses before the families are united by marriage. Co-starring turns from Barbra Streisand as a probing couple’s therapist and Dustin Hoffman as her overly affectionate husband are highlights amid the lowlights, with Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Blythe Danner and Teri Polo reprising their roles. Rated PG-13.

Grade: B-

“Perfect Stranger” DVD and Blu-ray

Stars Halle Berry as any number of people. First, she’s Rowena Price, a reporter for The New York Courier who writes under a male pseudonym. When she’s screwed out of running a major story, she quits the paper and finds work in her past. Her old friend, Grace (Nicki Aycox), wants her to investigate Grace’s former lover, Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis), the successful and very married media mogul who keeps an apartment on the sly so he can bed his share of women. When Grace winds up dead, Ro believes Hill might be the murderer and thus finds herself working the case with the help of her former newspaper colleague Miles (Giovanni Ribisi). What ensues feels like stock footage culled from other, better thrillers, with Berry following her fellow actors in trying to connect to a movie whose storyline splits and frays. In an effort to learn more about Hill, Ro transforms herself into Katherine Pogue, a fetching temporary worker who infiltrates his organization only to learn that Hill spends his days talking dirty in Internet chat rooms, about which Ro, a seasoned journalist, apparently never knew existed. (Perhaps the world is a perfect stranger to her.) With Miles’ help, Ro morphs into Veronica, and the web she weaves on the Web with Hill helps set the movie up for its stunner of an ending. And it is a stunner, so much so that it shocks you out of the moment and into reality, where the film doesn’t exist. Although the movie makes a case for its ending, taking you by the hand and walking you through the stink of all its red herrings, the effort is wasted. Ro sounds like roe for a reason, and the logic behind this film was fishy from the start. Rated R.

Grade: C-

Visit WeekinRewind.com, the new archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays, Fridays and Weekends. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.