“Across the Universe” DVD, Blu-ray – Watching Julie Taymor’s rock opera is such a trip, it’s surprising Sony didn’t include a bong as part of the packaging. Visually, the film is a psychedelic triumph, the best part of the show, with Taymor weaving her unwieldy story around three friends (Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess and Joe Anderson) who come together in Greenwich Village during the 1960s, just as everything is about to go to hell. Helping them through all of it is the soundtrack, which includes more than 30 Beatles songs, a good deal of which are murdered by new arrangements that are less successful than one might have hoped. Still, you have to hand it to Taymor for carrying off her experiment with chutzpah, even if she doesn’t – much like Todd Haynes in “I’m Not There” – succeed in the end. Rated PG-13. Grade: C+

“Charlie Chan Collection: Vol. 4” – Warner Oland died in 1938, so Sidney Toler, ever the good sport, took the reins as Charlie Chan, the smooth Chinese sleuth you could have over for dinner or a murder, preferably the latter, though his manners (not to mention his puns) certainly were good enough for the former. Four Toler films make up this lively set of B-movies from Fox – “Charlie Chan in Honolulu” (1938), “Charlie Chan in Reno” (1939), “Charlie Chan at Treasure Island” (1939) and “Charlie Chan in City in Darkness” (1939). The fact that all of these films were shot and released over the course of two years says it all for the quality of the production values. The movies were made on the cheap, but they are engaging. Now that they’re fully restored, they almost look respectable. Grade: B

“Dallas: Complete Eighth Season” – Proves once again that where there’s oil, there’s drama. The eighth season of “Dallas” features the usual doses of death, destruction, barbed tongues, backbiting, a kidnapping, and even J.R. (Larry Hagman) up to no good in a blackmail scheme that features a prostitute named Miss Cummings. As for Miss Ellie, Donna Reed assumes the role long played by Barbara Bel Geddes, who was out sick for the season. Turns out she missed plenty. Amid all the fireworks, the alcoholic benders and adulteries, this is the season in which Bobby and Pam fall in love again, only to have their renewed hopes and dreams dashed when Bobby bites the big one in the fiery season finale. Pity. Grade: B

“Gone Baby Gone” DVD, Blu-ray – Ben Affleck, redeemed. The actor’s solid directorial debut is a mature, engrossing drama that finds Affleck and cinematographer John Toll working hard to capture a working-class section of Boston that reeks of havoc, desperation, drug use and danger. Affleck’s brother, Casey, is Patrick Kenzie, a private investigator living with his girlfriend and business partner, Angie (Michelle Monaghan), in Dorchester, Mass., when into their lives comes a business opportunity in the wake of a 4-year-old girl’s abduction. Though the girl’s cocaine- and heroin-addicted mother (Amy Ryan, outstanding in an Academy Award-nominated performance) has all but shut down, her brother (Titus Welliver) and sister-in-law (Amy Madigan) want that baby back, and they’re willing to pay for outsiders to glean the sort of inside information they know the locals won’t share with the police. Taking the case means working the living rooms, backrooms and sleazy bars in the surrounding area. The police aren’t happy about it, but Patrick and Angie do their best to navigate the head of the missing-person’s unit (Morgan Freeman) and two sketchy detectives (Ed Harris and John Ashton), while also trying to obtain information from the difficult denizens of Dorchester themselves, who in this movie are as hard-core as they come. Beyond the excellent performances and the way the movie hooks into a noirish series of twists and surprises toward the end, what’s so satisfying about Affleck’s film is how authentic it feels. The director knows this neighborhood – he grew up not far from it – and he doesn’t cheat it by making it something it isn’t. In this way, he recalls something of a young Spike Lee. He isn’t afraid to come home and tell the truth about these people in ways that nobody will mistake for flattery. Going there takes respect for a place and its people, but it also takes guts, which, when Affleck isn’t spilling them on the floor as the investigation mounts, the director proves he has in spades. Rated R. Grade: B+

“The Jane Austen Book Club” DVD, Blu-ray – Based on Karen Joy Fowler’s 2004 best-seller, this likable if formulaic movie follows five women (Maria Bello, Emily Blunt, Maggie Grace, Kathy Baker and Amy Brenneman) and one sci-fi-loving guy (Hugh Dancy) who come together to read six Austen books. The idea is that within those books are guides to leading one’s life, with the characters naturally coming to find themselves in Austen’s books. So, once again, the enduring Austen proves she’s fit for contemporary consumption. As one character in the movie notes, “You can’t read these novels without wondering whether she has a little thing for the naughty boys.” Good point. Another character claims that “reading Jane is a freakin’ minefield.” Well, maybe after a bottle of wine and a heated conversation with friends, which is what this movie is all about. Rated PG-13. Grade: B

“Joan Crawford Collection, Vol. 2” – Couldn’t they have released this set for Mother’s Day? In spite of that oversight, this solid boxed set from Warner does include five heroic Crawford films, including 1934’s “Sadie McKee,” one of Crawford’s many working-girl dramas; 1940’s “Strange Cargo,” in which Joan is Julie, a saloon girl who comes up against a criminal played by Clark Gable – and naturally falls for him upon his escape from Devil’s Island; and George Cukor’s 1941 drama “A Woman’s Face,” in which Crawford played Anna Holm, a physically scarred woman who finds that all the plastic surgery in the world can’t heal the scars within. Also included in the set is 1949’s “Flamingo Road,” with Crawford getting back to her dance hall roots, and 1953’s “Torch Song,” in which Crawford throws back her shoulder pads and belts out one hell of a camp melodrama. The extras are expansive, with several featurettes worthy of note – “Crawford at Warners,” “Tough Baby: Joan Crawford and ‘Torch Song'” and the very good “Gable & Crawford.” Long live the maligned star. Grade: B+

“No Reservations” DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray – Based on the 2001 German film “Mostly Martha,” this remake is a tragedy, a romantic comedy and a drama, with its charismatic cast navigating the manufactured highs and lows with enough skill to deepen what otherwise might have been a slight movie sorely lacking in depth. Catherine Zeta-Jones is Kate, a gourmet chef at a top New York restaurant who loses her sister to an accident and assumes the responsibility of raising her niece, Zoe (Abigail Breslin). The transition proves more difficult than Kate imagined. Zoe wants nothing to do with her aunt, and Kate, by extension, doesn’t know what to do herself. She seeks the help of her psychiatrist (an excellent Bob Balaban), but still the situation stretches her to her limit, so much so that Kate’s boss, Paula (Patricia Clarkson), insists that Kate take time off from work to get her life back in order – and, most importantly, to grieve. Meanwhile, here comes Nick (Aaron Eckhart), the affable sous-chef with a five o’clock shadow that’s so formidable, it could be used as a zester. In Kate’s absence, he’s hired to run the kitchen. And when Kate catches wind of that, let’s just say the movie whips its whites into one heady froth. While there is little logic and no surprises in “No Reservations” – the movie can be a heartbreaker, though one that doesn’t leave a dry cliche in the room – films such as this can manage to get by on subtlety, feeling and charm so long as they have the right cast to see them through. “Mostly Martha” had that. This movie does, too. Rated PG-13. Grade: B-

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays, Fridays and weekends in Lifestyle, as well as on bangordailynews.com.