DVD Corner

“American Dad, Vol. 3” – The CIA under direct fire. The third season of “American Dad” follows CIA agent Stan Smith, whose life continues to be unconventional in ways perhaps only animation can best underscore – the medium finds truth in the abstract, and this show is all about the abstract. Highlights include the episodes “An Apocalypse to Remember” and “Bush Comes to Dinner,” in which the president is enthusiastically skewered. Developed by the creators of “The Family Guy,” the show has yet to mine its predecessor’s potential, but with this season proving a vast improvement over what came before, there’s every indication that it will. Grade: B

“Charlie Wilson’s War” – A war movie with winks. Set in 1980, just after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, Mike Nichols’ film follows Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks), the Democratic congressman from Texas who finds himself being urged to help the Afghan people by one Joanna Herring (Julia Roberts), a right-wing Houston socialite whose claim to fame is being the sixth-richest person in Texas and Charlie’s part-time lover. Charlie agrees to her request to supply the mujahedeen with guns they need to expel the Russians from Afghanistan. With the help of his assistant, Bonnie (Amy Adams), and CIA agent Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman, a fantastic mess), Wilson raised more than $1 billion in secret CIA funding to help shut the Soviets down. History tells us that by doing so, Wilson essentially supported those who formed al-Qaida, but what did he know? He was just working for the woman and doing what he believed was right. In Nichols’ capable hands, he does so in a movie that’s as comfortable dropping bombs at swank cocktail parties as it is in dodging others tossed overseas. Rated R. Grade: B+

“Cloverfield” – Shot on a hand-held camera, this frenetic, jittery movie follows characters running for their lives from a towering monster destroying Manhattan as if it were a house of cards. Those who can stomach the jerky madness may find that the film’s first-person point of view actually amplifies the action. For those who can’t, motion sickness and headaches likely will take hold. The movie begins with a surprise going-away party thrown for popular Rob (Michael Stahl-David), who has been named vice president of an unnamed company in Japan (birthplace of Godzilla, natch). But when an explosion rocks Manhattan and the film’s towering, vicious version of Godzilla is unleashed, “Cloverfield” starts to amp up the heat with mounting tension. A scene that involves hundreds of people caught on the Brooklyn Bridge is the movie at its harrowing best. At its scripted worst, the film’s shaky premise can steal you out of the moment. Still, since the whole movie is a stretch, it’s best not to look for logic and just go with it. “Cloverfield” offers scenes of gripping terror – and a few nice moments of surprise. Rated PG-13. Grade: B

“David Attenborough: Wildlife Specials” – A terrific collection of six wildlife specials from the BBC, with Sir David Attenborough narrating with his typical reservoirs of controlled wonderment. Whether weaving audiences through the ocean deep in ways that raise questions (and awe) about how the filmmakers captured certain shots of the humpback whale in its natural habitat, or lying low with leopards and crocodiles in their habitats, Attenborough and his team reveal how little we still know about the wild and its inhabitants. The photography is crisp, often stunning. After seeing this, for instance, it’s unlikely viewers will look at polar bears or the Arctic the same way again. Grade: A

“Melrose Place: Fourth Season” – Strife! Sex! Postmortem madness! This fourth season of the popular, long-running series has nothing but ugliness in mind for the glossy residents of Melrose Place – which is just how fans want it, particularly after Kimberly (Marcia Cross) decided to blow up everyone (with mixed success) at the end of the third season. The show offers just what you want from a nighttime soap opera – backbiting, infighting, greed, recklessness – and it does it well, at least as these things go, with one of the brighter high points being Heather Locklear’s conniving Amanda Woodward. It’s tough to go wrong with Locklear, and it’s fun to revisit Cross before she became Bree on “Desperate Housewives” and Kristen Davis before she switched gears and became sweet Charlotte on “Sex and the City.” For those who dig the D-list crowd, this season includes the bonus of guest appearances by Chuck Woolery, Dr. Joyce Brothers, Priscilla Presley and Loni Anderson. Grade: B-

“One Missed Call” DVD, Blu-ray – One seriously wrong number. This bum remake of Takashi Miike’s 2004 Japanese thriller “Chakushin Ari” finds Ed Burns playing detective to Shannyn Sossamon’s Beth, whose friends have the worst sort of cell phone luck. In this movie of so many illogical twists and turns, one doomed character wraps up the convoluted plot with street aplomb: “Girl, it’s like you get a voice mail, you hear your death, and then you die.” What you want to text to her is this: “Girl, you and your friends just need to answer your damn phones so we can finish this bust and get on to a better movie.” But why bother? In spite of countless warnings not to answer, they always do answer, with the film’s predictable rhythms leading to predictably disastrous results. Rated PG-13. Grade: D

“The Savages” – The film follows a fractured family standing at the intersection of death and dementia. Laura Linney is Wendy Savage, a difficult, struggling playwright living in New York City who has a cat and a ficus tree she loves, and an older mate (Peter Friedman) who is available physically but not emotionally – he’s married. Wendy’s brother Jon (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a frumpy theater professor living in Buffalo, N.Y., and he has problems of his own, not the least of which is his fiercely competitive relationship with his sister and his own inability to create a meaningful relationship. It’s how these two come together and deal with their abusive and ailing father (Philip Bosco) that turns this shattered family inside out with guilt, rage and grief over the course of several weeks. Excellent performances mark “The Savages,” with Linney and Hoffman each navigating characters who could have become unlikable had they not been shaded with nuance. They’re damaged people, yes, but they are savages only by name. Rated R. Grade: B+

WeekinRewind.com is the site for Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s blog, video podcasts, iTunes portal and movie review archive. Smith’s reviews appear Mondays, Fridays and weekends in Lifestyle, and on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.