DVD Corner

“The Bucket List” DVD, Blu-ray – Rob Reiner’s comedy about living and dying with terminal cancer finds Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson improving upon the manufactured material by the sheer strength of their talent and chemistry. This unlikely, feel-good fairy tale allows its two main characters to live out their fantasies by compiling a bucket list of all the things they want to do before they kick the bucket. Since their wishes are steeped in financial extremes – no average person struggling with, say, the cost of health care could afford such extravagances – the movie eschews reality for the balm of going out with a bang. While there is a kind of dreamlike joy to be had in watching these men live out their final days in spite of the unlikely energy they have found to do so, anyone on intimate terms with cancer might be left raising an eyebrow or two at the ease with which the realities of the disease are dismissed. Rated: PG-13. Grade: C+

“Hawaii Five-O: Fourth Season” – The challenge is obvious – how to make each episode as energetic as Morton Stevens’ iconic theme song? For this fourth season of the long-running series, the good news is that most episodes succeed. Set in Hawaii, the show finds Jack Lord bringing back and the heat and the cool as Steve McGarrett, the pompadoured leader of an elite four-man police team that finds Kono Kalakaua (Zulu), Chin Ho Kelly (Kam Fong) and Danny “Danno” Williams (James MacArthur) working to bring down the evil Chinese agent Wo Fat, among others. Highlights include the episodes “Good Night, Baby, Time to Die” and “And I Want Some Candy and a Gun that Shoots.” Grade: B+

“Jumper” DVD, Blu-ray – Doesn’t offer audiences a single challenge beyond the very real challenge of getting through it. Hayden Christensen is David Rice, a jumper whose powers of teleportation are under attack by a Paladin named Roland (Samuel L. Jackson, bleached, bellowing, boring), who is trying to kill David and other jumpers as they leap about the world while David also tries to rescue his girlfriend back home. With the exception of a very good Jamie Bell as a fellow jumper, everything in this exhausting movie goes wrong, which is curious since its director, Doug Liman, also directed the excellent first “Bourne” movie. And yet here, he puts the squeeze of stupidity on us right from the start. Rated PG-13. Grade: D

“Monsterquest: Complete Season One” – The monsters are real! Well, no they’re not. Or maybe they are! But then again, maybe they’re not. Essentially, that’s how this reasonably entertaining series from the History Channel plays out, with real scientists and high-tech gadgetry hauled in to discern what might be living among us (don’t come seeking definitive answers). The monsters in question include everything from the regulars – werewolves, Bigfoot – to such other oddities as Birdzilla, a giant squid, and some unidentifiable flying creatures. Eyewitness accounts abound, some humorous – all dead serious. Grade: B

“The Other Boleyn Girl” DVD, Blu-ray – Follows sisters Mary and Anne Boleyn (Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman, respectively) in a film that easily could have been called “The Other Woman,” with all that implies. The film is a full-on Tudor soap opera, with Peter Morgan (“The Queen”) basing his script on Philippa Gregory’s 2002 novel, which also only used this historical backdrop to bolster its wild run into the velvet walls of potboiler fiction. Like the book, the movie amplifies history’s more salacious elements in an effort to wedge sex, lust and sibling rivalry within the frequent machinations, court upheavals, betrayals and beheadings that followed the rule of the infamous King Henry VIII (Eric Bana) in 16th century England, when he was seeking a male heir. Johansson is stuck with the less-showy role, Bana is fine as the best-looking Henry in history, but it is Portman – so good at balancing how the quest for power and position corrupted her relationship with her sister and ultimately led to her own undoing – who turns out to be the best reason to see the movie. Rated PG-13. Grade: B-

“Rambo: Ultimate Collector’s Edition” and “Rambo: 1-3 Boxset” Blu-ray – Sylvester Stallone’s other iconic character, the stealth Vietnam vet John Rambo, is given his due in two fine sets from Lionsgate. The first is the “Ultimate Collector’s Edition,” which assembles all four films in the franchise, including last year’s grisly “Rambo.” It’s a vast, comprehensive collection, featuring more than 20 additional features, a few of which are actually worthwhile, such as “The Real Nam: Voices from Within.” The second set is the high-definition Blu-ray versions of the first three films in the franchise – “First Blood” “Rambo: First Blood Part II” and “Rambo III.” Here, look for less flash when it comes to the extras, but the superior sound and picture quality make up for it. Missing is last year’s “Rambo,” which is available separately on Blu-ray. Grade: B+

“Rescue Me: Complete Fourth Season” DVD – The strange, rambling hybrid that is Denis Leary turns out to be perfect for the strange, rambling hybrid that is “Rescue Me,” a dramedy about firefighters that shouldn’t work as well as it does. The plots are dense, chaotic and swift, every bit as wired as Leary himself. The show’s energy and its fearlessness are its hallmarks. Here, as firefighter Tommy Gavin, a man with more problems than he or anyone around him can bear, Leary never has been better, particularly since in this season, his character is under investigation for the fire that ended the last season. What that creates for Tommy isn’t just trouble, but oddly enough, also sexual impotency. Grade: B

“Witless Protection” – A triumph for the Confederate flag-waving hillbilly – a disaster for everyone else. Larry the Cable Guy’s latest effort finds our resident buffoon as a deputy sheriff who is so certain that saucy Madeleine (Ivana Milicevic) is being kidnapped by black men that he kidnaps her himself. Unfortunately for Larry, these men are FBI agents, which leads to all sorts of complications, not to mention an unbridled run of scat jokes and the bashing of Muslims, Asians and, as Larry himself puts it, “jungle pygmies.” In the end, there’s racist Larry himself, chewing on straw with twinkling eyes that reveal a hollow soul. Here is a fellow so dim, he probably believes that the faces of Mount Rushmore were created solely by the effects of wind and rain. Rated PG-13. Grade: D-

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