“Best Actor Collection” – A varied mix of five excellent performances in five Academy Award-winning films. Included are 1928’s “In Old Arizona,” with Warner Baxter as The Cisco Kid; 1956’s “The King and I,” in which Yul Brynner took a shine to Deborah Kerr, danced her off her feat – and won an Oscar for his trouble; and 1970’s “Patton,” which finds George C. Scott embodying the iconic general so seamlessly, he never shook his association with the role. Also in the set is 1973’s “Harry and Tonto,” with Art Carney winning the Oscar for portraying the retired teacher Harry Coombes, and “Wall Street,” which teaches us other kinds of lessons about life. Through Michael Douglas’ cold, Oscar-winning performance, we may recall that greed might have had a good time of it in the late ’80s, but just look where it has gotten us now. Grade: A-

“Best Actress Collection” – Fox is hoping you’ll really like it. The set, after all, features Sally Field in her Academy Award-winning turn in 1979’s “Norma Rae,” Joanne Woodward splitting into three different personalities in “The Three Faces of Eve,” and Hilary Swank altering her body and falling for a girl (Chloe Sevigny) in the moving “Boys Don’t Cry.” In the musical biopic “Walk the Line,” which is based on the life of Johnny Cash, Reese Witherspoon takes on the difficult role of portraying June Carter Cash (and does her own singing), while in 1956’s “Anastasia,” Ingrid Bergman is paired opposite a devious Yul Brynner in an entertaining movie that’s nevertheless riddled with historic inaccuracies. Grade: B+

“Best Picture Collection” – Out of all of these collections from Fox, this is the one to own. In it are some of our best movies, starting with 1941’s timely “How Green Was My Valley,” with Donald Crisp and Sara Allgood struggling to keep their family together in the face of great hardship; 1947’s “Gentleman’s Agreement,” which found Gregory Peck as a journalist posing as a Jew – and getting hit hard by prejudice in the process; and Bette Davis in William Wyler’s 1950 masterpiece, “All About Eve,” which isn’t just one of the finest films in Davis’ storied career, but also one of our finest films, period. On a lighter note, Julie Andrews twirls and twitters and deals with those von Trapps in 1965’s “The Sound of Music,” while on the far end of the spectrum is 1971’s “The French Connection,” a great action movie about a drug bust gone wrong that stars Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider, not to mention that unforgettable car chase through the streets of New York. Grade: A

“Into the Wild” DVD, HD DVD – But at what cost? From Sean Penn, who wrote and directed the movie from Jon Krakauer’s bestselling nonfiction book, “Wild” is a first-rate account of a story that, depending on your perspective, did or didn’t end so well for Christopher Johnson McCandless (a terrific Emile Hirsch). Some will recall that McCandless was the young man from a wealthy Virginia family who in 1990 chose not to enter Harvard Law School or the work force upon graduating from Emory University. Instead, he gave away his life savings to charity, set fire to the rest of his cash and his personal identification, and disappeared without a word into a more challenging world – the wild. Penn’s film follows McCandless’ two-year odyssey into himself and the outside world, which was driven by the need to escape his controlling, bickering parents (Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt) even though in doing so, it also meant leaving behind his beloved younger sister, Carine (Jenna Malone). She narrates the story, filling in key background information about her brother while Penn weaves backward and forward through time in an effort to understand why McCandless did what he did. What makes the movie so emotionally rich are the people McCandless meets along the way, all of whom offer kindness, insight, clarity, debate. The acting is strong and memorable, with Catherine Keener, Brian Dierker, Vince Vaughn, Kristen Stewart and especially the Academy Award-nominated Hal Holbrook shaking the movie alive with its mournful undercurrent. Rated R. Grade: A

“I, Robot” Blu-ray – Like so many science fiction movies, Alex Proyas’ “I, Robot” peers into the future and sees a wealth of technology it doesn’t like or trust. In this case, it sees robots, one for every five people in the United States alone. As the film opens, it’s 2035 and these gleaming automatons are everywhere, weaving through Chicago’s crowded streets with their weirdly translucent faces and good manners. Created by Dr. Alfred Lanning (James Cromwell), the robots are a cheerfully enslaved race of circuitry and metal that do the work we don’t want to do while abiding by three laws – they must never injure humans or allow them to be injured, they must obey humans unless doing so would injure a human, and they must protect their own existence, unless doing so would go against the first two laws. For most, that philosophy is sound – it covers the bases. But for Will Smith’s Detective Del Spooner, there are holes in those laws that are worth worrying about, particularly when Dr. Lanning is found dead. The film’s first-rate action and special effects sequences are thrilling, especially at the end and particularly given its high-definition transfer, which just enhances everything. As for Smith, he holds the movie together with a performance he has given before in other, similar films, but the good news is that the script doesn’t let him down. It gives him enough funny, throwaway lines to make this movie a swell crowd-pleaser. PG-13. Grade: B

“Lillie” – From the BBC by way of Acorn Media, this fine 1978 mini-series stars Francesca Annis as Lillie Langtry, the renowned Victorian stage actress who weathered her share of scandals, successes, men and disappointments while steadily climbing high up through the societal ranks. Some of the most powerful men in London shared her bed, not the least of which was the Prince of Wales, while others shared her ear, such as her dear friend Oscar Wilde. Though 30 years have passed since the series first aired – and though almost 80 years have passed since Langtry’s death – it remains relevant, mostly because Langtry was a woman who, like so many of today’s current rush of starlets, got by more on her beauty and cunning than on her talent. As pop culture has proved, that’s often enough. Grade: B+

“Punky Brewster: Season Four”: The fourth and final season of this demanding, irrepressible show proves that Soleil Moon Frye’s Punky wasn’t going to go down without a fight. Now, 11-year-old Punky, who once eschewed boys, is more curious about them than ever, with flamboyant, melodramatic crushes blooming higher than Punky’s pigtails. Meanwhile, since boys can’t consume the entire show, viewers also are treated to Punky appendicitis, Punky delivering a baby in an elevator, Punky marrying off her dog (it’s a bit odd, that), and Punky in the throes of Margaux’s financial woes. There is more corn in this series than in all of Iowa, so, it’s safe to say it remains an acquired taste. Grade: C

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. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.