DVD Report

''RECOUNT'': Kevin Spacey as Ron Klain, Al Gore's ex-chief of staff and the Democrats' point man in Florida in 2000.

New Releases | Tom Russo

Not getting enough of presidential politics?

And still the hanging chad discourse continues. A couple of months after its pay-cable premiere, the Bush-vs.-Gore dramatization "Recount" (2008) arrives on DVD, complete with featurette cameos by key players in Florida's 2000 presidential election fiasco. The attention the disc's content is given is in line with the film's overall approach: serviceably efficient, but also interested, certainly, in the details. Ultimately, you'll probably find that director Jay Roach ("Austin Powers," go figure) and writer Danny Strong could have played the entire movie straight, rather than winking occasionally at the story's inherent absurdities. Kevin Spacey gives a restrained lead performance as Ron Klain, Al Gore's former chief of staff and point man in the Democrats' recount effort. Tom Wilkinson isn't as dialed-down in his portrayal of Bush corner man James Baker, but that has everything to do with the film's hardly secret liberal bent. (As Strong declares in commentary, "I truly believe that the [Florida] Division of Elections, every decision that came from their office favored Bush.") Spacey and Wilkinson's skirmishing is juicy enough in itself that Laura Dern's broad performance as Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris feels like a little too much. It's diverting seeing Dern repurpose that freaky "Inland Empire" clown rictus for the political circus.

Extras: Spacey sits down for a conversation with the real Klain, who notes that the movie covers developments that escaped the Democrats' attention until months after the fact. Equal time goes to Bob Balaban and his real-life counterpart, GOP insider Ben Ginsberg, who good-naturedly labels an unruly demonstration scene as "overblown for dramatic effect" - even though the film employed actual news footage. (HBO, $19.98)

"HANNAH MONTANA AND MILEY CYRUS: BEST OF BOTH WORLDS CONCERT" (2008)

Holy Hannah, doesn't this franchise ever take a breather? Although the truth is, you probably should've sprung for multiplex tickets if you've got any interest at all in 3-D. The home-viewing experience gives you some numbers that weren't seen in theaters, but the most dimensional effect you'll get is from the lenticular packaging. Still, the two-disc set includes the movie in standard 2-D should you decide to give the gong to the splashier version. You also get more of backstage footage of Miley and friends. And speaking of the Jonas Brothers . . . an extended version of "Camp Rock" also debuts. (Disney, $34.99; Blu-ray, $35.99; "Camp Rock," $29.99; Blu-ray, $34.99)

"STREET KINGS" (2008)

It's not that Keanu Reeves can't play law enforcement - his filmography includes "Point Break" and "Speed." But clearly, his career high points have come playing characters who are fuzzy around the edges, making the "cop on the edge" archetype a bit of a stretch. David Ayer (writer of "Training Day") directs Reeves in the story of an LAPD detective whose estranged one-time partner is shot dead in a holdup - bad news for Reeves, who's the only witness. None of the cast does much with material that's already curiously flat to start, although a couple of firefight sequences have oomph. Hugh Laurie draws some interest as he transfers House's acerbic superiority to an internal affairs cop.

Extras: It's not exactly a great sign when a featurette on the movie's writing doesn't include James Ellroy, who penned the original story, but does give face time to the two guys who rewrote his script. (Fox, $29.98; two-disc version, $34.98; Blu-ray, $39.98)

"JOHN OLIVER: TERRIFYING TIMES" (2008)

Oliver puts away his clueless, indignant correspondent persona from "The Daily Show" for an hourlong stand-up special. A nominally straighter presentation of his skewed British take on contemporary issues. Don't skip over the disc's amusingly rambling menu.

Extras: Rehearsal footage; a fresh taste of Oliver's career-making BBC Radio work with comedy partner Andy Zaltzman. Oliver's bonus materials disclaimer: They're "a lottery, and you know that with lotteries, you lose most of the time." (Paramount, $19.99)

Classic DVD | Mark Feeney

Tick tock tick, tick tock tick

After three consecutive color extravaganzas - "A Matter of Life and Death," "Black Narcissus," and "The Red Shoes" - Michael Powell chose for his next film a small, tense subject perfectly suited to black and white.

What that subject is is hard to say exactly. In effect, "The Small Back Room" (1949) is an examination of a man under pressure. The title ostensibly refers to the space where a British military research scientist (David Farrar) works in London during World War II. As metaphor, "small back room" presumably stands for his heart or mind, where that pressure takes so many forms it's not easy to place the movie within any one genre. Plot elements include bureaucratic infighting, substance abuse (Farrar drinks too much), the war, technology, and social problems (the plight of the handicapped - Farrar has an artificial foot).

More than anything else, "The Small Back Room" is a love story. Farrar, who played the heartthrob in "Black Narcissus," is very good looking in a slightly haunted way (think Tyrone Power stripped of prettiness). Once again he's entwined with Kathleen Byron, the unhinged nun in "Narcissus." Her character may be under only slightly less duress here, but Byron acts with a restraint that makes her unmistakable anxiety all the more affecting. She and Farrar are a striking couple: handsome without being glamorous, troubled yet stoic, knowing but never arch. Rarely has screen passion been so potently oblique.

As if to compensate for the diffuse plot, "The Small Back Room" is very much of a piece visually. Cinematographer Christopher Challis gives it a splendidly noirish look. There are explicit nods to two other very dark films, "The Lost Weekend," thanks to Farrar's drinking, and "Spellbound," with a dream sequence that makes Hitchcock's seem nearly sedate by comparison. The exception to the prevailing shadowy constriction is the disarming of an explosive device on a beach, which has all the more suspense for taking place outdoors in broad daylight. Just as Powell no doubt intended, the sudden absence of confinement is utterly disorienting.

"There's nothing like taking a nice quiet bomb apart to steady the nerves," Farrar says at one point, sounding both hard-boiled and stiff-upper-lip. The big question the movie poses isn't whether or not the bomb explodes. It's whether Farrar does.

Extras: Scholar's audio commentary, interview with Challis, Powell's audio dictations for his autobiography (Criterion, $39.95)

Documentary DVD | Ty Burr

'Sword' hangs above concept of holy war

"Constantine's Sword" speaks to history and the moment. Adapted by author and Boston Globe op-ed columnist James Carroll (above) and director Oren Jacoby from Carroll's 2001 book, "Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews: A History," the film is a dense yet fiercely eloquent examination of how and when Christ's message of peace became perverted into an instrument of war.

Carroll's larger point is that this war has been waged over the centuries against non-believing "others" - Jews, primarily, and Muslims - and continues to underlie much Catholic and evangelical Protestant groupthink, up to and including the current administration. "Constantine's Sword" isn't an anti-Bush screed, though, but a patient condemnation of church fear and power politics from the fourth century on.

Carroll and Jacoby recast Constantine's conversion to Christianity in 312 as an expedient way to distinguish himself from the pack vying for control of Rome. The film traces the rise of anti-Semitism as part of church orthodoxy through the Crusades and Inquisition and finds a modern manifestation in the evangelical infiltration of the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.

The film takes aim at Pope Pius XII, whom Carroll accuses of turning a deaf ear to the Holocaust, and the current pope, Benedict XVI, who has blamed the Nazis' "insane racist ideology" on "neo-Paganism" while dodging the church's own culpability. "Constantine's Sword" begs us to consider how dangerously far we've come from Christ's message of love for all mankind. The tone is gentle but the message is unyielding: "No war is holy." Period.

Extras: trailer, photo galleries, director's note (First Run, $24.95)

ALSO THIS WEEK

"MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY" (2008)

Frances McDormand (above) is the proper Englishwoman who hires on as social secretary to glamorous Amy Adams ("Enchanted") in this slight but appealing adaptation of the 1930s novel.

Extras: Production featurettes; deleted scenes. (Universal, $29.98)

"THE LIFE BEFORE HER EYES" (2008)

Vadim Perelman ("House of Sand and Fog") directs an adaptation of Laura Kasischke's twisty novel looking at teenage friends (Evan Rachel Wood and Eva Amurri) cornered in a school shooting, and what the future holds for Wood's character, played as an adult by Uma Thurman.

Extras: Alternate ending; commentary by Perelman; casting tape of Amurri, the daughter of Susan Sarandon. (Magnolia, $26.98; Blu-ray, $34.98)

FOREIGN

"MARCO FERRERI COLLECTION" (1960-88)

The European director whose body of work is remembered both for its frank sexuality and anarchic sensibility is saluted with an eight-film set. Includes his new-to-DVD breakthrough, "El Cochecito," and the gorgefest social commentary "La Grande Bouffe."

Extras: Documentary profile; scholarly essay. (Koch Lorber, $149.98)

TELEVISION

"TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES": THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON (2008)

This TV spin-off's savviest move? Casting ethereal Summer Glau (above), who already had some genre cred thanks to the short-lived "Firefly," as the first believably, unthreateningly average Terminator. Its weakest? Giving fans of the franchise everything they expected and less, thanks to an obviously limited visual effects budget. Good by TV standards, but still proving itself by "Terminator" standards.

Extras: Cast and crew commentaries; audition footage. (Warner, $29.98; Blu-ray, $39.99)

"SENSITIVE SKIN": THE COMPLETE SEASONS ONE AND TWO (2005-07)

Joanna Lumley ("Absolutely Fabulous") shows her subdued side as an upscale Londoner drifting into a three-quarter-life crisis in writer-director Hugo Blick's bittersweet, sharply scripted comedy series. With Denis Lawson ("Bleak House"). (BBC Video, $29.98; available now)

"THE ANTON CHEKHOV COLLECTION" (1959-91)

This wide-ranging survey of BBC Chekhov productions includes Anthony Hopkins in "The Three Sisters"; Judi Dench in two different stagings of "The Cherry Orchard"; and Ian Holm in David Mamet's adaptation of "Uncle Vanya."

Extras: Readings of Chekhov short stories by Ewan McGregor. (BBC Video, $59.98)

"WILD CHINA" (2008) / "NI HAO, KAI-LAN: SUPER SPECIAL DAYS!" (2008)

Banking on the Olympics having piqued your interest in all things Chinese, the BBC ventures well outside Beijing with its six-part wildlife documentary series. Nickelodeon follows a similar release strategy in putting its cute, Dora-esque Mandarin instructional cartoon on disc. ("Wild China," BBC Video, $29.98; Blu-ray, $39.99; "Ni Hao," Paramount, $16.99; both titles available now)

Capsules are written by Tom Russo and titles are in stores Tuesday unless otherwise specified.