DVD report

WANTED: Angelina Jolie recruits a cubicle dweller into a secret society of assassins.

New Releases | Tom Russo

Smooth as shattered plate glass

You've got to appreciate a movie that dares to revive silver screen gunplay technique - actors exaggeratedly shooting as if their weapons were flinging the bullets, rather than firing them - and actually manages to look cool in the process. That's one of the frenzied appeals of "Wanted" (2008), which casts James McAvoy ("Atonement") as Wesley Gibson, a sad-sack cubicle dweller recruited into a secret society of assassins by a more-tattooed-than-usual Angelina Jolie and enigmatic Morgan Freeman. The story cribs straight from "The Matrix" in unlocking Wesley's latent genetic ability to bend the trajectory of bullets, perceive real time at a crawl, and quite possibly change the world. But McAvoy does plenty to make this a derivative exercise with flair, down to the way he curses Wesley's workaday circumstance in hiply detached "Trainspotting" voice-over. Genre fans will also be impressed with Russian director Timur Bekmambetov, who makes his Hollywood debut here after building a reputation with the motherland hits "Night Watch" and "Day Watch." This time out, Bekmambetov reins in his dog's-breakfast narrative style to deliver a film that's much tighter, but that still makes room for addictively freewheeling action-fantasy flourishes. In a movie season so far marked by the murky, hyper-edited mayhem of Bond, the slo-mo image of an airborne "Wanted" killer wearing a mosaic mask of shattered plate glass carries quite a wow factor.

Extras: Behind-the-scenes segments and a "motion comics" bonus feature explore the movie's roots as a cult comic-book hit. They're apt acknowledgments, but not as automatic as the makers of "The Dark Knight" giving a nod to their source. On the printed page, "supervillain" Wesley Gibson is no icon - just a crudely intriguing bit of story ammo waiting for Hollywood to really guide it to its mark. (Universal, $34.98; single-disc version, $29.98; Blu-ray, $39.98)

CASABLANCA (1942)

A first-time release on Blu-ray is the big selling point for this reissue of the Humphrey Bogart-Ingrid Bergman classic. Beyond that, it's the fundamental things plus some odds and ends in this "Ultimate Collector's Edition." In addition to a pair of commentaries (including one by Roger Ebert), you'll get the 1988 TCM special "Bacall on Bogart," and a '93 feature documentary on studio boss Jack Warner. Deleted scenes and outtakes are among the other onscreen extras. Replica production materials include producer Hal Wallis's memo pushing for Bogart to be cast over George Raft. (Warner, $59.98; Blu-ray, $64.99)

THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE (2008)

If you've added "Fringe" to your DVR queue this season, you've got no business wondering whether Chris Carter's conspiracy theorizing is still relevant. And amusingly, this new sequel addresses the relevance question onscreen, as David Duchovny's Fox Mulder sits around his has-been retreat spearing pencils into the ceiling, pretending not to hope the FBI calls. Carter hands Mulder and Gillian Anderson's Dana Scully a case involving serial killings, a pedophile priest (Billy Connolly), and a gruesome medical lab finale. It all combines to show that "X-Files" still has an edge, even if there's no widescreen oomph on a par with Mulder and Scully's first feature foray a decade ago.

Extras: Commentary by Carter and writing partner Frank Spotnitz; good-to-be-back production featurettes. (Fox, $34.98; single-disc version, $29.98; Blu-ray, $39.99)

WHITE DOG (1982)

Maverick filmmaker Samuel Fuller serves up one of his final Molotov cocktails of B-movie exploitation and in-your-grill commentary on our times, here taking on socially indoctrinated racism. A young actress (Kristy McNichol) adopts an injured German shepherd, and later realizes it has been trained to maul black people. Paul Winfield is the wild animal handler determined to reprogram the dog. Burl Ives plays his skeptical partner. The schlock elements were a better fit with Fuller's '50s and '60s work than here - there's stagey dialogue about the dog being "a four-legged time bomb" - but in the wordless moments when the animal attacks, the images are chilling.

Extras: Co-writer Curtis Hanson is among the interviewees; well-done liner notes recall the controversy stirred by the film, which ultimately went unreleased until 1991. (Criterion, $29.95)

Music DVD | Steve Morse

Breaking up was/wasn't hard to do

Everyone has tried to interpret the Beatles; but no analysis, at least of the band's later period, is better articulated than in the new "Composing the Beatles Songbook: Lennon and McCartney 1966-1970." It's an indie film not guided by McCartney and Lennon's estate, which is good news right there. And it's told through the eyes of 12 interviewees ranging from friends of the band to noted journalists (Anthony DeCurtis and Robert Christgau), Beatles biographers (Barry Miles, Peter Doggett), and musicologists who, thankfully, don't get too lofty. And there's plenty of Beatles music and video to move it along swiftly.

"Composing" depicts the post-"Rubber Soul" era, when the band's sonic colors started expanding on "Revolver." Lennon had been doing acid already, but not McCartney, though he had been listening to a lot of avant-garde electronic music. The merger of acid and electronica bore fruit on "Tomorrow Never Knows." It was one of the first acid-rock tracks, with lyrics Lennon plucked from Timothy Leary's "The Psychedelic Experience," combined with McCartney tape loops learned from his avant-garde studies.

The experimentation flourished on the next album, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," though the experts agree that McCartney (who had taken LSD by then) was becoming the band's driving force as Lennon retreated. Lennon even later called it "Paul's album," according to author Johnny Rogan. Lennon was seen as getting lazy (drugs are partly to blame) and one song he did for "Sgt. Pepper's" was "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite," where he simply rewrote a Victorian circus poster he found in an antique shop. Lennon is also said to have never fully recovered from Beatles manager Brian Epstein's death in 1967. That, and the arrival of Yoko Ono, were "twin factors" in his retreat - though friend and studio musician Klaus Voorman says, "I don't think John was particularly angry that Paul took over."

All the experts agree that the Beatles were still capable of working hard - they even did 97 takes recording "Happiness Is a Warm Gun." The miracle, of course, is that the band lasted as long as it did. "The strength the Beatles had only came because they are so different," says Voorman. "But you can't keep a group like this together. That would be against nature."

Extras: A thought-provoking rap from music professor Allan Moore about "A Day in the Life" and how it predicts the failure of the counterculture. (Pride DVD, $19.95)

TV DVD | Mark Feeney

Not just another pretty face

Has there ever been a more improbable television leading man than William Conrad? True, he had that fabulous baritone growl, which earns him a prime spot in voice-over Valhalla. Conrad was an ideal narrator for the likes of "The Fugitive" and "The Bullwinkle Show" (the latter surely being his most artistically distinguished association). But his voice was only part of the package.

Conrad was also shortish, bald, and big-bellied, not to mention about as matinee-idol handsome as a test pattern. His default facial expression was a scowl, with a mustache that made the scowl look all the more unappealing. He did have an impressive swagger, but he altogether lacked the ethnic sizzle (as one might call it) of a James Gandolfini.

Even so, Conrad starred in not one but three prime-time dramas. "Nero Wolfe" ran for less than one season, in 1981. But both "Cannon" and "Jake and the Fatman" ran for five seasons, 1971-76 and 1987-92, respectively.

In the former, Conrad played a private eye who eased his girth around LA in a Lincoln Continental. Cannon's bulk meant he had to use guile and experience rather than his fists to get results. In the latter, Conrad was a DA who let a young investigator do all his legwork for him. One guess which title character Conrad played.

"Cannon" Season 1, Vols. 1-2 comprises four discs and marks the series' DVD debut. "Jake and the Fatman" Season 1, Vols. 1-2 consists of six discs. Both go very light on bonus features: episode promos, that's all. Maybe it's an attempt to make up for their star's own lack of lightness? (Paramount, $64.99 "Cannon," $66.99 "Jake")

ALSO THIS WEEK

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN (2008)

The Pevensie kids are back, either a blink or a millennium since we last left them, depending on your viewpoint. Tilda Swinton's wicked White Witch might have carried more of the story load than we remembered the last time around, given how slowly this installment gets rolling without her presence early on. Peter Dinklage ("The Station Agent") partly fills the lull with characteristic irascibility as a Narnian dwarf.

Extras: Commentary by returning writer-director Andrew Adamson and cast; production featurettes. (Disney, $39.99; single-disc version, $29.99; Blu-ray, $35.99-$40.99)

STEP BROTHERS (2008)

Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly can't sustain the tricky comic tone involved in playing middle-age layabouts who get into some seriously juvenile sibling rivalry when their respective parents marry.

Extras: Commentary by Ferrell, Reilly, and writer-director Adam McKay ("Talladega Nights"); unrated footage; "line-o-rama" improv. (Sony, $34.95; single-disc version, $28.96; Blu-ray, $39.95)

REISSUES

THE MAN CALLED FLINTSTONE (1966)

Fred steps in for his laid-up secret agent doppelganger and jets off to Eurock in the Flintstones' post-TV feature debut - like "The Simpsons Movie," diverting, but not quite all that you might have hoped. (A Bond riff on a prehistoric riff on "The Honeymooners"? Huh?) You might want to check out Hanna-Barbera's less remembered '64 feature "Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!," which gets a companion release. (Warner, $19.98 each)

THE RON HOWARD SPOTLIGHT COLLECTION (2008)

While you wait for Howard's "Frost/Nixon" and "Angels & Demons" to hit theaters, here's a survey of career high points to date, including "A Beautiful Mind," "Apollo 13," "Cinderella Man," and "Backdraft."

Extras: Commentary by Howard on "Apollo 13" and "Cinderella Man"; production featurettes. (Universal, $39.98; available now)

FOREIGN

WHERE IS FREEDOM? (1954) / ESCAPE BY NIGHT (1960)

A pair of Roberto Rossellini rarities - one a dark satire, the other a bristling WWII drama - are acknowledged under the banner "The Director's Series: Rossellini 2-Disc Collector's Edition." (Lionsgate, $29.98; available now)

TELEVISION

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE: THE COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON (1978-79)

Live from New York, it's the Blues Brothers, Bill Murray's lounge singer, and Fred Garvin: Male Prostitute.

Extras: Archival cast interviews. (Universal, $69.98)

AMERICAN ORIGINALS MEGASET (2008)

Could you use something to motivate the man in your life to get out there and snowblow the driveway without lollygagging? Try this grab bag of History Channel reality TV machismo, which collects the first seasons of "Ice Road Truckers," "Ax Men," and "Tougher in Alaska," along with various episodes of "Dangerous Missions." (A&E, $199.95; Costco exclusive; available now)

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