On Demand picks

SMART PEOPLE

(Comcast Pay-Per-View) This is one of those university comedies where the characters take themselves too seriously to be funny, which, come to think of it, seems a reasonable account of some lives on the tenure track. But the movie conjures up Dennis Quaid, as a self-absorbed, widowed English lit professor at Carnegie Mellon. Written by Mark Poirier and directed by Noam Murro, it's "Wonder Boys" with no adventure or imagination. Sarah Jessica Parker (above, with Quaid) is the new girlfriend, Ellen Page is his daughter, and Thomas Haden Church is the slacker brother who just moved in. Is this Pittsburgh or the pilot of some sickeningly cute CBS drama? (R; runs through Dec. 28) WESLEY MORRIS

BE KIND REWIND

(Comcast Pay-Per-View) After a freak accident destroys the cassette collection of a vintage video store, two buddies (Mos Def and Jack Black) are forced to remake the entire inventory themselves. Their rousingly bad moviemaking brings out some of writer-and-director Michel Gondry's most blissful. This is comedy. This is a radical thematic departure from Gondry's "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and "The Science of Sleep." Now his filmmaking is civic-minded: He wants to connect people rather than personify the erasure of the bonds between them. The wonderful cast includes Melonie Diaz, Mia Farrow, and Danny Glover. (PG-13; runs through Dec. 31) WESLEY MORRIS

SEMI-PRO

(Comcast Pay-Per-View) An amiably sloppy basketball comedy that's pretty much what we've come to expect from Will Ferrell - it's probably time to reboot the franchise. The star plays the doofus owner/power forward for a loser team in the "outlaw" ABA League of the mid-'70s, and the Disco Decade is as much a character as anyone onscreen. A salty, silly boys' night out. With Woody Harrelson, Andre Benjamin, and an excellent funk soundtrack. (R; runs through Dec. 31) TY BURR