TV ON DVD
“The Bob Newhart Show: Season Four”| Television’s favorite shrink is back with Season 4 of the sitcom about a psychologist, his offbeat home life and strange patients. The show, among other distinctions, also spawned a favorite college drinking game. The three-disc set has 24 episodes, plus commentary and a featurette.|$29.98|Released Sept. 5|David Germain, Associated Press
“The Wild”**|Think of the big cat in Disney’s G-rated feature “The Wild” as “The Lying King.” It’s not that zoo star Samson is a bad dad. Far from it – and Kiefer Sutherland gives fine voice to a father flummoxed, concerned and loving. It’s just that he embellishes tales of the Serengeti for his cub too well. And when young Ryan flees the New York Zoo for the teeming land of Pop’s stories, Samson and a cohort of zoo pals head to the jungle. If that sounds familiar, it’s because DreamWorks got there first with the more entertaining “Madagascar.” Other actors lending their voices to this wayward menagerie include Janeane Garofalo, Jim Belushi and Eddie Izzard. |G|85 minutes|Released today|Lisa Kennedy
“Goal! The Dream Begins”***|”Goal! The Dream Begins” is such a sweet example of the sports saga that its producer can be forgiven for calling the family-friendly movie the first soccer flick. (What, “Bend It Like Beckham” doesn’t count?) Kuno Becker stars as Santiago Munez, whose family illegally crossed the border into the U.S. Years later, when a former Brit soccer scout tells him he’s good enough to play professionally in England, Santiago’s footballer hopes and his father’s dream of a landscaping biz collide. If if sounds familiar, that’s because in many ways it is. But director Danny Cannon, his appealing star, and a smartly understated support cast – Stephen Dillane and Miriam Colon, in particular – make fine teamwork of it. Mostly English with intermittent Spanish with subtitles. |PG|118 minutes|Released today|Lisa Kennedy
“Lucky Number Slevin” ***|First there’s the cast: Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley, Bruce Willis. And those are just the heavyweights in “Lucky Number Slevin,” directed by Peter McGuigan. Then there’s Jason Smilovic’s agile, dialogue-rich script about a guy who finds himself between two feuding mobsters. A case of mistaken identity (or is it?), has Slevin (Josh Hartnett) set to do some bloodletting just to stay alive. There are so many players in this shell game of a flick a person can get paranoid. That’s the idea. We can only hope that the one thing fatal about Lucy Liu’s likable femme is that she’s a coroner. |R|110 minutes|Released today|Lisa Kennedy
“Dead Man’s Shoes”***| Richard (Paddy Considine) returns to the small English town of his childhood to right a wrong done his younger brother, the developmentally challenged Anthony. His will be a lethal reckoning, he assures us. And over the course of five days, he executes his payback on a gang of low-life thugs. In a swift 86 minutes, director Shane Meadows and co-writer/star Considine give us a methodical, handsome, emotionally intelligent version of the revenge flick. Many payback movies have no interest in challenging our sympathies, our complicity. Meadows and Considine don’t let Richard off the hook. And we dangle right there with him. |Not rated|86 minutes|Released Sept. 5|Lisa Kennedy
OTHER RELEASES | These DVDs are also available today
Adventures of Chico & Guapo: First Season
Black Magic (Gong tau)
Black. White. The Complete Series
Bottoms Up
Bratz Babyz the Movie
The Complete Kathy & Mo Show
Dance of the Dead
The Girls
Gloomy Sunday
Grey’s Anatomy: Second Season
HellBent
Inspector Lewis
Killing Fields
Las Vegas: Season Three
The Laurel and Hardy Collection Volume 2
Lower City
The Office: Season Two
Shogun Assassin
Smallville: Fifth Season
Taps 25th Anniversary Edition
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Season 4
Total War
WHAT WE’RE WATCHING | This week’s top DVDs
SALES
Silent Hill
Poseidon
RV
Scary Movie 4
Just My Luck
Inside Man
House M.D.: Season Two
V For Vendetta
The Perfect Man
Phat Girlz
RENTALS
Poseidon
Silent Hill
RV
Inside Man
Scary Movie 4
Just My Luck
Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector
The Benchwarmers
V For Vendetta
The Shaggy Dog
