Selected home-video releases:
“Little Miss Sunshine” – One of the brightest independent hits in years suitably arrives on DVD just before the holidays, so gatherings of dysfunctional kin can marvel over a family even more messed-up than their own.
Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette and Steve Carell lead the cast of lovable losers in a happy-sad road-trip tale about a family’s misadventures as they race to get their little girl to a beauty pageant.
DVD highlights include four alternate endings accompanied by commentary from husband-and-wife directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. One abandoned ending they found too sappy, another hilarious one they deemed too over-the-top, so in the end, they settled for one last scene of the family pushing their ailing Volkswagen van to get it started, then leaping inside.
Dayton, Faris and screenwriter Michael Arndt also team up on two separate commentaries for the full film. $29.98.
“Invincible” – Mark Wahlberg stars as bartender Vince Papale, a blue-collar 30-year-old who never played college ball but miraculously makes the team after new Philadelphia Eagles coach Dick Vermeil stages open tryouts to hunt up fresh talent. The real Papale teams with producer Mark Ciardi and screenwriter Brad Gann for one commentary track, while director Ericson Core and his editor provide separate commentary. $29.99. (Disney)
“Step Up” – A romantic mini-hit stars Channing Tatum as a tough street kid doing community service at a school for performing arts, where a hot rich girl (Jenna Dewan) who’s in need of a new dancing partner enlists him. With deleted scenes and bloopers, the DVD includes winning dance videos submitted to MySpace.com for a contest promoting the movie. $29.99. (Disney)
“Lady in the Water” – M. Night Shyamalan found himself dead in the water with this unsatisfying fairy tale for adults. Paul Giamatti plays a grief-stricken man hiding from the world as an apartment-complex manager, who ends up enlisting his tenants to help return a mythical water nymph (Bryce Dallas Howard) to her own realm. The DVD has deleted scenes and a feature on the movie’s origins as a bedtime story Shyamalan made up for his children. The movie is available on DVD ($28.98) or in high-definition formats with a Blu-ray release ($34.99) or a disc with both regular DVD and HD DVD versions ($39.99). (Warner Bros.)
“Walt Disney Treasures” – Disney opens its vaults to release four more collections of vintage animated and live material on two-disc sets. Leading the way is “More Silly Symphonies,” a gathering of animated shorts made from 1929 to ‘38, including two directed by Walt Disney and the Academy Award-winning “Three Orphan Kittens.”
Also: “The Complete Pluto: Volume Two”; “Your Host, Walt Disney,” with highlights from his television shows; “The Hardy Boys,” in an adventure serialized in the mid-1950s on “The Mickey Mouse Club.” Each set includes interviews and features. $32.99 each. (Disney)
TV on DVD
“When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts” – Spike Lee presents his four-hour documentary chronicling Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath as emergency crews lumber to respond. Lee offers commentary, and the set has a nearly two-hour epilogue. $29.98. (HBO)
“The St. Louis Cardinals: 2006 World Series Collector’s Edition” – An eight-disc set rounds up all five games of the Cardinals’ World Series triumph over the Detroit Tigers, plus games five and seven of the Cards’ nail-biting National League Championship Series against the New York Mets. $79.95. (A&E)
“The Simpsons: The Complete Ninth Season” – The first family of TV animation returns with year nine’s 25 episodes, with commentary on each from cast members, creator Matt Groening and others. $49.98. (20th Century Fox)
“ER: The Complete Sixth Season” – There’s life after George Clooney for the long-running medical drama. Maura Tierney leads the fresh recruits. $49.98. (Warner Bros.)
“Hogan’s Heroes: The Complete Fifth Season” – Those wacky POWs and their inept Nazi captors are back. $42.99. (Paramount)
“Married With Children: The Complete Sixth Season” – The dysfunctional Bundy family returns. $39.95. (Sony)
Other new releases
“Jet Li’s Fearless” – Action star Li in what he says is his final martial arts film. It’s available in regular DVD format ($29.98) or a combo disc with the DVD and HD DVD versions ($39.98). (Universal)
“The Wicker Man” – Nicolas Cage plays a policeman whose attempt to find an old girlfriend’s missing daughter leads him into dark mysteries among the pagan citizens of a remote island. The DVD has the theatrical release and an unrated alternate. $28.98. (Warner Bros.)
“All the King’s Men” – Sean Penn stars as a flamboyant Southern politician whose idealism gives way to corruption in a new adaptation of Robert Penn Warren’s novel. The DVD has deleted scenes and a segment on Huey Long, the inspiration. $28.95; Blu-ray, $38.95 (Sony)
“My Super Ex-Girlfriend” – A charming premise goes to waste in this unfunny comedy about a superhero (Uma Thurman) using her powers to take vengeance on the boyfriend (Luke Wilson) who jilted her. The DVD has deleted scenes and a music video. $29.98. (20th Century Fox)
“A Scanner Darkly” – Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder and Robert Downey Jr. star in an adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s near-future tale of drug addiction, surveillance and paranoia. Reeves provides commentary with director Richard Linklater, who shot in live action then “painted” over the film with digital animation. $27.95. (Warner Bros.)
Toni Collette, Abigail Breslin, Alan Arkin, Paul Dano, Steve Carell and Greg Kinnear star in “Little Miss Sunshine.”
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