“Ratatouille” rats scamper onto DVD and are worth catching

Say “rats in the kitchen” and your first instinct is to run the other way. Yet the concept plays well - no surprise since it’s from Pixar - in “Rataouille,” one of summer’s tastiest treats.

Pun intended: The animated comedy centers around Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt), a rat obsessed with becoming a great chef in a five-star restaurant.

Remy gets a whisker up on the competition by acting as a kind of puppeteer to the willing Linguini (Lou Romano), garbage boy in a famous Parisian restaurant; with Remy directing Linguini by pulling his hair, the boy creates gourmet dishes that delight customers and befuddle coworkers.

Director Brad Bird, Oscar winner for “The Incredibles,” fills the screen with beautifully detailed sets, visual gags and engaging characters - they’re all French but only some speak with accents; go figure.

Unlike cartoon mice with mittens, the rats resemble and scamper like real rats - which, though a little creepy, is in keeping with these organic times. The movie contains a couple of dead spots; think of them as palette cleansers. “Ratatouille” cooks.

Extras: The 13-minute “Fine Food & Film: A Conversation with Brad Bird and Thomas Keller,” the latter master chef and restaurateur (the French Laundry), alternates thoughts by each about creativity, passion and inspiration - as applied to film and cooking.

Also: three deleted scenes with insightful commentaries; new animated short, “Your Friend the Rat”; Oscar-nominated short “Lifted.”

“Ratatouille” is being released in tandem with “Pixar Short Films Collection Vol. 1,” 13 animated shorts including three Oscar winners.

Extras: Audio commentaries; documentary with Oscar-winning director and Pixar top dog John Lasseter (”Toy Story”) and others musing about making the shorts.

Jack’s back

Noir with a class, 1974’s “Chinatown,” released this week with the subtitle “Special Collector’s Edition,” picked up 11 Oscar nominations, winning one for Robert Towne, Jack Nicholson’s roommate at the time, for his intricate original screenplay.

In the bonus materials, Towne says he modeled 1930s-era private eye Jake Gittes after Nicholson and imbued the cynical detective with many of his friend’s mannerisms and much of his personality.

That no doubt helped Nicholson to an Oscar nomination for playing one of cinema’s iconic private cops.

Directed by Roman Polanski (also friends with Nicholson and Towne) and beautifully shot in and around Los Angeles, the complex saga of murder, politics (over water use) and prickly relationships is riddled with suspense, mystery, intrigue and humor.

The splendid ensemble includes Faye Dunaway, John Huston and Polanski.

Extras: Fairly recent interviews with Towne, Nicholson, Polanski and producer Robert Evans are edited into three making-of shorts. The first, “The Beginning and The End” is the best, giving peeks into Towne’s creative process and his and Nicholson’s battles with Polanski.

Polanski calls “The Pianist,” for which he won the directing Oscar, his favorite film and “Chinatown” his second favorite.

Piggybacking the “Chinatown” special, Paramount also re-released the Nicholson-directed sequel, 1990’s “Two Jakes,” as a “Special Collector’s Edition” (apparently every re-release is “special”).

Set in 1948 L.A., with Gittes involved with adultery, murder and politics (oil instead of water), the film plays like a heavy-handed, overly complicated “Chinatown” clone.

Extras: New interview with Nicholson.

What were they thinking?

Adam Sandler and Kevin James pretend to be a married gay couple in “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry” so James’ Larry, a widower, can keep getting benefits to help his kids.

Happens every day, right?

Wrong, just like the movie.

One of 2007’s bombs, this may be the unfunniest comedy of the year. I smiled twice, and I’m a little embarrassed by it. The humor ranges from tasteless homophobic half-witticisms to sophomoronic mirthlessness.

Sandler gets to feign girlish awkwardness as lawyer Jessica Biel reveals her sexiness. Rob Schneider does the Mickey Rooney Asian stereotype from “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”

It only gets worse.

There are moments when the characters, and, through them, the film, seem to understand the prevailing small-mindedness and teeter on the brink of redemption. But they never step over convincingly.

Extras: Unfunny bloopers of the boys cracking up at unfunny scenes; uninteresting making-of shorts; audio commentaries; more.

Also new on DVD

“Deck the Halls”: Staid optometrist Matthew Broderick goes ballistic over brash new neighber Danny DeVito’s over-the-top holiday light show.

“A Dennis the Menace Christmas”: Dennis (Maxwell Perry Cotton) tries to get Scrooge-like Mr. Wilson (Robert Wagner) into the spirit of Christmas.

“The Forgotten Coast”: Seven top surfers take on big waves around the islands of Indonesia.

“The Last Sentinel”: Post-apocalyptic survivors battle faceless robots; nothing new, nobody interesting, tepid direction and dull.

“Married in America 2″: Documentarian Michael Apted (”7 Up”) revisits the nine couples he interviewed in 2001’s “Married in America.”

“Sicko”: Michael Moore takes on the health-care industry in this documentary.

“Stalking Santa”: William Shatner narrates this feature about a family conducting an experiment intended to reveal the truth about Santa.

TV on DVD

“Benny Hill: The Complete Megaset” (18 discs); “The Best of the Colbert Report”; “The Crown Prince”; “Martin: The Complete Third Season”; “The Pink Panther: A Pink Christmas”; “Princes in the Tower”; “Project Runaway Season 3″; “Seinfeld: The Complete Ninth Season”; “Sesame Street: Old School Volume Two”; “Wildfire: Season Two”; “Wings: The Fifth Season”; “The X-Files: The Ultimate Collector’s Edition” (61 discs).

Coming attractions

Nov. 13: “Ocean’s Thirteen,” “Shrek The Third”
Dec. 4: “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”