Chick-flicky wit

O UNLUCKY MAN, forced to sit through “27 Dresses,” a romantic comedy about weddings and gowns and high-heel shoes, about sisterly silliness, hopes and dreams and unrequited love.

The first half is like brain freeze, an ice cream migraine for males.

Surviving it, though, will gain guys points with their sentimental significant other and help them appreciate the bright, upbeat second half (the final credits are clever) and the sparkling performance by Katherine Heigl.

A rising star (“Knocked Up,” “Grey’s Anatomy”) who shows emotional depth and good comic timing, Heigl plays a woman who loves planning weddings, has 27 ugly bridesmaid dresses to show for it, and remains happily single as she waits for her hunky boss (Ed Burns) to fall for her.

Naturally, he becomes smitten with her flaky little sister (Malin Akerman of “The Heartbreak Kid”) instead, and big sis must plan the wedding.

As an ambitious wedding writer who serves as her potential love interest, James Marsden does shallow well, but comes up zero on depth and chemistry with Heigl.

Extras: Entertaining “Running of the Brides” short about a New Jersey shop that draws throngs to its once-a-year wedding-dress sale; deleted scenes; making-of piece; shorts on designing sets and dresses.

Smokey’s in-law

Considering the complexity of Philip Pullman’s “The Golden Compass,” one of the great fantasy books for adults and older children, the movie adaptation is pretty good, thanks in large part to the casting of Dakota Blue Richards as Lyra, the plucky young heroine.

In an alternate world where people’s souls are represented by animals who serve as their closest companions, Lyra runs away from the oppressive authorities, embodied by a beautiful but chillingly evil woman (Nicole Kidman, perfect as an ice-queen type) to find a kidnapped orphan boy she promised to protect.

On her quest, she encounters helpful gypsies, witches, warrior polar bears and fiendish scientists. An alethiometer, a compass-like apparatus that shows the truth, helps guide her.

That’s the story at its most simplistic.

Exposition-laden exchanges that give the tale philosophical and religious underpinnings will leave little kids ho-humming. The action and fantasy amp up midway through, and the battling bear, voiced by Ian McKellen, is a scene-stealer.

Familiarity with the book — which is one of my favorites — helps, but isn’t necessary. The film’s ending (different from the book’s) sets up a sequel; Pullman’s book is the first entry in a trilogy.

Extras: Two-disc version: audio commentary; author interview; 11 making-of shorts (one on making the movie’s alethiometer is fun for folks who like to tinker). Single-disc version: animated menus.

2007’s best?

A film about a man paralyzed from head to toe and able to communicate only with one eyelid is a hard sell.

But critics were buying. Most put “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” on their top-10 lists, some voted it the best movie of 2007.

A French bio-pic directed by American Julian Schnabel, “Diving Bell” centers on Jean-Dominique Bauby (Jean-Do to friends), a well-known editor paralyzed after a rare kind of stroke.

Taught a difficult, time-consuming method of communicating by blinking, Jean-Do manages to write the memoir that give the picture its title.

Schnabel tells Jean-Do’s story (with Mathieu Amalric in the lead) from the perspective of what he sees through that one eye and his thoughts, a technique intended to make the audience his confidante, the director says in the extras.

It’s an effective approach, starting with a kind of claustrophobia and gradually expanding via flashbacks and fantasies from Jean-Do’s imagination and wheelchair excursions outdoors.

I’m not a fan of the subject matter and put off seeing the DVD until a few days ago; the film proved engrossing, the language poetic, the tone sad but hopeful.

Extras: Audio commentary; making-of shorts; Schnabel interview; English and Spanish subtitles.

In Camelot

Richard Gere, at his prettiest, plays Lancelot as a free-spirited wanderer with an eye for the queen in “First Knight,” a 1995 romance/adventure with Sean Connery as King Arthur and Julia Ormond as Guinevere.

The reworking of the Arthurian legend weighs in heavy with pomp and conversation (patience is a good thing; pass it on). The intermittent action sequences are well-rendered by director Jerry Zucker.

Extras: Entertaining, insightful commentary by an amusing academic (dubs a sword demonstration “a little bit Vegas”); filmmakers’ commentary; making-of shorts.

Also new on DVD

“The Classic Caballeros Collection”: Disney’s “Saludos Amigos” and “The Three Caballeros.”

“A Generation Apart”: First-person documentary about the children of Holocaust survivors.

“How She Move”: Young woman tries to escape nasty neighborhood by joining all-male step-dancing team and winning a contest; better than you think; with Rutina Wesley.

“Jorge El Monito Ciclista … Y Cinco Cuentos Mas”: Curious George and the Man in the Yellow Hat and other stories adapted in Spanish.

“Moondance Alexander”: Young girl’s life turns around when she finds a runaway pony; with Kay Panabaker, Don Johnson.

“Nanking”: Documentary about unarmed Western expatriates who worked to save 200,000 Chinese from the invading Japanese army in Nanking in 1937; narrators include Woody Harrelson, Mariel Hemingway.

“Prism”: Supernatural thriller about a psychologist trying to help an autistic boy who becomes catatonic after witnessing something very bad.

“Trevor Romain: If You Don’t Take Care of Your Body, Where Else Are You Going to Live?”: Fitness for kids.

TV on DVD

“Bernard and Doris” (Ralph Fiennes and Susan Sarandon); “The British Empire in Color”; “The Big Gay Sketch Show: The Complete Unrated Second Season”; “Celebration of Gospel: Spirit in Song”; “Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is – The Complete Second Season”; “Intelligence, Season One” (Canadian crime drama); “Paranormal State: The Complete Season One”; “Surviving Motherhood: Your Guide to Being a Mom”; “The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: The Years of Change” (with Sean Patrick Flanery, on 10 discs).

New this week on DVD

If there’s a monster on the loose, film it

Odds are, if a giant monster is destroying your town, you’re more likely to dump the camcorder and exit stage left than to run deeper into the quagmire, filming as you go, like the unfamiliar stars do in “Cloverfield.”

The film is pretty silly when you think about it ­— so don’t think; put your brain on hold and enjoy the ride. It’s exciting.

The caveat is: You have to stomach the whole thing’s being shot on a hand-held camera. Unlike “The Blair Witch Project” — “Cloverfield’s” been described as “Blair Witch” meets “Godzilla” — the scenes don’t jump all over the place.

Instead, they quickly sweep right to left and up and down, but mostly they’re semi-steady frontal shots of hell breaking lose.

I found “Blair Witch’s” herky-jerkyness grating, but could watch “Cloverfield” without taking Dramamine.

After a so-so start, the movie turns into a fast-moving rush with a little emotion tossed in for good measure.

Extras: Commentary by director Matt Reeves; making-of documentary; alternate endings; deleted scenes; visual-effects short; on-set tomfoolery.

Glossy fun

“Charlie Wilson’s War” is an entertaining adaptation of a true story: In the 1980s, Rep. Charlie Wilson convinced his colleagues to help Afghan freedom fighters drive the Soviets out of Afghanistan by increased funding for covert operations.

Directed by Mike Nichols, the picture glitters with charisma — from Tom Hanks as the affable title character (a bachelor known as “Good Time Charlie”) to Julia Roberts as a wealthy Texas socialite who spurs him on (and sleeps with him) and Philip Seymour Hoffman as a crusty CIA agent who helps him convince rival countries to work together to provide weapons.

Hoffman’s portrayal of an atypical agent (straight-talking, blue collar) grounds the story, which is amusing, playful and intriguing.

Extras: A making-of short; a documentary on the real Wilson (tall, good-looking, candid), who still radiates swagger.

Hoffman redux

Many reviews pegged “The Savages” as an eccentric dark comedy about a brother and sister (Hoffman and Laura Linney) who deal with the onset of their estranged father’s (a volatile Philip Bosco) dementia as well as their sibling rivalry.

In actuality, the film is very dark — and painful — and only occasionally humorous or eccentric.

If you have an aging parent on a downward slide and, perhaps, unable to fend for himself or herself, “The Savages” is a decent mini primer on what to expect. If you’ve already been through it, as I have, then pass; it’s too close to reality.

Hoffman and Linney excel as dysfunctional siblings confronting their emotions and their relationship with each other and their abusive dad as they set him up in a rest home.

Writer-director Tamara Jenkins, an Oscar nominee for original screenplay, paints them as skittish intellectuals with strains of elitism and difficulties with commitment.

Extras: Extended scenes of an elder tap-dancing group and a couple singing; director’s snapshots.

DVD snippets

“Black House”: Horror thriller about an insurance investigator who digs too deeply into a little boy’s death by hanging — in the perennial creepy old house — after it’s ruled a suicide. In Korean with subtitles.

“Call of the Wild”: Jack London story of a guy and his dog in the Klondike; with Shane Meier as Miles and Kavic as Buck, the dog.

“Daytona 500: 50 Years of ‘The Great American Race’”: Fast cars on two discs.

“Flash Point”: A police detective determined to rid his city of three criminal brothers plants a mole in their mob, then tries to keep him alive. Hong Kong martial-arts actioner with Donnie Yen.

“The Major and the Minor”: Classic Billy Wilder romantic comedy with Ginger Rogers forced to masquerade as a little girl and Ray Milland as the major who lets her stay at his military academy; lively and fun.

“Mist: The Tale of a Sheepdog Puppy”: Live-action story of a pup who wants to become a sheepdog. (Think “Babe” without the pig.)

“One Missed Call”: In an anti-technolgy parable, young people get cell-phone messages with the sounds of their last moments days before they die; with Ed Burns and Shannyn Sossamon.

“The Orphanage”: Atmospheric ghost story about a woman who accidentally releases a nasty spirit after returning with her family to the orphanage where she grew up; solid chiller; in Spanish with subtitles; produced by Guillermo del Toro (“Pan’s Labyrinth”).

“The Shirley Temple Collection Volume 6”: “Wee Willie Winkie,” “Young People” and “Stowaway”; digitally restored in wide screen.

“Starting Out in the Evening”: Ambitious grad student ingratiates herself into the life of reclusive, aging, once-famous novelist (Oscar nominee Frank Langella).

TV on DVD

“The Best of Backyard Habitat: Volume 1”; “Bigfoot Presents: Meteor and the Mighty Monster Trucks – Shifting Gears (Vol. 3”; “Friday Night Lights: The Second Season”: “Oban Star-Racers – Vol. 1: The Alwas Cycle”; “Laverne and Shirley: The Complete Fourth Season”: “My Boy Jack”: “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!: Season 1”; “ToddWorld: Making New Friends (Vol. 3)”; “The Wonder Pets!: Save the Beetles.”

Coming soon

April 29: “The Golden Compass,” “27 Dresses”

May 20: “National Treasure 2 — Book of Secrets”