A third ‘Scary’ is half-funny

Scary Movie 3

Charlie Sheen, Anna Faris

Dimension, $30

This third installment in the popular film parody franchise was a work in progress throughout production. As director David Zucker explains in the behind-the-scenes documentary, he and the writers were reworking scenes up to the last minute. This film is far funnier than the first two “Scary Movies,” but that constant rewriting has given the film a real hit-and-miss feeling. When it’s funny, it’s very funny, and when it isn’t -- well, just fast-forward. Zucker admits that there were a lot of reshoots, including a major change in the ending. Good call. The original ending -- a cross between “A Beautiful Mind,” “The Hulk” and “Signs” -- lands like a thud. It’s among the extras on the disc.

The digital edition also includes a parody of a behind-the-scenes documentary, in which director Zucker is portrayed as a blithering idiot, as well as outtakes and self-deprecating commentary with Zucker, writer Pat Proft, producer Robert K. Weiss and others on the creative team.

*

In America

Paddy Considine, Samantha

Morton

Fox, $28

Get out your handkerchiefs for co-writer and director Jim Sheridan’s emotional, touching semiautobiographical drama about young Irish parents (Considine and the Oscar-nominated Morton) mourning the death of their son who take their two daughters and move to New York City with hopes of starting a new life. Sheridan (“My Left Foot”) received an Academy Award nomination for the screenplay, which he wrote with his two daughters, Naomi and Kirsten.

The digital edition features a short “making of” documentary, nine deleted scenes, an alternate ending and lyrical commentary from the director.

*

The Marx Brothers Collection

Groucho, Harpo, Chico Marx

Warner, $60

Marx Brothers buffs are divided into two camps: One group prefers the surreal, wild Paramount comedies they made with brother Zeppo like “Animal Crackers” and “Duck Soup,” and the other bunch prefers these more structured farces that the brothers -- minus Zeppo -- starred in at MGM (and in the case of “Room Service,” RKO).

MGM’s Irving Thalberg knew exactly how to showcase and give structure to the brothers’ breathless antics. So 1935’s “A Night at the Opera” and, for the most part, 1937’s “A Day at the Races” hold up extraordinarily well. But once Thalberg died in 1937, so did the quality of the team’s pictures. Though there are laughs to be found in “Room Service,” “At the Circus,” “Go West” and “The Big Store,” they lack the insanity of “A Night at the Opera” and “A Day at the Races.” The brothers recover a bit of their early magic in 1946’s “A Night in Casablanca.” The five-disc set is filled with extras, including Leonard Maltin’s folksy commentary on “Opera.”

*

The Fog of War

Documentary

Columbia TriStar, $27

Errol Morris’ stunning Oscar-winning documentary features a series of candid, in-your-face interviews with the eightysomething Robert S. McNamara, the secretary of Defense in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Besides unsettling interviews with McNamara, Morris also uses newsreels, film clips, photos and LBJ’s taped conversations with McNamara from the Oval Office to tell his story. Through McNamara, Morris explores the bombing of Japan during World War II, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the reasoning behind U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

For the DVD, Morris includes 24 additional scenes and McNamara’s 10 lessons from his life in politics.