Touching new bases in ‘Upside’

Baseball movies have been very good to Kevin Costner. Well, two anyway: 1988’s “Bull Durham” and 1989’s “Field of Dreams.” It’s doubtful Costner includes the dreadful 1982 obscurity “Chasing Dreams” on his resume, and 1999’s “For Love of the Game” didn’t exactly hit a home run.

Although his latest film, “The Upside of Anger” (New Line, $28), isn’t a baseball film, the dramedy casts Costner as a former baseball player turned sports radio host. And he gives one of his most casual, engaging performances as the charming, hard-living, hard-drinking Denny -- sort of a close relative to his Crash Davis of “Bull Durham” -- who sets his romantic sights on a neighbor (Joan Allen, in fine form), a mother of four daughters who is embittered that her husband left her.

The digital edition is pretty standard stuff: a behind-the-scenes documentary and deleted scenes with commentary from writer-director Mike Binder. The best special feature is the commentary moderated by critic turned moviemaker Rod Lurie with Allen and Binder, who both worked with Lurie on his film “The Contender.”

Also new:

“King’s Ransom” (New Line, $28): Anthony Anderson may be getting good reviews for the current release “Hustle & Flow” -- ditto his dramatic turn last season on “The Shield” -- but critics gave the thumbs down to this tasteless caper comedy that marks Anderson’s first starring role. Though the film is PG-13, the extras on the DVD are strictly R-rated, including the behind-the-scenes documentary “Down and Dirty” and raunchy commentary with Anderson, co-star Jay Mohr and director Jeff Byrd.

“XXX: State of the Union” (Sony, $29): Misguided sequel to the pumped-up Vin Diesel action-thriller “XXX.” With Diesel’s character dead as the film opens, national security agent Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson) must recruit another XXX operative: a former Navy SEAL (Ice Cube) with a huge chip on his shoulder. DVD extras include deleted scenes, production featurettes, commentary with director Lee Tamahori and another track with the visual effects crew.

“Steamboy” (Sony, $27): The latest anime feature from Japanese director Katsuhiro Otomo (“Akira”). The DVD offers the compelling adventure in both the original Japanese version and in dubbed English -- the vocal cast includes Anna Paquin, Alfred Molina and Patrick Stewart. The DVD also includes a production documentary in Japanese with English subtitles.

“Remington Steele -- 1st Season” (Fox, $40): Long before he became James Bond, Irish actor Pierce Brosnan was the suave, dashing thief who cons a private eye (Stephanie Zimbalist) into making him her partner. The series, which premiered in 1982 on NBC, strove for the quality of screwball comedies, but “Moonlighting” did it more successfully three years later. “Moonlighting” creator Glenn Gordon Caron was a supervising producer and writer on the first season of “Remington.”

The digital set includes audio commentary on two episodes with series creators Michael Gleason and Robert Butler (who directed “Moonlighting”) and enjoyable retrospective documentaries featuring interviews with Brosnan but not Zimbalist.

“3rd Rock From the Sun -- Season One” (Anchor Bay, $40): A delightfully silly NBC comedy that premiered in 1996. The slapstick farce about four clueless aliens (John Lithgow, Kristen Johnston, French Stewart and Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who take on human forms so they can learn everything they can about Earth won several Emmys during its six-year run. The DVD set is a disappointment -- vintage interviews with the cast, bloopers and highlights.

“At Last the 1948 Show” and “Do Not Adjust Your Set” (Tango, $30 each): Before they became Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Eric Idle, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Graham Chapman and Terry Gilliam appeared on these 1967 sketch comedy series.

“Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer: Private Eye” (Tango, $50): After playing the hard-boiled shamus on CBS in the 1980s, Stacy Keach resurrected his Emmy-nominated role for this cheaply produced 1996 syndicated version. Though Keach still had the chops, he should have just let sleeping shamuses lie. Extras are slim -- a poorly produced interview with Keach.

“The Boston Red Sox 2004 World Series Collector’s Edition” (A&E; $130): This 12-disc set features the entire 2004 American League Championship Series as well as the World Series between Boston and the St. Louis Cardinals. A bonus disc includes the “Official 2004 World Series Film,” celebrity fan interviews, wireless on-field recordings, the World Series ring ceremony and player profiles.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

DVD sales

Here are the 10 top-selling DVDs for the week ending July 17. Rankings are compiled from a variety of major retailers, including Best Buy, Blockbuster, Circuit City and Costco.

1. “Million dollar Baby”

2. “Hide and Seek”

3. “The Pacifier”

4. “Hitch”

5. “Hostage”

6. “Diary of a Mad Black Woman”

7. “Coach Carter”

8. “Chappelle’s Show: Second Season”

9. “A Very Long Engagement”

10. “Napoleon Dynamite”

Source: DVDExclusive.com

Los Angeles Times