Three Oscar-nominated actors lead off this collection of movies new to DVD.
"Walk the Line" (Fox, 2005, PG-13, $29.98). This biography of Johnny Cash has its weaknesses and looks like too many other musical biographies, but most of the way it's entertaining and the songs keep it afloat.
But what helps it occasionally soar are the lead performances by Joaquin Phoenix as Cash and especially the gloriously effervescent Reese Witherspoon as June Carter. Both are nominated for Oscars, and Witherspoon should win. She gives the film an extra boost.
Bonus features pretty much ignore the real Johnny Cash, but the deleted scenes are all quite good, and many flesh out the character of Cash's first wife, wonderfully played by Ginnifer Goodwin.
Extras: Separate widescreen and full-frame editions, audio commentary (by director/co-writer James Mangold), deleted scenes, language options (English, Spanish, French), subtitle options (English, Spanish), chapters. (Also sold in a two-disc "Collector's Edition," featuring extended musical performances, a making-of featurette, and featurettes on Cash and Carter, $39.98.)
"Pride & Prejudice" (Focus/Universal, 2005, PG, $29.98). Keira Knightley is also nominated for an Oscar for her delightful starring role in this excellent adaptation of the oft-filmed Jane Austen comic love story about an independent woman in 18th-century England who tries to fight her attraction to an eligible but arrogant bachelor.
Extras: Separate widescreen and full-frame editions, audio commentary (by director Joe Wright), making-of featurettes, HBO "First Look" episode, language and subtitle options (English, Spanish, French), chapters.
"Yours, Mine & Ours" (Paramount, 2005, PG, $29.95). Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo are wasted in this update of a true story that was filmed in the '60s with Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball, about widowed parents who marry and fill their house with 18 children. This one, however, is more like the recent "Cheaper By the Dozen" films, as Quaid takes pratfalls engineered by the bratty brood.
Extras: Separate widescreen and full-frame editions, audio commentary (by director Raja Gosnell), deleted scenes, making-of featurettes, language options (English, French), subtitle options (English, Spanish), chapters.
"Love Me Tender" (Fox, 1956, not rated, b/w, $19.98). Elvis Presley's first film casts him as the younger brother of a post-Civil War clan. The oldest brother comes home to find Presley has married his girl, thinking his brother was killed in the war. Presley is a bit stiff, but it's fun to see him so young. His hip-swinging songs, however, are hopelessly anachronistic.
Extras: Widescreen, audio commentary (by historian Jerry Schilling), featurettes, photo gallery, language and subtitle options (English, Spanish), chapters; six-page booklet, four post-card size b/w lobby-card reproductions.
"Dog Day Afternoon" (Warner, 1975; R for violence, language; $26.98). This comic/tragic true story has a pair of hapless bank robbers (Al Pacino, John Cazale) holding employees as hostages while outside tension builds. Charles Durning is the cop who tries to negotiate, Chris Sarandon is Pacino's cross-dressing lover and young Carol Kane plays a teller.
Extras: Widescreen, audio commentary (by director Sidney Lumet), new making-of documentary, vintage featurette on Lumet, trailer, language options (English, French), subtitle options (English, French, Spanish), chapters.
"The Lords of Discipline" (Paramount, 1983; R for violence, language; $14.98). In 1964, wise-guy military cadet David Keith is assigned to watch over the school's first black cadet (Mark Breland), but a secret society gives them both grief. Standard stuff, but very well played by a game cast, which includes Judge Reinhold and Bill Paxton.
Extras: Widescreen, language options (English, French), optional English subtitles, chapters.
"The Gospel Road" (Fox, 1972, G, $19.98). This Johnny Cash film about the mission of Jesus (who looks like a surfer dude) is a strange long-form music video filmed on location in Israel. Cash is on-camera narrator, singing country songs against events from the Gospels. June Carter Cash plays Mary Magdalene. A real curio.
Extras: Widescreen, photo gallery, radio spots, subtitle options (English, Spanish), chapters.
"The Visitation" (Fox, 2005, PG-13, $26.98, one double-sided disc). Spooky supernatural doings in a film that tries to make up in artsy visuals what it can't from a weak script. Odd cast mix includes Martin Donovan, Edward Furlong, Kelly Lynch, Randy Travis and Priscilla Barnes.
Extras: Widescreen and full-frame options, subtitle options (English, Spanish), chapters.
"Dog Eat Dog!" (Dark Sky, 1964, not rated, b/w, $14.98). Producers from Italy, Germany and the United States may have helped confuse this unfocused crime thriller, as disparate characters on a Greek island try to get away with $1 million. Jayne Mansfield is bizarre, and her voice is dubbed.
Extras: Widescreen, newsreels on Mansfield, photo gallery, trailer, chapters.
"Werewolves on Wheels" (Dark Sky, 1971; R for violence, sex, nudity, language; $14.98). See the title? Do you need to know any more? Nasty bikers practice the dark arts and get hairy.
Extras: Widescreen, audio commentary, photo gallery, radio spots, trailers, chapters.
"The Losers" (a k a "Nam's Angels") (Dark Sky, 1970; R for violence, sex, nudity, language; $19.98). Think Hell's Angels in Vietnam channeling Rambo and you get an idea of just how bad this one is.
Extras: Widescreen, audio commentary, photo gallery, radio spots, trailers, chapters.
E-mail: hicks@desnews.com