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DVD PICK OF THE WEEK

THOMAS KINKADE’S CHRISTMAS COTTAGE

(LionsGate Home Entertainment): For a last blast of Christmas cheer, this bittersweet, autobiographical comedy/drama focusing on the circumstances leading up to the famous painter’s title work makes for warm family fare.

Jared Paladecki portrays the young college student Thom Kinkade, who returns home to Placerville, Calif. for the holidays in 1978 to spend time with his his estranged parents (Marcia Gay Harden and Richard Burgi), his younger brother (Aaron Ashmore) and his mentor, the aging — and ailing — painter Glen Wesman (Peter O’Toole).

Upon learning that the family cottage is in danger of foreclosure, Thom struggles to find some hope for the future, forgetting (if only briefly) that with love and compassion, things sometimes have a way of working out for the better.

The story, as you might expect (especially for those who know Kinkade’s work), is unabashedly sentimental, but the syrup is ladled on judiciously by director/producer Michael Campus (who directed the ’70s pimp classic The Mack!) and by a cast that brings a nice spirit to the proceedings, including Chris Elliott (very funny as the town’s mayor), Geoffrey Lewis, Richard Moll, Charlotte Rae and Edward Asner, whose scene with O’Toole is a treat. Rated PG. ***

ALSO ON DVD

AMARCORD (The Criterion Collection): Federico Fellini looks back on life in a bucolic burg on the Italian coast in the 1930s, as seen through the eyes of an imaginative teenager (Bruno Zanin), in this 1973 comedy/fantasy long thought to have reflected Fellini’s own youth. Winner of the Academy Award as best foreign-language film, with subsequent nominations the next year for best director and best original screenplay (Fellini and Tonino Guerra) — back when the academy used to split the categories. This special-edition boxed set retails for $39.95. Rated R.

ARCH OF TRIUMPH (LionsGate Home Entertainment): Lewis Milestone’s 1948 adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s classic novel stars Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer as refugees who find romance in 1938 Paris, just prior to the Nazi invasion. Drastically recut after a disastrous premiere, this diluted romantic melodrama is slow going much of the time, despite a cast that also includes Charles Laughton (almost totally wasted as the heavy), Louis Calhern and Ruth Warrick. Plenty of talent behind the cameras as well: Irwin Shaw and Bertholt Brecht worked on the screenplay, William Cameron Menzies was the production designer, Russell Metty the cinematographer and Robert Aldrich the assistant director — but, except for a few scenes, the film stubbornly refuses to come to life. **

“BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: THE PLAN” (Universal Studios Home Entertainment): Edward James Olmos directs and stars in this spin-off of the award-winning Sci-Fi Channel series, which conveys the storyline of the series — except through the eyes (monitors?) of the enemy Cylons. Series regulars Dean Stockwell, Tricia Helfer, Grace Park and Callum Keith Rennie reprise their roles. This special-edition DVD retails for $26.98, the Blu-ray for $39.98.

DEATH WARRIOR (LionsGate Home Entertainment): Mixed martial-arts champ Hector Echavarria served as story writer, executive producer and fight choreographer for this action thriller pitting him against several of his reallife rivals (including Georges “Rush” St-Pierre, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Rashad “Sugar” Evans) in a series of fights to the death — most of them set to hard-rockin’ tunes — as engineered by a diabolical crime czar (Nick Mancuso, whose eye-rolling histrionics provide a few laughs). One character remarks: “Let’s not start handing out Oscars just yet.” He ain’t kidding. Rated R. *

ENLIGHTEN UP! (Docurama Films): Subtitled “A Skeptic’s Journey into the World of Yoga,” Kate Churchill’s documentary feature follows journalist Nick Rosen as he delves into the yoga phenomenon. This DVD, which includes interviews and deleted scenes, retails for $26.95.

“THE FUGITIVE”: SEASON THREE, VOLUME TWO (CBS DVD/Paramount Home Entertainment): David Janssen (Emmy Award nominee for outstanding continued lead performance by an actor in a drama) continues his flight from Inspector Gerard (Barry Morse) as he attempts to prove that the One-Armed Man (Bill Raisch) murdered his wife, in the last 15 episodes from the 1965- ’66 season of the prime-time ABC-TV series, which won the Emmy Award as outstanding dramatic series and received an additional nomination for outstanding cinematography. This boxed set retails for $39.98.

INTREPID DESCENT (First Run Features): Skiing enthusiasts should enjoy Erik Osterholm and Zander Hartung’s documentary tracing the history of the Tuckerman Ravine in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, widely considered the birthplace of “extreme skiing.” **½

NOTHING LIKE THE HOLIDAYS (Anchor Bay Entertainment): A Puerto Rican family experiences a tumultuous Christmas reunion in Chicago in this sympathetic comedy/drama that derives much of its warmth from an appealing ensemble cast: Alfred Molina and Elizabeth Pena as Dad and Mom, John Leguizamo, Debra Messing, Freddy Rodriguez (also an executive producer), Luis Guzman, Vanessa Ferlito, Jay Hernandez and Melonie Diaz. Rated PG- 13. **½

PALE FORCE (New Video): A compilation of 33 animated shorts, drawn by Paul Noth, featuring executive producer/writer Jim Gaffigan as the voices of both the fearless superhero “Pale Man” and his scrawny sidekick “Conan O’Brien,” as they battle evildoers as best (and as only) they can. The series, originally broadcast in segments on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” earned a Daytime Emmy nomination as outstanding broadband program (comedy) in 2007. This special-edition DVD retails for $14.95.

PAPER HEART (Anchor Bay Entertainment): Director Nicolas Jasenovec’s award-winning pseudodocumentary/ romantic comedy follows Charlyne Yi as she seeks the true meaning of love — and then finds romance herself, with actor Michael Cera. Jasenovec and Yi also collaborated on the screenplay and served as executive producers. Rated PG-13. **½

“PERRY MASON”: SEASON 4, VOLUME 2 (CBS DVD/Paramount Home Entertainment): He just can’t be beat. Raymond Burr (Emmy Award winner as outstanding lead actor in a drama series) returns as the dynamic defense attorney in the final 12 episodes from the 1960-’61 season of the longrunning prime-time CBS-TV courtroom drama, based on the character created by Erle Stanley Gardner (who was himself a practicing attorney for 20 years). As faithful associate Della Street, Barbara Hale scored an Emmy nomination as outstanding performance in a supporting role by an actor or actress in a series. This boxed set retails for $39.98.

SPREAD (Anchor Bay Entertainment): Ashton Kutcher produced and stars as an “American gigolo” who sweeps — and sleeps his way — through southern California in this ambitious, semisatirical drama that boasts some good moments and some steamy ones, but tends to emulate the aimlessness of its lead character. A contemporary Shampoo it’s not, although not for lack of effort. Among Ashton’s on-screen conquests are Anne Heche, Margarita Levieva and Maria Conchita Alonso (seen only briefly). Rated R. **

TAKING CHANCES (LionsGate Home Entertainment): Originally titled Patriotville, this flat farce stars Justin Long as a small-town historian who tries to fight city hall over plans to build an Indian casino on the site where a Revolutionary War battle took place over 200 years before. Rob Corddry plays the smarmy mayor and UNC School of the Arts alum Missi Pyle his cuckolded wife, with Emmanuelle Chriqui, Jimmi Simpson and Robert Beltran also on hand. Rated R. *

“THE UNTOUCHABLES”: SEASON 3, VOLUME 2 (CBS DVD/Paramount Home Entertainment): The great Robert Stack is back as Eliot Ness, battling organized (and disorganized) crime in Prohibition-era Chicago, in the last 12 episodes from the 1961-’62 season of the award-winning, prime-time CBS-TV crime series, (very) loosely based on Ness’ reallife exploits and narrated in memorable staccato fashion by Walter Winchell. Guest stars include Martin Balsam, Cloris Leachman, Warren Oates, Pat Hingle, Gavin MacLeod, Claude Akins, Don Gordon, Harry Guardino, Jack Elam, Steven Hill and Mike Mazurki, while Bruce Gordon turns up periodically as mob enforcer Frank Nitti. This three-disc boxed set retails for $39.98.

WILD CHILD (Universal Studios Home Entertainment): Emma Roberts plays a spoiled Malibu teenager who makes waves when she’s sent to a British boarding school by her fed-up father (Aidan Quinn) in this stale, predictable culture-clash comedy that was barely released in the US. Sadly, this marks the final film appearance of Natasha Richardson (wasted as the school’s headmistress), who died last summer. Rated PG-13. *

“WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN: BEGINNING OF THE END” (LionsGate Home Entertainment): A collection of five episodes from the animated Nicktoons series, based on the popular Marvel Comics characters, with Steve Blum providing the voice of the title character. This special-edition DVD retails for $14.98, and LionsGate Home Entertainment is also releasing the selfexplanatory “Wolverine and the X-Men: Volumes 1-3” as a three-DVD boxed set ($29.98 retail).