LATEST ADDITIONS

Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 4
For those who thought the world wasn’t ready for a fair-haired James Bond, Daniel Craig acquits himself extremely well in this twenty-first entry in the franchise, which plays fast and loose with the series’ chronology to show the super spy as a newly minted double-0. Cool, steely-eyed, and, above all, physically and emotionally vulnerable, this Bond can actually love a woman, although we learn in short order why he stopped doing so. In this installment, Bond infiltrates an arms financier’s high-stakes poker game staged to win back clients’ lost money. While the story line doesn’t hold up to close scrutiny, we get to see the evolution of the shaken vodka martini and the spy’s signature line of introduction.

Whatever the HD DVD people are doing with their voodoo dolls, it seems to be working. Blu-ray is enduring its first defective-product scandal, with discs breaking out in spots.

Haven't you been watching Showtime's Masters of Horror anthology series, made by the genre's most notorious creators? Anchor Bay Entertainment is releasing each minimovie as a special-edition DVD, so it will be easy to catch up. Season two included "Pelts," an eerie tale of the world's most acrimonious furrier and some dangerous skins, directed by horror maestro Dario Argento and starring the multitalented Meat Loaf. It's now available on DVD.

In what could be a major blow to HD DVD in the format war, DVD rental giant Blockbuster announced that it will expand rental of Blu-ray Discs exclusively into 1,450 stores by mid-July. Blockbuster will continue to rent HD DVD discs online and in the 250 stores in which it has been renting both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs since late last year. For a running total, that's 1,700 exclusive Blu-ray stores and 250 stores stocking both formats.