My Dog Skip
Sound *** Picture *** Film ***½
(Warner Home Video)
Warm and rich. That description applies to the picture, the sound, and the film. The former is a little soft but with little visible edge enhancement. The story takes place in the 1940s south, so the softness may well have been deliberate to produce a "period" look. It isn't that pronounced, and probably won't be visible on a small screen. The sound is excellent for what it is, and earns extra credit for a very nicely recorded music score. The story is a family-friendly "boy and his dog" tale of the sort that never gets dated.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Sound **** Picture **** Film ****
(Touchstone Home Video)
The washed-out color is deliberate, and there's just a trace of edge enhancement in long shots. Otherwise, the picture is pristinely sharp. The sound is clean and very sweet, lacking just a trace of air at the top end. But it's as hard to criticize as the film itself, a quirky and very loose takeoff on Homer's Odyssey. The three protagonists are escaped convicts in Mississippi in 1937. Their bizarre adventures will be a surprise only to those unfamiliar with the other films by the Coen brothers. This is one of their best.

Ocean's Eleven: Widescreen Edition
Sound *** Picture *** Film ***
(Warner Home Video)
The picture quality in the original theatrical release was not that good, so it's not surprising that the DVD looks a bit harsh and grainy, with noticeable edge enhancement. The sound is adequate, though there's nothing particularly amazing about the mix. The film itself is a superior remake of a 1960s "Rat Pack" movie of the same name, about a heist in a Las Vegas casino. The latter was vastly inferior to this new version—and that doesn't happen every day.

The One: Special Edition
Sound *** Picture *** Film *½
(Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment)
Essentially a Kung Fu film disguised as a science-fiction epic. Seems that an ambitious individual from one universe is hopscotching around to parallel universes, eliminating his alternate selves and thereby absorbing their strengths and talents. In the process he becomes some sort of evil superbeing. It's an intriguing idea; too bad the filmmakers had little interest in doing anything interesting with it, building the story around their star (Kung Fu idol Jet Li) instead of casting the film to fit the concept.

Edge enhancement—not terrible, but visible—limits the video transfer, and the mediocre recording of the music track limits the sound rating. Still, if this is your thing, the technical quality won't limit your enjoyment.

Pearl Harbor: 60th Anniversary Commemorative Edition
Sound *** Picture **** Film **½
(Touchstone Home Video)
Apart from the truly extraordinary attack sequence itself, and a well-done but unnecessary epilogue about Jimmy Doolittle's raid on Tokyo, Pearl Harbor plays as a drawn-out, not particularly convincing romantic triangle. An extended version with added scenes and features (and a more restrictive rating) is due this summer. The photography was breathtaking in the theater; the video transfer here is softer than it should be, and some edge enhancement intrudes. It's a decent-looking transfer but could have been better. The sound, however, is reference quality throughout.

Planet of the Apes
Sound **** Picture **** Film **½
(20th Century Fox Home Entertainment)
The video quality is crisp and colorful, with excellent blacks. There are traces of edge enhancement, but not enough to keep it from the highest rating. The sound is gorgeous, with great dynamic range, outstanding bass, and aggressive surrounds (though sometimes perhaps a bit too aggressive). The musical score is beautifully recorded and a highlight of the soundtrack, with an outstanding soundstage and fine depth. The film itself is . . . well, let's just say it won't make you forget the original, despite its far higher production values. The ending of this new, "re-imagined" version remains a head-scratcher.

The Princess Diaries
Sound ***½ Picture *** Film ***
(Buena Vista Home Entertainment)
The video transfer is consistently good, and in some scenes exceptional. There's a trace of edge enhancement here and there, but never to the point that it creates a consistently "video" look. The sound is modest but clean and entirely appropriate to the film. The story, about a teenager who suddenly discovers she's heir to the throne of a tiny European country, is slight. But it's good to see a still-great-looking Julie Andrews onscreen again, and the movie is consistently entertaining. It's more amusing than fall-down funny, but at least the humor isn't forced. Director Garry Marshall's commentary track, however, is a riot.

Red Planet
Sound *** Picture *** Film **½
(Warner Home Video)
The picture is pristine; the monochrome look of the scenes on Mars is, of course, intentional. The sound is spectacular, with solid bass, a full-bodied balance, and a very well-recorded music track. If only the film were better. Still, it's moderately diverting (I did enjoy it more on DVD than in the theater), and better than the creaky Mission to Mars, also released in 2000.

The Sandlot
Sound ***½ Picture ***½ Film ***½
(20th Century Fox Home Entertainment)
This is one of those surprises that almost make slogging through piles of unfamiliar films worthwhile. To mangle a metaphor, it's a gem among the thorns. The story is of a new kid in the neighborhood who learns to make friends and play baseball in one eventful summer. It's a great family film that won't bore adults.

The clean, bright, colorful picture is just slightly soft, but there's no obvious edge enhancement. The sound, while unspectacular, is defined and open, with a fine if mostly subtle music track.

<I>Shadow Magic
Sound *** Picture **½ Film ***
(Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment)
Looking for something a little different? How about a story about the introduction of motion pictures to early-20th-century China? This is a modest little independent film with a strong period feel and nice performances. If you love movies, you'll enjoy it. The only annoyance is the subtitles: the dialogue is evenly divided between Chinese and English, but the English subtitles remain onscreen even when English is being spoken. Maybe the producers thought that the English character's heavy Cockney accent would be hard to understand (it isn't).

The picture quality is a little variable, but always watchable and very colorful, particularly in a few scenes with highly elaborate Chinese costumes. The surround is Dolby Surround only, but the music is well-reproduced and the dialogue is clean, natural, and intelligible.