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The “Clone Wars” goes back to the original Star Wars film when Obi-Wan Kenobi tells Luke Skywalker that he was once a Jedi knight the same as your father and that they fought together in the Clone Wars. Since that moment fans have been obsessed with what the clone wars were. This new TV series takes place immediately after the events of Star Wars-Episode II: Attack of the Clones. The series follows Obi-Wan Kenobi and his apprentice Anakin Skywalker and introduces us to some new characters such as Ahsoka Tano a girl Jedi knight as well as characters we already know.The thrilling 3-D CGI animated series The Clone Wars serves as impressive proof that George Lucas’s Star Wars universe could translate to a weekly television series that wouldn’t lose the scope, imagination, or sense of adventure of the features. Like the 2008 feature film of the same name, the 22 episodes that compose the series’ debut season (2008-2009) cover the action between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Here Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, and the latter’s Padawan, 14-year-old Ahsoka Tano (who takes some getting used to), along with a complex cast of supporting characters from the Galactic Republic (including R2-D2 and C-3PO, again voiced by Anthony Daniels), battle the Separatists, which count members of the Sith and other adherents to the Dark Side of the Force among its ranks. The action is plentiful and the scripts rich with the quasi-mystical and eminently quotable dialogue on which the Star Wars saga has earned its legendary status; one can imagine only the most stringent purist or CGI detractor finding fault with the first season of The Clone Wars.

The handsomely packaged four-disc set for season 1 includes a wealth of extras for those wishing to dig even deeper into the Clone Wars experience. Chief among the pleasant surprises is the widescreen aspect ratio for each episode, which gives greater depth and exposure to every single frame. Seven episodes are listed as Director’s Cuts, which translates as an extra minute or two of action or dialogue–not earth-shattering, but they certainly enhance the enjoyment of each episode. Short featurettes, ranging between 5 and 7 minutes, accompany each episode and discuss production notes, character design, and other detail; these are expanded versions of the commentaries by supervising director Dave Filoni that were featured on StarWars.com, with additional contributions by series writer Henry Gilroy and sound designer David Acord, as well as new comments by Filoni. And there’s a 64-page book of artwork from the series, including storyboards, concept design, and matte paintings, built into the body of the packaging itself. For the Easter Egg-inclined, a surprise awaits on each disc, including trailers for season 2 and animatics. –Paul Gaita

Rating: (out of 148 reviews)

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Yet Dexter is soon back to his compulsion for seeking out criminals who’ve somehow escaped traditional justice. Hall, one of TV’s most talented actors, manages to make Dexter’s off-kilter moral compass totally believable, if not quite sympathetic. The rest of the cast is stellar, including Dex’s sister, Debra, played by Jennifer Carpenter as the seemingly more combustible Morgan–a hot-tempered Miami detective in the same division where Dexter toils in the background as a blood-spatter specialist. Deb wears her heart on her sleeve, as a cop and a sister, and her deep love for her brother is a key part of what makes Dexter so human. (And Carpenter’s chemistry with Hall is amped by the fact that in real life, the actors are married.)

Season 3′s breakout guest star is the amazing Jimmy Smits, who plays District Attorney Miguel Prado, a polished pillar of the community, an ambitious politician–and a guy with a secret every bit as dark as Dexter’s. As Miguel and Dexter peel away each other’s unsavory layers, Dexter tries to tamp down Miguel’s blistering desire for revenge, and Miguel begins leading a double life–one that could threaten Dexter’s life and family as much as the growing list of bad guys in Miguel’s crosshairs. The other main star of Dexter is the city of Miami, its teeming beauty and corruption celebrated in equal measure, and its blistering sun shot without tempering. The city is so integral, visually and viscerally, that it’s impossible to think of Dexter being shot anywhere else. The set’s best extras–engaging interviews with cast members Hall, Benz, Carpenter, Lauren Vélez (Lt. Maria Laguerta) and David Zayas (Det. Angel Batista)–must be watched on a computer, for reasons that are unclear. Still, the interviews are must-sees for all Dexter fans. It’s a killer season. –A.T. Hurley

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Jean Reno, Gary Oldman, Natalie Portman and Danny Aiello star in Leon: The Professional, a go-for-broke thriller about a professional assassin whose work becomes dangerously personal. Calling himself a “cleaner”, the mysterious Leon (Reno) is New York’s top hitman. When his next-door neighbors are murdered, Leon becomes the unwilling guardian of the family’s sole survivor – 12-year-old Mathilda (Natalie Portman), but Mathilda doesn’t just want protection; she wants revenge. Training her in the deadly tricks of his trade, Leon helps her track the psychotic agent (Oldman) who murdered her family.Luc Besson (The Fifth Element) made his American directorial debut with this stylized thriller about an Italian hit man (Jean Reno) who takes in an American girl (Natalie Portman) being pursued by a corrupt killer cop (Gary Oldman). Oldman is a little more unhinged than he should be, but there is something genuinely irresistible about the story line and the relationship between Reno and Portman. Rather than cave in to the cookie-cutter look and feel of American action pictures, Besson brings a bit of his glossy style from French hits La Femme Nikita and Subway to the production, and the results are refreshing even if the bullets and explosions are awfully familiar. –Tom Keogh

Rating: (out of 475 reviews)

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Academy Award® winners Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs) and Benicio Del Toro (Traffic) tear up the screen in this action-packed thriller. Lawrence Talbot (Del Toro) is lured back to his family estate to investigate the savage murder of his brother by a bloodthirsty beast. There, Talbot must confront his childhood demons, his estranged father (Hopkins), his brother’s grieving fiancée (Emily Blunt, The Devil Wears Prada) and a suspicious Scotland Yard Inspector (Hugo Weaving, The Matrix Trilogy). When Talbot is bitten by the creature, he becomes eternally cursed and soon discovers a fate far worse than death. Inspired by the classic Universal film that launched a legacy of horror, The Wolfman brings the myth of a cursed man back to its iconic origins.The mist rising over the moors feels right, and so does the slant of moonlight coming over a Victorian village-scape. And if the moon is full, this must be The Wolfman, Universal’s 2010 attempt to revive one of the crown jewels in its deservedly legendary horror stable. Benicio Del Toro takes on the old Lon Chaney Jr. role of Lawrence Talbot, an American visitor to his ancestral home in England. Talbot’s brother has recently been torn to bits by a beast in the forest, leaving behind a grieving fiancée (Emily Blunt) and a not-visibly-grieving father (Anthony Hopkins). This central situation seems drained of blood even before the full-moon transfigurations begin to bloom, and Del Toro’s Talbot–an actor by trade, which raises interesting possibilities for a story of a man divided by different personalities–is mystifyingly blank. The intriguing casting of Del Toro (what an opportunity for a cool werewolf!) comes to naught as Talbot seems to languish on the periphery of his own story. Hugo Weaving tries to generate some interest as the police inspector on the case, but he too is defeated by the combination of mechanical storytelling and bland computer-generated werewolves. The script skips from one exposition scene to the next, but nothing registers long enough to create character, tension, or the slimmest desire to see what happens in the next scene. Every once in a while director Joe Johnston (Jumanji) finds a grand staircase or CGI fog that conjures up the atmosphere of the old Universal horror classics, but otherwise this is a clueless affair–not as bad as Van Helsing, but flat-out dull. The movie can’t even find a way to get the old Gypsy lady (Geraldine Chaplin stepping into Maria Ouspenskaya’s tiny shoes) to deliver a proper recitation of screenwriter Curt Siodmak’s great “Even a man who is pure in heart” doggerel from the 1941 film. Instead, it’s thrown away in a voice-over at the beginning–one hairy way to start the movie. –Robert Horton

Rating: (out of 92 reviews)

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What does Nelson Mandela do after becoming president of South Africa? He rejects revenge, forgives oppressors who jailed him 27 years for his fight against apartheid and finds hope of national unity in an unlikely place: the rugby field. Clint Eastwood (named 2009′s Best Director by the National Board of Review) directs an uplifting film about a team and a people inspired to greatness. Morgan Freeman (NBR’s Best Actor Award winner and Oscar nominee for this role) is Mandela, who asks the national rugby team captain (Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee Matt Damon) and his squad to do the impossible and win the World Cup. Prepare to be moved–and thrilled.After South Africa elected Nelson Mandela president, the racially divided country could’ve easily erupted into civil war. In Clint Eastwood’s determinedly populist, yet heartfelt look back at that time, the director examines one of the more ingenious steps Mandela (Morgan Freeman in a performance of sly charm) took to prevent that from happening. Knowing that his country was set to host the Rugby World Cup in 1995, Mandela believed the national team could provide an example of reconciliation in action. Led by François Pienaar (an unbelievably buff Matt Damon), the mostly white Springboks inspired devotion among Afrikaners and disgust among native Africans. Instead of changing their name or colors, Mandela encouraged them to win for the sake of their homeland. During the year leading up to the event, the team learns to work together as never before, just as Mandela’s newly integrated security detail, a combination of cops and activists, finds a way to bridge their ideological differences. By the time of the big day, the poorly ranked Springboks are well equipped to hold their own against New Zealand’s All Blacks (so named for their uniforms, not their racial composition). Drawing from John Carlin’s Playing the Enemy, Anthony Peckham’s script takes its title, Latin for “unconquerable,” from a British poem Mandela held close to his heart during the 27 years he spent in prison. If Damon’s accent is more convincing, Freeman serves as the film’s heart–and as a timely reminder that reconciliation is never easy, but that it will always trump revenge. –Kathleen C. Fennessy

Rating: (out of 54 reviews)

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Beyond Once on DVD

Musicals on DVD

Once: The Soundtrack

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Musical Drama based on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s celebrated musical phenomenon. The Phantom of the Opera tells the story of a disfigured musical genius (Gerard Butler) who haunts the catacombs beneath the Paris Opera, waging a reign of terror over its occupants. When he falls fatally in love with the lovely Christine (Emmy Rossum), the Phantom devotes himself to creating a new star for the Opera, exerting a strange sense of control over the young soprano as he nurtures her extraordinary talents.Although it’s not as bold as Oscar darling Chicago, The Phantom of the Opera continues the resuscitation of the movie musical with a faithful adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s blockbuster stage musical. Emmy Rossum glows in a breakout role as opera ingénue Christine Daae, and if phantom Gerard Butler isn’t Rossum’s match vocally, he does convey menace and sensuality in such numbers as “The Music of the Night.” The most experienced musical theater veteran in the cast, romantic lead Patrick Wilson, sings sweetly but seems wooden. The biggest name in the cast, Minnie Driver, hams it up as diva Carlotta, and she’s the only principal whose voice was dubbed (though she does sing the closing-credit number, “Learn to Be Lonely,” which is also the only new song).

Director Joel Schumacher, no stranger to visual spectacle, seems to have found a good match in Lloyd Webber’s larger-than-life vision of Gaston LeRoux’s Gothic horror-romance. His weakness is cuing too many audience-reaction shots and showing too much of the lurking Phantom, but when he calms down and lets Rossum sings “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again” alone in a silent graveyard, it’s exquisite.

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Those who consider the stage musical shallow and overblown probably won’t have their minds changed by the movie, and devotees will forever rue that the movie took the better part of two decades to develop, which prevented the casting of original principals Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman. Still, The Phantom of the Opera is a welcome exception to the long line of ill-conceived Broadway-to-movie travesties.

DVD Features
The special edition of The Phantom of the Opera has two major extras. “Behind the Mask: The Story of The Phantom of the Opera” is an hourlong documentary tracing the genesis of the stage show, with interviews of composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, director Harold Prince, producer Cameron Macintosh, lyricists Richard Stilgoe and Charles Hart, choreographer Gillian Lynne, and others. Conspicuously absent are stars Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford. Both do appear in video clips, including Brightman performing with Colm Wilkinson at an early workshop, and Crawford is the subject of a casting segment. Other brief scenes from the show are represented by a 2001 production. The other major feature is the 45-minute making-of focusing on the movie, including casting and the selection of director Joel Schumacher Both are well-done productions by Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group.

The deleted scene is a new song written by Lloyd Webber and Charles Hart, “No One Would Listen,” sung by the Phantom toward the end of the movie. It’s a beautiful song that, along with Madame Giry’s story, makes him a more sympathetic character. But because that bit of backstory already slowed down the ending, it was probably a good move to cut the song. –David Horiuchi

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The Phantom of the Opera (Special Extended Edition Soundtrack) (CD)	The Phantom of the Opera (2004 Movie Soundtrack) (CD)	The Phantom of the Opera (Original 1986 London Cast) (CD)
Evita (DVD)	Andrew Lloyd Weber: The Royal Albert Hall Celebration (DVD)	More Broadway DVDs

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Brenda’s back. Finally accepted by her LAPD homicide team after a year of hard-won victories, Deputy Police Chief Brenda Johnson spends less time fighting her co-workers and more time fighting the bad guys – like whoever left a body in Provenza’s garage, or dropped a porn star’s head in a dumpster, or offed a drug-addicted heiress. And there’s almost as much happening on the domestic scene as the crime scene: Gabriel and Daniels kindle a romance and Brenda and Fritz put the flame under theirs when Fritz moves in. Kyra Sedgwick reprises her acclaimed role of Brenda and makes her the brilliant, complex, flawed, funny and totally irresistible heart of this crime-series powerhouse. Clue yourself in!

DVD Features:
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Featurette:Breaking Down the Closer – In the same way Brenda Johnson breaks down suspects during her interrogations, we will break down this hit series in our behind-the-scenes featurette to uncover the origin of the shows unique cases, the history behind its quirky lead character and the production teams efforts to bring a sense of reality to their startlingly original stories.
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Deputy Police Chief Brenda Johnson may have put in a year already with the Los Angeles police department, but that doesn’t mean the transplanted Southerner fits in yet. In the second season of the TNT drama The Closer, Brenda is less a fish out of water, but she’s still not completely at home with her brash colleagues–some of whom resent her potent mixture of brains and beauty. All 15 episodes from the 2006-2007 are included in this four-disc box set. And aside from a couple episodes where viewers are able to correctly guess the ending about 20 minutes into the show, the cases are taut, provocative, and highly watchable. Much of the show’s success is due to Kyra Sedgwick (The Woodsman, Something to Talk About), an actress who seemed poised for movie stardom before she took time off to raise a family with husband Kevin Bacon. As bull-headed as she is soft-hearted, Brenda has a wry sense of humor and delivers her punch lines with a gentle drawl. But don’t mistake gentility for gullibility: Cross her and you’ve made an enemy for life. Even when she’s stuck in sitcom-like situations–such as trying to hide from her mother that she’s living with her boyfriend–Brenda brings believability to her situation. From the first episode (dealing with the investigation of a brutally murdered police officer) to the last (Brenda’s attempt to bring down a terrorist organization), Sedgwick is riveting; no wonder, then, that the Golden Globes honored her in 2007 as best actress in a TV drama. Rounding out the cast are J.K. Simmons (The Spider-Man franchise) as Assistant Chief Will Pope, Jon Tenney (Fools Rush In) as her boyfriend Fritz, and Anthony John Denison (Wild Things) as hard-nosed Detective Andy Flynn. –Jae-Ha Kim

Rating: (out of 79 reviews)

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