Web posted November 22, 2007

New on Video&DVD

DAVID GERMAIN
Selected home-video releases

'Live Free or Die Hard' now on DVD

Willis' wiseguy cop John McClane has gotten a little more serious with age, but he can still give and take a punch - a lot of punches. After a 12-year hiatus, Willis returned to his action franchise with this hit sequel that has McClane racing to foil a plot by a technology-whiz (Timothy Olyphant) to shut down vital services and infrastructure over the Fourth of July. Single-disc DVD, $29.98; two-disc DVD set, $34.98; Blu-ray disc, $39.98.

'Hairspray'

It started as cult filmmaker John Waters' little flick, went on to become a Broadway smash and returned to the big-screen in a musical adaptation of the stage version. Newcomer Nikki Blonsky stars as a plump, plucky Baltimore teen who enlists friends and family - including John Travolta in a cross-dressing role as her equally portly mother and Queen Latifah as a saucy record-shop owner - to racially integrate a TV dance show in the 1960s. Single-disc DVD, $28.98; two-disc DVD set, $34.99; Blu-ray disc, $39.98.

'The Santa Clause 3:The Escape Clause'

Tim Allen is coming to town again in the third installment of his holiday franchise. This time out, Allen's Santa Claus is transported back to the moment in the first movie when he became jolly old St. Nick, with the scheming Jack Frost (Martin Short) stepping in to hijack the Claus persona and turn the holiday in an even gaudier exercise in commercialism than it already is. DVD, $29.99; Blu-ray disc, $34.99.

'Led Zeppelin: The Song Remains the Same'

Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Bonham and John Paul Jones return in one of the all-time great rock concert films, a 1976 release that captures Zeppelin at its prime in New York City performances three years earlier. The film comes in a two-disc set whose extras include unreleased performances, TV coverage of the tour, a BBC interview with plant and a radio piece by a young rock journalist named Cameron Crowe, who would go on to chronicle his experiences in the fictionalized comic drama "Almost Famous." Two-disc DVD set, $20.97; Collector's edition DVD set, $44.98.

'The Lady Vanishes,''Sawdust and Tinsel'

Alfred Hitchcock's 1938 classic spy caper "The Lady Vanishes" gets a top-notch DVD update, while Ingmar Bergman's 1953 battle-of-the-sexes saga "Sawdust and Tinsel" makes its DVD debut. "The Lady Vanishes" features May Whitty as a kindly old woman who makes pals with a fellow train passenger (Margaret Lockwood), then disappears as though she never existed, prompting the younger woman to race to crack the case and convince everyone else she's not crazy. "Sawdust and Tinsel" stars Ake Gronberg as a circus owner in a heated relationship with one of his performers (Harriet Andersson). DVDs, $39.95 each.

TV on DVD:

"CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - The Seventh Season" - DVD set, $99.99.

"Gene Simmons: Family Jewels - The Complete Season 2" - DVD set, $34.95.

"Love, American Style: Season One, Volume One" - DVD set, $36.99.

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