It’s batter up in the week’s top DVD:

DVDs for Jan. 10 by Boo Allen

This week, we begin in the dugout:

Moneyball (***1/2)

Director Bennett Miller, screenwriter Steven Zaillian, and actor Brad Pitt
have combined to somehow create an interesting film based on a boring
subject. No, not baseball, statistics. Using Michael Lewis’
non-fiction book as its source, the film examines the plight of the
Oakland Athletics and the task faced by its general manager, Billy
Beane (Pitt). The A’s were and are a small market team and so must
rely on getting the most for their money. When a young Yale economist
(Jonah Hill) more or less invents a new way of measuring baseball
players, it upsets the establishment, including manager Art Howe
(Philip Seymour Hoffman). But the New Age metrics help bring the team
some success and therein lies the engaging drama. Director Miller
follows Beane as he butts heads with management while struggling to
field a winning team. Miller may succumb to a few sports cliches but
mainly keeps his film fresh and engaging.

Rated PG-13, 133 minutes. The DVD, also on Blu-ray and in various combo
packs, includes three deleted scenes, a single blooper of three
minutes consisting mostly of Brad Pitt breaking up laughing, a 16
minute featurette on Billy Beane, the 20 minute “making of”
featurette Moneyball, and other separate segments on
drafting the baseball team, and adapting Moneyball for
the screen.

Brothers Karamazov (***)

On Demand Warner Archives releases the prestigious 1958
film version of Dostoevsky’s epic novel. Richard Brooks (In
Cold Blood) directs from a script by Julius and Philip
Epstein (Casablanca), with cinematography from
legendary John Alton. A cast of movie stars with extensive stage
experience takes the parts of the patriarch Karamazov (Lee J. Cobb)
and his sons: Dmitri (Yul Brenner), Army officer and rival to his
father, Alexey (William Shatner in his film debut), novice monk who
argues for the existence of God, their sensitive half brother Ivan
(Richard Basehart), and servant and rumored bastard son Smerdjakov
(Albert Salmi). Brooks juggles the author’s myriad themes as the
brothers, and father, fight for the same money, and, at times, for
the same women (Claire Bloom, Maria Schell). Rated R, 107 minutes.

Sinners and Saints (**1/2)

This violent, action-packed cop thriller takes place in a blighted,
post-Katrina New Orleans. Crime has risen to such heights, the police
have difficulty solving cases. Detective Sean Riley (Johnny Strong)
has a visit from an old friend (Sean Patrick Flanery) who eventually
turns out to be in the middle of a blackmail scheme involving a
Blackwater-like security firm. Various forces play off against each
other, resulting in a succession of bloody confrontations. Everyone
looks grim throughout, with only the occasional female bringing the
boys back to earth.

Rated R, 107 minutes. The DVD, also on Blu-ray, also contains a brief
“behind-the-scenes” featurette and seven minutes of deleted
scenes.

Don’t Let Him In (*1/2)

This amateurish slasher flick features the requisite
tropes of the genre and even has a killer who drools. But that does
not hide its wooden cast and poor stagings. Before a man and his
girlfriend go on a weekend trip, he invites his sister. She then
invites her latest one-night-stand, a surly creep who insults
everyone. Once at the requisite isolated cabin, a wounded stranger
appears at the door, bleeding from an apparent attack from a local
serial killer. Since the choices are limited, the killer’s identity
is no big surprise, not even when a late plot twist attempts to
enliven this leaden production.

Not rated, 80 minutes. The DVD offers commentary, a 41
minute “behind the scenes” featurette, and a brief segment on the
special effects.

Ice Quake (**1/2)

A geologist (Brendan Fehr) and his wife (Holly Dignard)
and daughter and son find themselves trapped on an Alaskan mountain
when dad learns he will be called upon to save the planet when a
succession of “ice geysers” pop up, shooting gas into the air and
causing quakes and massive breaks in the ice sheets. Blame it on
underground methane, or something. The family, and even the dog,
becomes separated. But the local military, including Victor Garber,
just might discover a solution. This film originally premiered on the
Syfy channel and its special effects rank about average for a TV
movie.

Rated PG, 90 minutes. The DVD, also on Blu-ray, includes
a comprehensive 27 minute “making of” featurette.

Happiness is Peanuts—Friends Forever

This single disc collection of Charlie Brown favorites contains the 1968
Emmy-nominated “You’re In Love Charlie Brown,” in which Charlie
finally meets the Red-Haired Girl. But poor Charlie, he is still too
shy to talk to her. Also included is an episode from “The Charlie
Brown and Snoopy Show,” and more. Not rated, 50 minutes.

And finally, from our TV files:

Boardwalk Empire—first season

When this new HBO series, our week’s Top-TV-Series-To-DVD, premiered, it
suggested a Prohibition Era version of “The Sopranos.” Hardly
anything could match that epic series, but this one comes close.
Series creator and former “Sopranos” writer Terence Winter has
made Atlantic City its setting, beginning in 1920 on the first day of
Prohibition. The series takes the on-going, complex, story of Enoch
“Nucky” Thompson (Steve Buscemi) for its center. Thompson, a town
official, unofficially runs the city, selling illegal liquor with the
help of his police chief brother Eli (Shea Wigham) and with the
imprimatur of the city’s long-time chieftain (Dabney Coleman). A web
of sub-plots revolve around City Hall, including presidential
politics, local graft, Thompson’s casino, the World Series, and all
East Coast bootlegging. Various real-life characters appear, such as
Arnold Rothstein, Warren G. Harding, George Remus, and young
gangsters Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, and Meyer Lansky. Michael Shannon
co-stars as a conflicted, devout, and devoted government agent.

Rated TV-MA, 732 minutes. The season’s 12 episodes come on five discs along
with individualized supplements for every episode, such as
progressing character dossiers on around 30 characters. Plus:
commentaries, a 30 minute “making of” featurette, five minutes on
creating the series’ Boardwalk, 30 minutes on “Atlantic City: The
Original Sin City,” and a 20 minute speakeasy tour of the area.

Also on DVD: Killer Elite, Never Been Kissed, What’s Your Number?