Media Room: DVD & Blu-ray reviews

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By THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Answer Man (Magnolia, $26.98 for DVD, $34.98 for Blu-ray) — This movie has an intriguing premise — a reclusive self-help guru turns out to be as much of a seeker as his fans — and two talented actors (Jeff Daniels and Lauren Graham), yet it was never released in local theaters, probably because it feels almost as lost as its central character.

That's not to say this little film isn't worth watching. Just don't expect, as the guru's fans do, to find redemption here. Mr. Daniels plays the author of "Me & God," a transcript of a purported conversation with the deity. But he made the whole thing up, and has spent the years since trying to get in touch with God. He doesn't communicate with anyone else — except his long-suffering editor — but a back injury sends him to the chiropractor played by Miss Graham. The single mother is looking for answers herself — and is disillusioned when she realizes the sage she's treating can't even get a grip on his own life.

Extras include commentary with first-time director John Hindman, deleted scenes and making-of information.

The Claudette Colbert Collection (Universal, $49.98) — French-born, American-raised actress Claudette Colbert was one of cinema's most versatile performers. That range is on full display in this set, which collects six of her lesser-known films on three discs. "Three-Cornered Moon" (1933) finds the actress struggling through the Great Depression after her mother reveals she lost the family fortune in the stock market. "Maid of Salem" (1937) might be a companion piece to Arthur Miller's "The Crucible"; it's equally damning of Puritan society. Fred MacMurray co-stars as the anti-British rebel Colbert is accused of cavorting with — except the townspeople think he's Satan. "I Met Him in Paris" (1937) finds the French actress in a more glamorous role, having romantic adventures in the City of Lights. "Bluebeard's Eighth Wife" (1938) has the best pedigree of the collection — it was directed by Ernst Lubitsch and written by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett.

The comedy stars Colbert as a woman who discovers on her honeymoon that this is by no means her husband's first marriage. "No Time for Love" (1943) finds the actress torn between a polished publisher and a rough-and-ready laborer. "The Egg and I" (1947) is a "Green Acres"-style comedy that finds Colbert and MacMurray repaired as a husband who only tells his wife after they're married that he's not a city man and the wife who finds it hilariously difficult to adjust to country life. This film features the set's sole featurette.

Mission Impossible: The Final TV Season (Paramount, $49.99) — Peter Graves is best-known as the star of this CBS series, which ran from 1966 to 1973, and was the only original cast member to join the revived series that ran on ABC in the late 1980s. The show also gave him one of his two behind-the-scenes credits — he directed "Kidnap," an episode in this seventh and final season.

All 22 episodes are here on six discs. The classic spy action-drama spawned a popular catchphrase — "Your mission, should you choose to accept it …" — and a series of blockbuster movies starring Tom Cruise, but it doesn't get the kind of treatment you might think it deserves here — there are absolutely no extras.

The Rockford Files Movie Collection, Volume 1 (Universal, $26.98) — "The Rockford Files" aired on NBC from 1974 to 1980, but syndication made the unconventional detective series something of a hit among a younger generation. So James Garner resurrected the talkative, never-trigger-happy private eye for eight TV movies that aired on CBS between 1994 and 1999.

Four of those movies are here on two discs. The P.I. reluctantly joins forces with his ex-wife — his clients' lawyer — in "I Still Love L.A." (1994); he helps an actress threatened for her work in a controversial film in "A Blessing in Disguise" (1995); he helps his policeman friend's son in "Godfather Knows Best" (1996); and he's framed for the murder of a fellow detective in "If the Frame Fits" (1996), in which Dyan Cannon co-stars.

— Kelly Jane Torrance

Zorro: The First Complete Season and Zorro: The Second Complete Season (Disney, $59.99) — One of early television's most popular action series, "Zorro," starring Guy Williams, Henry Calvin and Gene Sheldon, ran from 1957 to 1959. The series brought to TV the literary character swashbuckler Don Diego de la Vega. While the masked man on his horse, Tornado, seems kind of campy now, it was hugely entertaining to audiences then, and Zorro was among the most popular Disney characters of the era.

Fans of the series and Disney collectors will enjoy the pair of six-disc sets, which Disney is distributing in limited-edition tin cases with authenticity certificates and a Zorro pin. The boxed sets feature all 78 episodes of the series.

"Zorro," which has been re-created in various animated and movie forms over the last 50 years, reappeared in the early 1960s on "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color." Those hourlong episodes are featured as bonus material in the boxed set.

— Karen Goldberg Goff