‘Inside Man’ plots its way onto DVD

REVIEWS

By David Germain

updated 3:45 p.m. ET Aug. 10, 2006

“Inside Man”
Leave it to Spike Lee to go commercial without selling his soul. Director Lee scores his biggest box-office hit ever, working with a big-name cast and a mainstream premise yet still hanging on to undercurrents of racial unease that characterize most of the filmmaker’s movies. Denzel Washington, who starred in three previous Lee films including “Malcolm X” and “He Got Game,” plays a detective struggling to defuse a hostage situation that arises during a bank robbery, with Clive Owen as the criminal ringleader and Jodie Foster as an intermediary with a mysterious agenda. The DVD packs 25 minutes of deleted scenes, a chat between Lee and Washington about working together, commentary from the director and a behind-the-scenes featurette. DVD, $29.98. (Universal) Read the review

“Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector”

Jon Barron Farmer / Lions Gate Films via AP

The redneck stand-up comedy star gets his own movie — one that may have you seeking out your own mental health inspector if you’re unlucky enough to watch it. Overloaded with crude, unfunny gags about flatulence, vomit and other bodily functions, the movie presents Larry the Cable Guy as a city health inspector who goes undercover to root out the guilty parties responsible for a food-poisoning outbreak at some of the town’s best eateries. The DVD includes a making-of featurette and has both the widescreen theatrical release and the full-screen formatted version of the movie. DVD, $29.99. (Paramount) Read the review

“Don’t Come Knocking”

Wim Wenders / AP file

Director Wim Wenders, who previously teamed with playwright Sam Shepard as screenwriter on “Paris, Texas,” now casts Shepard in the lead of another quirky road-trip tale set in the vast empty spaces of the modern American west. Shepard, again writing the screenplay, stars as an aging star of Hollywood Westerns who flees the set of his latest movie in a quest that reconnects him with an old lover (Jessica Lange) and puts him in touch with offspring he never knew. Wenders offers commentary on the full film and deleted scenes and joins in an interview with co-star Eva Marie Saint. The DVD also has two featurettes. DVD, $24.96. (Sony) Read the review

“Manderlay,” “CSA: The Confederate States of America”

Ifc Films Via Ap File

Two dark, sardonic flights of fancy make for intriguing reflection about race relations in America, presenting alternate universes where slavery remains viable long after the Civil War. “Manderlay” follows “Dogville” as part two of director Lars von Trier’s trilogy critiquing and satirizing America. Bryce Dallas Howard steps into the role originated by Nicole Kidman in “Dogville,” playing a woman in the 1930s who stumbles across a Southern plantation where black slaves continue serving white masters as if emancipation never happened. Danny Glover co-stars. Director Kevin Willmott’s “CSA” is a faux documentary offering a glimpse of present-day America under Confederate rule, the South having won the Civil War. Willmott offers commentary, and the DVD has deleted scenes. DVDs, $24.95 each. (IFC) Read the review

“The Jayne Mansfield Collection”
A boxed set collects three 1950s romps starring blond bombshell Mansfield. The three-disc package is highlighted by a 50th anniversary edition of “The Girl Can’t Help It,” with Mansfield playing a bimbo whose mobster boyfriend (Edmond O’Brien) hires a talent agent (Tom Ewell) to turn the talentless woman into a singing star. Also included are “Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?” with Mansfield as a movie star drafted for a promotional campaign by an advertising man (Tony Randall), a geek who finds himself forced to carry on a masquerade as her lover; and “The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw” with Mansfield as a saloon owner in the Old West and Kenneth More as an English gentleman who falls for her. The set includes commentary by film historians and a documentary segment on Mansfield. DVD set, $49.98. (20th Century Fox)

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