New DVDs: ‘At World’s End,’ ‘Superbad’

REVIEWS

By David Germain

updated 6:31 p.m. ET Dec. 6, 2007

“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”
Johnny Depp and the rest of his pirate cronies return for part three of their high-seas adventures, which joined its predecessors as one of Hollywood’s biggest-ever blockbusters. Picking up with the cliffhanger of 2006’s second chapter, the latest movie has Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley teaming with old foe Geoffrey Rush to retrieve Depp’s Capt. Jack Sparrow from the great beyond after he’s banished to Davy Jones’ Locker. The movie comes in a bare-bones single-disc DVD or two-disc DVD and Blu-ray high-definition sets stuffed to the hatches with extras. Among the behind-the-scenes materials are segments on Capt. Jack’s opening sequence, in which visual effects create an entire ship’s complement of Depps, and the relationship between Depp and Rolling Stones idol Keith Richard, who plays Jack’s father (Depp says his original notion for the first movie was playing Jack as a cross between Richards and wily cartoon skunk Pepe LePew). The DVD set dissects the effects that went into the climactic battle on the edge of a giant whirlpool, while the Blu-ray set features a more extensive look at the sequence. Single DVD, $29.99; two-disc DVD set, $34.99; two-disc Blu-ray set, $35.99. (Disney) Read the review

“Superbad”

Melissa Moseley / AP

Geeks staked a claim to much of the summer audience with this comedy hit produced by Judd Apatow, director of “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Knocked Up.” Co-written by and co-starring Apatow regular Seth Rogen, the lead player from “Knocked Up,” the movie features Jonah Hill, Michael Cera and Christopher Mintz-Plasse as social misfits on a prowl for booze in hopes of scoring with women at a party as high-school graduation nears. The movie is available in the R-rated theatrical version or an unrated edition on single DVD versions, or in two-disc DVD and two-disc Blu-ray releases with the unrated cut. Along with deleted and extended scenes, extras include a script run-through from 2002 in which Rogen reads the part that went to Hill, a character named Seth whose misadventures were based on Rogen and co-writer Evan Goldberg’s own teen days. Apatow, Rogen, Goldberg and the lead actors also provide commentary. Single DVD, $28.95; two-disc DVD set, $34.95; two-disc Blu-ray set, $43.95. (Sony) Read the review

“The Nanny Diaries”

MGM

Scarlett Johansson lands a thankless gig as a new college graduate who takes a nanny job and finds herself nursemaid to a really messed-up family in this adaptation of the best-selling book. Laura Linney and Paul Giamatti co-star as the well-off and demanding Manhattanites who hire Johansson to tend their bratty kid, while the cast also includes Alicia Keys and Chris Evans. The DVD includes a making-of featurette, a segment with the book’s authors, Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, and a collection of bloopers. DVD, $29.95. (Genius) Read the review

“Ford at Fox”
This mammoth set pays tribute to one of Hollywood’s greatest and most-prolific directors. John Ford is best-remembered as the man behind such John Wayne classics as “The Searchers,” “The Quiet Man” and “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” yet this marvelous 21-disc package offers a survey of the director’s three-plus decades at 20th Century Fox, including “The Grapes of Wrath,” “How Green Was My Valley,” “My Darling Clementine,” “Drums Along the Mohawk” and “Young Mr. Lincoln.” Among the 24 films are silent productions such as “The Iron Horse,” “3 Bad Men” and “Hangman’s House,” in which Wayne first appears as an extra, plus the Will Rogers comedies “Doctor Bull,” “Judge Priest” and “Steamboat Around the Bend.” The set includes a new documentary, “Becoming John Ford,” a 168-page book loaded with photos from the films, and reproductions of souvenir booklets for two Ford films. DVD set, $299.98. (20th Century Fox)

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