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DVD SCANS

DVD reviews | Extras give you more to love, man

OUT TUESDAY

ON DVD

17 Again

Alien Tresspass

Bring It On: Fight to the Finish

The Class

Designing Women: The Complete Second Season

The Good Time Kid

Road Trip: Beer Pong

The Weekend Murders

ON BLU-RAY

17 Again

Alien Trespass

Blue Thunder

Bring It On: Fight to the Finish

The Class

Cutthroat Island

The Ninth Gate

See No Evil

St. Elmo's Fire

Starman

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Collector's Edition Box Set

rrodriguez@MiamiHerald.com

In case the movie isn't enough entertainment for you, the affable commentary track accompanying I Love You, Man (Paramount Home Entertainment, $30 DVD, $40 Blu-ray) also practically qualifies as a bromedy. Director John Hamburg and his stars Paul Rudd and Jason Segel engage in a laid-back, friendly talk that doesn't exactly reveal much about the making of the film, but I Love You, Man isn't the kind of movie that requires a lot of explanation.

Hamburg does provide the occasional worthwhile nugget, such as expressing his belief that when you're making an R-rated comedy such as this one, you need to have your characters start doling out the f-bombs as early as possible, so as to let the viewer know what's in store for him.

Mostly, though, the track is as easy-going and genial as the film, which is about a soon-to-be-married guy (Rudd) who's desperate to turn a stranger (Segel) into his friend so he'll have a best man at his wedding. The movie is simultaneously sweet and raunchy and is accompanied by 40 minutes of extended and deleted scenes (as with a Judd Apatow comedy, there was a lot of improvisation on the set); an 11-minute gag reel of on-camera flubs and crack-ups; and a 17-minute standard-issue making-of featurette.

`THE MYSTERIES

OF PITTSBURGH'

``From the director of Dodgeball'' is not the tagline you would expect for a film adaptation of Michael Chabon's much-acclaimed 1988 debut novel. But writer-director Rawton Marshall Thurber whose sole previous credit was the low-brow Ben Stiller-Vince Vaughn comedy, persevered and succeeded where others had failed and turned The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (Peace Arch Home Entertainment, $30 DVD, $35 Blu-ray) into a film.

Whether Thurber's movie was worth the effort is debatable. On the surface, this is still the story of Art (Jon Foster) and his last, life-changing summer before adulthood.

But in condensing Chabon's novel and turning the tale into a bisexual love triangle involving Art and a troubled couple (Peter Sarsgaard and Sienna Miller), the movie loses the melancholy and insight of the book and becomes just another generic coming-of-age tale. Thurber's intentions are noble, but he's too close to the material -- and loves Chabon's book too much -- to realize how dry and flat his film is.

The movie, which played theaters in a few cities earlier this year before quickly disappearing, is accompanied by a pointless five-minute assortment of behind-the-scenes videos, along with a much better 10-minute featurette that focuses on the difficulties of adapting Chabon's book to the screen.

The author shows up on the set and praises Thurber's tenacity in making the project, although you have to wonder what Chabon thought of the finished film.

`ABOUT LAST NIGHT'

Here's one way to ensure your movie doesn't stand the test of time: Insert lots of musical montages using crappy pop songs of the moment and make sure your characters are all dressed in the fashion of the day.

Such is the case with the 1986 romantic comedy About Last Night, which has been reissued on Blu-ray (Sony Pictures, $29).

A neutered adaptation of David Mamet's Sexual Perversity in Chicago, the movie looks terrific in high-def, and Rob Lowe and Demi Moore still share some memorable moments as the on-again, off-again couple shacking up after a one-night stand. But the film is hopelessly dated by director Edward Zwick's over-reliance on the musical interludes that were so popular in the era in which we watch characters having zany adventures -- Whoops, the wind just blew my umbrella inside-out! -- set to a collection of songs intended to sell soundtrack CDs.

Although catalog titles rarely receive any fresh supplements in their Blu-ray incarnations, About Last Night includes an unexpected bonus.

Zwick and Lowe reunite for a 45-minute conversation, recorded earlier this year, in which they reminisce about the making of the film, talk about the candidness of the sex scenes, reveal which other actresses were considered for Moore's role (Diane Lane, Phoebe Cates and Mariel Hemingway among them), and point out that the movie's opening monologue is the only bit from Mamet's original work that survived the journey to the screen.

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