'WANTED'

3 stars = Good
Ratings explained

If films were judged solely on the cleverness of special effects, "Wanted" would be a four-star movie hands down. This CGI-drenched film about the coming of age of an assassin is a visually stunning, but monumentally silly waste of time. Director Timur Bekmambetov is one of the five best action filmmakers working in movies today, but he's no fan of nuance or subtlety.

With Angelina Jolie as Fox, a gorgeous, but laconic killer who mentors a callow James McAvoy as Wesley, the newest initiate of The Fraternity, Bekmambetov doesn't have to be subtle. With chase scenes and shootouts that make "The Matrix" look tame at points, "Wanted" is all about getting the salivary glands of adolescent male viewers streaming. The plot can't bear the load of too much examination, but that's not what a film like "Wanted" is all about. Imagine an adrenaline shot to the heart -- this is it.

What qualifies this 2-disc DVD as a three-star package instead of a two-and-a-half star movie on its own merits is its wealth of extras. There are several excellent background features on the film's major characters as well as an interview with Bekmambetov in which he explains his vision in adapting it from the graphic novel. The film's incredible stunts are explained in detail and you get a real sense of how the money for this big budget extravaganza was spent.

Wanted" isn't too faithful to its graphic novel source, but it had the virtue of being better than the comic it is based on. While it isn't the most reflective piece of filmmaking in the world, "Wanted" is gorgeous in a nihilistic way.

-- Tony Norman, Post-Gazette staff writer

'THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN'

3 1/2 stars = Very good
Ratings explained

The DVD extras make it clear why movies cost so much and take so long. "Prince Caspian," sequel to "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," housed and fed 800 to 1,200 people at one point, featured workdays as long as 20 hours and required 1,500 separate visual effects.

One of the behind-the-scenes bonuses captures, perfectly, the sense of waiting that pervades movie sets. Here, many of the delays were caused by skies over the Czech Republic which turned from sunny to stormy in minutes.

The generous extras also include looks at actors Peter Dinklage, who plays Trumpkin the Red Dwarf, and Warwick Davis as a Black Dwarf named Nikabrik. Cameras track Davis on a typical shooting day which required three hours in makeup. By the time filming wrapped, he had been up for 16 hours and working for 15 hours.

Directed once more by Andrew Adamson, the movie returns the excellent core cast as the Pevensie children -- Georgie Henley as Lucy, William Moseley as Peter, Anna Popplewell as Susan and Skandar Keynes as Edmund -- and introduces Ben Barnes as the dashing title character.

The story picks up a year after the children returned to World War II-era London. But, when they are summoned back to Narnia, they realize 1,300 years have passed and the land has been drained of its magic.

A single disc ($29.99 suggested price) features audio commentary, while the collector's edition ($39.99) throws in another disc with 10 deleted scenes with introductions by Adamson, bloopers, tour of the locations and sets and inside view of the technology that covers everything from talking animals to walking trees. Blu-ray ($35.99) has all of the above plus snazzy interactive features.

-- Barbara Vancheri, PG movie editor

'THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE'

3 stars = Good
Ratings explained

The truth may be out there but 10 years after the first "X-Files" movie (and six years since the Fox series ended its run), audiences no longer care. "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" was a box-office bomb, grossing just $21 million domestically when it was released in July. DVD might be a better way to see the film, which is small in scope. It was not a movie that needed to be seen on a big screen.

The film gives closure to the relationship between Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) as they tackle a ticking-clock abduction case that also involves medical experimentation (no aliens or government conspiracies this time). It's an OK but not great installment in the "X-Files" spooky stories series.

The DVD comes in three versions: Single disc with an extended version of the film ($29.99), three-disc including a digital copy ($34.98) and Blu-ray ($39.99) with Web-enhanced special features.

The single-disc set includes audio commentary by executive producers Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz, an 8-minute featurette on body part special effects (see how they decapitate a character!), a 9-minute gag reel (mostly actors stumbling and slipping in the snow and a few Duchovny witticisms), three deleted scenes and a music slide show set to the song "Dying 2 Live" by cast member Xzibit.

The three-disc set includes a 90-minute documentary, "Trust No One: Can the 'X-Files' Remain a Secret?" It's broken into three segments: 23 minutes on reviving the franchise, 30 minutes on production and 28 minutes on post-production work, including filmed meetings about the movie's music score.

Rated PG-13 for violent and disturbing content and thematic material.

-- Rob Owen, Post-Gazette TV editor

Also new this week

"Step Brothers"

3 stars = Good
Ratings explained

Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly play 40-year-old adolescents whose development is not just arrested but convicted. Their hapless, mega-enabler single parents have never quite noticed that the boys are still living at home, doing exactly what they want to do -- which is absolutely nothing. When the divorcee-mom (Mary Steenburgen) meets the widower-dad (Richard Jenkins), it's a match made in purgatory, and sibling rivalry ensues. The film adheres to the grand tradition of Judd Apatow-"Animal House"-"American Pie" tastelessness. We tried not to laugh -- but gave in to the guilty juvenile pleasures.

"The Longshots"

2 stars = Mediocre
Ratings explained

Keke Palmer ("Akeelah and the Bee") tugs at the heart strings again, this time as an unlikely Pop Warner football quarterback, coached by her uncle, played by Ice Cube, who was a star back in the day. Directed by Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit), it strives to be just average and hits that mark.

• Special: "Casablanca (Ultimate Collector's Edition)"; "The Day the Earth Stood Still (2-Disc Special Edition)."

• TV on DVD: "The Best of Dr. Katz"; "Cannon: Season One, Volume Two"; "Law & Order: The Sixth Year"; "Perry Mason: The Third Season - Volume Two"; "Saturday Night Live: The Complete Fourth Season."