NEW ON HOME VIDEO This week's DVD releases

"Little Miss Sunshine": One of the brightest little independent hits to roll along in years suitably arrives on DVD just before the holidays, so gatherings of dysfunctional kin can marvel over a family even more messed-up than their own. Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette and Steve Carell lead the cast of lovable losers in a happy-sad road-trip tale about a family's bizarre misadventures as they race to get their little girl to her beauty pageant. DVD highlights include four alternate endings accompanied by commentary from husband-and-wife directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. One abandoned ending they found too sappy, another hilarious one they deemed too over-the-top, so in the end, they settled for one last scene of the family pushing their ailing Volkswagen van to get it started, then leaping inside. Dayton, Faris and screenwriter Michael Arndt also team up on two separate commentaries for the full film. DVD, 29.98.
"Invincible": Mark Wahlberg stars in Hollywood's latest inspired-by-a-true-story sports tale about an underdog who makes good. Wahlberg plays bartender Vince Papale, a blue-collar 30-year-old who never played college ball but miraculously makes the team after new Philadelphia Eagles coach Dick Vermeil stages open tryouts to hunt up fresh talent. The real Papale teams with producer Mark Ciardi and screenwriter Brad Gann for one commentary track, while director Ericson Core and his editor provide separate commentary. The DVD also has a featurette on Papale's story. DVD, 29.99. (Disney)
"Step Up": Why do dancing fools fall in love? This romantic mini-hit stars Channing Tatum as a tough street kid doing community service at a school for performing arts, where a hot rich girl (Jenna Dewan) who's conveniently in need of a new dancing partner enlists the slick but inexperienced hunk to bust some moves with her. Along with deleted scenes and bloopers, the DVD includes winning dance videos submitted to MySpace.com for a contest to promote the movie. Tatum and Dewan join director-choreographer Anne Fletcher for commentary, and the DVD has four music videos and a making-of featurette. DVD, 29.99. (Disney)
"Lady in the Water": M. Night Shyamalan, creator of "The Sixth Sense" and "Signs," found himself dead in the water with this strange and unsatisfying fairy tale for adults. Adding to his repertoire of sad-sacks, Paul Giamatti plays a grief-stricken man hiding from the world as an apartment-complex manager, who ends up enlisting his tenants to help return a mythical water nymph (Bryce Dallas Howard) to her own realm. The DVD has deleted scenes and audition reels for the cast, a behind-the-scenes documentary and a featurette on the movie's origins as an epic bedtime story Shyamalan made up for his children. The movie is available on DVD or in high-definition formats with a Blu-ray release or a disc with both regular DVD and HD DVD versions. DVD, 28.98; Blu-ray disc, 34.99; HD DVD and DVD disc, 39.99. (Warner Bros.)
"Jet Li's Fearless": Action star Li says this will be his last martial-arts film, the tale of a pioneer of the sport whose arrogance makes him an outcast and forces him to find the inner peace to mount a comeback. The film is available in regular DVD format or a combo disc with the DVD and HD DVD versions. DVD, 29.98; HD DVD combo, 39.98. (Universal)
"The Wicker Man": Nicolas Cage stars in a dud based on the 1970s original, playing a policeman whose attempt to find an old girlfriend's missing daughter leads him into dark mysteries among the pagan citizens of a remote island. The DVD has the theatrical release and an unrated alternate version. DVD, 28.98. (Warner Bros.)
"All the King's Men": Sean Penn has a remake dud of his own, starring as a flamboyant Southern politician whose idealism gives way to corruption in a new adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's novel. The DVD has deleted scenes and a segment on Huey Long, the Louisiana political boss who was Warren's inspiration. DVD, 28.95; Blu-ray disc, 38.95 (Sony)
"My Super Ex-Girlfriend": A charming premise goes to waste in this unfunny comedy about a superhero (Uma Thurman) using her powers to take vengeance on the boyfriend (Luke Wilson) who jilted her. The DVD has deleted scenes and a music video. DVD, 29.98. (20th Century Fox)
"A Scanner Darkly": Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder and Robert Downey Jr. star in an adaptation of Philip K. Dick's near-future tale of drug addiction, surveillance and paranoia. Reeves provides commentary with director Richard Linklater, who shot in live action then "painted" over the film with digital animation. DVD, 27.95. (Warner Bros.)
--Associated Press
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