DVD Guide

Fever Pitch (PG-13)

Nearly a year after the Boston Red Sox' improbable World Series run, the Old Town Team is in first place, the once-feared Yankees are the underdogs, and talk of a curse is ancient history. So "Fever Pitch," centered around the Sox' 86 years of heartbreak, plays like a quaint period piece. (I half expected Paul Revere to be penciled in at shortstop.) But like any classic tale, this romantic comedy explores such timeless topics as love, sacrifice, and Fenway Franks. Jimmy Fallon plays Ben, a preternaturally perfect mate - except for that minor baseball obsession. To get the girl (Drew Barrymore), he discovers that compromise is key to lasting relationships, if not team worship. Extras include a look at the challenges of moviemaking as history unfolds. Grade: B
- David S. Hauck

This movie adaptation of Douglas Adams's sci-fi comedy is, as the title suggests, a space oddity. It starts with pajama-clad Englishman Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman) stowing away on a UFO just seconds before Earth is destroyed to make way for an intergalactic highway. It's a bad start to the day. And then it gets infinitely worse. Dent finds himself at the mercy of aliens who torture detainees by reading their poetry aloud. Fortunately, our hero finds himself befriended by a man - and I use that term very loosely - with two heads, a quirky Earth girl (the beguiling Zooey Deschanel), and a depressed robot (voiced with droll wit by Alan Rickman). It's an enjoyable lark but the humor of Adams's indelible wording often fails to translate to screen. The extras (deleted scenes, commentaries), sadly, aren't out of this world. Grade: B
- Stephen Humphries