Owls Head —

The Last Song (Touchstone, Blu-ray or standard DVD, PG, 107 min.). The charisma of the lead actors overcomes an at-times by-the-numbers script, even if the screenplay were co-written by source novelist Nicholas Sparks.

Confession: Movies based on Sparks' novels usually don’t do much for me. So, this one actually was a pleasant surprise at least halfway through; then came a twist which telegraphed half of the remaining movie and an unnecessary tragedy that moved the rest into melodrama. Get out the handkerchiefs, but the tears are not really earned.

In many senses, this movie is a showcase for young Miley Cyrus, as Disney tries to move her into more adult roles and music (the closing ballad is quite effective, by the way, and there is a music video and a making-of-the-video among the extras), after her “Hannah Montana” mega-success. Cyrus does a very good, naturalistic job, once she is allowed to drop the pouty demeanor with which she first enters the film. Mom (Kelly Preston) is about to remarry, so she has the kids -- Cyrus as Ronnie and Bobby Coleman (a nice job) as younger Jonah -- spend the summer with their father (Greg Kinnear as Steve Miller) on the Georgia coast. Ronnie, who was arrested for shoplifting in New York, has been accepted at Juilliard, but isn’t going to go. She has played piano since she took a baseball bat to one at age 7, after her father left.

Just minutes into her Georgia stay, Ronnie literally bumps into Will Blakelee (tall and gorgeous Liam Hemsworth), who is playing beach volleyball. He soon will be the man of her dreams, but of course, there are bumps along the way. They actually bond as she tries to save some sea turtle eggs from raccoons. Oh yes, Will’s family is uber-wealthy, dysfunctional (after a tragedy in hid family as well) and making him attend a college that is not his choice.

In addition to the attractiveness of the two leads and Kinnear’s easy grace, the movie benefits from its Tybee Island settings, which look gorgeous in the Blu-ray version. Also beautiful and clear are the underwater scenes at the aquarium. The Blu-ray version comes with a standard DVD and an exclusive alternate opening (more detail of the church fire) and five deleted scenes (5:06; easily cut, but strangely presented in reverse order). Both versions include audio commentary by director Julie Anne Robinson and co-producer Jennifer Gibgot; a 5-minute set tour with Coleman; and the aforementioned music video and its making. Grade: film 2.5 stars; extras 2 stars

Rating guide: 5 stars = classic; 4 stars = excellent; 3 stars = good; 2 stars = fair; dog = skip it

Cemetery Junction (Sony DVD, R, 95 min.). This coming-of-age story, set in 1973 Britain and produced, written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, has three appealing leads who work well together as best friends. Christian Cooke (the short-lived British TV series “Demons”) plays Freddie Taylor, the more level-headed one, who gets a job selling insurance, so he can eventually buy a house and never pay rent again. Tom Hughes is Bruce Pearson, the good-looking one, but who is always getting into fights because he blames his dad for letting his mother move on to another woman. Finally, there is the comical Snork, played by Elton John look-alike Jack Doolan. He always says the wrong thing at the wrong time around women, and has this crude tattoo of a naked female vampire that he designed himself.

Freddie works for Mr. Kendrick (Ralph Fiennes), who grew up in Cemetery Junction but managed to escape. Fiennes is fine, as usual, but even better is Emily Watson as his long-neglected wife. Their daughter Julie (Felicity Jones) knew Freddie when they were much younger and her dreams of being a National Geographic photographer inspire him to finally think about leaving town. Gervais plays Freddie’s father and he has some amusing conversations with Freddie’s grandmother. David Earl is amusing as the sex-obsessed owner of a team room.

There is a fine music score of period rock songs -- at one point, Doolan sings Slade’s “Cum on Feel the Noize” -- and the three lads perform well. There could have been more to the script, but generally this is an appealing film Also appealing are the bonus features: 10 minutes with the three young actors discussing the film and their roles; 15 minutes on conversation by the directors; and 13:43 of often hilarious bloopers, like Gervais trying to burp. Grade: film and extras 3 stars

Lost: The Complete Sixth Season (ABC Studios, 5 Blu-ray discs, 802 min.). Early on in the extras, one of the show’s creators says the aim was for people who had watched the entire six years to be satisfied at the show’s end, and the ending pretty much divided viewers into two camps: those who were satisfied and those who were not. While in the middle, I leaned a bit more toward those who were not.

Season six was half about the sideways world, which supposed was created when the nuclear bomb went off at the end of season five. The sideways world actually proved more interesting than life on the island, as many well-loved characters were brought back and everyone seemed to have a bit happier life, or much happier in Hugo’s case. John Locke seemed at peace with the world (and was teaching!) and Jack had a teenaged son. On the island, there was the seemingly pointless introduction of the temple and the group that lived there and such bizarre acts as Jack immediately destroying the lighthouse mirrors with which Jacob had watched the plane survivors during their earlier lives.

It would seem the extras was a great opportunity for executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse to supply even more answers, but they only answer a couple in the 11:55-long “The New Man in Charge” epilogue (please give us more of these). Ben Linus shows up at a Dharma warehouse in Guam and tells the two men who have been preparing the supply drops for 20 years that they are fired. He offers to answer one question by each and, via a Dharma instructional tape, we see why there were polar bears on the island. Linus then makes another stop and we see what has happened to Walt.

The other extras are more ordinary: a 38:33 look at filming the final episode; 8:57 following the characters’ heroic journey; 8:36 on the sideways world (and wasn’t that a great idea to make Sawyer a policeman?); 28:40 on shooting the temple pool, cliff cave, cop chase, Alpert’s being trapped inside the Black Rock (great job by Nestor Carbonell in “Ab Aeterno,” my favorite episode of the whole season, as it was a mini-movie in of itself), Charlie and Desmond driving off the pier and the flooded submarine; nine very short deleted scenes (9:39); and 4:09 of bloopers. There also are audio commentaries on four episodes (“LA X,” “Dr. Linus,” “Ab Aeterno” and “Across the Sea”) -- but note there is no episode list in the set. Grade: season 3.5 stars; extras 3.25 stars

Also released this week is “Lost: The Complete Collection,” which adds one disc of unique extras, including cast tours of Oahu, an appearance at Comic-Con, a closer look at props and 16 “Slapdowns” in which celebrities confront Lindelof and Cuse about the final season.

Dorian Gray (NEM, Blu-ray or standard DVD, R, 112 min.). Let’s face it, Dorian Gray is a creep. So it is really hard to create any sympathy for the character, especially when he is just sucked along so easily by Lord Henry Wotton’s hedonistic lifestyle in this latest adaptation.

Ben Barnes, who played Prince Caspian in “The Chronicles of Narnia,” is pretty enough to play Dorian Gray, but he brings no depth to a role that is underwritten to begin with. In the extras, writer Roby Finlay mentions he was influenced by “American Psycho,“ but Barnes has none of the intensity that Christian Bale brought to that role. All the juicy acting here belongs to Colin Firth (“A Single Man,” “Pride and Prejudice”), whose Wotton takes young Dorian under his corrupting wing. Indeed, on the very night that Dorian announces his engagement to actress Sybil Vane (Rachel Hurd Wood), Wotton takes Dorian to a den of prostitution and drugs.

Director Oliver Parker tries to inject the film with some momentum by opening with some bloody violence and then going back a year to Dorian’s arrival in Victorian London after the death of his nasty grandfather. A friend of Wotton’s, the artist Basil Hallward, paints Dorian’s portrait and, after it is unveiled, apparently Dorian’s wish that he would give anything to stay as he is in the picture is enough to sell his soul to the devil, and the picture -- soon regulated to the attic -- ages while Dorian does not. That is particularly evident when Dorian returns from overseas some 20 years later and falls for Wotton’s daughter Emily (Rebecca Hall), who was only just conceived when Dorian and her father first met.

The film is handsome looking -- although the opening London exteriors looked far too computer-generated -- and it does dip into the Hammer Films palette quite a bit, but you are never as involved with the characters as you should be. DVD extras include audio commentary by Parker and Finlay; five deleted scenes (5:59; in one. Dorian seeks help to break his vow); a 19:07 making of that begins with the actors recalling when they first read the book; 9:24 of bloopers; a costume design photo gallery; and featurettes on make up and wardrobe, the painting, Smithfield Market and the visual effects. Grade: film and extras 2.5

The Owl Man (Image, Blu-ray or standard DVD, PG, 104 min.). Based on the popular children’s novel by David Almond and adapted for television by Emmy Award-winning director Annabel Jankel, this is a most curious film. I’ve never read the book, but the title character, played very well by Tim Roth (TV’s “Lie To Me”), is most unusual. He is dirty, irritable, hardly moves and lives in the dilapidated shed on the property of young Michael Cooper’s family. Michael (Bill Milner) thinks the family’s new home is nearly as run down and he is not happy at all, but he soon discovers and becomes fascinated by Skellig, even if he eats bugs (and seems to attract them).

Dad Steve (the solid John Simm from Britain’s “Life on Mars”) drives a cab and mom Louise (Kelly Macdonald) is pregnant -- the baby sister will soon be born, but with a heart problem. They battle with Michael over his accepting their new life. Also new to Michael’s life is curious neighbor Mina (Skye Bennett), who is home-schooled. Michael tells her about Skellig and she helps clean him up, which is when they discover he has atrophied wings wrapped around his back.

The film lacks the charm of, say, the Harry Potter films, as it is much more grounded in the real world, and the mystery of Skellig and his powers are never explained (is he an angel? a mutation?). Still, it keeps one interest. There are no DVD extras. Grade: film 3 stars

Cougar Town: The Complete First Season (ABC Studios, 3 DVDs, NR, 520 min.). I never watched this show, being turned off by the title and what it implied, but quickly in episode one, we learn that Cougars is the name of the high school football team in this small Florida town. Still, the series does deal with a 40-something, divorced mom getting back into the dating pool. But after two quick flings with young men, she soon is dating in her own age pool.

The show is quite funny and the cast is solid, led by Courtney Cox as Jules Cobb, who sells real estate along with Laurie Keller (Busy Philipps), who does not know the meaning of appropriate. They also end up hanging out in bars together a lot. Jules has two neighbors of interest -- Christa Miller (TV’s “Scrubs”)as her good friend Ellie, who is jealous of the time she spends with Laurie (Ellie’s thing is being married and having to stay home) and Josh Hopkins as across-the-street Grayson Ellis, who owns a bar/restaurant (he is 40, recently divorced and dating a succession of hot young women) and becomes Jules’ reluctant newspaper buddy. She also has a high school senior for a son (Dan Byrd as Travis) and an ex (Brian Van Holt) who won’t stay out of the house, drives around in a golf cart and, to Travis’ embarrassment, gets the landscaping contract at the high school.

As I said, the show is funny and improves as the season goes on. It was created by Bill Lawrence (creator of “Scrubs”) and Kevin Biegel. DVD extras include bloopers, deleted scenes, the show’s evolution from pilot to subtly sexy hit, a Jimmy Kimmel segment, an Ask Barb feature and Stroking It with Bobby Cobb. Grade: season 3.5 stars

Ugly Betty: The Complete Fourth and Final Season (ABC Studios, 4 DVDs, NR, 860 min.). The show started off with a wonderful, award-winning first season, then began to struggle. Ultimately, it was the victim of the network’s keep shuffling its timeslot, including a stint on show-killing Friday night. As played by America Ferrera, Betty Suarez was the ultimate fish-out-of-water when she first went to work for a glossy fashion magazine Mode. This season, she is finally coming into her own, transforming both her personal and professional lives. Early on, she has to deal with Marc’s (Michael Urie) attempts to sabotage her, only to end up as her temporary assistant. One episode has Betty forced to dress up as a hot dog and perform a Bollywood number as she does a piece on the worst jobs in New York.

The love triangle between Betty, Matt (Daniel Eric Gold) and Amanda (Becki Newton) explodes at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas. Later, Betty and Hilda (Ana Ortiz) have pregnancy scares. Towards the end, a fire destroys the Suarez home and the finale brings back lots of familiar faces from the past. Extras include bloopers, deleted scenes, webisodes and a look at the location shoot in the Bahamas. Grade: season 3 stars

One Tree Hill: The Complete Seventh Season (Warner, 5 DVDs, NR, 924 min.). Most shows do not survive the loss of two key members, but after finding themselves together last season, Lucas (Chad Michael Murray) and Peyton (Hilarie Burton) departed the show. (Lucas and Nathan’s jealousy of each other was a key plot element throughout the series.) Nathan (James Lafferty) recovered from his season five injury to get a professional basketball career, but this season that is threatened by a scandal. Haley (Bethany Joy Galeotti), who has taken over Red Bedroom records, faces a family tragedy and Brooke (Sophia Bush) thinks she has found true love with Julian (Austin Nichols), whose character was introduced last season. There also are new characters this season: Haley’s beautiful sister Quinn (Shantel VanSanten), 26, and Nathan’s agent Clay (Robert Buckley). There also is the return of series former bad girl Rachel Gatina. The show returns for an eighth season starting Sept. 14.

Sabrina, The Teenage Witch: The Final Season (2002-03, CBS/Paramount, 3 DVDs, NR, 480 min.). This was the seventh and final season for Melissa Joan Hart as Sabrina in the spinoff series from “Bewitched.” During this season, she begins her professional life with a new job at an alternative music magazine called Scorch. There, she meets her future fiancé Aaron (Dylan Neal). Her former crush Harvey (Nsate Richert) has not given up, however, and is being egged on by mischievous cat Salem (voiced by Nick Bakay). Her aunts have moved back to the Other Realm, so Sabrina are her pals Roxie (Soleil Moon Frye) and Morgan (Elisa Donovan) move into the aunts’ old Victorian house.

The Agatha Christie Hour: Set 1 (1982, Acorn Media, 2 DVDs, 257 min.). This collects five episodes from the series that centered on Dame Christie’s short stories. Maurice Denham plays “happiness consultant” Parker Pyne in the first and last episodes. He helps a middle-aged wife (Gwen Watford as Maria Packington) strike back at her philandering husband (Peter Jones as George Packington), who has been bamboozled by the pretty, lying face of young Nancy in his office. The solution is to set up Maria with a handsome young escort (Rupert Frazier as Claude Luttrell).

In “The Girl on the Train,” George is fired by his uncle and goes out to seek adventure, finding it on the train when a young woman hides in his compartment. “In a Glass Darkly” has a World War I officer have a vision of a young woman’s doom, while in “The Fourth Man,” three learned men debate a strange case of self-inflicted death. Among the guest stars are John Nettles (“Midsomer Murders”), James Grout (“Inspector Morse”) and William Gaunt (“No Place Like Home”). Five more episodes were produced and they will be released in early 2011. Grade: episodes 2.5 stars