Video Shelf

* New this week: “Texas Rangers” reduces the turbulent post-Civil War history of the legendary law-and-order agency to the level of a routine shoot-’em-up. The triteness of Scott Busby and Martin Copeland’s script is exceeded only by the flatness of Steve Miner’s direction. Real-life ranger Leander McNelly (a tight-lipped Dylan McDermott), embittered by the kidnapping of his wife and three children by bandits years earlier, recruits a group of men, including James Van Der Beek and Ashton Kutcher, and after entirely predictable developments and much carnage, the Rangers, of course, triumph. Only Robert Patrick, as one of McNelly’s right-hand men, manages to transcend the glum circumstances to come alive and register some personality and complexity. Any one of the half-hour episodes in the old radio serial “Tales of the Texas Rangers,” starring Joel McCrea, or “The Lone Ranger” holds more interest than this 93-minute bore.

Kevin Thomas

Top 5 VHS rentals:

1. Training Day

2. Bandits

3. Thirteen Ghosts

4. K-PAX

5. Riding in Cars With Boys

Top 5 DVD rentals:

1. Bandits

2. Training Day

3. Thirteen Ghosts

4. K-PAX

Rental video charts provided by VSDAVidTrac.