This ‘Monster’s Ball’ Is Thornton’s Show

Halle Berry may have won the best actress Academy Award for her moving turn in “Monster’s Ball,” but it is her co-star, Billy Bob Thornton, who steals the DVD (Lions Gate, $30).

In contrast to the very serious film, about a widow who falls in love with the death row guard involved in her husband’s execution, Thornton is just one wild, quirky and funny guy. In a series of outtakes from the film, he tries to crack up his fellow actors right before very dramatic scenes. In one clip, he performs as his mentally challenged character from “Sling Blade” in a “Monster’s Ball” scene with Heath Ledger, who plays his son. The two try to keep a straight face, but eventually Ledger loses it and starts howling with laughter.

Thornton is also very entertaining on the commentary track interacting with Berry and the Swiss-born director, Marc Forster. The director asks Thornton if he liked the title sequence, in which Thornton’s character is slowly revealed to be sleeping. Thornton tells Forster that he doesn’t like title sequences because audiences then immediately know they are watching a film and are taken out of the story and performances.

The actor says he’s been asked frequently about the significance of his character eating ice cream with a plastic spoon. Thornton, who has admitted to having a fear of antique furniture, says he insisted on plastic spoons: He didn’t want to use a metal prop spoon for fear of germs.

And one interesting tidbit: The hotel room where Ledger and Thornton’s characters have an encounter with a prostitute is actually the same room where evangelist Jimmy Swaggart was caught with a lady of the evening.

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Unless you have to be the first on your block to own the digital edition of Oscar-winning Ridley Scott’s war drama “Black Hawk Down” (Columbia TriStar, $27), just rent this DVD. The only extras on the disc are a serviceable documentary, trailers, production notes and filmographies. A special edition is in the works, complete with Scott’s commentary, although a release date has not been announced.

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Although “Kate & Leopold” doesn’t live up to its comedic potential, Australian hunk Hugh Jackman gives a delightful, romantic, Golden Globe-nominated performance as a duke from the 19th century who, due to a rip in the space-time continuum, finds himself in 21st century New York. There he falls in love with a driven career woman (Meg Ryan). Liev Schreiber and Breckin Meyer also star.

The handsome DVD (Miramax, $30) includes the theatrical version and the director’s cut. The latter includes a subplot that some critics who saw the film before it was released believed bordered on incest. So all of those sequences were deleted before the romantic comedy was released.

The disc also includes a featurette on the costume design, a watchable “on the set” featurette, a still gallery, a music video of Sting’s Oscar-nominated tune, “Until,” deleted scenes with commentary from director and co-writer James Mangold and a separate audio track with Mangold. On that track, he talks about how he wanted to create a dream past in the early sequences and even an idealized contemporary New York City. He hoped audiences would find “Kate & Leopold” to be a life-affirming movie that would recall the Doris Day romantic comedies of the 1950s.

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Respond2 Entertainment and Hope Enterprises have released a three-disc DVD set, “Bob Hope--The Ultimate Collection” ($60) that contains six hours of memories of Hope’s television career, which spanned nearly half a century.

The first disc features Hope’s two-hour NBC special from the mid-’70s that serves up clips from his first 25 years on the Peacock network, including his first appearance on NBC in 1949. The guests are a veritable who’s who of Hollywood, ranging from John Wayne to John Denver. The best sketch finds Hope going mano a mano in the boxing ring with Rocky Marciano at Madison Square Garden.

The second disc includes his 1970 Christmas special, “Salute to the Troops,” which features Richard Nixon, Connie Stevens and Miss World. Also included on the disc is one of Hope’s last yuletide specials from the early ‘90s, “Hope for the Holidays.”

The third disc includes very funny bloopers from his NBC specials, as well as two short comedies Hope made in the mid-’30s and one of his first radio broadcasts when he was master of ceremonies for a 1935 installment of “The Intimate Review.”

To order, call (866) 305-1348 or go to www.bobhope.com.

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Another entertainment giant, Judy Garland, would have celebrated her 80th birthday on Monday. To mark the day, Pioneer and Classic World Productions Inc. have released another DVD culled from her 1963-64 CBS musical variety series, “The Judy Garland Show.” The latest disc, “The Judy Garland Show: Legends” ($30), is a must for all fans of the actress, who starred in such movie musical classics as “The Wizard of Oz,” “Meet Me in St. Louis” and “A Star Is Born.”

Digitally mastered from the original videotapes, “Legends” features eight Garland solos, plus solo performances by guests such as Barbra Streisand and Vic Damone. There are duets with Tony Bennett and Peggy Lee, and two outtakes, including her attempt at a concert version of “Born in a Trunk.”

Also included: a trivia quiz, photos and audio commentary from Garland historian Coyne Steven Sanders, who supplies many insights into Garland and her troubled series but makes a few factual faux pas along the way.

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As the big-screen version of “Scooby-Doo” hits the screens Friday, Warner Home Video is unleashing four volumes of animated adventures of the quirky Great Dane and his pals Shaggy, Fred, Daphne and Velma ($15 each for VHS; $20 each for DVD). “Scooby-Doo’s Original Mysteries” includes the first five episodes, originally telecast in 1969, about the canine sleuth. DVD extras include a sampling of four songs, a trivia challenge and recipes.

The other titles include: “Scooby-Doo Goes Hollywood,” “Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School” and “Scooby-Doo’s Creepiest Capers.”

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Also new this week is the three-disc set of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” Season Two (Fox, $60), which has all 22 episodes of the TV show’s sophomore year. Among the extras on the DVD are an interview with creator Joss Whedon, photo galleries, biographies and featurettes on the production and makeup design.