‘Taken’ by a different action hero

Taken

20th Century Fox, $29.98/$34.98; Blu-ray, $39.99

This French-made, Liam Neeson-starring thriller became a surprise smash this year, and understandably so. As an ex-CIA agent who tears Paris apart trying to find his kidnapped daughter, Neeson is a different kind of action hero: steely and resourceful, more like a character from TV (“24” or “The Shield” or “Burn Notice,” for example) than the typical gun-toting movie tough. “Taken’s” tour of the European white-slave trade is fairly exploitative, but a clever plot and tightly directed action sequences overcome most of the more distasteful moments. The double-disc DVD and Blu-ray add two commentary tracks (one in French featuring director Pierre Morel, and one in English featuring writer Robert Mark Kamen), and a handful of behind-the-scenes featurettes.

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Eclipse Series 16

Alexander Korda’s

Private Lives

Criterion, $59.95

Hungarian-born motion picture impresario Alexander Korda founded London Films in 1932 and had an international hit a year later with “The Private Life of Henry VIII,” a Korda-directed historical drama that treated the foibles of a former world leader with wit, style and sophistication. For the next several years, Korda and his London Films cohorts repeated this formula, in movies like “Catherine the Great,” “The Private Life of Don Juan” and “Rembrandt.” All four of these films are now available in the sixteenth box set from Criterion’s Eclipse Series. As always, the discs contain no special features, but the movies themselves look great and hold up quite well as light entertainment, staged on lavish sets and acted by such formidable screen presences as Charles Laughton and Douglas Fairbanks Sr.

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Of Time and the City

Strand, $27.99

Autobiographical filmmaker Terence Davies takes a new approach with “Of Time and the City,” an essay-film about the vanishing Liverpool, England, of his youth. Combining stock footage with his own mellifluous narration, Davies ties together the personal, the political and the cultural, fitting the pieces of his memories together like a jigsaw puzzle. But while the film is pleasantly dreamy, it’s also a little closed off. Davies talks a lot and shows a lot, but he seems averse to expressing any kind of definite opinion. The DVD is a little more forthcoming, thanks to a pair of featurettes that explore how and why this movie was made.

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Taking Chance

HBO, $19.97

The true story of a military burial gets a respectful, moving treatment in this made-for-HBO movie starring Kevin Bacon as a lieutenant colonel charged with escorting the body of a Marine back to his home. Avoiding overt political statements, “Taking Chance” instead concerns itself with the small details that attend laying a military man to rest, while implying that these kinds of stories take place every day in small towns and cities across America. The DVD continues the “honor the unknown soldiers” theme of the movie via multiple featurettes about the real dead Marine and the military escort whose story is told here.

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All releases available Tuesday.