DVDS MORE TO TREASURE.

Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor

Remember that song ``Stuck in the Middle --''? Well that's what you are with ``Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.''

The second of the ``Pirates'' films came away with the booty at the box office last summer and will do so on DVD. It's a fun enough film -- plenty of wild and amusing CGI-abetted scenes, an engaging cast, particularly Johnny Depp as rascally Capt. Jack Sparrow.

But, at the end, it hangs out a ``to be continued'' sign. So you know what you're getting into -- a return to the theater or part three on DVD -- or both.

Talk about piracy -- especially because in the documentary ``Charting the Return'' on the two-disc DVD, the writers admitted that they had no idea at first where to go with the story after the success of the first film. The one they came up with has Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) and Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) off to save Sparrow, who, as usual, is in trouble. This time with squid-faced and part-body Davy Jones (Bill Nighy), who commands his own macabre ship of mutant half-human, half-aquatic creatures.

Beyond that it gets complicated, but you can count on director Gore Verbinski to keep things lively, even if the story waters are a bit murky. Verbinski, who has made interesting smaller films, such as ``The Weatherman,'' never lets the action get too big for the characters, which allows Depp and the others to shine even while rolling downhill in a giant cage.

There are also plenty of extras to enjoy, including featurettes on the stunts, CGI and sword fighting. I know, I know, but yo, ho, ho, it's a pirate's life for me.

Turning to `Vice'

Michael Mann's ``Miami Vice'' is mostly a mood piece -- sultry colors and sultry characters against a world of violence.

It has little to do with the TV series on which Mann had been a producer and creative force. This Sonny Crockett (Colin Farrell) and Ricardo Tubbs (Jamie Foxx) don't crack wise or dress brightly.

They are cool -- and coolly professional. Even the sex scenes have a certain detachment, although Chinese actress Gong Li as the business associate of a drug kingpin gives the film some spark.

Howard Hawks' male heroes did their job with a certain degree of steeliness, but Mann's have an added resigned fatalism, bordering on the suicidal. It makes for an interesting concept, and Mann never really digs into it. He does infuse the crime story with visual spectacle, which at times is fascinating, but in the end, you may feel as cool toward ``Vice'' as Crockett and Tubbs act toward everything else.

Capra-esque thoughts

Frank Capra Jr. says his father, the legendary director, always liked to have a ``getting-to-know-you scene'' in his films. While the scene may not advance the story very much, it allowed the audience to get to know the characters, and from there, ``you could take them anywhere.''

Capra thought of himself as a storyteller, his son says, and it was that ability -- and the ability to relate to his audience -- that made him one of the most popular directors of his era. And while popularity doesn't always equate with greatest, in this case it does. ``The Premier Frank Capra Collection'' includes some of the best -- ``It Happened One Night,'' ``Mr. Deeds Goes to Town,'' ``You Can't Take It With You,'' ``American Madness'' and ``Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.''

Capra Jr., the president of Screen Gems in Willington, N.C., was born during the time these films were made in the 1930s. ``The first set I ever went on in my life was `It's a Wonderful Life' in 1946. Mother didn't want us (he and his siblings) to be Hollywood-ized.''

But he has a favorite. ``I like `Mr. Smith' very much because I love to watch Jimmy Stewart in the part. He just commands the screen.''

He also loves ``It Happened One Night.''

``You look at it today, and it's still funny. It's still got a great story. ... They just had a great time making the film, and it shows. My father loved people, and people wanted to see films about people.

``In `It Happened One Night,' the scene in the bus where they sing `The Man on the Flying Trapeze' was improvised, yet that scene is so characteristic of the whole warm, breezy atmosphere of that film.''

What marked Capra films was their optimism. Capra Jr. says his father, who was an immigrant from poor circumstances, was that way from the beginning.

``He was immediately optimistic, coming to the United States as a small boy. He was optimistic about getting an education, and about being who you wanted to be, which he wouldn't have been able to do in Sicily.''

Capra Jr. says his father really put himself in his films. ``His choice of stories were very much of his own personal interest -- So there are lots of things in his films, especially little touches, humorous touches that often really happened in our family. Just because he always was making entertainment, and even if he was making a serious film, he knew he had to make it in an entertaining way. And one of the best ways was through comedy -- he loved laughter, and there was always a lot of laughter in our house.''

And there is plenty of laughter in this collection -- a great holiday gift for the film fan. The films have been digitally remastered and include new commentaries as well as the documentary ``Frank Capra's American Dream,'' narrated by Ron Howard.

You have to wonder what Capra Jr. thinks about the term ``Capra-esque.''

``I look at it in a kindly way. I don't think it's a put-down. I think the stories are about individuals.

``My dad always valued stories about individuals and the ability of the individual to overcome adversity. So almost all of his (films have) somewhat of that theme -- where the individual is tested and has to be found true. So there is something about telling that story with a lot of humor that's sort of the essence of `Capra-esque.'''

Being a `Conformist'

Bernardo Bertolucci's ``The Conformist'' (1970) is among my pantheon of great films. His masterpiece -- made when he was a mere 29 -- is an unforgettable experience.

Based on a novel by Alberto Moravia, it follows Marcello (Jean-Louis Trintignant), a middle-class sophisticate in the 1930s who joins Mussolini's Fascists as a way toward upward mobility and of being ``normal.''

In other words, his political choices -- which includes framing his old university professor -- aren't made for reasons of morality but just as a cover for his own feelings of inadequacy.

Atmospheric, ``The Conformist'' with its art-deco chic -- mostly blood reds -- reflects the seductiveness of fitting into an immoral organism, while the rainy blues echo the emptiness of the characters' inner selves.

`Rocky' times

Put up your dukes: There a special edition of ``Rocky'' out, as well as the ``Rocky Anthology,'' with all five films just in time for Sly Stallone and his character's return this Christmas.

Television

Last February, author and NPR columnist Sarah Vowell, in a New York Times op-ed piece opposing Americans using torture on prisoners of war, noted an exception: ``the moment we pick up our TV remote controls.''

``That's when even my inner civics robot cracks open a ginger ale, stares at Kiefer Sutherland on the beloved ``24'' and cheers: `Yeah, Jack Bauer! Break into that interrogation room and shoot that suspect in the leg!' ''

And I think we have that reaction is because we can trust Jack to do the right -- and necessary -- thing to save the world.

Vowell wrote the piece while ``24'' was into its sixth or so hour of its fifth terror-laden day. (Jack -- a counter-terrorist agent -- had just threatened to cut a traitor's eye out.) The fifth season is the best so far -- wild, crazy, implausible but always in high gear as the danger ticks away. And Sutherland richly deserves his Emmy as best actor (though Fox-mate Hugh Laurie gives him a run).

Jack's no thug -- he's sensitive and loving, but a patriot who knows what's at stake. Even in the most improbable of situations, Sutherland gives Jack a humanity that allows the show to be more than a lot of bang-bang, a bit of kiss-kiss.

The box set for season five includes a trailer for season six and some peeks into Jack's life between the end of last season and the beginning of the next one. It also has commentary, deleted scenes and featurettes.

Rob Lowman [phone]

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2 photos

Photo:

(1) Johnny Depp as Capt. Jack Sparrow in ''Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.''

(2) no caption (''The Premiere Frank Capra Collection'')