Lee’s ‘X’ -- with lots of extras

Malcolm X

Denzel Washington, Spike Lee

Warner Home Video, $29

In conjunction with Black History Month, Warner is releasing this superlative two-disc edition of Spike Lee’s epic biography on the controversial civil rights leader who was slain in 1965.

Denzel Washington received his first Oscar nomination for best actor in this 1992 release; he lost the Academy Award, though, to Al Pacino in “Scent of a Woman.”

The set includes the Academy Award-nominated 1972 documentary “Malcolm X” and a well-produced, thought-provoking new documentary, “By Any Means Necessary: The Making of Malcolm X.”

The latter relates the trials and tribulations Lee endured to get the film made.

Lee introduces 10 deleted scenes and supplies the

strong, no-holds-barred commentary track along with cinematographer Ernest Dickerson, editor and second unit director Barry Alexander Brown and costume designer Ruth Carter.

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Shark Tale

Voices of Will Smith, Jack Black

DreamWorks, $30

This hip-hop 3D animated comedy from DreamWorks is nominated for an Oscar for best animated film of 2004. But it also has the misfortune of being in competition against “The Incredibles” and “Shrek 2.”

Reviews were decidedly mixed for this tale about a small fish with big dreams named

Oscar (Will Smith) who becomes a hero to the fish metropolis when he pretends he has killed the son (Jack Black) of the godfather of sharks (Robert De Niro).

The DVD includes games for the kiddies and even dance lessons so viewers can learn to dance like Oscar and his fish pals. For adults there are

technical bloopers and an enjoyable behind-the-scenes excursion into the production. Directors Bibo Bergeron, Vicky Jenson and Rob Letterman supply the breezy, fact-filled commentary.

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The Notebook

Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams

New Line, $28

This unabashed romantic drama -- based on the four-hankie weepie novel by Nicholas Sparks -- was one of the surprise hits of the summer of

2004.

Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams play teenagers from opposite sides of the track who meet and fall in love in a sleepy Southern town in the summer of 1940. In the present day, James Garner plays an elderly man living in a senior citizen home who reads the story of the two lovers to a woman (Gena Rowlands) suffering from Alzheimer’s.

The digital edition is jampacked with extras; thankfully, they are better than average. There’s a profile of director Nick Cassavetes, the son of the late indie film pioneer John Cassavetes and Rowlands, as well as an interview with Sparks, who was a salesman for a pharmaceutical company when he sold “The Notebook.” Other extras include a behind-the-scenes featurette, a look at the casting, McAdams’ screen test, 12 deleted scenes and informative commentary from editor Alan Heim. The disc also features two commentary tracks: one with Cassavetes and the other with Sparks.

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P.S.

Laura Linney, Topher Grace

Columbia, $25

Writer-director Dylan Kidd made a big splash in the indie film world three years ago

with his first feature, “Roger Dodger.” But his second film, “P.S.,” barely caused a ripple, even with a talented and

attractive cast that includes Laura Linney, Topher Grace, Gabriel Byrne and Marcia Gay Harden.

The May-December romantic drama finds Linney playing the divorced 39-year-old director of admissions at Columbia University who falls in love with a young man who bears more

than a passing resemblance to her dead high school sweetheart.

The sparse DVD includes deleted scenes -- Kidd says he spent 16 weeks shaping and reshaping the film in editing -- and thoughtful commentary from the director and his cinematographer Joaquin Baca-Asay.

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Susan King

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Also this week

“Eulogy” (Lions Gate: $27.98); “Bright Young Things” (New Line: $27.95); and “Remember Me, My Love” (First Look: $24.95).

Top video rentals

1. “Alien Vs. Predator”

2. “Friday Night Lights”

3. “The Forgotten”

4. “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow”

5. “Cellular”

What’s coming

Tuesday: “The Motorcycle Diaries,” “Saw,” “Taxi,” “Raise Your Voice,” “Yes Men” and “Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War”

Feb. 22: “I (heart) Huckabees” and “Around the Bend”

March 1: “SpongeBob SquarePants: The Movie,” “Exorcist: The Beginning,” “Flight of the Phoenix” and “Incident at Loch Ness”

March 8: “Ladder 49,” “Stage Beauty,” “Lightning in a Bottle” and “Woman Thou Art Loosed”

March 15: “The Incredibles,” “Alfie,” “What the Bleep Do We Know?” and “Man of the Year”

March 22: “Finding Neverland,” “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason,” “Being Julia,” “Final Cut” and “The Dust Factory”

March 29: “Closer,” “Vera Drake,” “After the Sunset,” “Seed of Chucky” and “National Lampoon’s Golddiggers”