THE LIST: DVDs, CDs and books hitting stores week of Jan. 20

DVDS
  “The Express” (PG-13): With the Super Bowl matchup set and no game this weekend, here’s a worthy substitute: a rousing fact-based drama about Ernie Davis (“Finding Forrester’s” Rob Brown), who becomes the first black player to win college football’s coveted Heisman Trophy in 1961, triumphing over the nation’s deeply ingrained racism. Dennis Quaid co-stars as Davis’ Syracuse University coach, Ben Schwartzwalder.
  While we’re on the subject of action guys, the video game “Max Payne” (PG-13) hits the screen with a vengeance — and Mark Wahlberg as the title DEA agent, who teams with an assassin (Mila Kunis).
  A more family-friendly fantasy, “City of Ember” (PG), takes place in a world of glittering lights, where two teens (“Atonement’s” Saoirse Ronan, Harry Treadaway) race against time to keep the lights from fading forever. Bill Murray, Tim Robbins and Martin Landau co-star. And the animated monster mash “Igor” (PG) focuses on a lowly lab assistant (voiced by John Cusack) who gets his chance to build his very own creature.
  In a more spiritual realm, “Henry Poole Is Here” (PG) serves up a comic parable about the depressed title character (Luke Wilson), who tries to isolate himself in a new house, but can’t escape the crowds gathering to view an image of Jesus on his backyard wall. And a British journalist (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), an American nurse (Radha Mitchell) and a Chinese partisan leader (Chow Yun-Fat) team up to rescue 60 orphans during Japan’s 1937 invasion of China in “The Children of Huang Shi” (R).
  Rounding out today’s recent-release lineup: the sinister Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) might be dead, but his traps live on, as forensics expert Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) tries to protect a deadly secret in “Saw V” (R), while the futuristic Gothic rock opera “Repo! The Genetic Opera” (R) features an eclectic cast (including Paul Sorvino, Alexa Vega, Anthony Head, Sarah Brightman and Paris Hilton) in a tale of a future world where a pandemic prompts a biotech company to launch an organ-financing program — with a killer repossession clause.
  Turning to titles that never played local theaters, “The Deal” (R) teams William H. Macy and Meg Ryan in a Hollywood spoof about a fast-talking producer trying to make a movie based on his nephew’s script. Elliott Gould and LL Cool J co-star. A culture clash inspires “AmericanEast” (R), as an Egyptian immigrant (Sayed Badreya) in L.A. opens a Middle Eastern restaurant — with his Jewish pal (Tony Shalhoub). An aspiring ballerina (Rachele Brooke Smith) hits the floor at a hip-hop club in “Center Stage: Turn It Up” (PG-13), featuring Peter Gallagher and Ethan Stiefel, both of whom starred in 2000’s “Center Stage.” And in “Save Me” (not rated), a young gay man enrolls in a Christian retreat dedicated to “curing” him of his homosexuality. Chad Allen and Judith Light lead the cast.
  In today’s documentary file, several different titles, including “60 Minutes: The Road to the White House,” “Biography: Barack Obama — Inaugural Edition” and “President Barack Obama: The Man and His Journey” (all unrated) profile the man who today becomes America’s 44th president. “The End of America” (not rated), meanwhile, focuses on the George W. Bush years, as author Naomi Wolf explores what she sees as America’s post-Sept. 11 fixation on fear and surveillance. And “MGM: When the Lion Roars” (not rated) recounts the history of a legendary Hollywood dream factory.
  Tuning in to TV transfers, Gary Sinise and Mare Winningham won Emmys, along with director John Frankenheimer, for the 1997 political biography “George Wallace” (not rated); Angelina Jolie won a Golden Globe as the third member of the starring trio.
Other TV titles arriving on DVD (all unrated) include “Chris Rock: Kill the Messenger,” “ The Rockford Files: Season Six,”  “This American Life: Second Season,” “Criss Angel Mindfreak: The Complete Season Four,” “ My Three Sons: Season One, Vol. 2,” “Moonlight: The Complete Series,” “MI-5, Vol. 6,” “Emergency! — Season Five” and “ Waking the Dead: The Complete Season Three.”

CDS
  Animal Collective, “Merriweather Post Pavilion”: Absorbing Animal Collective’s broad catalog is akin to staring at some distant horizon: There’s virtually no discernible bounds, and just about anything could be had in that great far off.
  With their ninth disc, the group continues to keep 'em guessing, this time by coming with their most dance-friendly, yet still parameters-free album yet.
  It’s a sweet-hearted pastiche of wayward pop melody, swaths of dissonance and art rock adventurism.
I  n other words, it’s an album that pretty much only these dudes could make. 
  Also in stores: Antony and the Johnsons, “The Crying Light”; BeauSoleil, “Alligator Purse”; Andrew Bird, “Noble Beast”; Combichrist, “Today We Are All Demons”; Fiction Family, “Fiction Family”; John Frusciante, “The Empyrean”; Jane Monheit, “The Lovers, The Dreamers and Me”; Robert Pollard, “The Crawling Distance”; and  Reel Big Fish, “Fame, Fortune and Fornication.”

BOOKS
  Lauren Willig’s fifth installment in the “Pink Carnation” series, “The Temptation of the Night Jasmine,” is a suspenseful, romantic tale featuring Robert, Duke of Dovedale, who returns to England from India to avenge the death of his mentor by infiltrating the secretive Hellfire Club and uncovering the identity of the murderous spy.
  Lady Charlotte, smitten with Robert since childhood, is thrilled by his return and wants him for her husband. Though he tries to dissuade her and eventually leaves her to track down the spy, their paths cross again and they team up to catch the killer.
  Also hitting shelve this week: “Agincourt” by Bernard Cornwell; “Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama” by Gwen Ifill; “We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work” by Jimmy Carter; “Confession” by Lee Gowan; and “Poe: A Life Cut Short” by Peter Ackroyd.