THE LIST: DVDs, CDs and books hitting stores week of March 23

DVDS
  “The Blind Side” (PG-13): Sandra Bullock just took home a best actress Oscar for this fact-based crowd-pleaser about future NFL tackle Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron), a gentle giant who rises from virtual homelessness to football stardom with an assist from a force-of-nature Southern belle who takes him under her wing — and her roof.
  Speaking of Oscar-winners, George Clooney gets a double showcase today. In the stop-action animated romp “Fantastic Mr. Fox” (PG), from quirky director Wes Anderson, he voices the sly title character, who outsmarts vengeful farmers out to get him. Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman and Willem Dafoe, among others, also lend their voices. And in the wannabe Iraq war satire “The Men Who Stare at Goats” (R), Clooney plays a special forces agent (a character inspired by real-life Las Vegan John Alexander) who reveals the existence of a secret Army unit employing paranormal powers to a gung-ho reporter (Ewan McGregor). Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey co-star. War also figures in “Brothers” (R), a remake of a 2004 Danish standout, in which a Marine captain (Tobey Maguire) disappears in Afghanistan, prompting his black-sheep ex-con brother (Jake Gyllenhaal) to comfort his sister-in-law (Natalie Portman) and her young daughters. Rounding out the week’s theatrical releases: “Red Cliff” (R), actionmeister John Woo’s stirring epic (China’s all-time box-office champ) about a legendary first-century battle. Tony Leung and Takeshi Kaneshiro lead the charge.
  Several classics make their Blu-Ray Disc debuts today, notably the Katharine Hepburn-Humphrey Bogart favorite “The African Queen” (not rated) to two Akira Kurosawa samurai adventures featuring Toshiro Mifune (also unrated), “Yojimbo” (later remade as the spaghetti Western that made Clint Eastwood a star, “A Fistful of Dollars”) and “Sanjuro.” Also arriving on Blu-Ray: director Terence Malick’s haunting, visually stunning rural drama “Days of Heaven” (PG), with Richard Gere, Brooke Adams and Sam Shepard; “Bigger Than Life” (not rated), with James Mason as a seriously ill teacher whose “wonder drug” cortisone treatment affects his sanity; and special editions of “Toy Story” and “Toy Story 2” (both rated G).
  Making their Las Vegas debuts on DVD: “Spring 1941” (R), with Joseph Fiennes as a Polish doctor who, with his family, takes refuge from the Nazis on a neighbor’s farm; the award-winning Australian drama “The Black Balloon” (PG-13), with Toni Collette as the mother of an autistic son; the straight-to-video “Free Willy: Escape From Pirates Cove” (PG), with Beau Bridges and Bindi Irwin; and “Phantom Punch” (R), featuring Ving Rhames as boxer Sonny Liston. Topping today’s documentary file: “The T.A.M.I. Show: Collector’s Edition” (not rated), a blast-from-the-past 1964 rock concert featuring (among others) the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, the Supremes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Marvin Gaye, Lesley Gore and a show-stopping James Brown.
  Tuning in to TV transfers (all unrated), Ian McKellen and Jim Caviezel star in the miniseries “The Prisoner,” which reinterprets the classic Patrick McGoohan series of the same name. Series arrivals include “Mad Men: Season Three,” “The Judy Garland Show, Vol. Three,” “Life with Derek: The Complete Third Season,” “The Lair: The Complete Third Season,” “Father Knows Best: Season Four,” “Sabrina Teenage Witch: The Complete Sixth Season” and “7th Heaven: The Complete 10th Season.”

CDS
  The Dillinger Escape Plan, “Option Paralysis”: You will need a new, replacement face after spinning this bad boy, which will tear your current mug right off.
  Long one of the most frenetic, ferocious live acts around, The Dillinger Escape Plan continue to harness that energy overload on their records somehow, coming with their hookiest, most immediate record yet. “Option Paralysis” is still dizzyingly technical, full of algebraic time signatures and abrupt tempo shifts, but Dillinger’s audio terror has become increasingly tuneful.
  And so, name aside, there really is no escape when it comes to these dudes. 
  Also in stores: Mose Allison, “The Way of the World”; Bettie Serveert, “Pharmacy of Love”; The Bird and the Bee, “Guiltless Pleasures Volume 1: A Tribute to Daryl Hall and John Oates”; Joe Bonamassa, “Black Rock”; Goldfrapp, “Head First”; Coco Montoya, “I Want It All Back”; Pet Shop Boys, “Pandemonium Live (CD/DVD)”; Radar Bros., “The Illustrated Garden”; Snoop Dogg, “More Malice (CD/DVD)”; and Triptykon, “Eparistera Daimones.”

BOOKS
  “Matterhorn” by Karl Marlantes: Lt. Waino Mellos and the other young Marines in Bravo Company face more dangers than just the enemy after being dropped in the jungle of Vietnam in 1969.
  The company, threatened by disease, malnutrition, monsoon rain and leeches, also battles conflicts between each other as they engage in terrifying combat with an enemy that outnumbers them.
  On a lighter note, Christopher Moore follows up “Bloodsucking Fiends” and “You Suck” with “Bite Me,” the latest in the author’s comic vampire saga.
  Also hitting shelves this week: “Caught” by Harlan Coben; “The Creation of Eve” by Lynn Cullen; “Dearest Cousin Jane: A Jane Austen Novel” by Jill Pitkeathley; "Fablehaven: Keys to the Demon Prison" by Brandon Mull; “Falling Apart in One Piece: One Optimist’s Journey Through the Hell of Divorce” by Stacy Morrison; “Known to Evil (Leonid McGill Series No. 2)” by Walter Mosley; “The Leader Who Had No Title: A Modern Fable on Real Success in Business and in Life” by Robin Sharma; “The Mapping of Love and Death” by Jacqueline Winspear; “The Male Brain” by Louann Brizendine; “Mommywood” by Tori Spelling; “Paul and Me: Fifty-three Years of Adventures and Misadventures with My Pal, Paul Newman” by A.E. Hotchner; “Shattered” by Karen Robards; “The Sheen on the Silk” by Anne Perry; “Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA” by Maryn McKenna; and “Suze Orman’s Action Plan: New Rules for New Times” by Suze Orman.