THE LIST: DVDs, CDs and books hitting stores week of Nov. 24

DVDS
  “Angels & Demons” (PG-13): Star Tom Hanks and director Ron Howard reunite for this “Da Vinci Code” sequel, as Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is called to the Vatican to stop a deadly terrorist plot before Rome goes kablooey.
  “Four Christmases” (PG-13), meanwhile, follows a San Francisco couple (Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn) trying to endure multiple Yuletide celebrations with multiple divorced (and remarried) parents (Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen and Jon Voight). In “Funny People” (R), a 40-something comic movie star (Adam Sandler) develops a possibly fatal disease and takes an aspiring comedian (Seth Rogen) under his wing. A weird Texas town gets weirder when the local kids find a magical rock — and the local grown-ups compete to control it — in “Shorts” (PG), featuring Kat Dennings, Jon Cryer, William H. Macy, James Spader and Leslie Mann (who’s also in “Funny People”). Speaking of funny people, “Imagine That” (PG) casts Eddie Murphy as an investment banker who finds winning stock predictions in his daughter’s imaginary world. The award-winning, fact-based Italian crime drama “Gomorrah” (not rated) intertwines tales about lives touched, and transformed, by Naples’ Camorra crime syndicate. And in “Janky Promoters” (R), two shady concert promoters (Ice Cube, Mike Epps) find themselves in hot water.
  “Taking Chances” (R), which played CineVegas as “Patriotville,” stars Justin Long as a small-town guy battling plans for an Indian casino atop the local historic battlefield. Oscar-winners Christopher Walken, Morgan Freeman and Marcia Gay Harden headline the museum caper comedy “The Maiden Heist” (PG-13), while Disney’s “Santa Buddies: The Legend of Santa Paws” (G) takes the “Air Buddies” pups to the North Pole. Director Spike Lee focuses on a day in the life of Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant in “Kobe Doin’ Work” (not rated). And Disney’s animated classic “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” returns in a deluxe two-disc DVD edition.
  Topping the Blu-Ray lineup: Judy Davis’ 1979 breakthrough “My Brilliant Career” (G) and Mickey Rourke and Robert De Niro in the creepy 1987 “Angel Heart” (R). And in today’s TV-to-DVD file (all titles unrated): the Criterion Collection’s “The Golden Age of Television,” “The Jerry Lewis Show Collection,” “Daniel Boone: Fess’ Favorites,” “Hogan’s Heroes: The Komplete Series, Kommandant’s Kollection,” the original British “Life on Mars: Series Two,” “Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Season Four,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent — Season Four,” “Melrose Place: The Fifth Season, Vol. Two” and “Beverly Hills 90210: Season Eight.”

CDS
  Rihanna, “Rated R”: She’s pop music’s tabula rasa, a blank slate upon which pretty much anything can be projected.
  This isn’t a criticism: It testifies to Rihanna’s strength as a musical changeling, one that’s hard to ever completely pin down. From album to album, she’s largely a reflection of her many collaborators, which range from Justin Timberlake to The Dream this go-round.
  While not as tawdry as its title suggests, “Rated R” still packs enough to boil blood. 
  Also in stores: Beyoncé, “I Am ... Yours. An Intimate Performance at Wynn Las Vegas (CD/DVD)”; Birdman, “Pricele$$”; BlakRoc, “BlakRoc”; Andrea Bocelli, “Mi Navidad”; Susan Boyle, “I Dreamed a Dream”; Carmen and the One Seven, “C-17”; Bill Cosby, “Bill Cosby Presents The Cosnarati: State of Emergency”; Adam Lambert, “For Your Entertainment”; Ike Reilly, “Hard Luck Stories”; Jay Sean, “All or Nothing”; Shakira, “She Wolf”; and Angie Stone, “Unexpected.”

BOOKS
  “Breathless” by Dean Koontz: First a new book by Stephen King and now one by Dean Koontz.
  “Breathless,” described by the publisher as a “thrilling novel of suspense and adventure,” brings together numerous characters, including a Colorado craftsman and his Irish wolfhound as well as a Las Vegas specialist in chaos theory, as their lives converge around a mystery unfolding in the Colorado mountains.
  Also expected out this week is Michael Crichton’s “Pirate Latitudes,” featuring Capt. Charles Hunter who’s on the hunt for Spanish gold in this swashbuckling pirate adventure.
  Also hitting shelves: “First Lord’s Fury (Codex Alera Series No. 6)” by Jim Butcher; “Hollywood Moon: A Novel” by Joseph Wambaugh; “The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War” by James Bradley; “KISS Kompendium” by Gene Simmons; “The Morning Show Murders” by Al Roker; “Mrs. Scrooge: A Christmas Poem” by Carol Ann Duffy; and “Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog: The Amazing Adventures of an Ordinary Woman” by Lisa Scottoline.