Blood Diamond

Warner. DVD, 138 minutes. Rated R. $29.98/$34.99.

Grade: B+

Director Edward Zwick caused a stir when it was announced he would make a movie about diamond smuggling in West Africa, specifically how rebels use those diamonds to finance their brutal campaigns.

The international diamond cartel cried foul; only a fraction of the stones that reach the market were used to finance bloodshed, it argued.

Whatever the case, Zwick's movie makes a compelling case for knowing where your jewels come from. It tells the story of Solomon (Djimon Hounsou), who finds his village terrorized by rebels and his son carted away to join a children's army. Solomon is pressed into service in a diamond mine, where he discovers a flawless, 100-karat pink stone. He hides it, determined to retrieve it later to ransom his son.

When that time comes, he partners with a mercenary-turned-smuggler named Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio). Archer wants the stone to finance his own escape from Africa. Strong performances and a relentless pace make this film immensely watchable — and often quite violent.

Extras: Director commentary. The two-disc edition also includes a feature on diamond mining, profiles of the cast and a music video.

The Nativity Story

New Line. DVD. 106 min. Rated PG. $28.98.

Grade: B

Jut in time for Easter comes the DVD release of The Nativity Story, which was originally released last fall as a feel-good Christmas movie.

The title sums up the plot: Teen-age Mary (Keisha Castle-Hughes) is visited by an angel who tells her she will be impregnated with God's son. Around the same time she's taken as a wife by Joseph (Oscar Isaac), a somber but good-hearted man who is baffled when he discovers that his bride is with child. (Jewish customs forbids a man to lay with his wife for a year after marriage).

Meanwhile, King Herod has his Roman soldiers scouring Judea for the so-called messiah, which forces Joseph and Mary to stay one step ahead of the purge. They head to Bethlehem for a census and from there flee to Egypt.

The filmmakers fill in some of the vague parts of the Bible (what were Mary's parents like?), while emphasizing the harsh, often brutal landscape of Christ's birth. This makes for a rather dour movie early on; everyone seems to be barely subsisting, thanks to high taxes.

Throw in three wise men following a star toward Bethlehem, and the coy interaction between Mary and Joseph (they almost seem like brother and sister), and The Nativity Story is deliberately inoffensive. Even the birth in a stable is handled with decorum worthy of a middle-school pageant, albeit accompanied by Christmas hymns in Latin.

Far from breaking new ground, The Nativity Story offers an earnest retelling of an already-classic tale. Best of all, in this first-century world nobody gets flogged.

Extras: A DVD-ROM Bible study guide.

Everyone's Hero

Fox. DVD. 90 min. Rated G. $19.98.

Grade: B-

Directed by the late Christopher Reeve, Everyone's Hero is an animated fable that lacks the big-budget gloss of a Shrek or Cars, but has one thing the others lack: A sense of the diversity of the world.

Hero tells the Depression-era story of Yankee Irving (voice by Jake T. Austin), a 10-year-old boy who lives in the shadow of New York's Yankee Stadium and loves baseball. His father is a janitor at the stadium, and one night he allows Yankee to look at Darlin', the fabled bat of Babe Ruth.

The next morning the bat is missing, Dad is fired and Yankee is the only one with a clue as to what happened. He remembers a suspicious man lurking about — a man who turns out to be the pitcher for the Chicago Cubs. The Yankees are playing the Cubs in the World Series.

Determined to get Dad's job back, Yankee takes to the road in search of Darlin' and along the way befriends a motley assortment of characters, from a talking baseball (yes, you have to suspend disbelief) to a trio of hobos. He also meets the daughter of a Negro League player who helps him in his quest.

An animated movie populated by more than a peripheral African American character? That's usual to say the least.

Everyone's Hero is about believing in yourself even when others don't. It boasts an impressive roster of vocal talent, including Whoopi Goldberg, Forest Whitaker, Rob Reiner and William H. Macy.

It's got the usual clichés — a kid battling impossible odds, a villain subject to non-stop pratfalls, inanimate objects that talk — and a feel-good ending.

It's also got heart. The digital animation might be a little low-rent, but you're too swept up in Yankee's adventure to care.