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DVDs 'just in time for Father's Day'

By Jim Carnes McClatchy Newspapers

It seems as if every new DVD release this week came with the promotional tagline: "Just in time for Father's Day."

I'm not sure that Lost: The Complete First and Second Seasons — beautiful as it is on Blu-ray and packed with high-definition extras — is the kind of thing I want to give my 80-year-old dad, though.

For me, I'm glad to have the beginning episodes all together (maybe I'll make sense of it this time), plus great featurettes on the genesis of the series, the making of the pilot, never-before-seen Lost flashbacks, and Fire and Water: Anatomy of an Episode, which follows one show from conception to completion. It's $69.99 for each season on Blu-ray.

Very cool. Still, not for my dad.

Vampires. Now, there's something dad might get into. Just in time for Father's Day is the four-disc DVD set The Hunger: The Complete First Season ($39.98). Directors Ridley and Tony Scott are responsible for this series (which aired 1997 to '99 on Showtime) based on the 1983 vampire film of the same name starring David Bowie, Catherine Deneuve and Susan Sarandon. All 22 episodes of the series are included here, introduced by host Terence Stamp. Among the familiar stars you'll see in episodes are Daniel "James Bond" Craig, Sally Kirkland, Bruce "X-Men" Davison and Balthazar Getty (of Brothers and Sisters).

Anna Kendrick, who starred in Twilight (another vampire movie), has the lead role in Elsewhere, a thriller in the vein of Disturbia. Kendrick plays Sarah, a high school star student and athlete, and Tania Raymonde (of Lost) plays Jillian, her best friend and star troublemaker. Both are unhappy in their small town; Jillian unwisely starts using the Internet to meet men who might help her escape this existence — and then she disappears. Sarah is left to discover why nobody wants her friend to be found. It's good and creepy, and it's $24.98 on DVD or Blu-ray.