THIS WEEK

Jodie Foster and Denzel Washington make for a taut thriller in Spike Lee's "Inside Man." (By David Lee)

Notable DVDs now available include:

· Inside Man (R) This tense thriller expertly directed by Spike Lee makes the most of stars Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster and Clive Owen. The plot starts out simply enough as a group of robbers takes over a Wall Street bank and the police, headed by a detective (Washington), surround the place. Then the twists start. Extras include a commentary with Lee, deleted scenes, a discussion with Lee and Washington and a "making of" featurette.

· Brick (R) This film has received a lot of love from critics. Post film reviewer Desson Thomson was one of the fans. He wrote: "Our hero of sorts is Brendan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a high schooler who's still holding a candle for Emily, his dead ex-girlfriend. His self-appointed mission: to infiltrate the underworld of his fellow students and find out who's responsible for her death. It's not just the quest that matters here, it's the seriocomic way Brendan gets there. Writer-director Rian Johnson knows how to fuse the amusing and the edgy, and, in Brendan, he has created an endearing character. Even as you struggle to keep up with its speedy chatter and multi-character complexity, the movie is always entertaining."

· The Lost City (R) Andy Garcia's tribute to prerevolutionary Havana is long (143 minutes) and meandering. On the bright side, the soundtrack of Cuban music is great to listen to, and the cinematography is quite nice. Still, unless you're as passionate about the topic as Garcia obviously is, you'll have a hard time sticking with this movie to the end.

· Don't Come Knocking (R) Sam Shepard, who wrote the screenplay, is an actor in cowboy movies who one day rides away from a big scene and flees his career. Tim Roth is charged with finding him. Also appearing in the Wim Wenders-directed film are Jessica Lange, Gabriel Mann, Fairuza Balk and Eva Marie Saint. If you didn't like "Paris, Texas" you definitely won't enjoy this one (and even if you did you might not, as the general consensus is that "Paris" was a better movie). Extras include a commentary with Wenders, deleted scenes and featurettes.

· Noah's Arc: The Complete First Season A three-disc set of the Logo network series that focused on the lives of four African American gay men in Los Angeles.

· Manderlay (Unrated) Lar s Von Trier's thumb-to-the-eye provocative look at race and slavery in America starring John Hurt and Bryce Dall as Howard.

· Popular Mechanics for Kids:

Lightning and Other Forces of Nature and

Popular Mechanics for Kids: Firefighters and Other Life-Saving Heroes (Unrated) These discs collect four episodes each on the title theme designed to let youngsters learn about such things as how a SWAT team trains and firefighters battle blazes or natural phenomena.