CULTURE JAMMING -- JANUARY 21

TOP PICK

Tomb Raider: Underworld

(Eidos)

The best Lara Croft videogame in ages plops the world’s hottest pixilated adventurer in the middle of a Mexican jungle, a ravaged Thailand and other faraway locales in search of the Hammer of Thor. It’s available for pretty much every console, but stick with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions. Lara has never looked better.

CD

Franco & le TPOK Jazz: Francophonic: A Retrospective, Vol. 1: 1953-1980

(Sterns Africa)

Congolese music giant Franco Luambo Makiadi died 20 years ago, but his songs still sound vital today. This two-disc collection gathers more than two dozen tracks that span a quarter-century … and almost as many genres. There’s plenty of African beat music throughout, but there’s also homegrown ballads, dance tunes and some fierce guitar playing.

DVD

Man on Wire

(Magnolia)

One of last year’s best movies works just as well on a smaller screen, where the true story about a French guy who tightrope-walked between the twin towers in 1974 plays like a riveting crime drama. The movie is staged as a suspense flick, incorporating old footage, new interviews and deliberately overstated reenactments for a documentary that doesn’t suck.

DVD

Warner Bros. Horror Double Features

(Warner)

The two new sets in this DVD series each feature a pair of chillers from the 1960s. Best: The Shuttered Room, about a partially haunted house. Most fun: It!, in which an ancient statue comes to life. Most bizarre: Chamber of Horrors, which includes onscreen Fear Flashers and Horror Horns, tipping off viewers to the scary stuff.

VIDEOGAME

Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels, Star Wars The Clone Wars: Jedi Alliance

(LucasArts)

These two games (based on the animated TV show) focus on Anakin Skywalker’s pre-Darth Vader days, so expect appearances from a young Obi-Wan, General Grievous and various droids. Lightsaber Duels (for the Wii), in which your remote doubles as a lightsaber, puts you right in the action; Jedi Alliance (for the Nintendo DS) is portable.

--Michael Gallucci