Documentaries about U2, the Doors, Phil Ochs and Elvis Presley debut

COMPELLING documentaries about musical artists living, dead and questionable - U2, the Doors, Phil Ochs and Elvis Presley - have our eyes and ears this week. Also on deck: Tim McGraw's happiest heart tuggers, Seal's soul-stirred kiss-offs, Dion's trip to bluesville and a strong solo set from the Weakerthans' John Samson.

Elvis sighting! The guy sitting in the dark sure sounds like Elvis. And in the singular moment where he allows his face to be lit on camera, looks as we'd imagine the King would, were "Elvis Found Alive" (Highway 61 Entertainment/MVD, B).

Filmmaker Joel Gilbert claims to have discovered Presley hiding in a witness-protection program and persuaded him to sit for a lengthy interview. Therein, the King expresses his admiration for comic-book hero Captain Marvel Jr. (and women who look like the superhero's girlfriend), explains his own quest to put down radicals and (after being deputized by President Nixon), the drug-dealing mafioso he met through Frank Sinatra. It's also "revealed" how death threats all shook up El, forcing him to fake his demise and go "address unknown."

There are just enough nitpicky details here - purportedly gathered after Gilbert's Freedom of Information Act request - to make the case semi-plausible. Having the good ole boy rail against President Obama is a particularly realistic ploy. And hearing this guy sing his new song, "Lisa Marie," in a visually obscured music video (also found on the companion "Elvis Found Alive" CD), you'd swear it really is Presley - though, oddly, in his prime-time voice, not that of a 77-year-old.

Glad the King's taking good care of himself!

Spare no expense: To mark the 20th anniversary reissue of their momentous "Achtung Baby," U2 has opened the video vaults, sneaked cameras into rehearsals and ventured back to Berlin, where the album was recorded just as "The Wall" was coming down. All's found on the Blu-ray/DVD release of "From the Sky Down" (Universal/Interscope, B+).

The documentary dwells often on the quartet's creative struggles, though the most telling moment is in the bonus interview at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival, when Bono appears on the verge of a breakdown discussing intimacy issues. That is, how U2 might tone down its grandiose nature to make music that works on "small speakers," one-on-one. A clue of what's to come?