I’ve become almost a broken record when singing the praises of the high definition restorations Disney is doing for the Blu-Ray releases of their classic animated titles, but they remain consistently top-notch, and such is the case with the positively great-looking The Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh (Walt Disney, Rated G, Blu-Ray-$36.99 SRP). It just looks… well… GREAT. Bonus materials include mini-shorts, a behind-the-scenes featurette, and a music video. I can only hope they’re giving the same care and attention to a nice new edition of The Black Cauldron.
To praise the beautiful lyricism of a Studio Ghibli film seems almost to be a bit redundant, especially when it’s always consistently true – case in point being the latest import to the US, From Up On Poppy Hill (New Video, Rated PG, Blu-Ray-$34.95 SRP). Set against the backdrop of Yokohama, Japan’s 1963 preparations to host the Olympics after its post WWII recovery, a burgeoning friendship between a pair of high school students is threatened by a secret from the past. Suffice to say, just see this. Bonus materials include both the original and US audio versions, featurettes, a music video, TV spots, and trailers.
I know the wait has been painful, but you can get your John Luther fix with Luther 3 (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$34.98 SRP), as Idris Elba’s cop is called to another case just as members of his own team want to take him down. Add a vigilante killer into the mix, and all morality starts slipping into gray. Bonus materials include a making-of featurette.
Fans will have to wait a bit longer for the next complete season set, but you can make the wait a bit easier with Regular Show: Fright Pack (Cartoon Network, Not Rated, DVD-$19.82 SRP), which brings together 8 complete episodes plus a special villains gallery.
It’s taken me a few years to get warmed up to Parks And Recreation (Universal, Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP) – in fact, it’s taken until the 5th season. I’m not entirely sure why the show had never really clicked for me… Perhaps it was its awkward Office vibe at the start, or that it finally seems to have come into its own. Regardless – Now? Tis great. Bonus materials include extended episodes, deleted scenes, webisodes, promos, Patton Oswalt’s filibuster, and en epic gag reel.
Combine magicians and heist movie tropes and you’ve basically got a nice little weekend’s entertainment in Now You See Me (Summit, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP), which combines the aforementioned illusionists on a spectacular crime spree with a hidden agenda. Plus it has Morgan Freeman. You can always watch Morgan Freeman. Bonus materials include an audio commentary, featurettes, and deleted scenes.
It’s always sunnier when another season of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia (Fox, Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP) arrives, and the 9th season is just as weird and wacky as one would hope, as the Paddy’s Pub gang get into more of their usual odd adventures. Bonus materials include audio commentaries, deleted scenes, featurettes, and a gag reel.
A genre classic makes its long-awaited high definition debut with the arrival of the original version of The Fly (Fox, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$24.99 SRP), which looks and sounds pretty damn good, and comes with an audio commentary, the Biography episode on Vincent Price, a retrospective special, and Fox Movietone News.
The folks at Mill Creek prove once again that they are wizards at providing the most entertainment for your limited budget with another quartet of their multi-film collections – the 12-movie American Horror Stories, the 12-movie The Best Of The Worst, the 12-movie Dawn Of The Immortals, and the 12-movie Taboo Tales (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$9.98 SRP each).
To try and sum up the many, many things wrong with Star Trek Into Darkness (Paramount, Rated PG-13, 3D Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP) may seem an exercise in extreme pedantry, but I choose to believe it’s just a case of profound disappointment. While I still believe JJ Abrams has no real clue how to do a Star Trek film, the far more annoying problems with this film are mainly to do with a lazy, insipid script that manages to cut corners through plot holes aplenty with a seemingly delighted cluelessness. Sad, really. So very, very sad. Bonus materials include a bevy of featurettes.
I’m sad to say, but I’ve never been more happy for a show to end than I have been for The Office (Universal, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$59.98 SRP) to close. What had started as a pale imitation of the UK original and managed to make itself into a sparkling comedy in its own right devolved from about season five into a sad, simpering, gurning imitation of a comedy, that seemed to be existing on the memory of fumes. So yes, glad and sad to see it go, but it’s in a better place now. Our memory. Bonus materials include audition tapes, cast farewells, deleted scenes, the finale table read, a behind-the-scenes panel discussion, and a blooper reel.
Heya, music fans! How about this week’s soundtrack roundup? You’ve got the compilation of songs and score from Kick-Ass 2 (Sony Masterworks, $12.53 SRP), Daniel Hart’s score to Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (Lakeshore, $9.99 SRP), Shigeru Umebayashi’s score to The Grandmaster (Lakeshore, $14.91 SRP), Jeff Danna’s score for the first season of Continuum (Lakeshore, $19.99 SRP), a newly remastered version of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music (Masterworks Broadway, $ SRP), Bear McCready’s score to Europa Report (Sparks & Shadows, $14.98 SRP), Rob Simonsen’s score to The Spectacular Now (Lakeshore, $19.99 SRP), and Ludwig Goransson’s score to Fruitvale Station (Lakeshore, $21.03 SRP). Whew!
It’s rather fitting that you can actually spend an actual Friday the 13th watching the high definition debut of all 12 films contained in the Friday The 13th Complete Collection (Warner Bros., Rated R, Blu-Ray-$129.95 SRP), almost half of which have never been available in the format previously. Most of the bonus materials have been carried over from previous DVD and Blu-Ray releases, and it also sports a collectible booklet and a Camp Crystal Lake Counselor patch. The only real disappointment is they didn’t use the occasion of this release to give Part 3 a proper 3D release, which technology now allows.
And if watching that new season of Luther has you primed to watch some more of the BBC’s patented character-based crime drama, try giving a spin to Aftermath: An Inspector Banks Mystery (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$19.98 SRP), starring Stephen Tompkinson as the titular tenacious Chief Inspector faced with a deadly crisis situation at a murder scene.
Hey, sure, let’s turn Leonardo DaVinici into a sexy warrior for the forces of truth and enlightenment in a dark age. That’s basically the premise of DaVinci’s Demons (Anchor Bay, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$54.99 SRP), which casts Leo into a turbulent, soapy actioner with polish and just enough crazy verve to make the series watchable. Bonus materials include audio commentaries, featurettes, and deleted scenes.
Just when you thought things couldn’t get any crazier, the fifth season of Sons Of Anarchy (Fox, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$69.99 SRP) proves that yes, things can get crazier. Decidedly crazier. Bonus materials include audio commentaries, extended episodes, deleted scenes, featurettes, and a gag reel.
If you’ve been smurfing to see some classically animated smurfs, then the Halloween themed The Smurfs: The Legend Of Smurfy Hollow (Sony, Rated G, DVD-$6.99 SRP) is for you, as it features the big-screen 3D smurfs telling a campfire tale that is brought to life in the 2D way 80s kids like me remember fondly.
The long, tragic, and often bloody road traveled by Starz’ original sword and sandals series finally comes to an epic conclusion with Spartacus: War Of The Damned (Anchor Bay, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$59.95 SRP) as Spartacus’s rebel army continue their war with Rome. Bonus materials include audio commentaries, extended episodes, and featurettes.
Sometimes you get the sense that the BBC is willing to try just about anything to get an ongoing genre franchise going, which is probably why the first season of their take on Sinbad (BBC, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$34.98 SRP) has a hard time finding its sea legs, swerving from Game Of Thrones drama to Hercules: The Legendary Journeys camp. It needs to pick a direction and commit. Bonus materials include a clutch of featurettes.
Set in the transition from the stratified Edwardian class system to the societal breakdown and chaos of WWI, Tom Stoppard’s Parade’s End (HBO, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$49.99 SRP) stars Benedict Cumberbatch as a wealthy nobleman who marries a manipulative socialite but finds his loveless marriage undermined by a young suffragette. Bonus materials include an interview with Stoppard.
From the high concept, low payoff folks at JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions comes Revolution (Warner Bros., Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$69.97 SRP), in which the entire world is suddenly plunged into a reality devoid of any working technology, from phones and lights to planes and cars (yeah, go with it), and the world reacts by going completely insane and ruthless. So it’s up to small band of rebels to make everything right, because power to the people. Bonus materials include featurettes, webisodes, deleted scenes, a gag reel, and the Paley Fest discussion.
Sports, suburbs, and comedy collide once again in the fourth season of The League (Fox, Not Rated, DVD-$29.98 SRP), and somehow it all works, even if you don’t care about sports. Bonus materials include extended episodes, deleted scenes, a podcast, a gag reel, and more.
It’s always interesting to see where a show goes when it’s expanding from source material, particularly when Stephen King is the source. Based on The Colorado Kid, by its third season, Haven (E1, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$39.98 SRP) has proven to be its own beast, and a much more entertaining one than the shaggy dog Under The Dome. Bonus materials include webisodes, audio commentaries, featurettes, interviews, an d a blooper reel.
There’s something sublimely elegant in Matt Jeffries’ design for the original U.S.S. Enterprise 1701 (Diamond Select Toys, $59.99 SRP), and it remains so even nearly a half-century after the creation of Star Trek. The fine folks at Diamond Select Toys have done a superb job of capturing the screen-accurate look of that original model in their electronic “Starship Legends” series, featuring accent and nacelle lighting, plus a selection of original sound and dialogue clips from the show. As with all of the other ships in this series, you have the option to either use the display base, which connects to a hole on the bottom of the ship, or swap out that hole-bottom plate for a hole-less version perfect for hanging up in aerial display.
Hey! Not only is Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (Shout Factory, Rated PG-13, Blu-Rsy-$29.93 SRP) finally available in high definition, but the fine folks at Shout Factory have managed (yet again!) to do what was once seen as an impossible fulfillment of fan wishes by including the mythical deleted host segments from the film (Storm shelter! Original ending!), as well as bonus riff sections of This Island Earth. The inclusion of a new making-of featurette, a spotlight on This Island Earth, and the original EPK featurette is just icing on the cake.
