Marc Webb’s Amazing Spider-Man 2 tops this week’s offerings, which also include an underground vampire film from Jim Jarmusch starring the red-hot Tom Hiddleston (Loki), a well-crafted new Hammer horror film, and a host of great TV releases including the latest seasons of Once Upon a Time, Parks & Recreation, Broadway Empire, and the first season of Alpha House, the brilliant political satire from cartoonist Gary Trudeau.
 
Theatrical Movies
 
This week’s top release is The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Sony, “PG-13,” $30.99, BD/DVD $40.99), which has earned $708 million at the worldwide box office, but was enough of a disappointment that Sony decided to shelve ASM 3 indefinitely in favor of a Sinister Six film.  It is hard to understand the negativity that this film has engendered.  It does (like Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3) suffer from an excess of villains and a bit too much narrative diffusion, but Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone deliver excellent performances, and overall this is very acceptable Spider-Man film.  The problem is that the Spider-Man origin trilogy was filmed a Sam Raimi in a series that ended in 2007, so the angst-filled teen superhero really needs a new approach and a new narrative.
 
Art movie fans have Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive (Sony, “R,” 123 min., $30.99, BD $35.99), which stars Tom Hiddleston (Loki in the Thor movies) and art house favorite Tilda Swinton as pale, emaciated vampires who are all too concerned with their own immortality.  Setting the movie in a decrepit Detroit was metaphorically correct (if cruel).  This is a vampire movie for those who like their undead languid and cool.  Jarmusch has created a very original take that philosophically expands the vampire genre (musically as well as narratively), though it may be too slow and dialogue-laden for many horror movie fans.  Critics on the other hand, rather predictably loved this fresh take on the genre, giving the film an 85% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
 
This week’s other horror movie release also has some interesting aspects.  The Quiet Ones (Lionsgate, “PG-13,” 98 min., $19.98, BD $24.98), yet another film from the revived Hammer Studios, is a slow-building chiller that isn’t above resorting to cheap tricks (like suddenly raising the decibel level in scary scenes) in a story of demonic possession that fans of that genre will want to check out.  In homage to the classic Hammer horror films, The Quiet Ones is set in the 1970s, and it hearkens back to the golden age of horror in the way it carefully builds up the foundation of its paranormal narrative before delivering its shocks.
 
TV on DVD
 
This is a very strong week for TV releases headlined by Once Upon a Time: The Complete Third Season (Disney, 946 min., $45.99, BD $79.99), which collects all 22 episodes of the ABC TV fantasy drama that takes place in the seaside town of Storybooke, Maine, where the residents are all characters from various fairy tales.  The series has become the number one non-sports program in the U.S. with young adults on Sunday nights, and was renewed for a fourth season.  Putting these fairy tale characters in a “real life” setting pays narrative dividends as readers of Bill Willingham’s Fables comics will attest.
 
Equally rich in terms of geek cred is Parks and Recreation: Season 6 (Universal, $39.98), the single-camera mockumentary with a great cast that includes Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones, Aziz Ansari, Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza, and Chris Pratt, who rocketed to fame this summer as Star-Lord in Disney’s Guardians of the Galaxy.  The eventful sixth season begins with an hour-long episode set in London, and includes the departures of Ann (Rashida Jones) and Chris (Rob Lowe).
 
Another release of great interest is the period gangster drama Broadway Empire: The Complete 4th Season (HBO, $59.99, BD $79.99).  Set in Prohibition-era Atlantic City, the fourth season of Boardwalk Empire begins in February of 1924 as the jazz age reaches Atlantic City with a vengeance, and Season 4 is full of musical set-pieces that take place in the Onyx Club, which is Atlantic City’s version of The Cotton Club.
 
But perhaps the best TV release of the week is the political satire Alpha House (Amazon, “Not Rated,” 300 min., $39.99, BD $49.99) created by cartoonist Gary Trudeau (Doonesbury).  Emmy Award winner John Goodman as North Carolina Senator Gil John Biggs heads a stellar cast in this “ripped-from the headlines” comedy series that will have you rolling on the floor like former Mormon missionary and Senator from Utah Louis Laffer (Clark Johnson) “demonstrating” his college wrestling moves with Stephen Colbert on the Colbert Report.  Other high profile guests include Bill Murray, Wanda Sykes, and Cynthia Nixon, but the real treat here is watching the interactions of the four Republican Senators who share a home in Washington D.C.
 
The Good Wife may not be a “geek” favorite, but it is one of the best written and acted series on American TV, network or cable—and the show’s fifth season could very well be the best yet.  This series just refuses to sit on its laurels and get stale.  Big things happen in Season 5 as Alicia and Cary plan to start their own firm and the turmoil within Lockhart/Gardner reaches a fever pitch as Diane, in her quest for a Supreme Court nomination, throws Will under the bus.
 
Other contemporary shows due out this week include NCIS: The Complete 11th Season (Paramount, $55.98), NCIS: Los Angeles—The Fifth Season (Paramount, $55.98), the generic CBS sitcom The Millers: The First Season (Paramount, $49.98), the Fox sitcom The Mindy Project: Season 2 (Universal, 478 min., $29.98), and the NBC sitcom/drama Parenthood: Season 5 (Universal, $44.98).
 
The top vintage TV release of the week is The Equalizer: The Complete Series Limited Ed. (Visual Entertainment, 4,920 min., $149.99), a giant 30-disc box set, which collects all 4 seasons of the CBS TV drama starring Edward Woodward (the poor man’s Michael Caine) as Robert McCall, a retired intelligence agent dedicated to helping people in trouble who are fighting big odds.  McCall is the original middle-aged action hero long before Liam Neeson made the genre his own in Taken.  Beautifully shot on the streets of New York, The Equalizer also features a host of guest appearances by superb NYC actors who enlivened nearly every episode of this classic adventure series.
 
Other vintage series out this week include a DVD-R edition of Maya: The Complete Series (Warner Bros., 927 min., $39.95), which collects the only season of the 1967-68 drama series starring Jay North (Dennis the Menace) as an American boy searching the jungles of India for his lost big game-hunting father, and the classic sitcom Newhart: The Complete 4th Season (Shout Factory, 528 min., $28.93).
 
Anime
 
This week’s top release is A Certain Scientific Railgun S: Season 2, Part 2 (Funimation, “14+,” 300 min., $59.98), which collects episodes 13-24 of the 2013 J.C. Staff anime series based on the manga series by Kazuma Kamachi, which itself is based on Kamachi’s light novel series, A Certain Magical Index.  This action-packed comedy-drama is a real delight. 
 
Also new to North America this week is the Mayo Chiki! Complete Collection (Sentai Filmworks, “17+,” 325 min., $59.98, BD $69.98), which collects all 13 episodes of the anime series based on the light novels of Hajime Asano.  The title is an abbreviation of “The Stray Butler and Myself the Chicken”.  This sexy harem comedy follows the twisted adventures of a 17-year-old boy who suffers from gynophobia (every girl is a malady for a lad like that) and accidently discovers that a handsome and popular butler is really a woman. 

Tom Flinn

The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect those of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.