The best home entertainment release of the year so far headlines this week’s offerings, which also include a couple of interesting genre mash-ups, Sucker Punch and The Warrior’s Way, and for the first time the majority of the week’s anime releases are Blu-ray discs.

 

 

The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy Extended Edition (New Line, “PG-13,” BD $119.98) is the “Holy Grail” of home entertainment releases, at least for those who love fantasy films. The extended editions of all three LOTR films are presented in spectacular hi-def transfers on two discs with spectacular DTS 6.1 ES sound. Each film also gets at least two discs worth of extras, which basically encompass every pertinent extra from all the previous releases including the Cost Botes documentaries from the Original Theatrical & Extended Limited Editions.  Of course the extras haven't been remastered in 1080p, but their quality probably wouldn't be enhanced that much anyway.   And yes, New Line has been guilty of going to the well way too many times with its various LOTR DVD and Blu-ray releases, but this is the definitive set. Purchase this and there will be no need to buy it again until the Blu-ray format is long gone.

 

Now the extra material in “extended editions” often turn out to be insignificant fluff that the films were actually better off without, but that is not the case with the LOTR films. As meticulous as he was in adapting Tolkien’s epic work, even with three films Jackson couldn’t include it all. The LOTR Extended Editions flesh out the story and include key elements that were left out of the theatrical versions, and they are substantially longer. The extended version of The Fellowship of the Ring is 30 minutes longer, while the extended version of The Two Towers adds 43 minutes, and The Return of the King is a full 50 minutes longer. This makes for some very long running times that wouldn’t have worked theatrically, but which can be accommodated with relative ease at home with appropriate snack and bathroom breaks. This magnificent 15-disc set is clearly the home entertainment release of the year so far, one that fantasy movie fans with Blu-ray equipment will definitely want to own.

 

 

After scoring a huge success with his adaptation of Frank Miller’s 300, Zack Snyder’s record is spotty at best. An honorable, but ultimately money-losing effort at adapting the impossible (Alan Moore’s Watchmen), was followed by his first animated film, an adaptation of the popular YA series, The Guardians of Ga’hoole that didn’t make money either, but his latest feature Sucker Punch (Warner Bros., “R,” $28.98, BD/Combo $35.99) was even weaker at the box office where it barely made half of what it would have needed to break even. Sucker Punch is a genre-mashing, high concept, "girls with guns" visual feast that is arguably Snyder’s most personal film to date since he wrote as well as directed the film. Its framing story—that posits that the film's various action tableaus are the ravings of about a traumatized schizophrenic girl who is about to undergo a lobotomy—is mere pretext for what is a calculated mixture of sexy girls and violence aimed right at the heart of the fanboy audience. The film was heavily hyped at last year’s Comic-Con, but fandom failed to make an appearance in the theaters. Perhaps this strange, highly personal film will find its audience on DVD. In spite of the fact that, in its own way Sucker Punch is as much a reflection of its auteur as Persona is of Ingmar Bergman, critics didn’t give it a chance (it could only manage a 22% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes). But critics are hung up on concepts like coherent plotting and characterization, which have nothing to do with the kind of choreographed video game-inspired violence and visual craziness that is Sucker Punch.

 

Another genre mash-up movie debuting this week is The Warrior’s Way (Fox, “R,” $29.99, BD $39.99), a modestly budgeted western about a warrior skilled in the martial arts who hides out in the American West. This conflation of the spaghetti western and samurai movie, which stars Dong-Gun Jang and Kate Bosworth, is stylish in an anime-like way and, while it’s no Kill Bill, it has enough genre elements that some viewers will find it utterly fascinating, though the Fellini-esque visual touches (there’s a circus in town) and the overwrought operatic dialogue may be more than enough to trigger a gag reflex in others.

 

Despite their flaws Sucker Punch and The Warrior’s Way are more interesting than Beastly (Sony, “PG-13,” $28.95, BD $34.98), a very flawed teen rehash of Beauty and the Beast that is based on a YA novel by Alex Flinn that is far better than the movie. But Beastly is better than Season of the Witch (Fox, “PG-13,” $29.99, BD $39.99), which wastes the talents of Ron Perlman and Nicholas Cage in a misbegotten medieval epic that doesn’t even work on the level of unintentional comedy.

 

A viewer’s reaction to Barney’s Version (Sony, “R,” BD/Combo $38.98) will largely depend on their opinion of Paul Giamatti, who is at his best in this adaptation of Mordecai Richler’s 1997 novel about a man who meets the love of his life at the worst possible time (right after he has married his second wife). A deft mix of comedy and drama, Barney’s Version features cameos from a number of the key figures in Canadian cinema, and is recommended for those who enjoy the fiction of Phillip Roth or Saul Bellow.

 

 

It’s pretty slim pickings this week, but animation fans who fondly remember ReBoot, the first CGI-animated TV series that originally aired from 1994-2001, should be pleased with ReBoot: Seasons 3& 4 (Shout Factory, 650 min., $29.93), which includes 24 episodes of the action adventure series.

 

New series out this week include Rizzoli & Isles: The Complete First Season (Warner Bros. 450 min., $39.98), the police procedural starring Angie Harmon as a police detective and Sasha Alexander as a medical examiner. Set in Boston, this series features an ongoing narrative in which Harmon does battle with a serial killer who has traumatized her. Even though he is eventually incarcerated the medically-trained serial killer remains a threat.

 

Continuing series include Law & Order: Criminal Intent—The 6th Year (Universal, 957 min., $59.98), and the intriguing SyFy series, Warehouse 13 Season 2 (Universal, $49.98). Warehouse 13 is getting a comic book adaptation from Dynamite with a miniseries that debuts in August.

 

There are a number of mini-series hitting the market including Above and Beyond: The Complete Miniseries (Timeless Media, 179 min. BD $16.99), a Canadian-produced saga starring Jason Priestley about the North Atlantic convoys during WWII, Mary Bryant: The Complete Series (Timeless Media, 184 min., $16.98), the amazing and tragic story of an impoverished 18th Century Englishwoman who is sent in servitude to Australia where she escapes and embarks on a 4,000 mile voyage to freedom, and To The Ends of the Earth (Timeless Media, 267 min., $16.98), a 2005 BBC miniseries starring Benedict Cumberbatch (the star of Sherlock) that is based on a trilogy of novels by William Golding (The Lord of the Flies) about a young aristocrat who travels to Australia in the 19th Century.

 

The other major U.K. produced release is Inspector George Gently: Series 3 (Acorn Media, 176 min., $29.98, BD $39.98), which features superb performances by Martin Shaw as a grizzled London detective and grieving widower who finds a measure of peace in the windswept landscape of Northumberland during the 1960s. Though set in the 1960s and dealing with that decade’s wave of social and sexual rebellion, these two feature-length mysteries were produced in 2010, and they look particularly good in the high-def Blu-ray format.

 

 

For the first time the majority of the anime releases this week are Blu-ray discs led by the white hot High School of the Dead Complete Collection (Sentai Filmworks, “17+,” 300 min.,$59.98, BD $69.98), a 12-episode series produced by Madhouse in 2010 and based on the manga series about a group of high school students caught in the middle of a zombie holocaust and a nuclear holocaust written by Daisuke Sato and published here by Yen Press.

 

Also due out this week on BD are Rideback Complete Series (Funimation, “13+,” 300 min., $64.98), a science fiction mecha series about a teenage ballet dancer who discovers she has a talent for riding a transforming motor-cycle-like 2-wheeled vehicle and Baka and Test Season 1 (Funimation, “14+,” 325 min., BD/Combo $64.98), a fantasy romantic harem comedy based on the light novel series by Kenji Inoue. Both Rideback and Baka and Test are “combo” packs that include both Blu-ray and conventional DVDs—and Rideback in particular looks spectacular on BD.  This is a very underrated series that mecha fans will enjoy.

 

Newly reissued on Blu-ray are the reasonably-priced re-issues, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (Image Entertainment, “17+,” 115 min., BD $17.97), and Gungrave Complete Series (Funimation, “16+,” 650 min., BD $54.98), which is based on the video game created by Yasuhiro Nightow (Trigun) and previously released here by Geneon.

 

New material due out on conventional DVD includes Sgt. Frog Season 3 Part 1 (Funimation, “13+,” 325 min., $39.98), the latest installment of the popular alien invasion comedy that has great fun with anime conventions.

 

Magical Witch Punie-Chan Special Edition (Media Blasters, “13+,” 120 min., $29.99) is a single-disc re-release of a collection of 8 OVAs originally put out here in 2008.

 

 

VCI has been issuing an excellent series of British films, all of which have been newly restored and look great in their new standard DVD transfers. Candlelight in Algeria (VCI, 82 min., $19.99) was made in 1944 and it deftly mixes fact and fiction in a war story about an escaped British POW played by a very young James Mason, who escapes from the Nazis and makes his way to Algeria, where with the help of an American ex-pat played by Carla Lehrman, he manages to help General Mark Clark of the American Expeditionary Forces meet with French officials who agree to let the American forces land unopposed. Though not without its absurdities including the obligatory nightclub musical number, Candlelight in Algeria is an often exciting thrill ride as Mason and Lehrman attempt to evade some diabolical Nazi agents.

 

Mason is also featured in Tiara Tahiti (VCI, 100 min., $19.99), an interesting 1962 film from the Australian director Ted Kotcheff. Based on a novel by Geoffrey Cotterell, this film also stars John Mills as the stiff bourgeois foil to Mason’s aristocratic scoundrel. Their conflict begins during a stint in the army of occupation in Germany and then moves to Tahiti where Mason finds refuge. Unfortunately this film only survived in a 16mm color print, and though it has been restored, the print is not quite as sharp as the other films in the series, which is too bad because the South Seas location work is spectacular even if the comedy flags a bit in the film's second half.

 

Even better comic material can be found in VCI’s Terry Thomas Double Feature: Too Many Crooks & Make Mine Mink (VCI, 185 min., $19.99). These two comedies from 1960 and 1959 feature the gap-toothed master of the double take at his stiff upper lip best. The jazzy, “with-it” soundtracks are annoying, especially in Make Mine Mink, which is other respects a little gem of eccentric character comedy, but this disk is a “must” for those who enjoy traditional British comedies.

 

 

Those who enjoy independent cinema will want to check out The Alan Berliner Collection (Lorber Films, Not Rated, $99.95), a 5-disc collection Berliner’s idiosyncratic, highly personal cinema.  Wide Awake (2006) chronicles the director’s lifelong struggle with insomnia, while The Sweetest Sound is an ingenious film in which he invites all sorts of “Alan Berliners” to his house for a sort of My Dinner With Andre-like meeting of the Same Name Club. Nobody’s Business from 1996 is a cinematic portrait of the director’s reclusive father and provides a good deal of family history. Intimate Stranger (1991) adds more with a fascinating portrait of his maternal grandfather, a Palestinian Jew who lived in Egypt prior to World War II where he bought cotton for various Japanese concerns. After WWII he virtually abandons his family in New York and moves to Japan. The least overtly personal, but in some ways the most fascinating of Berliner’s films in this set is, The Family Album from 1986, a compelling experimental movie made from hours of found footage culled from anonymous home movies from the 1920s through the 1950s.