The home entertainment world is starting to awake from its Q1 slumber with some interesting Oscar-nominated films including The Descendants and My Week With Marilyn, along with Steven Spielberg’s Tintin and a quartet of vintage Doctor Who sagas including two starring Tom Baker.

 

 

The pace of releases has picked up considerably this week with the release of the Oscar-nominated The Descendants (Fox, “R,” $29.98, BD/Combo $39.99), which stars George Clooney in a strong subtle performance as a flawed and somewhat hapless real estate attorney in Alexander Payne’s best movie yet. Clooney plays against type and is ably supported by a strong cast in this potent family drama.

 

But comic book fans are probably more interested in Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin (Paramount, “PG-13,” $29.99, BD/Combo $44.99, 3-DBD $54.99).  The film has earned just shy of $80 million domestically, but nearly $300 million overseas, which should be enough to insure that Peter Jackson gets to make a second Tintin feature.  Some will undoubtedly be put off by the occasionally creepy look of the motion-capture animation, but the real problem with the movie is that, as was the case with Spider-Man 3, the filmmakers attempt to cram too much narrative into the film, which uses plot elements from three of Herge’s Tintin graphic novels, The Secret of the Unicorn, Red Rackham’s Treasure, and The Crab With the Golden Claws.  A surfeit of narrative is really the only major flaw in this honorable attempt to adapt some of the world’s bestselling comics.

 

Those who enjoy art movies will have several new offerings to choose from including My Week With Marilyn (Weinstein, “R,” $29.98, BD/Combo $39.99), which features a stand-out performance from Michelle Williams and a surprisingly powerful one from Kenneth Branagh as Laurence Olivier.  Those who like their cinematic fare more complex and “deep,”  might enjoy Melancholia (Magnolia, “R,” $26.98, BD $29.98), an apocalyptic psychodrama from outspoken Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier that features an excellent performance from Kirsten Dunst, though others (including this reviewer) might prefer the more straightforward charms of Young Adult (Paramount, “R,” $29.99, BD $39.99), the Diablo Cody-penned dark comedy in which Charlize Theron plays a former prom queen turned YA novelist, who returns to her home town after a bitter divorce.  This is a film that manages to be a very uncomfortable, but nevertheless fascinating, combination of humor and a trenchant, brutal sadness.

 

With so many releases this week there have to be some turkeys in the roost, and the biggest one is Happy Feet 2 (Warner Bros. “PG,” $28.98, BD/Combo $35.99, 3-D BD $44.95), a sequel to the inexplicably popular 2006 film Happy Feet. Both films trade on the inherent cuteness of penguins, but Happy Feet 2 is such a tired mass of narrative clichés that even super cute tuxedo-clad birds can’t save it.

 

Equally bad in its own way is the latest iteration of The Three Musketeers (Summit Entertainment, “PG-13,” $26.99, BD $30.99, 3-D BD $34.99). Directed by Resident Evil Helmer Paul W.S. Anderson and starring his muse Milla Jovovich (as Milady DeWinter), this version of the oft-filmed Alexander Dumas classic does sport decent costumes, sets, and locations.  In spite of its overblown action sequences, the movie is occasionally entertaining, but the screenwriter’s additions like the giant airship are absurdly anachronistic and totally unnecessary (whatever literary deficiencies Alexander Dumas may have had, plotting was certainly  not one of them).  Rent the Richard Lester Three Musketeers films instead.

 

 

For some the major TV release this week may be The Killing (Fox, 587 min., $49.99, BD $59.99), which collects the AMC cable series that was based on a Danish crime series of the same name.  Set in a dreary rain-soaked Seattle, this plodding procedural has developed a following among the “crime cognoscenti,” though it is light years shy of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks when it comes to entertainment value—and the nasty fact is that viewers will have to wait until the end of Season 2 to find out who killed Rosie Larsen.

 

For others the key release is Neverland (Vivendi, 169 min., $19.97, BD $29.95), a prequel to Peter Pan, which was written and directed by Nick Willing and which appeared on the Syfy network in December of 2011.

 

But for old school fantasy fans this week’s trigger trippers could be reduced price editions of Xena: Warrior Princess Season 3 (Universal, 900 min., $26.98) and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys: Season 3 (Universal, 880 min., $26.98), or perhaps one of four vintage Doctor Who sagas that include Doctor Who: Story 037 Tomb of the Cybermen Special Edition (BBC, 101 min., $34.98), which collects a 4-part saga from 1967 starring the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton), Doctor Who: Story 064: The Three Doctors Special Edition (BBC, 100 min, $34.98), a four-parter from the early 1970s that celebrated the show’s 10th anniversary with appearance by the first three Doctors (William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, and Jon Pertwee), Doctor Who: Story 089-Face of Evil (BBC, 120 min., $24.98), and Doctor Who: Story 090-Robots of Death Special Edition (BBC, 100 min. $24.98)—both Face of Evil and Robots of Death feature the popular Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker).

 

But the best news this week could be the release of Wallace and Gromit’s World of Invention (Lionsage, 174 min., $14.99, BD $14.99), which contains the first new  Wallace and Gromit animation since 2009, a delightful 6-part series in which W&G take a look at great inventions around the world as well as present a few Rube Goldberg contraptions of their own.

Offerings from the UK include the often hilarious mockumentary Come Fly With Me (BBC, 170 min., $24.98) starring Matt Lucas and David Walliams (who together play more than 50 roles) and Out (Acorn Media, 302 min., $39.99), a gritty crime drama about a bank robber who returns to his old haunts after an eight-year stretch in prison determined to find the snitch who sent his to jail.  Filmed in South London this series manages to capture all the nuances of the urban jungle as the protagonist of this series played very effectively by Tom Bell attempts to extract a measure of revenge and avoid the clutches of the a nasty crime boss played by Brian Cox.  This miniseries was produced in 1978 and the quality of the images are not up to current standards, but given the film’s gritty milieu, this is not as much of a problem as it would be with shows from different genres.

 

This week’s anime releases include Mardock Scramble: The First Compression (Sentai Filmworks, “17+,” 125 min., $29.98, BD $39.98), the first of three anime films adapting Tow Ubukata’s light novels about a prostitute who is left for dead by an evil crimelord, and then resurrected as a cyborg determined to wreak vengeance on her tormentor.  This anime feature, which is being released in both DVD and Blu-ray formats, debuted in Japan in late 2010.

 

Also out this week is a Blu-ray edition of the 2010 Squid Girl anime, which was previously released here on DVD. Squid Girl: Season 1 Complete Series (Media Blasters, “7+,” 300 min. $59.99), which includes all 12 episodes of the TV anime series produced by Diomedia, which aired in 2010.

 

The only other release during this very light week is Kekkaishi Set 4 (Viz Media, 13+, 300 min., $49.95), the fourth and final set collecting the 52-episode supernatural action comedy series produced by Sunrise that aired in Japan 2006-2008 and was based on the manga by Yellow Tanabe.

 

 

Fritz Lang’s Scarlet Street (Kino, Not Rated $29.95) is a classic psychological film noir from 1945 that stars Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, and Dan Duryea in a triangle saga that was one of the first Hollywood films in which a criminal is not specifically punished by the state for his crime (though his psychological torment is extreme).  In Scarlet Street cinematographer Milton Krasner created a near perfect example of the early studio-bound noir with glistening streets, dark rich shadows, and high contrast images throughout, all of which come through beautifully in Kino’s new Blu-ray edition, which is highly recommended for all lovers of 1940s film noir.  Scarlet Street is a remake of Jean Renoir’s 1931 film La Chienne (The Bitch), and with tangled rights it has long been in the public domain, which means that it has been released numerous times on DVD before, but none of those prints come close to this edition, a smooth hi-def transfer from the best extant 35mm print of the film (from the Library of Congress) that is simply a joy to watch.

--Tom Flinn