This week’s releases include the #2 release of the year (so far) as well as the movie that revved up the Fast and Furious franchise to new heights, plus a trio of geek-friendly TV releases that includes an excellent Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special, and the final season of the geek-favorite animated science fiction series Futurama.
 
Theatrical Movies
 
The biggest release of the week is clearly Despicable Me 2 (Universal, “PG,” 196 min., $28.98, BD/DVD Combo $34.98), which is currently the #2 film of 2013 here in North America and which made $918 million worldwide, a huge improvement over the first Despicable Me movie that earned $543 million.  The secret to the improved box office performance?  Well part of it was the success of the first film, but the sequel also devotes much more time to the cute (and funny) minions—and the home entertainment releases come with 3 animated shorts featuring the minions, a bonus that kids will certainly enjoy.
 
Fast and Furious 6 (Universal, “PG-13,” 131 min., $29.98, BD $34.98) was almost as popular as Despicable Me worldwide ($788 million).  The tragic death of actor Paul Walker has led Universal to contribute a portion of the price of each disc sold to Walker’s signature charity, but don’t expect this franchise to end in spite of Walker’s premature demise.  The BD extended edition includes a host of extras that fans of the series will want to own.  This a frenetic film that moves with the pace of one of its many supercharged vehicles.  By adding “The Rock” to the cast and elements of a caper film, Universal managed to revive a franchise that had appeared (in F&F 5) to be flagging.
 
There are some very interesting art movies due this week including The Hunt (Magnolia, “R,” $24.98, BD $29.98), a Danish film starring Mads Mikkelsen as a divorced schoolteacher whose life is torpedoed by a lie in this realistic and extremely well-acted drama.  Equally interesting, though much easier to watch, is Ken Loach’s The Angel’s Share (MPI, “Not Rated,” $24.98), a comic fable set in Scotland that deals with a serious social problem (youth unemployment), yet remains consistently upbeat in its portrait of a young slacker who finds his true calling.
 
For break dancing fans there is Battle of the Year (Sony, “PG-13,” $30.99, BD $35.99), the saga of a group of American underdogs who attempt to sublimate their considerable egos and put it all together in order to win the international break dancing championship.  There is nothing new here plot-wise, but plenty of fluid break dancing moves for those who enjoy acrobatic dancing.
 
TV on DVD
 
The top release in this category is Futurama Vol. 8 (Fox, 288 min., BD $39.98, DVD $29.98), which includes 13 episodes of Simpsons’ creator Matt Groening’s geek-favorite science fiction cartoon series.  Fans will especially want to check out the wonderfully inventive “The Inhuman Torch” episode along with other great efforts like “Murder on the Planet Express,” and “Stench and Stenchibility.”  Unless some video deity intervenes once again this is the tear-stained last season of Groening’s now classic sci-fi cartoon series.
 
Geek viewers will also have to have the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special: The Day of the Doctor (BBC, 75 min., $24.98, BD $29.98), a daring adventure that unites Doctors #10 (David Tennant) and #11 (Matt Smith) in a tri-partite time-traveling adventure that takes place in Elizabethan England, 2013 London, and the depths of outer space.  While it is too bad that Christopher Eccleston couldn’t appear, this is a daring fun romp that most Whovians will really enjoy.
 
Although it has a devoted cult audience due to its sporadic appearances on various PBS stations, the U.K.-produced character comedy Doc Martin deserves a much wider audience, especially among those who enjoy comedy that comes from the foibles of characters with a strong basis in psychological reality, rather than just whimsy.  The character of Doc Martin, who is a GP in the picturesque Cornish village of Portwenn, began his screen career in the movie Saving Grace, but has evolved into a truly brilliant creation in the hands of the series’ star Martin Clunes, who portrays the misanthropic medico who vomits and even sometimes faints at the sight of blood.  Each episode typically includes an interesting medical storyline as well as numerous funny bits and Doc Martin Series 6 (Acorn Media, 384 min., $$39.99) finds the show, which deftly mixes comedy and drama, mining a very rich vein of material as the Doc and his wife Louisa settle in to raise their son James in the relative tranquility of Portwenn.  But their routine is soon disturbed by the return of the obsessed pharmacist Mrs. Tischell and the surprise appearance of Doc Martin’s mother played by Claire Bloom.  Doc Martin is a series that may seem a bit slow at first, but it will grow on you and quickly become addictive.
 
There are few other contemporary shows of interest this week other than The Game: The 6th Season (Paramount, 422 min., $36.98), a comedy/drama set in the world of Professional American football that originally aired on the CW network, but which moved to BET in 2011 where it has been renewed for a seventh season.
 
Vintage TV offerings include the 1950s oater The Gene Autry Show: The Complete Series (Timeless Media Group, $79.99), and two seasons of the racially-charged police drama In the Heat of the Night, which aired on NBC from 1988-1992. In The Heat of the Night: Season 4 (TGG Direct, 915 min., $24.98) and In The Heat of the Night: Season 5 (TGG Direct, 915 min., $24.98) each present 19 1-hour episodes at a very reasonable price.
 
Anime
 
This week’s top releases are both based on Hiro Mashima’s popular Fairy Tail shonen manga series.  Fairy Tail: The Movie—Phoenix Princess (Funimation, “14+,” 85 min., BD/DVD Combo $34.95) features the cast of the Fairy Tail anime TV series in an all new adventure that follows events involving the Fairy Tail wizard guild members in the aftermath of their failure to capture a bandit leader.  This first Fairy Tail movie, which features the same vocal cast as the Fairy Tail TV anime, was produced by A-1 Pictures, directed by Masashi Fujimori, and released in Japan in 2012.
 
Fans of the popular Fairy Tail manga and anime (Fairy Tail is clearly in the top 5 shonen properties here in the U.S. if both anime and manga are considered) will also want to own Fairy Tail: Part 7 (Funimation, “14+,” 300 min., $54.98), which includes episodes 73-84 of the lengthy (175 episodes) Fairy Tail TV anime produced by A-1 Pictures and Satelight between 2009 and 2013.  While about half of the episodes in Part 7 are based on filler stories from the manga, the last half is devoted to the key Edolas/Earthbound storyline, which should delight all Fairy Tail fans and will continue in Part 8.   The animation quality for both Part 7 and the Fairy Tail Phoenix Princess movie are more than good enough to warrant watching in high definition.
 
One of the few shonen properties that is more popular here than Fairy Tail is Tite Kubo’s Bleach.  Bleach Set 19 (Viz Media, “13+,” 307 min., $44.82) includes episodes 268-279 from the mammoth Bleach TV series, which has received some excellent exposure here on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim.
 
Also new this week is the Btoom! Complete Collection (Sentai Filmworks, “17+,” 300 min., BD $69.98, DVD $59.98), which collects all 12 episodes of the Madhouse-produced 2012 anime series based on the manga by Junya Inoue that features an all-too-familiar trope, a teenage boy who finds himself trapped in his favorite video game.  This series was originally streamed on Crunchyroll (in Japanese) back in 2012, but is now available with an English language dub.
 
Fans of gender-bending anime comedies might want to check out the Kokoro Connect OVA Collection (Sentai Filmworks, “14+,” 100 min., BD $39.98, DVD $29.98).

Tom Flinn

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