With Christmas just over a week away, it’s time for the final barrage of home entertainment releases including the comic book-based Kick-Ass 2, Neil Blomkamp’s politically-charged sci-fi saga Elysium, and Gore Verbinski’s The Lone Ranger, which may mark the end of the big-budget western.  Plus there is a new Family Guy, the final Burn Notice, a full roster of anime releases and a brilliantly restored hi-def version of an early sound classic.
 
Theatrical Movies
 
The Dark Knight did much better than Batman Begins and Thor: The Dark World has earned much more than the first Thor film, but all comic book movie sequels are not successful.  Just as Red 2 struggled at the box office, so did Kick-Ass 2 (Universal, “R,” $29.98, BD/Combo $34.98), which is based Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr.’s comic book series.  This a black comedy with plenty of ultra-violence, though it should be said that the film doesn’t entirely ignore the consequences of violence like so many modern action films that are replete with grotesquely elongated fight scenes in which hundreds of blows are “landed,” any one of which in reality would be life-threatening, to little or no lasting effect.  This is not a film for everyone (or even all superhero comic book fans), but it does contain an interesting and very watchable performance by Chloe Grace Moretz as Hit Girl—the best parts of the movie deal with her problems in high school.  The critics pretty much hated Kick-Ass 2, which could only muster a 29% positive rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, but director Quentin Tarantino, whose tastes run to ultra-violent grindhouse movies, called Kick-Ass 2 one of the ten best films of 2013.
 
Another film of serious interest to geek viewers is Neil Blomkamp’s poltically-charged science fiction film Elysium (Sony, “R,” 109 min., $30.99, BD Combo $39.99), which posits a future world in which the 1% super rich live in a luxurious space habitat (known as Elysium), while the rest of humanity struggles on an overpopulated and environmentally devastated Earth.  Matt Damon leads a strong cast that also includes Sharto Copley, who starred in Blomkamp’s District 9.  Equality of access to top flight medical care is the plot device that drives Elysium, which generally keeps its political themes of immigration and access to medical care in the basic nature of the future world it describes and lets the story elements roll along in an almost typical sci-fi action movie manner.  Though critics generally made a point of how much they preferred Blomkamp’s District 9, with its easy-to-see parallels to apartheid, Elysium still managed to earn a 68% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes—and the movie was a modest success—the  $115 million production earned $286 million worldwide.
 
The final tally that will determine the “bomb” of 2013 is yet to be made (how the 2013 films perform on disc could make a difference), but Gore Verbinski’s The Lone Ranger (Disney, “PG-13,” 149 min., $29.99, BD/Combo $39.99) is certainly in the running.  In fact future historians may maintain that the movie marked the last gasp of the big budget western, once one of the cinema’s most consistently profitable genres.  Part of the problem is the fact that the “western” genre doesn’t lend itself to the bombastic excesses of explosions and special effects that play such an important role in modern big budget films.  Verbinski’s attempt to replicate the impossible automotive action stunts of a film like Fast and Furious 6 with horses and trains in The Lone Ranger tears at the very fabric of believability that westerns traditionally derived from their real outdoor settings.  It’s not that anything in The Lone Ranger is sloppy or poorly executed, or that its storyline has been contorted to fall in line with contemporary views (every era does that), there is just a fundamental mismatch between the approach and the subject matter.  This might have been an interesting “small” film, and some folks will enjoy the thrill ride that the movie (like Verbinski’s Pirates of the Caribbean) provides, but I don’t think that many who enjoy classic westerns will find much to like in this bloated and overblown film.
 
Every studio in Hollywood is trying to replicate the success of adaptations of YA novels like the Harry Potter series, The Twilight Saga, and The Hunger Games.  In producing films based on Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series of novels Fox has chosen to go the modestly budgeted route rather than going all in as Lionsgate and Summit have with The Hunger Games.  Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (Fox, “PG,” 106 min., $29.98, BD $39.99) was made for $90 million, a fairly modest budget for such an effects-heavy film.  Sea of Monsters stays a little closer to the book than the first Percy Jackson movie, and fans of the book series will enjoy the film, though older viewers will find less to like in the relatively modest production than they did in the Harry Potter or Hunger Games adaptations.  Since the film earned $199.6 million (just below breakeven when marketing costs are considered), this may end up as just a two-film franchise.
 
Other films due this week include Luc Besson’s mafia comedy The Family (Fox, “R,” 90 min., $28.98, BD $39.98), which features an all-star cast (Robert DeNiro, Tommy Lee Jones, Michelle Pfeiffer) in a violent black comedy about a mafia boss and his family who relocate to a small town in France as part of the Witness Protection Program.  Critics only gave this film a 29% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and it earned just $36.8 million at the box office, but there is some humor here as well as enough suspense and a double helping of violence, which means that some folks will find this movie entertaining (but hardly memorable).
 
For serious drama this week there is Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners (Warner Bros., “R,” 153 min., $28.98, $35.99), a hard-hitting crime drama starring Hugh Jackman as a father whose young daughter is missing and Jake Gyllenhaal as a cop who heads up the investigation.  This is a tense, morally challenging, and convoluted (if also a bit overlong) drama with a great cast that also includes Melissa Leo, Viola Davis, Paul Dano, Terrance Howard, and Maria Bello.
 
For those who can’t resist the combination of pop harmonies, big hairdos, and tight pants there is the concert film One Direction: This Is Us (Sony, “PG,” 199 min., $30.99, BD/DVD Combo $35.99), it’s no Hard Day’s Night, but then what modern concert film is?
 
TV on DVD
 
There are just a few releases in this category this week, but they are choice.  Produced in Miami on a fairly limited budget, the USA series Burn Notice was a geek favorite thanks to its surfeit of first-narrated spycraft and the effortless, avuncular, beer-swilling genius of co-star Bruce Campbell.  Jeffrey Donavan and Gabrielle Anwar also shine in this saga of a defrocked spy who longs for vindication.  Burn Notice: Season 7 (Fox, 550 min., $49.98) includes the final 13 chapters of Michael Weston’s tortuous tale of woe. Burn Notice: The Complete Series (Fox, 4650 min., $149.98) includes all 7 seasons of the series at a very reasonable price—a great gift for those who can afford it.
 
Another excellent cable series is the FX’s Elmore Leonard-based Appalachian crime drama Justified.   Justified: The Complete 4th Season (Sony, $55.99, BD $65.99) collects the latest season of this gritty crime drama, where everything is not painted in black and white.
 
But perhaps this week’s top geek release falls in the animated portion of the “TV on DVD category.”  Family Guy: Volume 12 (Fox, 500 min., $39.98), which includes all 22 episodes of the most recent season of Seth McFarlane’s caustic cartoon comedy series.  Included in this collection is the hilarious mountain-climbing episode “Into Fat Air,” as well as the series’ 200th episode the “everything in reverse” time-traveling “Yug Ylimaf” episode.
 
Some portion of fandom will also geek out over Psych: The Musical (Universal, 88 min., $19.98), which includes the clever musical effort from the popular cable detective series as Shawn and Gus investigate a murder tied to a troubled production of a musical comedy based on the life of Jack-the-Ripper.
 
This week’s other major TV release is Shameless: The Complete Third Season (Warner Bros., $39.98), which collects the third season of the U.S. version of an award-winning British series about life in the underclass.  The U.S. version, which airs on the Showtime premium cable network, is set in Chicago’s Canaryville neighborhood.
 
 
Anime
 
It’s a major week for anime releases with tons of material that is new on disc to North America including Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero (Funimation, “17+,” 300 min., DVD/BD Combo $64.98, Ltd. Ed. $69.98), which contains all 12 episodes of an anime series created by Arms that aired in Japan in 2012.  Based on a series of light novels by Tetsuto Uesu, Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero is an action comedy fantasy romance with plenty of sword and sorcery elements.
 
Also new is Jormungand:  Season 1 (Funimation “17+,” 300 min., DVD/BD Combo $64.98) includes the first 12-episode season of a new series created by White Fox based on the seinen manga series by Keitaro Takahashi that is published here in the U.S. by Viz Media.   Jormungand is an action/adventure saga about a female arms dealer and her young bodyguard, who just happens to hate arms dealers.
 
The Pet Girl of Sakurasou Collection 1 (Sentai Filmworks, “14+,” 300 min., $49.98, BD $59.98) includes the first half of a 24-episode series created by J.C. Staff that aired in Japan in 2012 and 2013.  Based on a light novel series by Hajime Kamoshida, The Pet Girl of Sakurasou is a romantic comedy drama set in a dorm for misfits at the Suimei University of the Arts.
 
Of interest, though a bit on the expensive side is Blue Exorcist: The Movie (Aniplex of America, “13+,” 88 min., DVD $39.98, BD Ltd Ed. $89.98), a 2012 anime feature film based on the extremely popular Blue Exorcist manga by Kazue Kato that is published here by Viz and in Japan by Shueisha.  Blue Exorcist is the first of the new “Jump Square” manga series to sell a million copies of a single volume in Japan (with the release of Vol. 7).
 
Also new is the Oreshura Complete Set (Aniplex of America, “13+,” 325 min., $74.98), which includes all 13 episodes of the harem comedy anime series produced by A-1 Pictures in 2013 and based on the light novels of Yuji Yuji.  This series was simulcast on Crunchyroll with English subtitles, and the new Aniplex does not come with an English dub (though it does have English subtitles).
 
Classics on Blu-ray
 
Josef von Sternberg’s The Blue Angel: 2-Disc Ultimate Edition (Kino, Unrated, 94 min., $39.95) was made in Germany in 1929.  It was the last great “tragic” performance by Emil Jannings, who played a defrocked doorman in Murnau’s The Last Laugh, and a dispossessed Russian general in von Sternberg’s The Last Command.  In The Blue Angel, Jannings plays Professor Unrat, a humorless high school teacher brought low by his infatuation with a nightclub singer, Lola-Lola played memorably by Marlene Dietrich in her first big role.  One of the first sound movies made in Europe, The Blue Angel remains extremely watchable, filled with von Sternberg’s trademark strong visuals and fired by his ironic contempt for the protagonists or his naturalistic drama, which is based on a novel by Heinrich Mann.  The nightclub scenes still resonate and the songs by Friedrich Hallaender and Robert Liebmann are nothing less than brilliant.  The Blue Angel was an immensely influential movie that set the cynical world-weary tone for many of the best European art movies of the 1930s, and it comes across will all of its considerable visual and aural force in Kino’s superb high-def version, which is likely to be the standard version for decades to come.

Tom Flinn

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