Michael Bay’s big, loud Transformers: Age of Extinction will probably be this week’s big home entertainment hit, but Jon Favreau’s feel-good indie comedy Chef will please discerning viewers as it hits DVD along with the second half of the star-crossed Beware the Batman animated series, the complete My Little Pony collection, and a sparkling new Blu-ray edition of what is generally acknowledged as the most accurate rendering Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes ever produced.
 
Theatrical Films
 
This week’s biggest release is Michael Bay’s Transformers: Age of Extinction (Paramount, “PG-13,” 164 min., $29.99, BD $39.99).  Bay successfully rebooted the Transformers franchise by installing steady action movie veteran Mark Wahlberg at the center of this fourth Transformers film, which takes place five years after the Decepticon invasion of Chicago.  For Transformers fans, this movie, the first in the series to include the Dinobots, was just fine to the tune of $245 million at the domestic box office and over a billion worldwide.  To others this film is more than two-and-one-half interminable hours of earsplitting CGI mecha porn.  Critics appear to have soured on the overblown theatrics of Bay’s Transformers films giving this fourth film just an 18% positive rating--and the domestic audience for Age of Extinction was more than $100 million less than its predecessor, Dark of the Moon.
 
Jon Favreau, directed the first two Iron Man movies, began his career with the indie hit Swingers, and he returns to that kind of carefree, small comedy with Chef (Universal, “R,” 230 min., $29.98, BD $34.98).  Cynics be forewarned that this is a “feel good” film about a chef, who quits his high pressure job in a big LA restaurant, and decides to operate a food truck in his hometown of Miami.  Favreau plays the title character, who has to repair his relationship with his son (well played by EmJay Anthony) as he rebuilds his life.  Chef, which got a stellar “88% Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, features a great soundtrack, cameos from Favreau buddies like Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey, Jr., Dustin Hoffman, and others, as w be able to obtain at the concession stands of most movie houses—food trucks in movie theater lobbies offering well-made street food at reasonable prices—now there’s an impossible dream.
 
Paul Haggis won Academy Awards for directing Crash and for his screenplay for Million Dollar Baby.  In Third Person (Sony, “R,” 137 min., $30.99) Haggis again weaves multiple storylines together as he did in Crash, but the ties are more tenuous in Third Person at least according to the critics, who gave this star-studded film (Mila Kunis, Liam Neeson, Adrien Brody, Olivia Wilde) just a 24% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
 
Another film from a major creator that got short shrift from the critics (just 7% positive) is Are You Here? (Millennium, “R,” $28.99), a comedy from Matthew Weiner, the creator of Mad Men.  Are You’re Here? features Owen Wilson as a womanizing weatherman, Zack Galifianakis as a paranoid, pot-smoking bi-polar heir to a family fortune, and Amy Poehler as a dominating sister determined to get her hands on the family money.
 
TV on DVD
 
A variety of this week’s TV-based releases should have appeal to geek viewers including Beware the Batman: Season 1, Part 2 Dark Justice (Warner Bros., 286 min., $19.97, BD $19.98), which collects the final 13 episodes of the series that was abruptly cancelled by the Cartoon Network in October of 2013 with 7 unaired episodes (which were later aired on Adult Swim).
 
At the other end of the animated TV demographic is My Little Pony: Escape from Catrina and Other Adventures (Shout Factory, 110 min., $12.99), which includes 5 episodes of the animated TV series that had a strong appeal to younger kids (especially girls).  But real MLP fans will want My Little Pony: The Complete Series (Shout Factory, 720 min., $29.93), which includes all 65 episodes of the animated MLP TV series.
 
The top contemporary live-action TV release is 24: Live Another Day (Fox, 500 min., $49.99, $59.99), the 12-episode revival of the breathless action series starring Kiefer Sutherland.  Though not the ratings success that the original series was, the revival wrings the same kind of visceral thrills from today’s terrorism-beset world.
 
Other contemporary series include the quirky police procedural The Mentalist: The Complete Sixth Season (Warner Bros., $59.98), and the beefy sitcom Mike & Molly: The Complete 4th Season.
 
For anyone who enjoys Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes Tuesday will be a red letter day as MPI is set to release Blu-ray high-def versions of the great Granada Sherlock Holmes TV series starring Jeremy Brett.  Produced between 1984 and 1994, the various Granada Sherlock Holmes series adapted 42 of Conan Doyle’s 60 Holmes stories in 36 hour-long episodes and five TV movies (two stories were combined in one episode to account for the discrepancy).  These shows are noted for their fidelity to the original Doyle stories—Doctor Watson is a competent companion, not a bumbling buffoon for example.  Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Granada TV Series (MPI, 2310 min., $229.98) contains all 41 episodes, but the series is also available in smaller portions: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Series (MPI, $59.98) includes 13 episodes as does The Return of Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Series (MPI, $59.98), while The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Collection  (MPI, $49.98), contains nine episodes, and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Collection (MP, $49.98) includes six.
 
Another excellent production from across the pond, Agatha Christie’s Marple: Series 6 (Acorn Media, 300 min., $49.99) premieres on DVD this week.  Julia McKenzie stars as Christie’s tweedy amateur sleuth who solves three feature-length mysteries in this final Marple series.  Strong performances, splendid scenery, and superb period detail (the early 1950s in post WW II England) make this 3-disc set a joy for those who enjoy traditional English murder mysteries.  Extras include a 33-minute behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of “Endless Night,” as well as information on Homewood House, one of the grand English estates used in the filming.
 
Other vintage TV shows due on Tuesday include the excellent Emmy-winning police procedural NYPD Blue: The Seventh Season (Shout Factory, 960 min., $34.99), the classic 1950s sitcom The Donna Reed Show: Season 1 (MPI, 960 min., $39.98), and the always interesting, star-studded 1950s western anthology series Zane Grey Theatre: The Complete Second Season (Timeless Media, 722 min., $19.97).
 
Anime
 
This week’s top anime release is One Piece Film: Z (Funimation, “14+,” 107 min., $29.98, BD/DVD $34.98), the 12th film based on Eiichiro Oda’s long-running One Piece manga.  The film features the same voice actors as the popular TV anime—and it pits the Straw Hat pirates against Zephyr, the most powerful enemy that the intrepid band of pirates has ever faced.
 
There is also a new release from another long-running shonen manga-based series, Bleach.  Bleach Uncut: Set 22 (Viz Media, 325 min., $44.82) collects episodes 304-316 of the 366-episode series based on the manga by Tite Kubo.
 
Also new to North America this week is the 13-episode Zombie-Loan: Complete Collection (Discotek Media, which collects the 2007 anime from Xebec that is based on the supernatural action comedy manga from Peach-Pit.
 
Also of interest is Golden Time: Collection 1 (Sentai Filmworks, 300 min., $49.98, BD $59.98), which collects the first half of the 24-episode anime series produced by J.C. Staff and based on the romantic comedy light novel series written by Yuyuko Takemiya. 
 
Sentai is also releasing the Psychic Detective Yakumo: Complete Collection (Sentai Filmworks, 325 min., BD $59.98) in Blu-ray for the first time.  Sentai released the 13-episode psychological detective saga from Bee Train on DVD in 2010.
 
Re-priced re-releases this week include the Steins Gate: Complete Collection (Funimation, BD/DVD Combo $54.98), and the Mega Man Complete Collection (Discotek Media, $59.98), a 4-disc set that contains all 27 of the episodes from Seasons 1 & 2 of the Japanese/American co-production from 1994-1995 based on the characters from the popular Capcom video game.
 
 --Tom Flinn

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