This week’s home entertainment releases include The Revenant, which snared 3 top Oscars, the hyper-kinetic martial arts film IP Man 3, the final season of the Stephen King-based supernatural fantasy drama Haven, the second season of Mike Judge’s Silicon Valley satire, and the Emmy Award winning (for “Outstanding Comedy Series”) fourth season of Veep.

Theatrical Releases

This week’s top release is the gritty historical drama The Revenant (Fox, “R,” 157 min., $29.98, BD $39.98), which won three key Oscars last month including “Best Director” (Alejandro Inarritu), “Best Actor” (Leonardo DiCaprio), and “Best Cinematography” (Emmanuel Lubezki).  The film is an adaptation of the novel by Michael Punke, which is based on the life of the mountain man Hugh Glass, whose early 19th Century adventures also inspired the 1971 film Man in the Wilderness.  The fact that The Revenant is a much better movie than the Richard Harris-starring Man in the Wilderness is a testament to the skills of Inarritu, DiCaprio, and Lubezki.  Dressed in glorious images The Revenant is basically just a “revenge” saga, but one that has a very high “level of difficulty” for its participants, in fact the level is so high that it blurs the line between “revenge” saga and an ultra-gritty “struggle for survival.”  There is no doubt that DiCaprio “earned” his Oscar for his grueling performance in a film that constantly contrasts glorious landscapes with gory violence—and which in spite of its punishing subject matter and nearly 3-hour length still managed to earn $182 million at the North American box office— which is certainly no mean feat.

The Revenant found favor with the critics, netting an 82% positive rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, but it is not this week’s film with the highest critical rating.  That honor belongs to The Lady in the Van (Sony, “PG-13,” 104 min., $26.99, BD $34.99), which stars Maggie Smith as a woman of uncertain origins who parks her van in the driveway of a stranger’s London house and stays for 15 years, affecting the lives of all around her.  Charmed by Smith’s performance, critics gave this slice-of-life drama, which is based on a true story, a 93% positive rating.

Another film due this week with strong critical notices is IP Man 3 (Well Go, “PG-13,” 105 min., $24.98, BD $29.99), which stars Donnie Yen in a wonderfully kinetic martial arts movie about Wing Chung, the legendary grandmaster who taught Bruce Lee.  Mike Tyson is the bad guy here, playing an evil property developer whose takeover schemes lead to some of the most compelling fight scenes ever put on film.  IP Man 3, which is a “must-see” for martial arts movie fans, earned a stellar (for a martial arts film) 81% positive critical rating.

Comedy fans aren’t so lucky this week with only the insipid animated film Norm of the North (Lionsgate, “PG,” 90 min., $29.98, BD $34.98), which received only a 9% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and the Marlon Wayans’ parody 50 Shades of Black (Universal, “R,” 92 min., $29.98, BD $34.98), which could only muster an 8% positive rating.

TV on DVD

This week’s top TV release for geek viewers is probably Haven: The Final Season (eOne, 540 min., $39.98, BD $49.98), which includes the final 13 episodes of the Canadian/American series that is loosely based on Stephen King’s The Colorado Kid, and which aired on SyFy for five years (from 2010 to 2015--the Complete Series, 2400 min., $119.00 is also available on Tuesday), though some will argue for Silicon Valley: Season 2 (HBO, 300 min., $29.98, BD $39.98), Mike Judge’s spot-on single camera satirical sitcom about six ambitious computer geeks who found a startup company in the heartland of America’s tech industry.

But equally amusing in its own way is Veep: The Complete 4th Season (HBO, 300 min., $29.98, BD $39.98), which stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the ambitious Vice President Selena Meyer in what is certainly the sharpest fictional political satirical comedy series going.  Creator Armando Iannucci (In the Loop) doesn’t pull his punches and was rewarded with the “Outstanding Comedy Series” Emmy Award for Season Four.

The only other contemporary series out on Tuesday are the teen mystery drama Pretty Little Liars: The Complete Sixth Season (Warner Bros., $49.99), and the feature-length Canadian romance drama When Calls the Heart: Troubled Hearts (Shout Factory, 89 min., $14.93).

Vintage TV releases include: Little House on the Prairie: Season 9 Remastered Edition (Lionsgate, 900 min., $21.98, BD $29.99); the 1990s Canadian sitcom Dog House: The Complete Series (Mill Creek, 700 min., $9.98); and the 1979 epic western series How the West Was Won: The Complete 3rd Season (Warner Bros., 1089 min., DVD-R, $29.99).

This week’s overseas offering is a superb adaptation of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None (Acorn Media, 177 min., $29.98, BD $34.99) that tells the story over three full one-hour episodes and utilizes a stellar cast that includes Sam Neill, Miranda Richardson, Aidan Turner, and Toby Stephens to name just a few.  This recent BBC production threatens to become the definitive version of Christie’s island-based mystery, though some might still prefer Rene Clair’s 1940s Hollywood version, which is high in entertainment value, though not nearly as faithful to Christie’s original saga as this new meticulously produced version.

Anime

This week’s top release is the Black Butler: Book of Circus Complete Collection (Funimation, 250 min., BD/DVD Combo $64.98, Ltd Ed $84.98), which contains the 10-episode 2014 series from A-1 Pictures, the third anime series based on the popular manga by Yan Toboso (published here by Yen Press). The Limited Edition comes in a special fold-out collectible box. Unlike the first two series, this one sticks very close to the original manga’s Noah’s Ark Circus storyline and the result is sure to please fans of the manga.  Unfortunately an OVA adapting the Phantomhive Manor Murders arc was not included in this release—that two-parter will be released on its own next month.  

Also out this week is Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories Seasons 1 & 2 Collection (Sentai Filmworks, Subtitles Only, 117 min., $24.98, BD $34.98), an innovative 2013 horror series that uses the “kamishibai” method of storytelling, which is based on illustrated paper scrolls that rotate through a “screen” while a narrator fills in the details of the action.  This ancient (12th Century) technique, which is one of the ancestors of both manga and anime, was revived in the 1920s and 1930s with practitioners traveling the Japanese countryside with their kamishibai set-ups mounted on bicycles.