Whenever there are five release days in a month (as all comic book dealers and fans know all too well) the product gets stretched out pretty thin, and in the world of home entertainment, this week is no exception to that rule, but there are a few releases of definite interest including Tom Cruise’s second action-packed outing as Jack Reacher, the loopy character comedy Masterminds, and the inspiring biopic The Queen of Katwe, but for many geek viewers this week’s real gem is the BBC’s “reanimation” of the lost six-part Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks.

TV on DVD

There are precious few releases this week, but a couple of them are of interest to geek viewers, especially Doctor Who: Story #30: The Power of the Daleks (BBC, $24.98), an excellent animated reconstruction of the lost six-part 1960s that includes a number of landmark occurrences in the Whovian universe, notably the “renewal” (as it was called then) of the First Doctor (William Hartnell) into the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton), plus of course the epic conflict with the Daleks on the planet Vulcan.  This release includes all existing footage from the original 6-parter plus documentaries on the reconstruction of the shows from the original scripts and soundtracks.

Available again is the out-of-print movie-spoofing Mystery Science Theater 3000: Vol. 4 (Shout Factory, 360 min., $44.99), which makes merciless fun of a number of films including Space Mutiny, Overdrawn at the Memory Bank, and Girl in Gold Boots.

Contemporary series due on Tuesday include the PBS biography of Queen Victoria, Victoria: Season 1 (PBS, 480 min., $49.99, BD $59.99), which is currently airing on public TV, and the Dwayne Johnson-starring NFL-themed Ballers: The Complete Second Season (HBO, $29.98, BD $34.98).

Theatrical Movies

The most successful of this week’s releases at the box office was Tyler Perry’s Boo! A Madea Halloween (Lionsgate, “PG-13,” 103 min., $29.95, BD $39.95), the eighth Madea film written by and starring the prolific Mr. Perry.   Boo! is only the second Madea film that did not originate as a stage play—it is based on a fictitious film mentioned by Chris Rock in the underrated comedy Top FiveBoo! only managed to get a 21% positive rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, but, while it’s not the best introduction to the character, fans of Perry’s Madea films won’t be disappointed.  

For action movie fans there is Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (Paramount, “PG-13,” 118 min., $29.99, BD $39.99, UBD $49.99).  Directed by Edward Zwick and starring Tom Cruise, this second Jack Reacher film based on the novels by Lee Child was made for $60 million, a modest budget for star-powered thriller these days (about one third the cost of Cruise’s Mission Impossible extravaganzas), so it must have been disappointing to Paramount that Never Go Back earned just $58.7 million here in North America.  Once you have gotten used to the diminutive Cruise as Child’s massive hero, Never Go Back, while not quite as good as Cruise’s 2012 Jack Reacher, delivers some solid action movie thrills (with co-star Cobie Smulders delivering some of the most powerful blows).  The critics found the film “formulaic,” but it’s a formula that lots of action fans like.

Also due out on Tuesday is the loopy comedy Masterminds (Fox, “PG-13,” 94 min., $29.99, BD $39.99). Directed by Jared Hess, who is best known for Napoleon Dynamite, Masterminds is based on the Loomis Armored Car Robbery in North Carolina, and most of the comedy comes from the ineptitude of the quirky participants in one of the biggest heists in American history.  This movie, which has wonderful cast that includes Zach Galifianakis, Kate McKinnon, Owen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis, and Kristen Wiig was produced by Relativity Media, which went bankrupt and had to delay the film’s release, which certainly hurt at the box office.  But Hess’s style of comedy is not amped-up enough for today’s critics (or the mainstream audience), and the narrative is tamped down by the filmmaker’s determination to recreate the “stranger-than-fiction” truth of the real life saga.  If there is “auteurist” criticism in the future, someone will certainly “discover” Hess, who has developed his own laconic style of filmmaking and has the thematic consistently in his work that “auteur” critics admire.  

But perhaps the best film due out on Tuesday is Mira Nair’s Queen of Katwe (Disney, “PG,” 124 min., $19.99, BD $22.99), which is based on the story of Phiona Mutesi, a young Ugandan girl from the slums of Kampala, whose life is transformed when she learns how to play chess at a very high level.  The Queen of Katwe follows the inspiring narrative arc of innumerable sports films, and the good news is that chess competition set against a vibrant African background and expertly handled by Nair is just as exciting as any athletic competition.

Anime

This week’s top contemporary release is the Shomin Sample Complete Collection (Funimation, 300 min., BD/DVD Combo $64.98), a 12-episode 2015 anime series from Silver Link based on the light novels by Takafumi Nanatsuke.  In this harem comedy an ordinary teenage boy is kidnapped and forced to attend an exclusive all-girls school where he is to provide a “safe” introduction to real world for the isolated and curious female students.

Also animated by Silver Link is the Fate/Kaleid liner Prisma Illya Zwei Complete Collection (Sentai Filmworks, 250 min., $59.98, BD $69.98), which provides the Blu-ray debut of the 10-episode 2014 Magical Girl spin-off of the Fate/Stay franchise.

Bleach fans who have been waiting for the adaptation of the Tite Kubo manga to arrive on Blu-ray at a reasonable cost will be glad to hear that Bleach Set 2 (Viz Media, 675 min., $54.97), which contains episodes 28-54, is due on Tuesday.

Although the Beelzebub anime from Pierrot Plus was simulcast on Crunchyroll in 2012, the second half of the 60-episode series is set to debut on disc here in North America on Tuesday.  Beelzebub Part 2 (Discotek Media, 750 min., Subtitles Only, $49.98) contains episodes 31-60 in Japanese with English subtitles.

Those who like sports manga might want to check out the bicycle road-racing themed Yowamushi Pedal Grande Road: Complete Collection (Discotek, 600 min., Subtitles Only, $49.95).

The Cosmo Warrior Zero: Complete Collection (Discotek Media, 375 min., $39.95) contains all 15 episodes of the 2001 OVA series written by Leiji Masumoto and featuring the author’s most famous creation the Space Pirate Captain Harlock.

Other vintage anime releases include Eat-Man ’98: Complete Collection (Discotek Media, 300 min., Subtitles Only, $39.95), which collects the 12-episode 1998 series from Studio Deen that was previously released here in 2000 by Bandai; the Galaxy Railways: Letter From an Abandoned Planet (Discotek, 100 min., $19.95), which collects the 4-episode space opera OVA written by Leiji Matsumoto that was released in 2007; and the 1990s Clamp-based Magic Knight Rayearth: Memorial Collection (Discotek, 1176 min., BD $99.95), which was previously issued here on DVD by Media Blasters, but is available here on BD for the first time.