This week’s home entertainment offerings include a Terry Gilliam epic that took 30 years to make it to the screen, Tyler Perry’s final Medea film, the latest season of Adult Swim’s longest-running series, plus animated Doctor Who and Voltron collections.
Theatrical Releases
It took almost 30 years for Terry Gilliam’s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (Screen Media, “NR,” 132 min., $24.98) to finally make it to the screen with Adam Driver replacing Johnny Depp and Jonathan Pryce instead of the originally cast John Hurt. While most movie fans will find this film too long, Monty Python and Gilliam admirers will find much to like in this long-gestating cult film, the snake-bit, star-crossed making-of-which inspired the documentary Lost in La Mancha. This week’s most successful box office release is Tyler Perry’s A Medea Family Funeral (Lionsgate, “PG-13,” $24.98, BD $29.98), which earned a solid $72.1 million at the domestic box office. Perry has announced that this will be his last Medea film, and if so, it is a fitting capstone to a comedy franchise that has been an urban favorite. For art movie lovers there is Gloria Bell (Lionsgate, “R,” 122 min., $19.98, BD $24.98), Sebastian Lelio’s remake of 2013 Chilean film Gloria that features a luminous performance from Julianne Moore in the title role of a divorcee who goes on a journey of self-discovery.For western fans there is yet another retelling of the story of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid in Vincent D’Onofrio’s The Kid (Lionsgate, “R,” 122 min., $19.98, BD $24.98), which is told this time from the point of view of a young man whose journey to save his sister puts him in the middle of the famous Pat Garrett/Billy the Kid dispute.
Benedikt Erlingsson’s Woman at War (Magnolia, “NR,” 100 min., $26.98) is the story of eco-activist who is in the midst of sabotaging a Rio Tinto aluminum smelter in her native Iceland, when she learns that she has been approved to adopt a baby from Ukraine, something that creates profound tensions in her life. Jodie Foster has been engaged to direct a domestic remake of Woman at War, so check out the original while you can.
TV on DVD
There are several releases of major interest for geek TV lovers this week starting with the Doctor Who Animation Collection (BBC, 460 min., $14.99), which contains five animated Doctor Who epics including Shada with the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker), the animated recreation of the lost “The Power of the Daleks” episode with the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton), two adventures (Infinite Quest & Dreamland) with the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant), and the re-mastered webcast Scream of Shalka. These items have been available in various forms, but are now collected at a very reasonable price—though fans might want to wait for the Blu-ray version that we all hope is forthcoming. Equally interesting, if not more so, is The Venture Bros.: The Complete 7th Season (Cartoon Network, $19.98, BD $29.98), which collects the latest season of Adult Swim’s longest running series, a densely-pack web of satire, pop culture references, and surreal humor that has endured and prospered since its series debut way back in 2004—yes The Venture Bros. has the record for the fewest episodes produced per year (given that it has taken 14 years to produce just 7 seasons), but just maybe that’s why the series is so good. Other animated items of interest include Voltron: Legendary Defender, Seasons 3-6 (Universal, 604 min., $22.98), which contains 26 episodes of the Netflix-financed, Dreamworks-produced reboot of the classic anime hybrid series; and What’s New, Scooby-Doo? The Complete Series (Warner Bros., $39.98), which collects all 42 episodes of the ninth incarnation of the Scooby-Doo franchise, which originally aired from 2002-2006. This week’s overseas TV on disc offerings include the gritty police drama London Kills (Acorn Media, 238 min., $39.98, BD $39.98), which follows a top London homicide team as they investigate four very different murders; and Delicious: Series 3 (Acorn Media, 181 min., $34.98), which collects the third series of the “foodie” drama set in a hotel on the picturesque Cornish coast.Anime
There is nothing really new coming out this week, but the 26-episode 2003 mecha/comedy/romance, Godannar Complete Collection (Sentai Filmworks, “TV-MA,” 650 min., BD $89.98), which was created and directed by Yasuchika Nagaoka, is now available in North America on Blu-ray for the first time.