This week’s most interesting arrival, the new Sherlock Holmes film stirred up some controversy, but also managed to renew the franchise with an updated, action-hero take on the character.  Coincidentally the second season of the 1970s U.K. series the Rivals of Sherlock Holmes demonstrates that though Conan Doyle’s super sleuth had some rivals, he had no peers.  Also available on DVD now are 24 shorts featuring the most popular cartoonist of the 1930s, Robert L. Ripley, whose collection of oddities fascinated newspaper readers and lead to a series of bizarrely entertaining movie shorts from Warner Bros. in 1930 and 1931.

 

Theatrical Films

 

Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes (Warner Home Video, “PG-13” $29.98, BD $35.99) earned nearly $500 million at the worldwide box office.  The “update” of Conan Doyle’s super sleuth may have outraged hardcore Baker St. Irregulars, but it managed to please the critics (it garnered a 68% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes).  Jude Law plays Doctor Watson straight up as a former soldier, womanizer, and competent companion rather as the lovable bumbling oaf portrayed by Nigel Bruce in the Basil Rathbone films.  Robert Downey, Jr., who scored a major success in the action genre with Iron Man, now has a second franchise under his belt.  Though director Guy Ritchie initially wanted a younger British actor for the role, Downey brought star power along with a quirky vitality to the part along with a passable English accent.  Dispensing with the “deerstalker” hat was a good idea.  It’s not the characterizations that are at fault in Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes, it’s the hokey plot that substitutes occult nonsense, explosions and slambang action for suspense and rational exposition.

 

While Sherlock Holmes is certain to do well on DVD, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakwell (Fox, “PG-13” $29.98, 2-Disc Special Edition $34.98, BD $39.99), which out-earned the new Holmes film $218 million to $208 million domestically, is likely to do be a serious challenger on disc as well, especially given the relative dearth of new “family films.”  The combination of CGI animation and live action, which has failed in many films, seems to work in these Chipmunk movies, as does the cheesy, speed-up-the-tape, fake falsetto singing, which most kids love.  The Blu-ray of Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakwell includes a DVD copy, something that parents will find very useful.

 

Those looking for more adult fare this week can hardly do better than director Lone Scherfig’s An Education (Sony, “PG-13” $28.96, BD $38.96”), a keenly observed coming-of-age story based on a memoir by Lynn Barber that was turned into an extremely accomplished screenplay by Nick Hornby (About a Boy, High Fidelity).  Newcomer Carrie Mulligan received a well-deserved Oscar nomination for her central role, and Peter Sarsgaard, who has a key part in the new Green Lantern movie, is a revelation as the 30-something, con-man seducer.

 

Mention should also be made of Imax: Under the Sea (Imax, “G” $27.98, BD $35.99),  a stunning underwater documentary feature shot in the coral reefs of Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and Australia.  Although this documentary, which is narrated by Jim Carrey (in non-hysterical mode), is only 45 minutes long, it packs an enormous visual punch with superb underwater photography of one of the most colorful environments on the planet.  See it in Blu-ray if at all possible, and don’t miss the important message that these breathtakingly beautiful coral reefs are in danger from acidification due to the excess of carbon dioxide that mankind is pumping into the atmosphere.

 

Anime

 

This week’s Blu-ray release from Funimation is the Ouran High School Host Club Complete Set (Rated 14+, 625 min. $69.98, also available in standard DVD, $69.98).  Based on Bisco Hatori’s popular shojo manga series (published here by Viz Media), the 26-episode Ouran High School Host Club anime was produced by Bones and aired in Japan in 2006.  Hatori’s romantic comedy manga translates well to the screen and in the new Blu-ray transfer the colors really pop and the J-pop-laden soundtrack sizzles.  The anime, which Funimation wisely kept in its original 4:3 ratio, captures the antic humor of the manga and also manages rather deftly to retain its satire of various aspects of shojo manga including the Boy’s Love genre as well as to include a kind of reverse “moe” element in the character of the childlike Club member known as “Honey.”  While this saga of a cross-dressing commoner who struggles to find respect and love among the filthy rich at an elite academy presents nothing new thematically, as it moves along at a sprightly pace, this anime provides loads of fun as well as far more character development than the average series.  The packaging of the Blu-ray is great and the extras include a fine feature on the original manga as well as commentaries.

 

Also new from Funimation is Strike Witches Season 1 (Standard DVD, 17+, 300 min. $59.98), a 12-episode 2008 series from Gonzo set in an alternate 20th Century world in which an alien invasion, not World War II, is raging in 1944.  It seems that the only force on Earth that is much use against the aliens is 501st Joint Fighter Wing, which is made up entirely of sexy female pilots.  The emphasis in this series is on "fan service" (ie panty shots) and alien blasting as each of the key members of the 501st gets an episode in which to shine.

 

Other never-before-released-here anime sets include Soul Eater Part 2 Collection (Funimation, 320 min., $59.98) and Sgt. Frog Season 2, Part 2 (Funimation, 300 min., $39.98), the latest installments in two very solid series (see “DVD Round-Up: Week of Feb. 9th” for a look at the Soul Eater anime).  Also this week Sentai Filmworks is issuing the Neo Angelique Abyss Season 2 Collection, the second 13-episode season of the shojo series profiled in this column back in January (see “January 26th DVD Round-Up”). 

 

There are several re-releases of interest this week as well including Negima!? Complete Collection (Funimation, 17+, 680 min. $69.98), which contains all 26-episodes of the re-telling of Ken Akamatsu’s Negima harem saga (Negima Neo in manga form) with a different story that places more of an emphasis on magical battles and comedy than the original series.  For bargain hunters there are the Aquarion Complete Collection 2010 Edition (Funimation “17+” 620 min. $34.98) and the Kanon Complete Collection (Funimation “13+” 580 min. $29.98).

 

The lone anime movie out this week is Lupin the Third Episode 0: The First Contact (Discotek Media, 13+, 92 min. $24.95), a TV special that appeared in Japan in 2002.  Created by Kazuhiko Kato under his nom de plume Monkey Punch, Lupin the Third is a venerable manga/anime series beloved by old school manga and anime fans here in North America, though it never really caught on with the younger generation.  Discotek’s subtitled-only Lupin should have no trouble pleasing the series’ American fans.

 

TV on DVD

 

Not exactly a stellar week in this category.  The best new releases come from the U.K. including The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes Set 2 (Acorn, 659 min. $59.99), a 3-disc, 13-episode compilation of vintage British detective dramas from the early 1970s.  While some of the episodes are quite stage bound and the acting is not uniformly good, the set does include some excellent performances from a young Derek Jacobi, Judy Geeson, Robin Ellis, John Thaw, and others.  Similarly not all the stories are first rate, but they are all interesting.  None of the detectives even begins to match Holmes' powers of deduction, and not all the episodes feature standard murder mysteries.  One of the best, “Cell 13,” features Jacques Futrelle’s Professor Augustus S.F.X. Van Dusen, aka “The Thinking Machine,” who does display a Holmes-like intellectual arrogance, winning a bet by escaping from high security jail.

 

Those who love a complicated British estate murder will enjoy the Lord Peter Wimsey Collection: Set 1 (Acorn, 605 min., $49.99), which includes Clouds of Witness and The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, two classic Dorothy L. Sayers’ mysteries that were each given the mini-series treatment by the BBC in the 1970s.  The two mysteries, which feature top-notch acting and production values for their era, were shown in the U.S. on Masterpiece Theatre.

 

The longest running legal drama in Britain makes its U.S. debut this week with Judge John Deed: Season 1 & Pilot (BBC Video, 355 min., $39.98).  The idealistic Sir John Deed seeks real justice in the series that has drawn fire from legal professionals who contend that many of the decisions made by the judge would never happen in real courts—still there is no doubt that the series, which lasted six seasons, struck a chord with the public.

 

The best U.S. series debuting this week is Sports Night: The Complete First Season (Shout Factory, 600 min. $29.97).  Created by Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing) Sports Night was a half-hour drama/comedy series that aired for just two seasons (1998-2000), but was extremely influential as it introduced the “walk and talk” technique, which combined rapid fire dialogue with brisk walking, that was employed successfully by Sorkin on The West Wing and has been widely emulated.

 

No one could accuse The Abbott and Costello Show, a syndicated series that ran in syndication from 1952-1954, of blazing any new paths, it looked backward toward vaudeville, but it remains a wonderful compendium of verbal humor and classic burlesque routines.  The Abbott and Costello Show-The Complete Series: Collector’s Edition (E1 Entertainment, 1680 min., $59.98) contains all 52 episodes of the legendary series.

 

TV documentary series out this week include The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty (A&E, 282 min. $24.95), which follows the personal and professional lives of the Jackson brothers in the aftermath of their brother Michael’s death, Deadliest Catch: Season 5 (Image Entertainment, 588 min., $29.98), which chronicles the dangers of crabbing in the dangerous waters of the Bering sea, and Legacy: The Origin of Civilization (Acorn, 304 min., $59.99), the epic PBS documentary from the 1990s examining the major civilizations of the ancient world and their continuing influence on the present.

 

But the “Best Documentary of the Week” award goes to the BBC’s The Story of Math (Acorn, 232 min., $59.99) in which Oxford mathematician Marcus du Sautoy demonstrates how math allows us to analyze and make sense of the world.  Using a historical approach and clever computer graphics, du Sautoy shows how mathematics developed in ancient civilizations and how ingeniously the mathematicians of East and West developed the mental constructs that provided the basis for scientific progress and modern civilization.  This enlightening series is both a boon for those who are naturally gifted in mathematics and a demystifying balm for those who fear it or have forgotten what they learned in school.  It is easy to understand why this brilliant series was voted the top documentary of 2009 by BBC viewers.

 

Classics on DVD

 

Cartoonist Robert L. Ripley was one of the most popular figures of the 1930s.  His syndicated Believe It or Not cartoon feature was read daily by 80 million people in the early 1930s.  In just three weeks in 1932 Ripley received two million pieces of fan mail.  In 1930 and 1931, at the height of his fame, Ripley made a series of 24 short films for Warner Bros., which are now available directly from Warner Home Video.  Believe It Or Not: The Complete Vitaphone Shorts Collection (192 min., $26.95) is a fascinating collection that includes all the short features on two discs.  The bucktoothed cartoonist does plenty of drawing in the filmed shorts, which also make use of animation and various settings including a courtroom where Ripley has to defend himself against allegations of lying in print.  Ripley’s researcher Norbert Pearlroth spent ten hours a day, six days a week in the New York Public Library discovering the unusual, counterintuitive facts that Ripley turned into popular oddities.  Who can resist a six-year-old who can lift 200 pounds, a woman who can recite more than 200 words in 24 seconds, a man who can pick up a complete set of 16 billiard balls with just one hand, or the geezer with a suit made out of confederate money, to say nothing of the poor fellow with two 18-inch horns on his head and man-eating tree of Madagascar?  Fascinating stuff indeed!

 

Documentaries

 

Afghan Star (Zeitgeist Films, $29.99) is a Sundance Award-winning film directed by Havana Marking.  Just one year after the Taliban-imposed restrictions on music were lifted in Afghanistan, an independent TV network began broadcasting the American Idol-like Afghan Star, which managed to earn an audience of up to 11 million people and galvanize large sections of the diverse country to vote in favor of the singer from their region.  What is often a cheesy exercise in tasteless pop music here in the States, became a groundbreaking revolutionary shout out for freedom in war torn Afghanistan.