Call it the “post-Easter effect” or the spring letdown, but it’s the weakest session of 2010 so far for DVD releases.  You know it’s lame list when the “Classic Films” category gets top billing—but with the release of two versions of Lord of the Rings on Blu-ray along with a collection that includes some excellent, but little known, suspense films from Hammer, it is clear that even a weak session has its bright spots.

 

Classic Films Re-Released

 

This category assumes a rare position on the top of the list thanks to the release of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy (Warner Home Video, “PG-13,” 557 min. $99.98), which would be a much bigger deal if it were the “Extended Editions” that were made available on Blu-ray, rather than the theatrical cuts, and The Lord of the Rings: The 1978 Animated Movie (Warner Home Video, “PG,” 132 min., $29.99), which is something of a revelation.  Created by Ralph Bakshi, flush from his success with Fritz the Cat, the animated LOTR film is really only half of Tolkien’s epic.  Bakshi originally wanted to make a trilogy, but settled on two films, the first of which covers The Fellowship of the Ring and the first half of The Two Towers.  The two-film structure necessitated some departures from the Tolkien narrative, but these omissions are not the major problem with Bakshi’s film, which stems from the director’s attempt to mix rotoscoping (tracing over often poorly costumed live-action footage) with traditional animation.  While no match for Jackson’s epic trilogy, Bakshi’s film is an honorable attempt to adapt a classic.  It is better than it seemed on first viewing and definitely worth the attention of any fan of Tolkien’s trilogy.  The chief extra included is an in-depth interview with Bakshi, but the Blu-ray disc also comes with a conventional DVD, which is always a bonus.

 

Just in time for the opening of baseball season, Barry Levinson’s 1984 film of Bernard Malamud’s The Natural (Sony, “PG,” 132 min. $24.95) has been released on Blu-ray.  This film has been pilloried over the years because it sentimentalizes Malamud’s saga.  But in omitting the dark undercurrents of the novel in favor of mythologizing the national pastime, Levinson created a film that transcends its literary roots and has gradually taken its rightful spot as one of the best baseball movies ever. 

 

Also out this week (though not on Blu-ray) is Icons of Suspense: Hammer Films (Sony, 540 min., $24.96), a collection of six black-and-white films from the British studio that was better known for its color horror films, (Horror of Dracula, Curse of Frankenstein).  The highlights of this set are an uncut version of Joseph Losey’s remarkable These Are the Damned (1963), a chilling and thoughtful contemporary science fiction film with a brutality that presages A Clockwork Orange, along with an edge-of-your-seats bank robbery film Cash on Demand (1961), which features Peter Cushing as a bank manager blackmailed into robbing his own bank, and Maniac (1963), a taut thriller than owes more than a little to Hitchcock’s Psycho.

 

TV on DVD

 

Even this prolific category is down this week though the second season cult hit science fiction mini-series Battlestar Galactica is now available on its own in the hi-def Blu-ray format, along with the entire series in a giant 21-disc box.  Battlestar Galactica Season 2 (Universal Home Video, 963 min., BD $89.99) is a 5-disc Blu-ray collection that is due out on Tuesday along with a re-packaged Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Series (Universal, $299.98 BD $299.98).  The complete series was released in the standard format and on BD last July with a “collectible” Cylon Figure with a list price that was $50 more.

 

Also out this week is Blood Ties: The Complete Series (Eagle Rock, 1000 min., $39.97 BD $44.99), a Canadian series based on Tanya Huff’s Blood Books series about a crime-solving team made up of a vampire and a policewoman, which ran on Lifetime during 2007 and 2008.

 

The top TV documentary release of the week is the PBS series, Eyes on the Prize (PBS, 360 min., $69.99), which chronicles the American civil rights movement from the point of view of the ordinary people who put it all on the line to advance the tide of history.

 

One of the most interesting releases of the week is The Party Down (Starz, $19.97), the first season of 10 half-hour comic episodes about a group of Hollywood caterers awaiting their big break.  Written by Rob Thomas (creator of Veronica Mars), and some of his Veronica Mars wrting partners along with actor Paul Rudd (Knocked Up), The Party Down is one of the best American TV series you may never have heard about.  Other releases this week include Ally McBeal: The Complete 2nd Season (Fox, 1080 min. $39.98), The New Adventures of Black Beauty: Season 2 (Image Entertainment, 584 min., $24.98), Simon & Simon: Season Four (Shout Factory, 1050 min., $49.97), and the short-lived series, The Unusuals: The Complete Series (Sony, $29.95), which starred The Hurt Locker’s Jeremy Renner.

 

Anime

 

Right Stuf/Nozumi Entertainment is releasing the second half (episodes 13-24) of the Rental Magica series in Rental Magica Part 2 Collection (13+, 400 min., $49.99), a subtitled-only 2-disc collection of the series produced by Zexcs.  Based on a light novel series by Makoto Sanda, this is an anime fantasy series about a young wizard with an amazing, but painful, ability (Glam Sight) that allows him to see magic and to peer into the consciousness of those who are using magic against him. With its complex magical cosmology this is a series that should appeal to Harry Potter fans.

 

Bandai Entertainment is releasing the majority of its April titles this week, a group that includes a re-priced Lucky Star Complete Collection (13+, 600 min., $49.98), the popular Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 Part 4 (150 min., $39.98), the new Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Season 2, Part 1 (175 min., $39.98), which aired in Japan in 2009, and the Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens Complete Collection (13+, 350 min., $59.98), a wacky, comedy drama based on the manga by Eri Takenashi.

 

Also due out this week is the Hidamari Sketch X 365 Complete Collection (Sentai Filmworks, 13+, 400 min. $39.98) based on the 4-panel seinen manga comedy series by Umi Aoki.  Sentai released Season 1 of the series in January (see “January 12th DVD Round-Up”).

 

Theatrical Films

 

The best bet in this category, in fact the only real game in town this week is Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (First Look, “R,” $28.98, BD $29.98), which features a corrupt cop played by Nicholas Cage, but is not remake or a sequel of Abel Ferrara’s 1992 film Bad Lieutenant, which starred Harvey Keitel as a crooked policeman.  For those who admire Nicholas Cage’s acting, this movie, which finds him in full out Klaus Kinski mode, could be the film of the decade.  Eva Mendes, who starred with Cage in Ghost Rider, plays a prostitute and Cage’s love interest.  There is no truth to the rumor than furniture and settings used in the film couldn't be resold or reused because of a plethora of visible tooth marks.

 

Originally intended as a Saw prequel, The Collector (Genius Products, “R,” $24.95, BD $24.99) is just another grisly exercise in over-the-top gore from two writers from the Saw franchise, or if you are a devotee of torture porn, a spare masterpiece where barely a blood-soaked frame is wasted in story or character development.

 

Foreign Films

 

Fans of the torture genre might want to check out the Hungarian film Taxidermia (E1 Entertainment, Unrated, $24.95) for an artistic approach to their favorite genre.  Gyorgy Palfi’s film concentrates on three generations of a misbegotten Hungarian family.  A dark, dark comedy that combines surrealist touches with plenty of cover-your-eyes moments, Taxidermia has a final sequence that outdoes anything in the Saw franchise and has to be seen to be believed.  Having stuffed his morbidly obese father and the family cats, the scion of this unfortunate clan, who is a taxidermist by trade, locks himself in a surgical harness and by using plenty of industrial strength painkillers eviscerates and then proceeds to “stuff himself” it what can be seen as either a send-up of, or the apotheosis of the whole torture porn horror genre.