It’s the late summer doldrums for DVD releases, but there are some very interesting discs out this week including the innovative science fiction serial drama FlashForward, the vintage horror/suspense series that Stephen King considers the best of its kind in the history of American TV, and arguably the best serial killer trilogy of films ever, the first of which stars the young actor who won the role of Peter Parker in the new Spider-Man film.

 

TV on DVD

 

Once again there is a lot happening in this category this week with four “premium” series being released on Blu-ray, but comic book fans may be most interested in the short-lived serial drama FlashForward created by David Goyer (The Dark Knight) and Brannon Braga (Star Trek) and in Red Riding, an innovative series of 3 films produced for British TV, the first of which stars Andrew Garfield, who will play Spider-Man in Marc Webb’s upcoming reboot of the franchise.

 

FlashForward: The Complete Series (Disney, 946 min., $59.99) is based on the 1999 science fiction novel by Robert J. Sawyer.  The 22-episode series has an ingenious premise and a group of interesting characters, but it wasn’t able to maintain the level of viewership earned by the series’ pilot episode, which was written and directed by David Goyer.  Still, like Lost, this is the sort of serial drama that is best experienced on DVD when the episodes can be watched in close proximity and the narrative patterns become clear.  Also on DVD it is easy to check out the telltale “Easter Egg” image hidden in the opening FlashForward logo of every episode.

 

The four series that are being released on both Blu-ray and standard DVD include the popular medical drama House Season 6 (Universal, 850 min., $59.98, BD $74.98), NCIS: Los Angeles: The First Season (Paramount, 1050 min., $62.99 BD $72.99), the cable motorcycle gang saga Sons of Anarchy: Season 2 (Fox, 595 min., $59.98, BD $69.99), and the popular CW vampire series The Vampire Diaries: The Complete First Season (Warner Bros., 935 min., $59.98, BD $69.97) created by Kevin Williamson (Scream, Dawson’s Creek).

 

The key vintage American TV release this week is Thriller: The Complete Series (Image, 3354 min., $149.98), which contains all 67 episodes of the series that was introduced by horror icon Boris Karloff and ran on NBC from 1960-1962, and which was, as Stephen King has indicated in his Danse Macabre, the best series of its kind in the history of American TV.  This 14-disc collection includes over 50 hours of extras (a relative rarity for a vintage series).  Robert Bloch (Psycho) was among the many fine writers who worked on this series, which included both outright horror episodes and criminal dramas (usually with a clever twist).  But it was the experienced Hollywood movie directors like John Brahm (The Lodger), Mitchell Leisen (Easy Living), Ida Lupino (The Hitchhiker), Arthur Hiller (Silver Streak), and Ted Post (Magnum Force), who really helped give this series its well deserved distinction.

 

The best U.K. release of the week, and the best release in any category, is The Red Riding Trilogy (IFC, $29.98, 350 min. BD $34.98), three feature-length movies adapting author David Peace’s Red Riding Quartet that aired on Channel 4 in 2009.  Andrew Garfield, who has won the coveted role of Spider-Man in the new Sony reboot of the franchise, plays an ambitious but callow young reporter investigating the murders of young girls in Yorkshire in the first of the films, which is set in 1974.  Brash, cocky, naïve and ultimately heroic, Garfield gives a superb performance as Eddie “Scoop” Dunford in the first film that was shot by director Julian Jarrold is 16mm, which along with a meticulous attention to period detail gives the movie a real documentary quality that enhances its potent narrative mixture of serial killings and police corruption.  The second film, which is set in 1980 and directed by James Marsh was shot in 35mm and has different, but totally appropriate look, while the third film, which is set in 1983, was shot on digital video by Anand Tucker.  The discs come with English subtitles, which are useful in deciphering the often thick Yorkshire accents.  Together the films in this trilogy manage to breathe new life into the by now commonplace serial killer genre, and they can certainly stand comparison with Zodiac or any of the other serious attempts to create something substantial in this most overexposed of modern crime genres. 

 

The murders in the other major U.K. release this week, Marple: Season 5 (Acorn Media, 450 min., $49.99), are a good deal more genteel.  Julia McKenzie (Cranford) takes over as Agatha Christie’s spinster sleuth in three feature-length movies that aired in 2009.  Set in 1950s England, these movies have superb production values and strong casts—and there’s also no denying that Dame Agatha can plot a clever mystery as these three enjoyable features, especially The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side, prove beyond a shadow of a doubt.

 

Anime

 

There are two excellent Blu-ray releases this week the vampire saga Black Blood Brothers Complete Series (Funimation, “17+,” 288 min., $44.98, regular DVD $39.98) and Full Metal Panic! Complete Collection (Funimation, “13+,” 600 min., $54.98, regular DVD $49.98).  Black Blood Brothers is a 12-episode anime from TAC based on the light novel series by Kohei Azano in which humans and vampires team up to eradicate an especially dangerous strain of vampirism propagated by the Kowloon Children.  Black Blood Brothers has a very original take on the vampire genre with its own elaborately worked out extensions to the standard vampire mythology and it looks fantastic on Blu-ray.

 

The 2002 Gonzo-produced 24-episode Full Metal Panic! series has been completely remastered for its Blu-ray presentation with predictably great results.  This genre-melding series, which mixes mecha action with high school romance and comedy, remains a true delight.  It is easy to see why Mandalay Pictures snatched up the rights to turn FMP into a live-action movie (see “Mandalay Acquires Full Metal Panic!”).

 

The other major releases this week are One Piece Season 3 Part 2 (Funimation, “14+,” 325 min. $49.98), which finds the Straw Hats in Skypiea where Luffy becomes public enemy number one to the potential detriment of his crew in episodes 157-169 of what is arguably the most popular anime/manga series in Japan, and the sexy “fighting girls” saga Ikki Tousen Premium Box Set (Media Blasters, “17+,” 300 min. $79.99), which includes the entire 12-episode Ikki Tousen Dragon Destiny series produced by ARMS in 2007 as well as the first and the sixth Dragon Destiny OVAs.

 

Theatrical Movies

 

It is arguable that Tyler Perry is the least known successful American filmmaker of the past decade in spite of the fact that his name is not just above the title, it’s often in the title as is the case with Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too? (Lionsgate, “PG-13,”   $29.95, BD $39.99), which features a strong cast led by Michael Jai White, Janet Jackson, Louis Gossett, Jr., and Cicely Tyson.  It could be argued that Why Did I Get Married Too? is just an African-American version of Couples Retreat, but it should also be said that it also manages to be a lot more vital, moving and ultimately funnier film than Peter Billingsley's rather slack effort starring Vince Vaughn.

 

Excessive vitality is not a charge that can be leveled against the comic strip-based live action Marmaduke (Fox, "PG," $29.98, BD $39.99).  Marmaduke, which features the voice of Owen Wilson as the canine lead and was directed by Tom Dey.  This lackluster feature only earned a meager $33 million at the domestic box office.  It is not necessarily a good sign that the film is coming to DVD just two and a half months after it debuted in theaters, though it is the type of movie that probably has better prospects as a “babysitter on disc” for canine-besotted kids than it did at the box office, and it also probably needs to be released now well in advance of the avalanche of big titles heading to DVD in the fall.

 

The most interesting comedy out this week could very well be French Film (IFC, not rated, 87 min., $24.98), a clever British romantic comedy starring Hugh Bonneville as a London-based feature writer forced to write a profile of the pompous French filmmaker Thierry Grimandi, who is played with surprising aplomb by soccer star Eric Cantona.  The film’s “couples in trouble” motif resembles Why Did I Get Married Too?, but then Tyler Perry doesn’t have the supposed Gallic ownership of the inside track on romance to make fun of.  If you can get past the all-too-common British (and American) tendency to make unfair fun of the French, this is a charming little film with strong performances from Bonneville, Anne-Marie Duff and Douglas Henshall.