This week’s home video releases include the most underrated action film of the summer plus the debut of the original Bionic Woman series, a bargain-priced complete edition of Pee-wee’s Playhouse, and the latest Naruto Shippuden box set.

 

Theatrical Movies

 

Hungarian director Nimrod Antal did an excellent job of resurrecting the Predator franchise in Predators (Fox “R,” $29.98, BD $39.99), which earned $52 million at the domestic box office, and found favor with 63% of the critics according to review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.  Reactions to the “R-Rated” Predators will depend on how the viewer feels about the excesses of the modern action movie, but there is a lot in this film to like such as Antal’s clever quotes from Apocalypse Now (see “Classics”), and the way he eschews computer imagery in favor of old school special effects, plus there is solid work from an excellent cast headed by Adrian Brody.  Predators was far and away the most underrated action film of the past summer.  Action movie fans who missed it in the theaters should definitely check it out on disc.

 

The most interesting release of the week is Agora (Lionsgate, “R,” $27.98), a thinking man/woman’s sword-and-sandal epic set in ancient Alexandria.  The luminous Rachel Weisz stars as an astronomer in this saga in which the freethinking scientific traditions of the Hellenistic world are under siege from the fast-rising cult of Christianity.  Agora deals with major philosophical issues so it’s easy to understand why it wasn’t a major box office success, but it is also difficult to deny the historical validity of its Gibbons-esque premise that assigns Christianity much of blame for the Dark Ages.

 

TV on DVD

 

A couple of blasts from the past, the original Bionic Woman and Peewee’s Playhouse top this week’s releases.  The Bionic Woman: Season 1 (Universal, 760 min., $39.98) features Lindsay Wagner in this series, which spun-off from the Six Million Dollar Man and actually proved to be a lot more interesting.  This four-disk set includes the five original Six Million Dollar Man episodes featuring Wagner as well as a “Bionic Beginnings” featurette.

 

The other key release of the week is Pee-wee’s Playhouse: The Complete Collection (Image, 1,151 min., $39.98), a bargain-priced 11-disc edition of the stylish 1980s series (artist Gary Panter was one of a number of top designers who worked on the series).

Other classic series out this week include the George A. Romero produced 1980s horror anthology, Tales from the Darkside: The 4th and Final Season (Paramount, $36.98), the Raymond Burr police drama Ironside: Season 4 (Shout Factory, 1092 min., $49.98) and Alias Smith & Jones: The Complete Collection (Timeless Media, 2,989 min., $79.98), which contains all 50 episodes of the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid-influenced NBC western series from the early 1970s that featured a pair of very sympathetic former outlaws played stylishly by Ben Murphy and Pete Duel.

Animated offerings include Shaun the Sheep: Season 1 (Lionsgate, $29.98), the stop-motion animated kids’ series produced by Aardman Animations (Wallace & Gromit), the single-disc Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? Vol. 4(Warner Bros., 88 min., $14.98), and Scooby’s All-Star Laff-A Lympics Vol. 2 (Warner Bros., 88 min., $14.98). 

The top two U.K. releases are actually similar gritty realistic detective dramas.  A Mind to Kill Series 2 (Acorn Media, 664 min., $59.98) follows the adventures of Welsh detective Noel Bain, who demonstrates a real flair for solving difficult crimes and distinct penchant for siding with the underdog.  The first mystery in the collection, Bloodline, is a grim tale of family tragedy set in a bleak Welsh winter countryside that is cold and foreboding rather than picturesque.  Equally realistic, though more visually compelling is Wallander: Season 2 (BBC Video, 270 min., $34.98), which features Kenneth Branagh as the eponymous detective, who gets personally involved (even obsessed at times) with every case.  Based on the novels of Henning Mankell and beautifully photographed against the picturesque backgrounds of southern Sweden, Wallander, like A Mind to Kill, is series no fan of TV crime drama will want to miss.

Those who enjoy political documentaries should check out 20th Century With Mike Wallace: Politics & Presidents (Acorn Media, 410 min., $49.98), a personal history tour of modern American political history conducted by Mike Wallace, who presents his take on the major events of the second half of the 20th Century from the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton.

 

Anime

 

Several of the top new anime releases this week are coming out on Blu-ray.  The best is Eden of the East: The Complete Series (Funimation, “17+,” 275 min., $54.98, BD $59.98), an 11-episode thriller that was created, written, and directed by Kenji Kamiyama (Jin-Roh, Pat Labor, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex) with character designs by manga-ka Chika Umino (Honey & Clover).  Eden of the East, which was produced by top flight anime studio Production I.G., aired in Japan in 2009 on the adult-oriented noitaminA (“Animation” spelled backward) late night block on Fuji TV.  The animation looks fantastic on Blu-ray and the soundtrack also benefits greatly from the hi-def format.  Although this collection does include all 11 episodes of the Eden of the East TV series, it doesn't contain the two Eden of the East movies (rather than create a second series, Production I.G. decided to release two feature films).

 

Also out on Blu-ray is Tears to Tiara: Complete Collection (Sentai Filmworks, “13+,” 650 min., $69.98, BD $89.98), a 26-episode anime series from 2009 that was produced by White Fox and based on an eroge tactical role-playing game.  Both the game and the anime, which aired in Japan in 2009, are based on Welsh mythology. 

 

It should also be noted that Funimation decided to delay the BD release of Full Metal Panic Fumoffu Complete Collection until Tuesday the 19th (see “DVD Round-Up: Week of October 12th”).

 

The top non-Blu-ray anime DVD of the week is Naruto: Shippuden Box Set 04 (Viz Media, “16+,” 350 min., $49.95), the latest multi-disk collection of popular ninja saga that airs on Disney XD.  The other new release this week is Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Season 2 Part 3 (Bandai Entertainment, “13+,” 150 min., $39.98), which includes six solid, action-packed episodes from the latest iteration of the long-running space opera.

 

Repriced bargain sets out this week include Kurau Phantom Memory Complete Series (Funimation, “14+,” 600 min., $29.98), Bamboo Blade Complete Collection (Funimation, “13+,” 600 min., $49.98), and the Blade of the Immortal Complete Collection Litebox (Media Blasters, “16+,” 325 min., $39.99).

 

Classics

 

Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now is now out in a Blu-ray Three-Disc Full Disclosure Edition (Lionsgate, “R,” $59.99).  This 3-disc set includes both the original 1979 Apocalypse Now and the 2001 expanded Apocalypse Now Redux, both of which are presented in their original 2:35 to 1 aspect ratio in new transfers supervised by Coppola.  Also included is Hearts of Darkness, the compelling documentary about the making of the film, which was every bit as much of a drama as the film itself.  John Milius' updating of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness to the Vietnam War has considerable resonance given the colonial history of Vietnam, and Apocalypse Now is the dark epic that more than any other American film defines the conflict..  This is a true classic film from the most creative decade of American filmmaking in the second half of the 20th Century.  Directors like Nimrod Antal, who drops numerous references to Apocalypse Now in his Predators (see “Theatrical Movies), have been heavily influenced by this powerful, if uneven film that all movie lovers should see.

 

Also out on Blu-ray is that ultimate cult movie, The Rocky Horror Picture Show 35th Anniversary Edition (Fox, “R,” $34.99), which features a spectacular new high definition transfer of the film along with a major documentary about the film's enormous success at midnight shows and innovative deluxe book-like packaging.