While there are no “blockbusters” due this week, there are some landmark releases including the successful live-action/animated revival of The Smurfs franchise, the final season of the long-running Smallville series (as well as a Complete 10-Season box set), and a trio of interesting new anime releases including Chaos: HEAD from Madhouse, an adaptation of the popular Bakuman manga, and Loups=Garous, a new anime feature film from Production I.G.

 

 

This week's release with the most commercial potential is The Smurfs (Sony, “PG,” $30.99, BDCombo $40.99, 3D BD $45.99), an animation/live action film that starred Neil Patrick Harris, earned an amazing $560 million worldwide, and paved the way for several more films starring those endearing little blue critters.

 

Also due this week is Friends With Benefits (Sony, “R,” $30.99, BD Combo $40.99), the sexy comedy starring Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis, which cost $35 million and earned $150 million, while managing to please the critics (71% positive on Rotten Tomatoes), which is no mean feat for a romcom with a formulaic plot these days.  (Be forewarned, this film earned its “R” with more than just salty language, there is plenty of nudity and simulated sex on screen).

 

Critics also responded favorably (68% positive) to Our Idiot Brother (Weinstein, “R,” $29.98, BD $39.99), which stars the sublty compelling Paul Rudd and a threesome of talented actresses, Elizabeth Banks, Emily Mortimer, and Zooey Deschanel who play his sisters.  Strong performances from this quartet manages to overcome the hackneyed plot of this “slacker” comedy that is definitely not without its charms.

 

Another equally interesting slacker comedy is 30 Minutes or Less (Sony, “R,” $30.99, BD $35.99), which stars the gifted Jesse Eisenberg (in a far different role than The Social Network) and was directed by the talented Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland).  This action/adventure/comedy may not be for everybody (how great is your tolerance for the antics of Danny McBride?), but it delivers more than a few clever laughs.

 

But from the purely artistic point of view none of this week’s theatrical releases comes close to matching the quality of Werner Herzog's documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams (IFC Films, “G,” $27.98, BD $34.98), an often breathtaking look at the oldest human art works, the famous cave paintings of Lascaux.

 

 

Smallville: The Complete Tenth & Final Season (Warner Bros. $59.98, BD $69.98) debuts this week.  The longest running live-action superhero show in TV history evolved considerably from its conservative beginnings that tended to downplay the property’s superhero trappings (“No tights, no flights”), and this evolution is definitely apparent in Season 10 in which Clark Kent finally assumes his place as the full-fledged Superman.

 

Also available this week, and a real treat for the well-heeled collector is Smallville: The Complete Series (Warner Bros., 11,520 min., $339.98), a mammoth 62-disc collection that includes all 218 episodes of the series featuring the young Superman/Clark Kent.  Special features include a decade of Comic-Con featurettes as well as a never aired, never-before-released Superboy pilot from 1961 as well as hours of other great extras.

 

A classic series of a very different sort is also debuting in a new format. The Wire: The Complete Series (HBO, 3645 min., $199.95) is the most sophisticated look at drugs and crime in the inner city in TV history.  Superbly written and brilliantly acted, The Wire is one of the greatest achievements in the history of American TV.

 

Also new this week is 30 Rock: Season 5 (Universal, $49.98), which collects the most recent season of the groundbreaking single-camera sitcom starring Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, and Alec Baldwin.  Older series out this week include The Six Million Dollar Man: Season 1 (Universal, $39.98), the first of the season-by-season release of the classic science fiction series starring Lee Majors that has been released in a complete set, and Mission Impossible: Season 1 1988 (Paramount, 923 min., $38.99), which includes 19 episodes from an ill-fated attempt to revive the classic espionage series in the late 1980s.

 

 

After a few lean weeks there are a lot of interesting new anime releases led by Chaos:HEAD Complete Series (Funimation, “14+,” 300 min., BD Combo $69.98), the complete 12-episode series from Madhouse that features the same voice actors who appeared in the original Japanese Chaos;HEAD supernatural cyberpunk psychological thriller video game developed by 5pb and Nitroplus.

 

Other new releases this week include Bakuman Part I (Media Blasters, “13+,” 175 min., $24.99), which collects the first six episodes of the anime based on the popular manga series from the creators of the mega-hit Death Note, Loups=Garous (Sentai Filmworks, “14+,” 98 min., $29.98, BD $39.98), an anime science fiction feature film from Production I.G. that sports a soundtrack from the rock band SCANDAL, Star Driver: Part 1 (Bandai Entertainment, “13+,” 325 min., $39.98, BD $49.98), which includes the first 13 episodes (of 25) from the 2010 mecha/science fiction anime series produced by Bones, K-On! Vol.4 (Bandai, “13+,” 75 min., $24.98, BD $29.98), the latest release of the hot TV anime produced by Kyoto Animation and based on the seinen four-panel manga written and drawn by Kakifly.

 

Re-priced re-releases include the 1980s classic Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 Complete Series (Funimation, “14+,” 650 min., $49.98), One Piece Collection 3 (Funimation, “14+,” 650 min., $34.98), which includes episodes 54-78 of the rollicking pirate adventure classic that remains one of the most popular anime series in Japan, and Yu Yu Hakusho Season 4 Complete Blu-ray (Funimation, “13+,” 620 min., $44.98), which includes episodes 85-112 of the classic 1990s supernatural shonen adventure anime based on the manga by Yoshihiro Togashi.