This week’s home entertainment releases include one of the best psychological thrillers in years, plus Pixels, an exercise in 1980s nostalgia starring Adam Sandler, a solid boxing film featuring a great performance by Jake Gyllenhaal, and the second half of one of the very best seasons of the Sailor Moon anime.

Theatrical Movies

This week’s most interesting movie release isn’t the one that made the most money.  The psychological thriller The Gift (Universal, “R,” 109 min., $29.98, BD $34.98) is a disturbing, creepy, and extremely well made film.  Writer/director/actor Joel Edgerton deserves much of the credit, but Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall also make important contributions.  The Gift may be too slow developing for some, but it pleased the critics (it has a 93% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes), and it will please those who appreciate a skillfully made psychological thriller.

The film due out on Tuesday that made the most money, Pixels (Sony, “PG-13,” 211 min., $30.99, BD/3D $45.99), earned $78.5 million in North America, but was still considered a failure.  A high concept comedy in which aliens invade Earth via 1980s video games, Pixels wallows in 1980s nostalgia—and those sentimental about that decade, along with diehard Adam Sandler fans may derive some enjoyment from this movie, others should be well aware of the film’s abysmal 17% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Those who enjoy boxing movies might want to check out Southpaw (Anchor Bay, “R,” 123 min., $29.98, BD $39.99), a solid effort from director Antoine Fuqua, screenwriter Kurt Sutter (Sons of Anarchy), and actor Jake Gyllenhaal, one of the few stars of his generation with enough grit to make a film like this believable.  Add this portrayal to Gyllenhaal’s excellent work in Nightcrawler in 2014, and it is clear that he is one of our most interesting contemporary actors. The contours of Southpaw’s plot are all very familiar to those who have seen the classic boxing movies, but that shouldn’t matter that much to fans of the genre.

The “dog” movie genre is even older than the tradition of “boxing” movies, and Max (Warner Bros., “PG,” $28.98, BD $35.99) updates the genre by making the canine hero a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, who is suffering from the canine version of PTSD.  Max won’t win any Oscars, but it is a solid entertainment that kids will enjoy (and parents can watch without gagging).

Anime

This week’s top release is Sailor Moon R: Season 2, Part 2 (Viz Media, 500 min., $44.82, BD/DVD Combo $69.99) contains the second half of the 43-episode second season of Sailor Moon anime that was produced by Toei, and first aired in Japan during 1993-1994.  To be precise Season 2, Part 2 contains episodes 69-89 of the entire Sailor Moon saga newly remastered in high definition.  ADV previously released this original uncut version of Sailor Moon in a subtitles-only version, but now the uncut, original second half of this fan-favorite second season (dubbed Sailor Moon R) is available with a new dub from Viz Media (as well as for the first time in high-def).

Another key release this week is One Piece Season 7, Voyage 3 (Funimation, 300 min., $39.98), which includes episodes 410 to 421 of the rollicking pirate anime series produced by Toei that has reached well over 700 episodes in Japan, where it is still ongoing and remains a favorite—and this set includes the main battle in the popular “Amazon Lily” story arc.

Also new this week is the Black Bullet: Complete Collection (Sentai Filmworks, 325 min., $59.98, BD $69.98), which collects the 13-episode 2013 series produced by Kinema Citrus that is based on the dystopian science fiction light novel series written by Shiden Kanzaki (and published here by Yen Press).  This series was simulcast back in 2013 on Crunchyroll.

Fans of Lupin III and Detective Conan (like this writer) will be interested in Lupin III vs. Detective Conan the Television Special (Discotek Media, Subtitles Only, $24.95), a crossover TV special that was broadcast in Japan in 2009 and pitted the master boy detective Conan Edogawa against the dashing jewel thief Lupin III.  This special topped anime ratings in Japan, and spawned a 2013 movie sequel, Lupin III vs. Detective Conan: The Movie (Discotek Media, Subtitles Only, $24.98), which is also available on Tuesday.

This week’s other new release is the Blade & Soul Complete Collection (Sentai Filmworks, 325 min., Subtitles Only, $49.98, BD $59.98), which collects the 13-episode Gonzo series from 2014 that was also simulcast on Crunchyroll.  The anime is based on a Korean MMORPG that mixes traditional martial arts with gravity-defying Qing Gong.

TV on DVD

After a busy month in the TV category, things slow way down this week.  The lone contemporary show on the docket is The Middle: The Complete Sixth Season (Warner Bros., DVD_R format, 529 min., $35.99), which contains the most recent season of the solid ABC sitcom from the creator of Roseanne that stars Patricia Heaton in a slice-of-life sitcom saga about a working class family in Indiana struggling to make ends meet.

The only animated TV show due on Tuesday is Transformers: Robots in Disguise—A New Autobot Mission (Shout Factory, 110 min., $14.93), a single-disc, 5-episode collection from the new Transformers cartoon series from Hasbro and Darby Pop Productions that premiered on the Cartoon Network last March.  This series is produced by Polygon Pictures in Japan, and though it is a sequel to the Transformers Prime series, it features a different animation style and character designs.

This week’s top TV release is the Australian series Miss Fisher’s Murder Mystery: Series 3 (Acorn Media, 448 min., $49.99, BD $49.99), which contains 8 absorbing mysteries starring Essie Davis as Miss Phyrne Fisher, a very emancipated flapper with a real knack for solving murders to go along with her distinctive flair for fashion.  This series is a flip and fun period romp set in a 1920s Australia that was just shaking off the very real horrors of World War I.

For fans of vintage TV there is The Great American Dream Machine (eOne, 777 min., $49.98), which collects the rare 1971-1973 satirical series produced by WNET, that featured (among others) Chevy Chase, Andy Rooney, and Albert Brooks.