An underrated science fiction/superhero movie, a complete collection of the classic Transformers cartoon series, an exhaustive documentary series about the titanic battles on the Eastern Front in WW II, and a great documentary from director Martin Scorsese are this week’s DVD highlights.

 

 

I Am Number Four (Disney, “PG 13,” $29.99, BD $44.99) is interesting for a number of reasons. It was written by the original Smallville team of Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and directed by D.J. Caruso (Disturbia), who is trying hard to get Y: The Last Man adapted for the big screen. Its teen protagonist has X-Men-like powers that he is just learning how to control, so it should be of interest to those who enjoy superhero movies. I Am Number Four is based on the young adult science fiction novel by Pittacus Lore (the nom de plume of James Frey and Jobie Hughes) and is clearly aimed at the teen audience. While it didn’t come close to matching Twilight numbers, the $50 million production did earn $144 million worldwide, which should turn a slight profit for the studio. Whether it was successful enough to justify a sequel, which was rather brazenly set up in the movies final scenes, remains to be seen. 

 

The first two-thirds of the movie, which set up its premise of an alien teen with special powers who is being hunted by another group of aliens intent on eliminating all members of his race, are more compelling than the film’s more predictable alien butt-kicking finale.   The Mogadorian villains, whose menace derives from some excellent makeup work and solid acting, are scarier than the giant flying bat CGI monster they unleash when they can’t get the job done on their own. Critics, who gave the film only a 31% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, found the high school scenes in which the hero, played by the then 20-year-old Alex Pettyfer, defends the school science nerd from a group of nasty jocks, too familiar. But the school scenes are well done, and the leader of the jocks turns out to be more than a one-dimensional character. Diana Agron, who plays the nasty blonde leader of the cheerleaders in Glee, is quite good in a much more sympathetic role as a small town girl with artistic ambitions, while the always reliable Timothy Olyphant (Justified) is excellent as the hero’s protector/father Henry. Is I Am Number Four all that it could be? No, but it is definitely worth viewing especially on Blu-ray, which holds the detail in the movie’s many night scenes, some of which supply some real shocks.

 

Gnomeo & Juliet (Disney, “G,” $29.99, BD $39.99, 3-DCombo $49.99) was a surprising success at the box office, where it earned $177.3 million worldwide, and it will undoubtedly be the number one DVD release of the week. Major liberties with Shakespeare’s plot were taken in this film, which is clearly aimed at a young audience,. The Shrek-like quips aimed at older viewers are ubiquitous, but all too often miss the mark. A slight work for sure, but one which is saved in part by strong vocal performances from James McAvoy and Emily Blunt in the leading roles and a supporting cast that includes Michael Caine, Maggie Smith, Patrick Stewart, and Jason Statham.

 

 

The top release this week is Transformers: The Complete Series (Shout Factory, 2250 min., $99.98), which includes all 98 original Transformers cartoon episodes re-mastered on 15 discs and packed in a sleek shiny box. These episodes have all been released before on single season sets, but this collection of 1980s gems is a must for those who haven’t purchased the material before and are interested in this nostalgic series that has spawned the popular live action movie franchise.

 

For those who enjoy Canadian humor, it’s hard to do better than The Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town (A&E, 500 min., $24.95), a relentless and funny satire that aired in 2010.

 

Also of interest is The FBI: The 1st Season, Part 1 (Warner Bros., 704 min., $39.95), a 4-disc collection that includes 16 episodes of the classic 1960s series that starred Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., and Stephen Brooks and was based on real cases from files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This series is being issued on DVD-R, but the episodes of this early and influential police procedural look just fine.

 

A small, but increasing stream of TV programming is making its way from the Internet onto network or cable television. Case in point is Children’s Hospital: Seasons 1 & 2 (Warner Bros., 182 min., $29.98), the comedy series created by Rob Corddry (The Daily Show, Hot Tub Time Machine) that makes brutal lascivious fun of medical shows like Grey’s Anatomy as it explores the foibles of a group of libidinous doctors who behave in an hilariously unprofessional manner.

 

The crooner and rat pack member Dean Martin played the alcoholic buffoon during much of the latter part of his career (after his split from the Martin & Lewis comedy team), but it was an act. He was in fact a fine singer and a supremely relaxed performer (it looks easy but it isn’t).  The Dean Martin Show: The Best of Collector’s Edition (Time/Life, $59.95) is a six-disc compilation of Dino’s variety show, and anyone who enjoys 1950s variety shows will likely love this spontaneous, largely unrehearsed show.

 

Kids’ show collections include The Best of Caillou: Caillou’s Summer Vacation (PBS, 110 min., $12.98), Nickelodeon’s Fan Boy and Chum Chum (Nickelodeon, 88 min., $16.99), and the Disney Channel’s Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Mickey’s Great Outdoors (Disney, 88 min., $19.99).

 

The major continuing release this week is Southland: The Complete Second Season (Warner Bros., 325 min., $24.95), a two-disc collection of the excellent cop series that received short shrift at the hands of NBC, which cancelled it in favor of running Jay Leno at 10pm. Southland is a better-than-average police procedural that provides an in-depth view of cops, criminals, and their victims.

 

The top TV documentary is The Unknown War (Shout Factory, 990 min., $39.97), a five-disc set that details the key contribution of the Red Army in the defeat of Nazism. This series is very appropriate for Memorial Day since it shows the enormous worldwide effort that was necessary during World War II and the immense sacrifices of the Russian people. During the Cold War American media tended to play down the importance of the Soviet Union in defeating the Nazis, and the Soviets objected to the British-produced The World at War documentary series. Thus they allowed the producers of this documentary series access to Soviet archives that includes some 3.5 million feet of footage, much of which has not be seen in the West outside of this series.  The documentary, which was produced in 1978 and narrated by Burt Lancaster, quickly engendered criticism from hard line anti-communists—and in fact the series does present the orthodox soviet version of the events and conveniently leaves out embarrassing elements such as the Hitler/Stalin Pact. But overall this series tells a story that has been neglected in the West and should be told.  Wargamers, who are very familiar with the battles of the Eastern Front, will find the footage in The Unknown War absolutely captivating.

 

 

The two new releases this week are Queen’s Blade 2 Part 1 (Media Blasters, “16+,” 150 min., $24.98), which includes the first six episodes of the 12-episode second season of the anime series produced in 2009 by ARMS and based on the visual combat books published by Hobby Japan, and Shin Koihime Musou: Otome Tairan Complete Collection (Sentai Filmworks, “13+,” 325 min., $49.98), which includes all 12 episodes of the third season of the anime produced by Dogakobo based on the visual novel/strategy game from BaseSon that takes its inspiration from the classic Chinese historical novel, Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

 

But the highlight of this week’s release is actually the Samurai Champloo Complete Series (Funimation, “17+,” 650 min., $49.98, BD $54.98), which is being released on Blu-ray, and it looks great. A huge hit on Adult Swim, Shinichiro Watanabe’s Samurai Champloo was previously released by Geneon, and then by Funimation on Blu-ray in November of 2009, but this new Blu-ray edition reduces the MSRP by nearly 50% and makes this innovative hip-hop samurai anime very hard to pass up.

 

Almost equally compelling is the Soul Eater Part 1-2 Collection (Funimation, “14+,” 635 min., $69.98, BD $69.98), which includes the first half of the 51-episode anime produced by Bones and based on the popular action/adventure supernatural-comedy manga created by Atsushi Okubo and published in the U.S. by Yen Press. Similar to Bleach in many ways, Soul Eater is becoming almost as popular as the Shonen Jump hit series.

 

 

Bryan Singer’s best movie by far is out in yet another ediition. The Usual Suspects Blu-ray Book (MGM, “R,” $34.98) comes with  30-pages of full color photos and commentary, but surely some fans would have wanted more extras rather than pictures. But the real point here is the movie itself, which was made for just seven million dollars (roughly equivalent to Robert Downey, Jr.’s dry cleaning budget on Sherlock Holmes). Buoyed by powerful performances from Gabriel Byrne, Benicio Del Toro, Chazz Palminteri, Kevin Spacey, and Pete Postlewaite, The Usual Suspects has all the qualities of a modern fable, an “urban legend” brought to life.  It's the Wizard of Oz transposed from the innocence of Kansas and the false grandeur of Oz, to the gritty streets of a corrupt New York and the picturesque, but deadly vistas of Los Angeles.

 

James Cameron’s 1984 science fiction classic Terminator has received a similar BD release. The Terminator Blu-ray Book (MGM, “R,” $34.98) comes packaged with 30-odd pages of color photos, but what you get is basically the same Blu-ray transfer hi-def transfer created five years ago (with minimal extras). This film certainly deserves a new transfer (BD technology has improved over the past half decade), but if you don’t already own or haven’t seen this seminal science fiction movie, this is another chance to see the film that turned Arnold Schwarzenegger into a huge international star by making great use of his robotic acting style.

 

There is some debate as to whether Blu-ray editions of vintage black-and-white movies are worth it. Some BDs of black-and-white classics like King Kong clearly aren’t, but switching back and forth between the Some Like It Hot Special Edition DVD and the newly-released Some Like It Hot Blu-ray (MGM, $19.99) demonstrates the greater detail and sharpness of the Blu-ray format. Is this very noticeable difference worth the extra money? Perhaps not if you have purchased the DVD, but if you don’t already own this classic Billy Wilder farce starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Marilyn Monroe, this is definitely the disc to buy. Some Like It Hot is one of the quintessential comedies of the 1950s. The fact that it manages to express the 50s zeitgeist so perfectly in a period movie set during prohibition is a tribute to writer/director Billy Wilder, who was in his absolute prime when this film was made.

 

 

Martin Scorsese’s Public Speaking (HBO Home Video, “PG,” $19.98) is a thoroughly entertaining look at Fran Leibowitz, who was born in New Jersey, but who became as quintessential a New Yorker as Woody Allen. Scorsese deftly intertwines interview footage, scenes from Lebowitz’s speaking engagements, and archival footage of Leibowitz and such luminaries as Truman Capote, Gore Vidal, and James Baldwin.