This summer’s big science fiction tentpole Prometheus leads this week’s home entertainment releases, which also include the stylish animated feature A Cat in Paris, the U.S. DVD debut of the anime Deadman Wonderland along with great new hi-def transfers of E.T. and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane.

 

 

Ridley Scott’s Prometheus (Fox, “R,” $29.98, BD $39.99) was this summer’s big-budget science fiction tentpole. Though it didn’t set any box office records, it did earn $402 million worldwide against a cost of $130 million, and while it had its detractors among the critics, it did manage a solid 73% positive rating from the critics on Rotten Tomatoes. This high-concept “prequel” (of sorts, this is no cookie-cutter franchise film prequel) to Alien features a brilliant cast that includes Michael Fassbender, Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron, and Idris Elba. Even if the plot has some holes in it, and in spite of the fact that the underlying “ancient astronauts” trope is already tedious thanks to overuse in popular literature, Prometheus remains a “must see” for science fiction fans because of the movies often brilliant visuals and inspired performances.

 

Considerably less successful with both critics and audiences was Rock of Ages (Warner Bros., “PG-13,” $28.98, BD/Combo $35.99), a film version of the Broadway musical about the “big hair” heavy metal bands of the 1980s that managed to earn just a 41% positive rating from the critics on Rotten Tomatoes. The film also made just $51.8 million worldwide against a cost of $85 million despite a cast that includes Tom Cruise, Russell Brand, Malin Akerman, Mary J. Blige, and Alec Baldwin.

 

Animation fans are in for a real treat with the Academy Award-nominated A Cat in Paris (New Video Group, “PG,” $29.95, BD Combo $34.95), a delightful hand-drawn French animated feature that is as cool as a 1950s bop combo with stylized art, spellbinding Parisian locations and a jazzy soundtrack featuring the great Lady Day, Billie Holiday.

 

Far less successful is The Raven (Fox, “R,” $29.95, BD $39.98), a literary thriller that stars John Cusack as Edgar Allen Poe and tries to make sense out of some of the tragic event’s of the poet’s later years by making him a sort of detective searching for a serial murderer who is staging his crimes after events from Poe’s macabre stories and poems. But this uber-gothic mishmash never manages to make the proceedings believable thus undermining its premise. 

 

Those who enjoy quirky, independently-made romantic comedies should consider The Giant Mechanical Man (New Video Group, “PG-13,” DVD only $26.95), which deals with two artistic slackers who find common cause and attempt to form a relationship that they hope will free them from the soul-deadening constraints of modern urban life on the “career path” to success.

 

 

The pace slows down a bit this week though there are still some more releases of the most recent season of popular shows to work through including Bones: Season 7 (Fox, 567 min.,$49.98, BD $69.98), the outrageous FearNet Channel horror series Holliston: Season 1 (Image Ent., 233 min., $24.98, BD $29.98), the independently-produced sitcom It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Season Seven (Fox, $39.98, BD $49.98), the semi-improvised FX comedy series about a fantasy football league, The League: Season 3 (Fox, 286 min., $29.98, BD $34.99), and Whitney: Season 1 (Universal, 450 min., $39.98), the NBC sitcom that stars comedian Whitney Cummings in a series based on her life and comedy routines.

 

The only animated “TV on DVD” releases are the single-disc The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show: Go Snoopy Go (Warner Bros., 120 min., $14.97), and the toddler-targeting The Care Bears: The Original Series Collection(Lionsgate, 923 min., $29.98).

 

Vintage TV series due out this week are led by Yancy Derringer: The Complete Series (Timeless Media, 850 min., $34.98), which aired on CBS in the late 1950s, The Lucy Show: The Sixth and Final Season (Paramount, 612 min., $39.98), plus sampler releases, each containing 20 episodes for Combat: Fan Favorites (Image, 941 min., $24.98), and Webster: 20 Timeless Episodes (Shout Factory!, 480 min., $12.99).

 

The only U.K. series out here this week is the vintage Doctor Who saga, Doctor Who—Story #053: Ambassadors of Death (BBC, 171 min., $34.98), which was the third serial in the seventh season of the long-running British TV series. It was broadcast in seven parts in 1970 and starred Jon Pertee, the Third Doctor.

 

 

The big release this week is Deadman Wonderland: The Complete Series (Funimation, “17+,” 325 min., $64.95), which includes all 12 episodes of the 2011 anime series produced by Manglobe and based on the science fantasy horror manga series written by Jinsei Kataoka and set in an earthquake-ravaged Japan where an ordinary middle school student is falsely accused of a major massacre and incarcerated in diabolical theme park-like prison. The Deadman Wonderland anime series has appeared on the revamped Adult Swim Toonami lineup on the Cartoon Network.

 

Also due this week is the Naruto Shippuden Box Set #12 (Viz Media, “16+,” 300 min., $49.95), which collects 12 additional episodes of the popular ninja series, and Heaven’s Memo Pad: The Complete Collection (Sentai Filmworks, “14+,” 325 min., $69.98), which collects the 12-episode series produced by J.C. Staff that aired in Japan in 2011. Based on the light novel series by Hikaru Sugii, Heaven’s Memo Pad is the story of a misfit teen who gets mixed up with a very strange sort of detective/vigilante.

 

Repriced re-releases include the Maid Sama: Complete Collection (Sentai Filmworks, “14+,” 650 min., $69.98), which had been previously released as two separate collections each with an MSRP of $49.98, and the Gao-Gai-Gar Complete Collection (Media Blasters, “7+,” 1225 min., $49.99).

 

 

Steven Spielberg’s 1982 science fiction film E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (Universal, “PG,” BD/Combo $34.98) arrives in an excellent new hi-def transfer that makes the film look better than it ever has since its early 1980s’ debut. Universal has a bad reputation when it comes to presenting its catalog titles in hi-def, but the studio did itself proud this time. Fans who love this film (which some others can find syrupy) will certainly like this extremely faithful new version that was supervised by Spielberg himself.

 

Robert Aldrich isn’t around to supervise the 50^th Anniversary Edition of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (Warner Bros., “Not Rated,” BD $34.95), but he would likely be proud of this version, which manages to preserve the subtleties of Ernie Haller’s superb black and white photography. The high-def format is definitely not wasted on black and white movies, especially if the original material that is used to scan is of sufficient quality as it is in this case where the original camera negative was found to be in great condition.

--Tom Flinn

The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.