Steven Spielberg’s masterful historical film Lincoln tops this week’s releases that also include a well-made crime drama starring Brad Pitt, a host interesting geekcentric TV shows, and the hilarious direct-to-DVD Star Wars Lego: The Empire Strikes Out.

 

 

The top release this week is Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln (Dreamworks, “PG-13,” $29.97, BD Combo $39.00, 4-Disc BD $45.00), which is perhaps the most sophisticated political movie ever made in the U.S. Though not without a few unfortunate historical inaccuracies (folks from Connecticut were right to complain about a distortion in the way their delegation voted), this saga of the passage of 13th Amendment outlawing slavery is a compelling drama that doesn’t shy away from the “sausage-making” side of democratic politics.  Screenwriter Tony Kushner wisely concentrated the film on one of the key moments of Lincoln’s career and managed to tell the story of the passage of the amendment with a great amount of nuance and detail.  The occasional historical inaccuracies stand out more in this film because it gets so much of the period right including Lincoln’s complicated relations with a cabinet made of up of powerful politicians. Daniel Day Lewis really nails his portrayal of Lincoln, the rambling frontier raconteur with a story for every occasion, who was also an incredibly shrewd politician and a natural political philosopher of the first rank.

 

Connoisseurs of crime films should check out Andrew Dominik’s Killing Them Softly (Starz, “R,” $29.98, BD $39.98), which stars Brad Pitt in an adaptation of one George V. Higgins’ classic novels (Cogan’s Trade) about Boston mobsters. Note that Killing Them Softly received a solid 76% positive rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, a very good sign for any sort of crime film. Higgins’ realistic dialogue is note perfect and the delivery of those lines by the entire cast makes this often “talky” crime drama bristle almost as much as the brief and bloody interludes of violence.

 

This week’s art house release is A Royal Affair (Magnolia, “R,” $26.98, BD $29.98), a Danish film about a British princess who marries the increasingly crazed Danish King Christian VII and then finds love with a court physician. There is plenty of melodrama in this fact-based historical saga that finds its lovers trapped in a web of historical circumstances.

 

 

There are a number of excellent offerings in the TV category this week including Mad TV Season 2 (Shout Factory, 960 min., $29.95), which includes the complete 22-episode live-action Mad TV series that aired on Saturday nights on the Fox Network from 1995 to 2009. While it may not be as close to the real Mad Magazine as the animated Mad series currently running on the Cartoon Network, Mad TV includes many of the same features this set contains lots of great movie and commercial parodies.

 

A subset of Star Trek fans will be excited by the first Blu-ray release of Star Trek: Enterprise (Paramount, 1149 min., BD $119.99), which collects the first season of the underrated final Star Trek TV series that starred Scott Bakula as Captain Jonathan Archer.

 

Other geek fans will no doubt enjoy the subversive Mystery Science Theater 3000: XXVI (Shout Factory, 480 min., $59.97), in which the MST3K gang make merciless fun of a quartet of film turkeys including The Magic Sword, The Mole People, Alien from L.A., and Danger! Death Ray.

 

Science fiction fans searching for less campy fare should consider Continuum Season 1 (Universal, 441 min., $44.98, BD $49.98), which contains all ten episodes of the Canadian-produced series currently airing on SyFy about a terrorist group from the future that lands in our era along with a future cop who has to track them down before they change history. 

 

Others will enjoy Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot (Shout Factory, 675 min., $39.97), an Americanization of the classic tokusatsu series Giant Robo created by Misuteru Yokyama.

 

For those who enjoy more sophisticated television there is The Borgias: Season 2 (Showtime, $54.99, BD $59.99), which stars Jeremy Irons as Rodrigo Borgia in a saga of ruthless Machiavellian scheming set in a superbly mounted recreation of the Italian Renaissance.

 

There is even something this week for viewers who like their political intrigue a little more on the contemporary side. Veep: The Complete First Season (HBO, $39.98, BD $49.99) stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Seinfeld) as a fictional Vice-President of the U.S. Dreyfus won an Emmy for her performance in this excellent series created by Armando Iannucci, who wrote a wonderful political satire for the BBC (The Thick of It) as well as In the Loop, the highly underrated film about the rush to war in Iraq. The second season of the HBO series is slated to debut on April 14th. Those who enjoy rakish political satire and don’t mind an inside-the-beltway dose of blue language will really enjoy this film.

 

Readers of this column are familiar with my love for Midsomer Murders, the thoroughly delightful series that takes the English country village murder mystery to new heights of both comedy and complexity. Midsomer Murders: Tom Barnaby’s Last Cases (Acorn Media, 1,440 min., $149.98) contains the final 15 feature-length mysteries featuring John Nettles as Caroline Graham’s unflappable Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby. While these episodes have already been released in previous sets, those who don’t own them will not be disappointed with this set, which includes some of Nettle’s finest work.

 

While the Midsomer Murders series is set in the present, many of the best mystery series from overseas are period pieces such as the Australian series Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (Acorn Media, 706 min., $49.99, BD $59.99) that is making its U.S. DVD debut. Set in 1920s Melbourne this series stars Essie Davis (The Girl With a Pearl Earring) as a very emancipated flapper who operates very skillfully in what is still very much a man’s world. If the overall mise-en-scene and level of acting are not quite up to the level of a Midsomer Murders, Miss Fisher manages to kick up her heels in fine style in this fast-paced and always entertaining series that will appeal to liberated women (and men) everywhere.

 

 

Star Wars Lego: The Empire Strikes Out (Fox, 22 min., $14.98) is yet another often very humorous Star Wars parody that has appeal to both kids who love Legos and Star Wars fans of all ages.

 

 

Lots of great Blu-rays in this category this week including Shakugan no Shana Season 3 Part 1 (Funimation, “14+,” 300 min., BD $64.98, Ltd. BD $69.98) and Shakugan no Shana Season 3 Part 2 (Funimation, “14+,” 300 min. $64.98), which together include the entire third season of the series created by J.C. Staff that aired in Japan in 2009. This supernatural action-packed romantic series finds an ordinary teen boy teaming up with a fighter for the balancing forces of the universe. The Limited Edition Part 1 comes with a special box that will accommodate Part 2 as well.

 

Also due this week is the Inuyasha Blu-ray Complete Movie Collection (Viz Media, “13+,” 380 min., $29.99), which includes hi-def transfers of all four Inuyasha movies produced by Sunrise, which are based on the property created by Rumiko Takahashi (Ranma 1/2).

 

Another Sunrise production, Phi-Brain: Puzzle of God (Sentai Filmworks, “14+,” 325 min., $59.98, BD $69.98) aired on the NHK Educational network in Japan in 2011. This adventurous series directed by Junichi Sato features a teenage boy who solves a life-threatening “philosopher’s puzzle” created by the mysterious group P.O.G. (Puzzle of God). Once he has solved the puzzle, Kaito becomes a Solver and joins with other Solvers to battle P.O.G. all over the world.

 

Also new is the Amagami SS+ (Sentai Filmworks, “13+,” 325 min., $49.98) a 2011 series from AIC that is based on a dating simulation game.

 

This week’s re-priced re-release is the S.A.V.E. Edition of The Corpse Princess Complete Series (Funimation, “17+,” 600 min., $29.98).

 

 Tom Flinn

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