There are plenty of interesting releases this week including Quentin Tarantino’s highest-grossing film, a superior martial arts movie, a fascinating period computer-animated feature film set in Paris in 1910, plus the worst version of  Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon ever (so bad it’s good), the second season of Fraggle Rock, and a prize-winning anime movie.

Theatrical Movies

There’s a strong group of theatrical movies this week led by Quentin Tarantino’s highest-grossing film ever, Django Unchained (Weinstein Company, “R,” $29.98, BD $39.99), a deep South, pre-Civil War western that owes more to spaghetti westerns and Southern Gothic fantasies like Mandingo than it does to history.  Nevertheless, unlike classic Hollywood, which largely ignored the evils of slavery and Jim Crow in order to get films shown in Southern states, Tarantino takes on the “peculiar institution” directly and forcefully in his ultra-violent grindhouse manner. Critics loved Django (89% positive on Rotten Tomatoes), and if buckets of blood washing across the screen don’t bother you, the film sports excellent performances from Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, and Leonardo DiCaprio.

For martial arts fans there is Dragon (Anchor Bay, “R,” 98 min., BD $29.99), a fascinating film that is basically A History of Violence done in martial arts wuxia setting.  Peter Ho-Sun Chan directs and Donnie Yen shines as a village craftsman, who accidentally displays some serious martial arts skills, and gets in some serious trouble because of it.

Those who like indie comedies should check out the Australian film Not Suitable for Children (Well Go USA, “R,” 97 min., $24.98, BD $29.98), a smart, engaging film about a young rake who suddenly learns that he has only four weeks of fertility left and quickly comes to the realization that he wants children.

Horror movie fans will have to make do with the geographically-confused The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia (Lionsgate, “R,” $19.98, BD $24.99), in which the typical ghost story hokum that earned the film a miserable 23% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes is only enlivened by the presence of  fan favorite actress Katee Sackoff (Battlestar Galactica).

Considerably better is A Monster in Paris (Shout Factory, “Not Rated,” $14.97, BD/DVD $24.97), a charming period animated film set in Paris in 1910 in which a cabaret singer (voiced by Vanessa Paradis) befriends a giant flea with some major musical talent.  This is a charming, off-beat film where the laughs are wry and well-earned.  But be forewarned that this movie eschews the frenetic pacing and the constant verbal jokes that characterize so many American animated features.

For those who enjoy nature documentaries there is Disneynature: Wings of Life (Disney, “G,” BD/DVD Combo $39.99) a brilliantly photographed documentary about the world of winged pollinators (birds, bees, bats) narrated by Meryl Streep

TV on DVD

It’s almost all vintage material this week, but there are some treats for pop culture mavens including Flash Gordon: The Complete Series (Mill Creek, 963 min., $14.98), which collects all 22 episodes of the 2007-2008 SyFy series that is “so bad it’s good.”  SFX Magazine famously called Episode 3 in this series that starred Eric Johnson and Gina Holden, “the worst episode of anything, ever.”  With a recommendation like that and a suspiciously low price point of $14.98, how can anyone resist what is in this critic’s estimation the worst iteration of Flash Gordon ever?

Considerably better is Fraggle Rock: The Complete Season 2 (Lionsgate, 591 min., $29.93), which includes all 24 Season 2 episodes of the live-action puppet series created by Jim Henson, who described his handiwork as “a high-energy, raucous musical romp.”  This international co-production debuted in the U.S. on HBO in 1983 and ran for four seasons.  Like so many 1980s shows that targeted kids (Transformers, G.I. Joe, etc.) Fraggle Rock has developed a devoted following.

Other vintage series include the highly regarded 1980s Vietnam War drama China Beach: The Complete Series (Time Life, $199.95) that looked at Vietnam from the perspective of female service personnel, most notably Dana Delany, who won two Emmys for portrayal of Army nurse Colleen McMurphy.  This 21-disc mega-collection includes all 62 episodes of the series along with the original 1960s music that enlivened this classic series.  SInce music rights have held up the release of many a vintage TV series, it is great to see that China Beach is coming out with all its 1960s musical hits intact.

Also due this week is the racially-charged cop drama In the Heat of the Night: Season 8 (TGG Direct, 360 min., $24.96), the contemporary 1960s western starring Jack Lord (before Five-0) Stoney Burke: The Complete Series (Shout Factory, 1600 min., $39.97), and the BBC comedy series Last of the Summer Wine: Vintage 1998 (BBC, $34.98).

The lone semi-contemporary production is Ben 10: Destroy All Aliens (Warner Bros. 68 min., $12.97), a computer-animated film that debuted on the Cartoon Network in 2012.  It was the first computer-animated feature length film produced for the Cartoon Network and it is closely based on the Ben 10 animated series.

Anime

This week’s major releases are Summer Wars (Funimation, “13+,” 120 min., $29.98), a delightful anime feature film produced by Madhouse, that won the 2010 Japan Academy Prize for "Animation of the Year," and A Certain Scientific Railgun: Season 1, Part 1 (Funimation, “14+,” 300 min., $59.98, Ltd. Ed $64.98) and A Certain Scientific Railgun: Season 1, Part 2 (Funimation, “14,” 300 min. $59.98).  Together the two Railgun releases they include the complete 24-episode TV series produced by J.C. Staff in 2010 that is based on the popular science fantasy light novel series written by Kazuma Kamachi.  A second Scientific Railgun series is set to begin airing in April, so this is a perfect time to catch up on this remarkable series.  The Limited Edition of Part 1 includes a box that will accommodate Part 2 as well.

Also new this week is Hiiro no Kakera: The Tamayori Princess Saga Season 1 (Sentai Filmworks, “14+,” 325 min., $59.98, BD $69.98), which includes the entire 13-episode anime produced by Studio Deen in 2012 and based on the supernatural romance visual novel created by Idea Factory targeting a female teenage audience in Japan.

Those who like anime comedies should check out the Place to Place Complete Collection (Sentai Filmworks, “14+,” 325 min., $49.98), which includes all 13 episodes of the 2012 AIC adaptation of the popular yonkoma (4-panel) comedy manga series.

Classics on Blu-ray

Most American lovers of French New Wave movies have probably never heard of Morris Engel’s 1953 film Little Fugitive (Kino, “Not Rated,” 80 min., $34.95), even though Francois Truffaut himself said, “Our New Wave would never have come into being if it hadn’t been for the young American Morris Engle, who showed us the way to independent production with his fine movie Little Fugitive.”  What Engel did was to create a feature film about a minor incident of family life on a shoestring budget by filming non-professional actors with hand-held cameras in real-life New York City settings.  Kino’s new Blu-ray features a beautiful transfer of the film, which won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, as well as two very interesting documentary features including a 28-min movie about Little Fugitive’s director Morris Engel, who also produced and directed two other feature films.

--Tom Flinn

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