This week’s slate of home entertainment releases includes the first DC animated feature based on a “New 52” story arc, the powerful AIDS saga Dallas Buyers Club with Oscar-worthy performances from Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto, the stylish TV miniseries The White Queen, a slew of anime releases, and the Blu-ray debut of two grisly 1980s horror movies.
 
Direct to DVD
 
DCU Justice League War (Warner Bros., “PG-13,” $24.98, BD $24.98) is the latest in the continuing series of animated feature films produced by Warner Animation and based directly on DC Comics characters and narratives.  This is the first in the series to have the prefix “DCU” (for DC Universe) in the title, and it is the first to animate a post “New 52” story arc, in this case the first arc of Geoff Johns and Jim Lee’s “New 52” incarnation of the Justice League.  The plot follows John’s narrative very closely and the character design is clearly based on Jim Lee’s drawings.  Fans who enjoyed the struggle against Darkseid in the first Justice League arc will not be disappointed, though the voice work seems a bit weaker than some of the previous direct-to-DVD animated features.
 
Theatrical Movies
 
Award season typically means that there are some interesting movie releases and this week it’s Dallas Buyers Club (Universal, “R,” 234 min., $29.98, BD/Combo $34.98), which features spectacular performances by Mathew McConaughey and Jared Leto.  McConaughey in particular starved himself into skeletal form in order to play Ron Woodruff, a heterosexual redneck Texas rodeo cowboy, who contracts an early case of AIDS in 1985.  When given just 30 days to live, Woodruff scours the earth in search of better treatments, and eventually forms the Dallas Buyers Club in an attempt to keep the FDA off his neck.  Woodruff’s frenetic activity mirrors what was happening in medical labs all over the world as doctors searched for anything to take on the fast-mutating HIV virus, before coming up with a sort of ad hoc cocktail of drugs (which is still being refined, since there is no AIDS vaccine yet).  Gradually through the course of the film we see Woodruff, who is faced again and again with near-death reminders of his own mortality, overcome his prejudices and venal ambitions.
 
McConaughey reportedly lost 40 pounds to play the role and he gives a remarkable performance, but I wonder how many people who complain about professional athletes risking their health with steroids, feel the same way about the way actors punish their bodies by losing (or worse, gaining) weight.  The brilliant character actor Laird Cregar killed himself by dieting in the 1940s because he tired of always having to play the “heavy.”  The flamboyance and authenticity of McConaughey’s performance certainly puts him in a strong position to win the Oscar, but one wonders how many members of the Academy will actually watch Dallas Buyer’s Club, which can be a difficult film in part because its narrative structure reflects the confusion of the times (AZT was a “miracle cure” until it wasn’t).  Director Jean-Marc Vallee is way too obsessed with slightly shaky steadicam shots and extreme close-ups, but the relentless “indie” style of his mise-en-scene keeps the focus on the performances.  This is an actor’s film, and if it occasionally distorts the murky facts of the early days of the AIDS crisis and makes Woodruff more of a homophobe than he really was, it is all in the service of a drama that supports some extraordinary performances.
 
Those who enjoy British romcoms should check out About Time (Universal, “R,” $29.98, BD $34.98), which was written and directed by Richard Curtis, who wrote Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and Love Actually, as well as the sitcoms Blackadder and Mr. Bean.  About Time features a clever plot that integrates “time travel” into a romantic comedy setting with some very interesting results.  About Time was fresh enough to manage a 69% positive rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, a strong showing for a romantic comedy.
 
This week’s other romcom, Baggage Claim (Fox, “PG-13,” $29.98, BD $39.99) could only register a 13% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but it does feature an engaging performance by Paula Patton in what is otherwise a rather shallow and highly manipulative romantic comedy plot.
 
Action movie fans will have to make do with Escape Plan (Summit, “R,” $29.95, BD/Combo $39.99), a taut tale about a wrongly imprisoned man (Sylvester Stallone), who manages to escape from a new high security prison.  Stallone is aided and abetted by Arnold Schwarzenegger, who gives one of his better post-gubernatorial performances.  Escape Plan managed a 49% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is actually not all that bad for an action film loaded with easy-to-pan, long-in-the-tooth, “geri-action” stars.
 
Also due this week is Free Birds (Fox, “PG,” $29.98, BD $39.99), a lame animated saga about two turkeys who travel back in time in order to change the traditional Thanksgiving feast by eliminating poultry from the  menu.  This “turkey” could only manage an 18% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
 
TV on DVD
 
The top release in this category this week is Midsomer Murders: Set 23 (Acorn Media, 278 min., $39.99, BD $49.98).  The switch from DCI Tom Barnaby to his cousin John Barnaby is now long past and Neil Dudgeon, who plays John Barnaby, is really settling into his role in this long-running series of delicious English village murder mysteries.  Set 23 includes three feature-length mysteries filled to the brim with fascinating eccentric characters engaged in plots that will keep you guessing to the very last minute.  The star of the set may be Death of the Divas, a wonderful sort of Midsomer take on Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?.
 
Geek viewers with a penchant for history will enjoy The White Queen: The Complete Miniseries (Starz, 600 min., $49.98, BD $59.98), a sexy and violent series of women caught up in the protracted struggle for succession to the British crown known as The War of the Roses.  Based on Phillipa Gregory’s historical novel series The Cousin’s War, The White Queen follows the intrigues and machinations of three women, whose work behind the scenes often had as much effect on history as what their masculine counterparts accomplished on the battlefield—a cynic might characterize it as Game of Thrones without all the fantasy crap.
 
Animated TV offerings include My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic—Season 3 (Shout Factory, 300 min., $19.97), and of even more interest to geek viewers, the incredibly inventive, comic book-based The Tick: The Entire Series (Mill Creek, 201 min., $9.98), which is now available a very low price.
 
Vintage TV series due this week include The Ellen Show: The Complete Series (Mill Creek, 399 min., $9.98), which collects the amusing, but short-lived sitcom starring Ellen Degeneres, before she found her niche as a talk show host, Family Matters: The Complete 4th Season (Warner Bros., 538 min., $29.98), which contains 24 episodes of the sitcom that featured uber-geek Steve Urkel, Laverne & Shirley: The Complete 7th Season (Paramount, 540 min., $39.98), and the equally gag-inducing Joanie Loves Chachi: Seasons 1 & 2 (Paramount, 410 min., $29.98).
 
Anime
 
Lots of releases this week headed by Fairy Tail Part 8 (Funimation, “14+,” 300 min., $54.98), which includes episodes 85-96 of the 175-episode anime from Satelight that aired in Japan from 2009 to 2013. Based on the anime by Hiro Mashima that is currently in the midst of a major revival here in North America (ICv2 currently ranks Fairy Tail, which is published by Kodansha USA, as the #6 most popular manga property).  A new Fairy Tail anime series will debut in Japan in April, and the Fairy Tail manga, which began in 2006 is currently at Volume #41 and counting.
 
J-Pop fans will be interested in another Satelight-produced series debuting this week, AKB0048 Season 2 (Sentai Filmworks, “13+,” 325 min., $59.98, BD $69.98).  Directed by anime veteran Shoji Kawamori, AKB0048 Next Stage aired in Japan in 2013.  The anime is loosely-based on the AKB48 idol girl group, which has 89 members and gives daily shows in Akihabara (they are the “idols you can meet”).
 
NIS America has already released the first two-thirds of the 37-episode anime series based on the popular shojo manga Kimi ni Todoke.  Now the entire series will be available in Blu-ray in three sets, Kimi ni Todoke Set 1 (NIS America, “13+,” 273 min., BD $54.99), Kimi ni Todoke Set 2 (NIS, “13+,” 325 min., BD $54.99), and Kimi ni Todoke Set 3 (NIS, “13+,” 294 min., BD $54.99).
 
Another new series of considerable interest is Blessing of the Campanella (Nozumi, “17+,” 300 min., $49.99), which collects the 2010 AIC series based on the visual novel developed by Windmill, which has also been adapted into a popular seinen harem manga.
 
There are also some great re-priced reissues including the charming Antique Bakery Complete Collection (Nozomi, “16+,” 300 min., $39.99), which collects the 12-episode 2008 comedy series based on the shojo (shonen-ai) manga created by Fumi Yoshinaga, and a real classic shojo anime series, Fruits Basket: The Complete Series (Funimation, “13+,” 600 min., $49.98), which includes all 26 episodes of the Studio Deen anime from 2001 that is based on Natsuki Takaya’s clever and highly inventive shojo manga series.
 
Vintage Films on Blu-ray
 
Horror films from the 1980s, the “Golden Age of Slasher Movies,” are definitely not for the squeamish.  This week Shout Factory is releasing two 1980s horror films directed by Kevin Tenney.  The better of the two is Night of the Demons from 1988.  Made for just $1.2 million, Night of the Demons (Shout Factory, “R,” $29.93) is a sort of perverse “classic” in which the audience is forced to watch a group of clueless teens wander into an isolated locale (in this case a party at an out-of-the-way mortuary) and die horrible deaths.  Part of the attraction of these movies is that they allow the audience to gain cheap thrills by identifying with the characters, but it’s not really that scary because everyone in the crowd knows the tropes of these sorts of films and, if faced with a similar situation, would never act in the blind, hapless manner of the film’s protagonists.  Tenney directed Witchboard (Shout Factory, “R,” BD $26.99) two years earlier and it is a bit stodgier and less entertaining, but those who love the cheap thrills of 1980s horror films will want to check it out as well.  Note: It goes without saying that these 1980s horror films are definitely not for the squeamish or the faint of heart.

--Tom Flinn

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