Due to vacation, DVD Round-Up missed some excellent releases from last week including Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, the Benedict Cumberbatch-starring The Imitation Game, and Reese Witherspoon’s Oscar-nominated turn in Wild, but there are some excellent TV releases as well including a MacGyver collection, Silicon Valley, Veep, The Book of Negroes, and the supernatural anime series Tokyo Ravens.

Theatrical Movies

All the good movies came out last week led by Christopher Nolan’s hard sci-fi drama Interstellar (Paramount, “PG-13,” 168 min., $29.98, BD $39.99), a sprawling epic that deals with serious philosophical issues, while still remaining both entertaining and surprisingly “humane” in its outlook.  Visually brilliant and well-acted, Interstellar isn’t a slam-bang action-packed space opera, but science fiction fans will love how Nolan is able to conjure up other worlds.

It is hardly unexpected when a science fiction film like Interstellar is largely snubbed at the Oscars, but a sensitive biopic like The Imitation Game (Anchor Bay, “PG-13,” 113 min. $29.98, BD $34.98), the story of Alan Turing (played by Benedict Cumberbatch), the man who broke the German “Enigma” code in World War II and laid much of the foundation for modern computing, should have gotten more recognition from the Academy.  A sterling 89% positive rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes should be all the encouragement fans of serious movies need to catch this remarkable film, which was certainly one of 2014’s best.

Another Oscar contender, Wild (Fox, “R,” 120 min., $29.98, BD $39.99) stars Reese Witherspoon as a woman who decides to get her life back together by hiking the daunting Pacific Crest Trail.  Based on Cheryl Strayed’s 2012 memoir, Wild is a surprisingly powerful film thanks largely to Witherspoon’s tour de force performance, which helped the film gain a 90% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

TV on DVD
The top new contemporary series is the BET miniseries The Book of Negroes (eOne Entertainment, 265 min., $39.98), which is based on a novel by Lawrence Hill about a woman abducted from her home in West Africa and forced into slavery in 18th Century South Carolina where she escapes and attempts to find her way back to Africa.

The WGN cable network is also getting into entertainment creation in a big way and its sophomore effort is available on Tuesday.  Manhattan: Season 1 (Lionsgate, 540 min., $49.98, BD $49.98) includes the 13-episode first season of this historical drama that is set in the midst of the atom bomb project in New Mexico in 1943.

Two solid releases came out last week including Veep: The Complete Third Season (HBO,$39.98, BD $48.99), the HBO comedy series starring Julia Louie Dreyfus as a hapless Vice President.  Created by Armando Iannucci (In the Loop) Veep is one of the best political satires going—it’s only real competition is the Amazon Alpha House series.  The other really interesting release from last week is Silicon Valley: The Complete First Season (HBO, 228 min., $49.99), the new series from Mike Judge, one of the first to satirize the computerized office in his classic movie Office Space, who now takes on the American locale most in need of some serious satirizing.

Other contemporary sagas include the raunchy Comedy Central series Inside Amy Schumer: Seasons 1 & 2 (Comedy Central, $26.98), which includes all 20 episodes of the edgy series, the quirky comedy Wilfred: The Complete Fourth Season (Fox, 220 min., $29.95), and the second single disc collection of the Cartoon Network’s new Uncle Grandpa series, Uncle Grandpa: Vol. 2—Good Mornin’ (Warner Bros., 132 min., $14.97).

A certain segment of fandom will enjoy the release of MacGyver: The Complete Collection (Paramount, 6,808 min., $89.98), a massive 39-disc set that includes 139 episodes in which the series’ eponymous hero jerry-rigged an escape from disaster.

Others might be interested in the One Step Beyond: Collector’s Set (Film Chest, 1739 min., $19.98), which collects the 1959-1961 ABC paranormal TV series that predates The Twilight Zone, but which based its episodes on “true” stories rather than classic science fiction or fantasy sagas.

Still more vintage series are due including the police comedy series Barney Miller: The Complete 7th Season (Shout Factory, 540 min., $24.97), The Brady Bunch: The Complete Series (Paramount, 2880 min., $79.98), Frazier: The Complete Series (Paramount, 5,895 min., $129.98), the animated King of the Hill: The Complete Ninth Season (Olive Films, 336 min., $34.95), and the Andy Griffith legal mystery series Matlock: The Complete Series (Paramount, 9192 min., $129.98).

The top vintage release from the UK out this week is Lovejoy: Series Five (Acorn Media, 777 min., $49.99), which includes 13 adventures starring Ian McShane as the eponymous, slightly dodgy antiques dealer, who is sort of the UK equivalent of private eye Jim Rockford of The Rockford Files.  Guest stars in Series Five include John Gielgud, Pete Postlethwaite, and James Nesbit.

Also out this week is Granchester (PBS, 360 min., $29.98, BD $39.98), a well-produced detective drama set in the early 1950s in Cambridgeshire that stars James Norton as a vicar, who is a war veteran and who keeps getting pulled into various local murders, while attempting to sort out his own very confused personal life.

Anime
This week’s top release is Tokyo Ravens, Part 1 (Funimation, 300 min., BD/DVD Combo $64.95, Limited Edition $69.98), which collects the first 12 episodes of the 2013 anime produced by 8-Bit and based on the action/romance series of light novels by Kohei Azano.  This character-heavy supernatural action series doesn’t offer a lot of new concepts for the genre, but it does deliver enough that genre fans (and those who love the Harry Potter novels) will find plenty to like in this saga of the scion of a clan of omyouji, who attends the clandestine Onmyo Academy for the magically gifted, in spite of the fact that he appears to lack the family gift for magic.  The limited edition includes a colorful artbox that will hold both parts of the series.

Another supernatural saga is Gingitsune: Messenger Fox of the Gods (Sentai Filmworks, 300 min., subtitles-only, $49.98, BD $59.98), a 12-episode saga produced by Diomedea in 2013 and based on the seinen manga by Sayori Ochiai that is more of a slice-of-life comedy than a supernatural action saga.  The heroine of this charming series, which was simulcast on Crunchyroll, is the daughter of a Shinto priest who can see spirits including an anthropomorphic fox, who proves to be the series’ most interesting character.

Funimation has also just released the Sankarea: Undying Love Complete Collection (Funimation, 300 min., BD/DVD $59.98) back in 2013, but it was the heavily-censored TV version of the show, which has at last been replaced by the uncut version of this bizarre romantic comedy about the romantic misadventures of girl who becomes a zombie.

Also new this week is One Piece, Season 6, Voyage 4 (Funimation, 300 min., $39.98), which presents episodes 373-384 of the long running anime that remains one of the most popular anime/manga properties in Japan.  These 12 episodes feature the end of the Thriller Bark Arc, which is one of the very best narrative segments of this rollicking anime pirate saga.

Another release of interest is Looking Up at the Half Moon (Right Stuf, 150 min., subtitles-only, $29.99), which collects a 6-episode 2006 series produced by TAC and based on the popular Hantsuki series of romance novels written by Tsumugu Hashimoto.  This is a real “romance” anime with a touching saga of young love.  It was originally supposed to be released here in 2013, but is actually making its debut now thanks to the Lucky Penny division of Right Stuf, which is also releasing Rose of Versailles, Part 2 Litebox (Right Stuf, 480 min., subtitles-only, $39.98), which collects the second half of the classic 1980s 40-episode Rose of Versailles anime.

Other re-priced re-releases due this week include Black Butler: Season 1 Collection (Funimation, BD/DVD $49.98), and the .hack//Legend of Twilight Complete Collection (Funimation, $39.98).

--Tom Flinn

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