This week’s home entertainment releases include the animated hybrid Paddington, an ambitious adaptation of Thomas Pyncheon’s Inherent Vice, the U.S. debut of the third season of the innovative fantasy series The Almighty Johnsons, the 1992 My Little Pony Tales animated series, and a full slate of anime titles.

Theatrical Movies

The highest-grossing theatrical film due out on Tuesday is the animated/live action Paddington (Anchor Bay, “PG,” 95 min., $29.98, BD $39.99), an amiable, pleasant film that should have been released over the past Christmas holidays.  Instead, it was pushed back to January, but still earned over $75 million in the domestic market.  Paddington, which stars Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Julie Walters, and Nicole Kidman in live-action roles, is a great film for kids, and one that won’t make you cringe if you have to watch it along with the little ones.

Kevin Hart is one of the brightest of the newer generation of screen comedians, and The Wedding Ringer (Sony, “R,” 101 min., $30.99, BD $34.99), which pairs him with the rather substantial Josh Gad, delivers plenty of raunchy humor along with an all too predictable plot.

Also due on Tuesday is The Boy Next Door (Universal, “R,” 182 min., $29.98, BD $34.98), a cautionary tale for grass widows starring Jennifer Lopez, and The Gambler (Paramount, “R,” 110 min., $30.99, BD $39.99), an altogether unnecessary remake of a 1970s film that allows Mark Wahlberg to improve only slightly on the scenery-chewing antics of James Caan in the original.

But the most interesting release of the week for serious moviegoers is Inherent Vice (Warner Bros., “R,” 148 min., $28.98, BD $34.98), director Paul Thomas Anderson’s wildly psychedelic adaptation of a novel by Thomas Pyncheon that stars Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, and Reese Witherspoon.  This discursive, stoner-influenced film will irritate those given to linear thinking, but will delight many others with its subtle subversions.

TV on DVD

This week’s top geekcentric release is The Almighty Johnsons: The Complete Series (PBS, 1,656 min., $34.99, BD $39.99), which collects all three seasons of the show about four brothers who learn that they the incarnations of Norse Gods.  The first two seasons of the show, which is produced in New Zealand, ran on the SyFy (then Sci-Fi) network, but the third season has never aired in the U.S., which makes this reasonably-priced set worth grabbing.

The declining importance of DVDs can be seen reflected in the nature of the release given the popular hipster comedy series Louie: The Complete Season 4 (Fox, 322 min., $29.95), which is available only on DVD-R, a cheaper (and less permanent) disc format.

Other releases of interest this week include The Mentalist: The Complete Seventh Season (Warner Bros., $39.98), which includes all 13 episodes from the final season of long-running CBS police procedural, plus My Little Pony Tales: The Complete TV Series (Shout Factory, 285 min., $14.93), which collects the 1992 animated series from Sunbow, and Wolf Hall (PBS, 360 min., $34.98, BD $39.98), a period drama that provides a different perspective the familiar terrain of Tudor England by presenting the saga of the many wives of Henry the VIII from the point of view of Thomas Cromwell, one of the key players behind the English Reformation.

While Wolf Hall may be the most prestigious UK import this week, New Tricks: Season 11 (Acorn Media, 610 min., $39.99) is the most entertaining.  Cast members continue to rotate through this saga of “retired” detectives solving cold cases, but the quality of the writing and the production is unflagging.  While there are plenty of great police procedurals produced on both sides of the Atlantic, the vast majority of them are humorless.  Few series manage to include both humor as well as realistic, believable crimes, and none do it better than New Tricks.

A perfect example of a serviceable, but humor-challenged series is Wire in the Blood: The Complete Series (eOne, 2005 min., $89.98), which follows the exploits of a Major Incident Team that includes a criminal profiler Dr. Tony Hill, who is able to tap into his own dark impulses in order to get inside the minds of serial killers.

Other contemporary series due on Tuesday include the action thriller Covert Affairs-Season 5: The Final Season (Universal, $39.98), which aired on the USA cable network, the USA medical comedy/romance Royal Pains: Season 6 (Universal, 558 min., $26.98), and yet another USA series produced by Universal, the business drama Suits: Season 4 (Universal, $44.98).

Vintage TV releases include Dr. Kildare: The Complete 4th Season (Warner Bros., 1610 min., $59.99), a DVD-R release of the early doctor series that starred Richard Chamberlin, the hilarious service comedy Sgt. Bilko: The Phil Silvers Show, Season 2 (Shout Factory, 930 min., $34.92), the groundbreaking Norman Lear series The Jeffersons: The Complete 7th Season (Shout Factory, 510 min., $24.97), and the 16-episode 1979 animated Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo series.

Anime

This week’s top release is the D-Frag!: Complete Collection (Funimation, 300 min., BD/DVD Combo $64.98, Limited Ed. $69.98), which includes the 12-episode 2014 anime series from Brains Base that adapts Tomoyo Haruno’s comedy manga about a teenage delinquent who is forced to join the “Game Creation Club” at his school.  Those who enjoyed the antics of Assassination Classroom will find this zany saga in which the hero plays straight man to the wildly eccentric female members of the “Game Creation Club” to be an extracurricular activity of the first rank.

Also new this week is the Hayate the Combat Butler, Can’t Take My Eyes Off You: Complete Collection (Sentai Filmworks, 300 min., Subtitles Only, $49.98, BD $59.98), which collects the 12-episode third anime TV series based on Kenjiro Hata’s popular shonen manga.  Produced by Manglobe in 2012, the Can’t Take My Eyes Off You series featured participation by Hata, who wrote the story for the series based on some of his original ideas that never made it into the manga.

Another new release of considerable interest is Nobunaga the Fool: Collection 1 (Sentai Filmworks, 325 min., $59.98, BD $69.98), which collects the first 13 episodes of a 2014 series produced by Satelight and based on a concept by mecha master Shoji Kawamori (Eureka 7, Transformers, Macross, Crusher Joe)—so fans of mecha-heavy anime will want to check out this series, which was simulcast by Crunchyroll) last year.

This week’s major vintage release is Legendary Armor-Samurai Troopers Complete Collection (Discotek Media, 860 min., Subtitles Only, $59.95), which contains all 39 episodes of the classic 1988-1989 anime series produced by Sunrise and also known as Ronin Warriors.

Tom Flinn

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