Blu-rays of the Week

In the 13 episodes of the seventh season of this odd but compelling medical drama, the brilliant forensic analysts who led by Dr. Temperance Brennan pore over variously gruesome homicide cases.

The series’ accomplished cast is led by Emily Deschanel (Zooey’s older sister) as Brennan and David Boreanaz as FBI agent Booth. The Blu-ray’s image is excellent; extras include deleted scenes, a gag reel, featurettes and an audio commentary.

Dial M for Murder

Two 50s Hitchcock thrillers have finally been elevated to hi-def: 1951’s Strangers is an ultra-creepy adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel, while 1955’s Dialfeatures the elegant Grace Kelly in a minor Hitch suspense flick based on Frederick Knott’s play.

Both films look absolutely splendid on Blu-ray, especially the B&W compositions of Strangers and the amusing 3-D effects of Dial, which looks less good in 2D. Strangers extras include the preview version with two extra minutes, a commentary, making-of and other featurettes; the lone Dial extra is a retrospective featurette.

Downton Abbey—
Complete Seasons 1 & 2

This masterly mini-series, written by Julian Fellowes, meticulously recreates the insular worlds of both masters and servants on a British estate before, during and after the carnage of World War I. This Upstairs, Downstairsfor a new generation has international stars like Dame Maggie Smith, Elizabeth McGovern, Hugh Bonneville.

This special Blu-ray set contains the complete seasons 1 & 2, both featuring dramatically realized storylines and characterizations. Of course, the stunning physical production looks flawless on this stellar hi-def release. Extras include a full-length episode Christmas at Downton Abbey, and on-set featurettes Making of Downton Abbey, A House in History, Fashion & Uniforms, Romance in a Time of War and House to Hospital.

Iron Sky

This lunatic sci-fi fantasy imagines a Sarah Palin-alike in the Oval Office who starts a war with Nazis who have been living on the moon since WWII ended. (Don’t ask.) This demented but sometimes funny parody does have its share of easy jokes about Hitler and Palin.

There’s also a relatively restrained performance by blonde bombshell Julia Dietze as an idealistic Nazi who learns the error of her ways thanks to a black US astronaut turned white by the bad guys (again, don’t ask). The Blu-ray image looks quite good; extras include an audio commentary, making-of featurette and on-set footage.

The Lady

Luc Besson’s typically ham-handed directing dents but doesn’t ruin a gripping true account of Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of a Burmese patriot who led the democracy movement against the dictatorial regime.

Besson tries turning her poignant story into one of his typical action flicks, but Michelle Yeoh’s elegant presence and a touching supporting performance by David Thewlis as her suffering British husband (and his twin brother!), The Lady scores dramatic and political points. The Blu-ray image is stellar; the lone extra is a making-of featurette.

There’s no denying that the Beatles’ ill-fated 1967 TV film is an unmitigated disaster—with the exceptions of the “I Am the Walrus” and “Fool on the Hill” interludes—but even the group’s failures (few as there were) are interesting, and this manic, improvised, amateurish fantasy certainly is that.

Even though the original video elements have never been in good shape, the color movie looks sharp on Blu-ray; extras include a chatty McCartney commentary, new interviews with Paul and Ringo; and additional footage.

Peace, Love and Misunderstanding

This mild generation-gap comedy is as dated as the aging hippies that populate it, and director Bruce Beresford—long removed from his best films, from Breaker Morant to Black Robe—can do little more than skillfully direct his fine actresses, hampered as everyone is by Christina Mengert and Joseph Muszynski’s flaccid and melodramatic script.

Jane Fonda (hip grandma), Catherine Keener (square mom) and Elizabeth Olsen (precocious granddaughter) are good enough to help viewers make it through 90 minutes. The Hudson Valley looks gorgeous on Blu-ray; the lone extra is a brief making-of.

Prometheus

Although this Alienprequel wasn’t necessary, Ridley Scott’s stylish directing makes discovering what happened on the planet that the spaceship Nostromo landed on in the original film go down easy.

A nasty self-abortion sequence isn’t for the squeamish, but Prometheus shrewdly favors mythmaking over scares, and with a solid cast—led by Charlize Theron, Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender and Idris Elba—and big-budget effects, Scott has made a diverting and even intelligent Hollywood movie. The Blu-ray image looks superb; extras include commentaries by Scott and by the writers, 36 minutes of deleted and alternate scenes and featurettes.

Rock of Ages

This brainless adaptation of the ridiculously dopey Broadway musical is basically a karaoke jukebox of trashy ‘80s rock tunes: you haven’t lived until you’ve seen (especially in the extended version, which lasts an unconscionable 135 minutes) Tom Cruise and Malin Akerman almost have sex while warbling Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What Love Is.”

It was shocking that the movie flopped at the box office: for once the American moviegoing public showed their wisdom. The Blu-ray image looks fine; extras include several featurettes.

DVDs of the Week

This wavering omnibus film skips around among several couples—from teenagers to long-time marrieds, with a lesbian pair thrown in—trying (or not) to conceive a baby.

Director Josh Stolberg writes snappy dialogue that takes the place of credible characterizations, but the acting (especially by Julie Bowen, sexier and funnier than on Modern Family) that makes this 85-minute trifle watchable. Extras include director/producer commentary, 37 minutes of deleted scenes and 25 minutes of outtakes.

Desperate Housewives—
Complete 8th and Final Season

In the final season of the ultimate television fantasy for women (these are empowered female characters) and men (these women are available cougars), the various relationship threads are finally untangled.

While Eva Longoria and Vanessa Williams are delectable, Teri Hatcher, Marcia Cross and Felicity Huffman appear to go through their well-worn paces. Extras include creator Mark Cherry’s final episode commentary, deleted scenes, gag reel and on-set interviews.

Detachment

In director Tony Kaye’s first feature since his flawed but haunting American History X,Adrien Brody plays a substitute teacher who keeps clear of relationships with students and everyone else—until two troubled teens enter his life.

Despite Brody’s intensity (and good work by Marcia Gay Harden, Christina Hendricks and—as a young prostitute—the remarkable Sami Gayle), Kaye’s film suffers from dramatic overkill, which is his stock-in-trade: the subject matter is already depressing, but Kaye rubs our noses in it until the movie becomes overbearing. Extras comprise brief Kaye and Brody interviews.

Give Up Tomorrow

In a must-see documentary where truth is stranger—and more enraging—than fiction, director Michael Collins tells the incredible story of Paco Larranaga, sentenced to death for a crime that evidence overwhelmingly shows he didn’t commit: the horrific murder of two young women in the Philippines.

Collins shows, in painstaking detail, how official corruption, media complicity and a bloodthirsty public teamed to destroy Paco’s (and six others’) lives. Extras include deleted scenes, interviews and an update on Paco’s fate.

Kidnap and Ransom

Trevor Eve’s craggy presence as a cynical hostage negotiator who tackles the most difficult and dangerous cases helps this somewhat formulaic drama score a direct bull’s-eye.

In addition, the gritty locations and on-target supporting cast keep the show going through several familiar run-ins with bad guys, politicians and supervisors. Extras include interviews with Eve and writer Michael Crompton.

The League—
Complete Season 3

This fitfully funny comedy about a group of fantasy football “players” too often basks in its crudity, but it shines when guest stars spar with the less-than-awesome foursome.

Jeff Goldblum and Sarah Silverman are hilariously profane in one episode, and Eliza Dushku is a kick-ass combatant in another: they are the highlights of the third season. Extras include a gag reel, deleted scenes and featurettes.

The Who—Live in Texas ’75

It’s not often that The Who didn’t give incendiary live performances, and this 1975 Houston show at the beginning of the band’s By Numberstour, doesn’t disappoint.

The intimate cameras let viewers concentrate on each musician in turn, and this quartet—singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist Pete Townshend, bassist John Entwistle and drummer Keith Moon—is simply remarkable. Highlights are sparkling versions of “Drowned” and a Tommy medley. The only quibble is lack of surround sound, but if you crank it up, you won’t even notice.

CDs of the Week

At this late date, we probably don’t need a new Kiss album—especially for those of us who thought Ace Frehley was the best musician in the group—but this latest effort from Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons and two guys with the same makeup as Ace and Peter is an acceptable facsimile.

The opener “Hell or Hallelujah” is a typically anthemic rocker, as is the following “Wall of Sound,” and “Freak,” and “Back to the Stone Age,” etc. It’s not bad for a bunch of aging rockers, but after awhile it sounds like one long song interrupted by a few seconds of silence between tracks. But you didn’t expect Destroyer, did you?

Tchaikovsky: Symphonies 1-3

The first three Tchaikovsky symphonies might not have the staying power of his last three, which culminate with the sixth, Pathetique.

But energetic performances by the London Symphony Orchestra under sympathetic conductor Valery Gergiev (who certainly knows his way around Tchaikovsky’s colorful, melodic and rhythmic music) make the earlier symphonic trio—particularly, the second, Little Russian, and the third, Polish—come off superbly.

It was considered a bomb in the summer of 1982, and if the ensuing decades haven’t been kind to John Huston’s adaptation of the beloved Broadway hit, it’s a sturdy, glossy example of the kind of musical they don’t make any more.

Albert Finney and Carol Burnett are not up to their usual shining excellence (Burnett hams unfunnily, Finney tries too hard to be a musical comedy charmer, which he isn’t), 11-year-old Aileen Quinn is a decent Annie and there’s good support by Ann Reinking, Bernadette Peters and Geoffrey Holder. The Blu-ray image isn’t bad; extras include Quinn’s reminiscence.

One of Disney’s classics receives an overdue Blu-ray upgrade. This 75-minute gem from 1950 looks splendid, as its hand-drawn animation has it all over the antiseptic computer-generated visuals that have been de rigeur for the past couple decades.

The gloriously simple visuals are enhanced by hi-def, and if the extras leave something to be desired—featurettes, alternate opening, unneeded new short, Tangled Ever After—it’s the original film that counts.

Dark Shadows
(Warners)

Tim Burton’s hokey, jokey reboot of the TV series has a color-coded schema that has bled most colors out except black and white, with blood red a striking if obvious contrast. The intentional early 70s cheesiness—Love Story,the Carpenters, Alice Cooper playing himself in concert—is one thing; the lame story and characters are another.

Michelle Pfeiffer and Johnny Depp come off best; Eva Green, Jonny Lee Miller, Helena Bonham Carter and talented young Chloe Grace Moritz are wasted. Subtle color changes look terrific on Blu-ray; extras are featurettes and deleted scenes.

Gary Moore—Blues for Jimi
(Eagle Vision)

Guitarist Gary Moore—best known for his work in Thin Lizzy, he died prematurely, aged 58, last year—played a scorching 2007 Jimi Hendrix tribute show in London.

Moore and a blistering rhythm section tear through a dozen classic Hendrix tunes, from the opening “Purple Haze” to the encore “Voodoo Child (Slight Return),” which features Jimi’s bandmates Mitch Mitchell on drums and Billy Cox on bass. The hi-def image is clear, the surround sound audio is exemplary.

Headshot
(Kino Lorber)

Thai director Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s stylish thriller doesn’t make much sense, but his unorthodox camerawork complements this slow-moving drama of a cop whose world literally turns upside down after being seriously wounded.

For those viewers who favor pulchritude, one of the most glamorous actresses I’ve ever seen, Chanokporn Sayoungkul, shows off her ample histrionic talents. The hi-def transfer is stunning; there’s an English language dub.

Hoffa
(Fox)

In this engrossing if by-the-numbers biopic about the most famous Teamster whose body has never been found, Jack Nicholson gives a rare performance in which he keeps his “Jack” charm in check.

The prosthetic nose helps, but Nicholson plays Hoffa as a real man, not a “character,” and the film—whose epic scale is handled well by director Danny DeVito, who also decently enacts Hoffa’s right-hand man—is all the better for it, despite a draggy 140-minute running time. There’s a good hi-def transfer; extras include DeVito’s commentary, interviews, deleted scenes and DeVito’s 2011 Teamsters convention speech.

Nikita—Complete 2^nd Season
(Warners)

In the wild world of covert operations, the realities of the post-9/11 decade has definitively surpassed fiction. So the 23 episodes in the second season of this action-packed drama smartly balance the kinetic and personal as Nikita and cohorts aim their guns at the company they once worked for.

The dark, shadowy visuals have been faithfully transferred to Blu-ray; extras include interviews, featurettes, deleted scenes, audio commentary and gag reel.

People Like Us
(Dreamworks/Disney)

Based on a true story, this manipulative but disarming movie stars Chris Pine as a self-centered jerk whose life changes forever when his estranged dad dies—he returns home to deal with broken relationships with his mom and girlfriend, and discovers he has a half-sister with an 11-year-old son.

As the movie marches to a predictably happy conclusion, the actors led by Pine, Michelle Pfeiffer (mom) and Elizabeth Banks, fantastic as his half-sister keep things percolating despite a morass of clichés. The Blu-ray image is quite good; extras include deleted scenes, gag reel, audio commentary and making-of featurette.

Portlandia—Complete Season 2
(Video Serv)

Here’s more indie-film spoofing in this series of skits by Saturday Night Live’s Fred Armisten and Carrie Brownstein, neither as funny or pointed as they think. It’s a relief they are enamored of skits, because—like SNL—if one doesn’t work, it ends soon and another begins. It’s too bad, because they take on subjects ripe for parody, like self-absorbed hipsters.

The guest star quotient is less interesting than the previous season: the likes of Kristen Wiig and Eddie Vedder don’t cut it. The hi-def image is solid; extras include featurettes, commentaries and director’s cuts of episodes.

The Samaritan
(IFC)

Samuel Jackson is a man released from prison after a 25-year sentence who slowly drifts back into the grifting life in this taut if too familiar action flick.

Spiced up by formidable acting by Jackson, Tom Wilkinson as a chilling head gangster and Ruth Negga as the gal helping Jackson escape his former life, David Weaver’s movie is recommendable, even if it’s ultimately the same wine in new bottles. The hi-def image is excellent.

DVDs of the Week

Plymptoons engagingly profiles unorthodox animator Bill Plympton—whose bizarre visuals came to prominence on MTV—with many interviews and examples of his often strange and surreal work.

Beatles, director Seth Swirsky’s pet project, includes interviews with celebrities about their brush with greatness—meeting one or more of the Beatles. Aside from the usual suspects (producer George Martin and engineer George Smith), fond memories from the likes of Henry Winkler, Susanna Hoffs, Ben Kingsley and Art Garfunkel are included. Plymptoons extras are deleted scenes and featurettes; Beatles extras are additional interviews.

If you believe that all-American girl Rachel Bilson can plausibly play a doctor who begins a practice in the deep south after a Manhattan falling out, then this show—which skirts caricature—is for you.

Throughout the 22 episodes, Bilson contends with Southern stereotypes of the laziest sort; she’s adorable as always; Jobeth Williams and Nancy Travis and Tim Matheson and Jaime King compensate. Extras include gag reel, deleted scenes and interviews with cats and creators.

How I Met Your Mother—Complete Season 7
(Fox)

Neil Patrick Harris, Jason Segal, Allyson Hannigan, Cobie Smulders and Josh Radnor are a well-oiled comedy machine, and the seventh season’s 24 episodes show that, even with subpar material, they come up aces in the laughs department.

Hilarious cameos by Katie Holmes as the slutty pumpkin and Chris Elliott as Allyson’s father help. Extras include commentaries, deleted scenes, featurettes and a gag reel.

My Trip to Al Qaeda
(Docurama)

Based on The Looming Tower,a readable Middle East volume, author Lawrence Wright first made a compelling one-man theater experience out of his exploration of the historical and cultural roots of Al Qaeda, then teamed with director Alex Gibney for an immersive cinematic experience.

For anyone with an open mind, Wright explains our own complicity in the rise of fundamentalist terrorism, but only points fingers at those killing in the name of jihad.

Pink Ribbons, Inc.

Pinkis an eye-opening expose about how the ubiquitous pink ribbon—for decades a symbol of fighting against breast cancer—has become a way for unscrupulous corporations and others to make money off the deadly disease.

Surviving is an eye-opening expose about our planet’s ability—and possible inability—to sustain life for billions of people. Both documentaries are, despite their explosive content, even-handed and sober explorations. Extras include interviews.

Tight
(Wild Eye)

While too long—30 minutes could be shaved—this amusing mockumentary chronicles the bumpy formation of an all-female rock band comprising four porn performers.

The music is negligible, but personality clashes provide priceless entertainment, and Bree Olson, the band’s porn star manager—and infamous paramour of Charlie Sheen—is a true on-camera star, and makes up for a loathsome cousin who becomes Tight’s assistant manager. Extras include videos, concert footage, and deleted scenes.

Vexed
(Acorn)

This giggly crime drama about mismatched detectives—she unhappily married, he unhappily single—almost sabotages itself at the start as the pair haggle about a splendid apartment, now vacant because its occupant lies dead in a pool of blood.

Although Lucy Punch and Toby Stephens have good back-and-forth chemistry, the show is otherwise routine, and efforts at clowning are more in bad taste than punchy black comedy. The first series comprises three episodes; Punch left after it finished, so Stephens gets another partner for the next season.

The Woman in the Fifth
(Flatiron)

Pawel Pawlikowski’s low-key romantic drama makes fine use of atmospheric Parisian locations as an American loner (Ethan Hawke), who has trouble with his ex-wife, new landlord and police, has an affair with a mysterious woman that threatens to destroy his entire world.

Hawke is fine in a bilingual role and Scott Thomas is always superb, but the movie—a mere 85 minutes—is less fully-realized than a barebones outline. The lone extra is a making-of featurette.

CD of the Week

Pianist Andras Schiff—who, like all musicians, returns to the music of J.S. Bach to cleanse his artistic palette—makes the most of his second stab at recording Bach’s seminal The Well-Tempered Clavier.

The two books of keyboard pieces, even more so than The Art of the Fugue and The Goldberg Variations, are a veritable encyclopedia of Bach’s easy mastery of different styles. Schiff plays with authority, and his balance of majestic sweep and intimate feel brings out these immortal works’ innate musicality.