This Week on Blu-ray and DVD - February 14, 2012

This New Release Tuesday is Valentine's Day, but it's not exactly a romantic week for home video.

James

Plath

First online:

Sunday, February 12, 2012 - 06:55

This New Release Tuesday is Valentine’s Day, but it’s not exactly a romantic week for home video. I’m guessing “Nude Nuns with Big Guns” isn’t going to fly (the title says it all), and while “Paranormal Activity 3” might prompt some first dates to huddle up, that sort of physical contact is usually limited to death grips.

If you’re looking for something brand new to pop in while the lights go dim, your choices are slim: a drunken Johnny Depp, a Michael Shannon/Jessica Chastain drama-thriller, outlaw samurai, a Sherwood Forest outlaw, a Brazilian crime drama, a WWI drama, or a period drama that might strike up some uncomfortable gender conversations. Yeah. Maybe you’d better stick with candy and flowers.

Then again, if you’re a Hunter S. Thompson fan or a Johnny Depp lover, you might be looking forward to “The Rum Diary,” which comes out this week on Blu-ray and DVD (review). Depp stars as the (anti-) hero of a Thompson novel set in Puerto Rico, with Gioivanni Ribisi as his sidekick and Aaron Eckhart as the villain—which, in cinema today, means an unprincipled, underhanded real estate developer.

There’s also the psychological thriller “Take Shelter,” featuring Michael Shannon as a father who wonders whether he’s having visions that will help his family survive a coming storm, or if he’s the storm (trailer). It too comes out on Blu-ray and DVD, and I’m guessing by comparison you’d start to look pretty darned good to your significant other.

Also tempestuous is “Three Outlaw Samurai,” which, according to Movie Met's Christopher Long, “depicts the supposedly rigidly structured society of feudal Japan as a house of cards built on a pit of quicksand in the middle of a swamp sloshing on top of a fault line.” I think the short version of that is “Shit happens,” especially in an action-drama involving samurai.

There’s action too in “Robin of Sherwood,” a 1984 TV series starring Peter Llewellyn Williams, Ray Winstone, and Clive Mantle. This one was aimed at a young audience, but who doesn’t want to feel young on February 14? This one has quite a fan base who’ve been waiting for Set 2 to come out on Blu-ray and DVD (fan clip).

One of this week’s best bets might actually be a Brazilian crime drama. Set in the ‘90s, “Elite Squad“ follows a police captain who takes any means necessary to ensure that Rio is clean enough for the Pope to visit. Sounds like Dirty Julio. "Elite Squad: The Enemy Within," the sequel to this 2007 R-rated film, comes out on Blu-ray (Portuguese only) and DVD (English) this week (trailer).

Another best bet is the 1930 film adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s WWI saga, “All Quiet on the Western Front,” which won a pair of Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director (Lewis Milestone). It’s out this week on a special Collector’s Series Digibook, with DVD and Digital Copy included (battle clip).

And if you're into period dramas, there's "Mozart's Sister," a slow-moving but authentic-feeling drama about the early life of the Mozart family, who traveled like troubadors to entertain crown heads and nobles with their prodigy children—one, who's still famous, and the other, until this movie, forgotten. It's out on Blu-ray and DVD this week, but the theme is such that it might spark a few uncomfortable moments about gender and society. And, come to think of it, romance falls by the wayside.

Well, there’s always Video on Demand.

Here are select new releases for the week of February 14, 2012:

BLU-RAY
All Quiet on the Western Front (Collector’s Series Digibook + DVD + Digital Copy)
All Things Fall Apart (2011 sport drama)
Beavis & Butthead: Vol. 4
Boeing Boeing (1965 Jerry Lewis comedy)
Dead, The (2010 horror)
Doctor Who: The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe
Elite Squad (2007 crime thriller)
Frontline: The Interrupters
Geisha Boy, The (1958 Jerry Lewis comedy)
.hack//Quantum: Complete OVA Series (+ DVD) (anime)
Lorax, The (+ DVD + UV Digital Copy) (1972 animated)
Mozart’s Sister (2010 period drama)
Nude Nuns with Big Guns (2010 action-thriller)
Ocean Heaven (2010 drama)
Perfect Weapon, The (1991 action-drama)
Robin of Sherwood: Set 2
Rock-a-Bye Baby (1958 Jerry Lewis comedy)
Rum Diary, The (2011 dramedy)
Take Shelter (2011 drama-thriller)
Three Outlaw Samurai (Criterion) (1964 action-drama)
Tiny Furniture (Criterion) (2010 comedy)
Urbanized (2011 documentary)

RECENT RELEASES
Paranormal Activity 3 (2011 horror)
Rum Diary, The (2011 dramedy)
Take Shelter (2011 drama-thriller)

CATALOG TITLES
Boeing Boeing (1965 Jerry Lewis comedy)
Dead, The (2010 horror)
Geisha Boy, The (1958 Jerry Lewis comedy)
Man in the Iron Mask, The (1939 adventure)
Rock-a-Bye Baby (1958 Jerry Lewis comedy)

FAMILY/CHILDREN
Adventures of Chuck and Friends, The: Friends to the Finish
Chuggington: Brewster’s Little Helper
Dinosaur Train: Eggstravaganza
Dora the Explorer: Dora’s Easter Adventure
Dreamworks Dragons: Gift of the Night Fury
Kung Fu Dino Posse: Meet the Posse
Little Angels: ABCs
Little Angels: Animals
Little Angels: 123s
Lorax, The (Deluxe Edition) (1972 animated)
Mighty Machines: Smash, Mash and Crash

TV-ON-DVD
Battlefield Detectives (History Channel)
Beavis & Butthead: Vol. 4
David Susskind Show, The: How to Be a Jewish Son
Doctor Who: Ep. 07 – The Sensorites
Doctor Who: The Caves of Androzani
Doctor Who: The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe
Dragon Age: Redemption
Family Matters: Season 2
Frontline: The Interrupters
Jem and the Holograms: Season 2
Murder, She Wrote: 4 Movie Collection
Overland Trail: Complete Series
Penguins of Madagascar, The: Operation Get Ducky
Storage Wars: Vol. 2
They Came from Outer Space: Complete Series
Wainy Days: Seasons 1-4

INDIE/ART-HOUSE/FOREIGN
All Things Fall Apart (2011 sport drama)
American Teacher (2011 advocacy documentary)
Celebrity (1998 comedy-drama)
Devil’s Rock, The (2011 WWII action-drama-fantasy)
Elite Squad: The Enemy Within (2010 crime drama)
How to Die in Oregon (2011 documentary)
Human Centipede II: Full Sequence
Mozart’s Sister (2010 period drama)
Night We Never Met, The (1993 romantic comedy)
Nude Nuns with Big Guns (2010 action-thriller)
Perfect Weapon, The (1991 action)
Pianomania (2009 documentary)
Sword of Desperation (2010 action)
Three Outlaw Samurai (Criterion) (1964 action-drama)
Tiny Furniture (Criterion) (2010 comedy)
Town Like Alice, A (1956 WWII drama)
Under the Boardwalk: The Monopoly Story (2010 documentary)
Urbanized (2011 documentary)
Woody Allen: A Documentary