Based on a manga and subsequent anime series, the Japanese live-action "Gantz" (New People) is gonzo sci-fi fantasy that combines video-game aesthetics, gladiator games and classic Japanese monsters with a metaphysical mystery. Two old friends face certain death on the tracks of an oncoming subway and wake up alive, prisoners of a black orb that hands them weapons and exoskeleton combat suits and sets hunting for alien invaders in Tokyo.

 

It's less science fiction than weird fantasy and more than a little frustrating. These conscripted soldiers are oddly unconcerned with the mystery of their second life and nightly calls to arms and the personal journey of Kurono (Kazunari Ninomiya, who you may recognize as the young baker turned boyish soldier Saigo in "Letter From Iwo Jima") from numb college kid to arrogant self-described hero to disciplined leader is elementary at best. And far too many of the battles are simply sloppy in their conception and execution, even if the special effects are wonderfully offbeat.

 

What this film has to offer is a weird textural authenticity in a surreal situation far different from American FX "realism." Battling a giant statue is different enough, but its herky-jerky movements and lightning-whip reflexes give the behemoth a strange grounding even as the alien guns blast it to liquid cement. The film ends with a "To Be Continued" and at the end of the credits is a trailer for "Gantz: Perfect Answer," a title that suggests some exposition to the situation is in the offing. Stay tuned…

 

Features original Japanese and English dub soundtracks with optional subtitles and a separate subtitle track for translating signs and written words. Available on two-disc DVD and three-disc Blu-ray+DVD Combo Pack, each with a bonus DVD featuring a half-hour interview with director Shinsuke Sato and a collection of trailers.

Click through to see a trailer for the film (fan subtitled) I found on YouTube:

 

"Wonders of the Universe" (BBC) is the latest in a run of superb BBC natural history documentaries, this one focusing on the basic forces and laws of the universe and how they shaped the cosmos and the Earth. Each episode tackles one of the four basic forces of the universe -- the nature of time, the laws of matter chemistry, the force of gravity and the properties of light -- with a sense of wonder and scientific curiosity driven by Brian Cox, the series presenter.

 

Comparisons to "Cosmos" are inevitable and this four-part series measures up. Cox, a celebrated physicist, puts science in perspective by presenting laws and theories in terms laymen can understand, and without speaking down to audiences he simplifies complex ideas with practical examples. And there is something of the showman about Cox, though not in terms one might expect. Where the celebrated natural history shows like "Earth" and "Life" use state of the art photography to capture breathtaking images, "Wonders" is staged almost like a piece of dramatic fiction, with Cox wandering the deserts and mountains like an explorer on the frontier, sketching out formulas on the walls of abandoned, almost timeless buildings. The entire presentation rings with a constant reminder of the passage of time, the laws of entropy and the cycle of rebirth and renewal. The series is an American co-production that ran stateside on the cable channel Science.

 

Four episodes, running nearly four hours, on two discs on DVD and one disc on Blu-ray.

 

Susanne Bier's "In a Better World" (Sony), a drama from Denmark that straddles refugee camps in Sudan and a small Danish town, follows the struggles of two families brought together by two troubled, bullied boys who befriend one another and team up to exact some kind of justice.

 

The film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and MSN film critic James Rocchi maintains that it is "a film well worth seeing even without an Oscar up on the mantel. It's a well-directed, gorgeous, sensitively acted film about some essential human questions: How can we be good? And why should we be?"

Mikael Persbrandt stars as the pacifist father of one boy, who faces his own moral dilemma while on a mission in Africa, and Ulrich Thomsen is the grieving, newly-widowed father of the other, but Rocchi says the film is mostly about "kids trying to make sense of the morals and messages of the adult world, and realizing, in moments of horror that are necessary to growing up, that grown-ups have problems with the morals and messages of the adult world, too."

 

In Danish with English subtitles. Sony releases the film in a single edition, a Blu-ray+DVD combo pack (an increasingly common solution for foreign releases with limited but passionate interest), featuring commentary by director Susanne Bier and editor Pernille Bech Christensen, a bonus interview with Bier and deleted scenes.

 

The satirical Romanian cop drama "Police, Adjective" (Zeitgeist), from director Corneliu Porumboiu ("12:08 East of Bucharest"), is a dryly funny satire of the absurdity of bureaucratic literalism triumphing over human justice. The plot ostensibly revolves around a young cop shadowing a group of kids who smoke dope after school to track the source and the director follows him following them, and then putting together his reports, with a scrupulous attention to mundane detail that takes on a life of its own. Village Voice film critic J. Hoberman describes the film as "a philosophical crime film that, as the investigation of an investigation, substitutes irony for suspense." He continues: "

With its series of apparently absurd routines, shot (Romanian-style) in long takes and real-time, Police, Adjective has something of the deadpan theatricality of early Jim Jarmusch—not only in its framing, but its dialogue: Words are carefully parsed; every conversation has its own logic." Romanian with English subtitles. The disc comes with an accompanying booklet featuring an interview with the director

The release is a collaboration between KimStim and Zeitgeist, as is "Cell 211" (Zeitgeist), a smart, visceral and volatile thriller from Spain about a young guard trapped in the midst of a prison riot, which is reviewed on Videodrone here.

 

"Norwegian Ninja" (Dark Sky) turns a real-life political scandal into a Cold War spy fantasy with Ninja action. Thomas Cappellen Malling writes and directs. The DVD includes featurettes, deleted and bonus scenes and a music video among the supplements.

See a clip on The Hitlist here.

 

Til Schweiger stars in the German drama "Phantom Pain" (eOne) as a passionate cyclist and urban slacker who loses a leg in an accident and sinks into self-pity until falls in love. In German with English subtitles, plus interviews and behind-the-scenes footage. "Me Too (Yo, también)" (Olive), an award-winning, feel-good drama from Spain, charts the unlikely romance between a college graduate with Down’s syndrome and a neurotic but "normal" co-worker. In Spanish with English subtitles.

 

And check out the foreign classics in the "Cool, Classic and Cult" section this week as well.

 

"Prom" (Disney) offers the world of high school romance and the magic of prom night as a cute, colorful, altogether PG experience. It may not transcend the clichés, but it delivers them all with just enough mushy fun to make it, if not quite timeless, at least familiar to every generation. Videodrone's review is here.

You can continue the journey from youth to adulthood in the indie drama "Skateland" (Fox), starring Shiloh Fernandez as the manager of a roller rink on a small Texas town and Ashley Greene as a young woman trying to nudge him out of his rut of complacency as she prepares to leave for college. Los Angeles Times film critic Kevin Thomas writes that the film "covers familiar territory — the first summer out of high school, which for some teens is a time wracked with uncertainty and confusion " but "still manages to offer a particularly affecting, well-observed portrait of young people coming of age in an east Texas town in the 1980s." On DVD and Blu-ray, with no supplements beyond deleted scenes.

"True Adolescents" (Flatiron) stars Mark Duplass as a 34-year-old Seattle slacker who moves in with his aunt (Melissa Leo) and volunteers to take two adolescent boys on a camping trip in the Cascade Mountains. New York Times film critic Stephen Holden writes that the film, "like most indie movies related to the mumblecore school, is a delicate piece of machinery. Its truth lies in the tiniest details: the pauses, the stricken looks, the false bravado, the pathetically redundant slang (so many "dudes")."  On DVD only, with two commentary tracks (one by writer/director Craig Johnson, producer Thomas Woodrow and co-producer/editor Jennifer Lee, the other by actor Mark Duplass), deleted scenes with optional commentary and a behind-the-scenes featurette.

Mark Ruffalo directs and stars in "Sympathy for Delicious" (Maya), from a script by star Christopher Thornton, based on his real-life experiences as a paraplegic in the world of faith healing. Village Voice critic Michelle Orange complains that "a script that favors incident over story and direction that crowds scenes instead of letting them breathe make for curiously rough going." Juliette Lewis, Laura Linney and Orlando Bloom co-star. On DVD and Blu-ray, with director commentary, a featurette and deleted scenes.

Susanne Bier's "In a Better World" (Sony), a drama from Denmark about two Danish families brought together by two troubled boys, won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Two other imports also stand out these week: "Cell 211" (Zeitgeist), a volatile thriller from Spain about a young guard trapped in the midst of a prison riot (reviewed on Videodrone here), and "Police, Adjective" (Zeitgeist), a dryly funny satire of the absurdity of bureaucratic literalism triumphing over human justice. More in the "Foreign Affairs" wrap up.

 

The Horrors, the horrors

In "Wrecked" (IFC), Adrien Brody wakes up trapped in a crashed car with surrounded by two dead passengers, a pile of cash and a gun, with no memory of who he is or how he got there. David Hyde Pierce is "The Perfect Host" (Magnolia), who turns the tables on an unexpected guest to his meticulously-planned​ dinner party. "Bereavement" (Anchor Bay), starring Michael Biehn and John Savage, is the prequel to the 2005 horror "Malevolence." All three available on DVD and Blu-ray, with a making-of featurette.

 

Documentary

"Forks Over Knives" (Virgil) is "a film that could save your life," in the words of film critic Roger Ebert. A documentary on how the American diet of animal-based protein, dairy products, and processed foods is killing the population, it makes a common sense (and medically proven many times over) argument on how turning to a whole-foods, plant-based diet can do more than give us better figures and stronger bodies, it can reduce disease including cancer. On DVD and Blu-ray, with bonus featurettes, deleted scenes and discussions.

"Freedom" (Green Planet), a film by Josh and Rebecca Tickell, offers solutions to America’s addiction to foreign oil. "If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Liberation Front" (Oscilloscope) chronicles the rise and fall of the ecological activist organization that turned to eco-terrorism in its tactics. "Trimpin: The Sound of Invention" (Microcinema) is a portrait of the artist/inventor/engi​neer/composer who creates sonic sculptures. "The Hermitage: A Journey in Time and Space" (Kultur) is a tour of the great Russian art museum.

 

And the rest:

"The 5th Quarter" (Fox) is a faith-based inspirational sports drama starring Aidan Quinn and Andie MacDowell.

 

For more on DVD this week, visit weekly DVD listings in MSN.

 

"Nikita: The Complete First Season" (Warner) is not the first time that Luc Besson's sleek, shadowy, stylish action thriller has been remade in American terms. It's not even the first TV incarnation. Lanky blonde Australian Peta Wilson played the feral street-girl transformed into a sexy assassin for the covert government black ops force in the made-for-cable series "La Femme Nikita" for five seasons beginning in 1997.

 

This incarnation, however, has the resources of a network budget and a coolly confident action veteran in the lead. Maggie Q, who graduated from Hong Kong action movies to Hollywood productions like "Mission: Impossible III" and "Live Free or Die Hard," plays the sultry agent as an older, angrier vigilante. Though it spins its story out of Besson's hit film "La Femme Nikita," this remake/sequel also draws deeply from "Alias" and "The Pretender," with Nikita free from Division (now a corrupt agency that hires itself out for private assassinations) and waging war on her old employer from the outside while her protégé Alex (Lyndsy Fonseca of "Kick-Ass"), a one-time street kid with a grudge against Division, works with Nikita from the inside.

 

Which is to say that it's the latest network fantasy of covert government spy agencies with science fiction technology and top agents as young and beautiful superstars bouncing between glamorous operations and brutal situations. The show has a lavish look and sleek style for TV, like a mix of "Alias" and James Bond, and fashions to match to dial up the glamour factor. Maggie Q has the grace and the moves to pull off the show's action choreography (Hong Kong action cinema is a great boot camp for screen movement) and the poise to play the driven rogue agent trying to ease a guilty conscience by taking down the organization that turned her into a killer.

 

 

For all its popularity, "House" has a tendency to slip into familiar patterns.

 

So "House: Season Seven" (Universal) changes things up with an honest-to-god love affair between TV's favorite misanthrope medical genius (Hugh Laurie) and Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein), his boss and longtime protector at the hospital. The season opens in the bliss of the first blossoms of their affair and then takes along the rocky road of romance as House attempts to balance a real relationship with his maverick ways at work and his worst instincts in his personal life. The glow of romance takes the edge off his worst tendencies, but House is still House, sniping at everyone who crosses his path and constantly competing at practical jokes with Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard).

 

The rise and fall of their romance plays out over the course of the season, but it's not the only dramatic development. Thirteen (Olivia Wilde) takes a sudden and unexplained (at least until she returns late in the season) leave of absence in the first episode (in reality to give the actress time off for a her blossoming film career) and Cuddy sends House a young medical phenom to join his diagnostic team with episode six (on disc two). Amber Tamblyn is Martha Masters, a brilliant, socially awkward and morally centered medical student, a little geeky (okay, a lot geeky) and very gifted and a new challenge for House, who takes her refusal to lie to a patient as a challenge.

 

 

"Cell 211" (Zeitgeist), a volatile thriller from Spain about a young guard trapped in the midst of a prison riot, is already being looked at by Hollywood for remake potential. Make a point of seeing the superb original, which is visceral and intelligent, with layers of political complexities (both national and internal) and a touchy buddy story at the center.

 

Alberto Ammann stars as the guard who, on tour of the prison before he even begins his job, is trapped behind enemy lines when a well-planned riot led by a dangerous but principled lifer (Luis Tosar) takes control of the main block. The guard has to pose as one of the inmates to survive the ordeal, dangerous enough under normal circumstances but even more nerve-wracking in a situation on the verge of exploding into violence at any turn. After all, a riot is great cover for a murder or two.

 

"Cell 211" is gripping and unsettling and the script makes the most of unexpected (but completely credible) turns in the chaos of the stand-off and the pressure-cooker tension in the cell block, where the violent criminals barely keep it together as the stand-off drags on. A cell of political prisoners only piles more gunpowder on a situation that is one spark away from blowing up. And the guard's dawning realization of the depth of corruption and lies in the system as it turns against him as well only makes it more compelling. His survival becomes tied with the success of the inmates. The film won eight Goya Awards in Spain, including Best Film, Best Director (Daniel Monzon), Best Adapted Screenplay and acting awards for Tosar, Ammann and actress Marta Etura.

 

In Spanish with English subtitles, plus a half-hour Spanish language featurette "The Making of Cell 211."

 

New Releases:

"Prom" (Disney) offers the world of high school romance and the magic of prom night as a cute, colorful, altogether PG experience. It may not transcend the clichés, but it delivers them all with just enough mushy fun to make it, if not quite timeless, at least familiar to every generation. Videodrone's review is here.

You can continue the journey from youth to adulthood in the indie features "Skateland" (Fox), a coming-of-age drama set in a small Texas town in the early 1980s, and "True Adolescents" (Flatiron), about a 34-year-old Seattle slacker (Mark Duplass) who isn't all that more mature than the two adolescent boys he takes on a camping trip.

 

Susanne Bier's "In a Better World" (Sony), a drama from Denmark about two Danish families brought together by two troubled boys, won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Two other imports also stand out these week: "Cell 211" (Zeitgeist) (reviewed here), a volatile thriller from Spain about a young guard trapped in the midst of a prison riot, and "Police, Adjective" (Zeitgeist), a dryly funny satire of the absurdity of bureaucratic literalism triumphing over human justice. More at the "Foreign Affairs" round-up.

Browse the complete New Release Rack here

 

TV on DVD:

"Nikita: The Complete First Season" (Warner) arrives in time to catch up with the sleek super-spy series, starring Maggie Q as the sultry rogue agent at war with the corrupt rogue government agency that turned her into a killer, before the second season begins in late September. There aren't many high-energy, big-budget action thrillers on the small screen anymore and this has sex appeal and style as well as adrenaline and special effects going for it. Videodrone's review is here.

 

Sadly, "Detroit 1-8-7: The Complete First Season" (Lionsgate) did not get picked up for a second season, a terrible shame as the first season of the precinct-style cop show is probably the best of its kind with "NYPD Blue," and the best role Michael Imperioli has had since "The Sopranos." Reviewed on Videodrone here.

 

"Wonders of the Universe" (BBC) is the latest in a run of superb BBC natural history documentaries, this one focusing on the building blocks of the universe and how they shaped the Earth. Comparisons to "Cosmos" are inevitable and this four-part series measures up. Reviewed here.

 

And of course, as the new seasons prepare to launch, the previous seasons continue to role for such shows as "House: Season Seven" (Universal) (reviewed here), "Parenthood: Season Two" (Universal), "Desperate Housewives: The Complete Seventh Season" (Disney), "The Vampire Diaries: The Complete Second Season" (Warner), "90120: The Third Season" (Paramount), "Sons of Anarchy: Season Three" (Fox) and more.

Flip through the TV on DVD Channel Guide here

 

Cool, Classic and Cult:

"The Complete Jean Vigo" (Criterion) presents newly remastered edition of all four films made by the great French director, including his sole feature (the sublime "L’Atalante") and revered extended short (the playfully surreal "Zéro de conduite"), made before he died at the age of 29. On DVD and Blu-ray

 

Based on a manga and subsequent anime series, the Japanese live-action "Gantz" (New People) is gonzo sci-fi fantasy that combines video-game aesthetics, gladiator games and classic Japanese monsters with a metaphysical mystery that, as the final image reminds us, is "To be continued." Videodrone's review is here.

 

"Strike" (Kino),  the landmark debut feature of Soviet master Sergei Eisenstein, arrives on DVD and Blu-ray in a new edition mastered from the recent restoration. Also debuting on DVD is the much more lighthearted Russian silent comedy "The Cigarette Girl of Mosselprom" (Kino).

 

Ingmar Bergman's "Face to Face" (Olive) arrives on DVD in an adequate (but hardly definitive) edition, and Jean Cocteau's "Orpheus" (Criterion) gets a new special edition release.

All of the Cool, Classic and Cult here

 

Blu-ray Debuts:

"The Twilight Zone: Season 5" (Image) presents the complete final season of Rod Serling’s brilliant series of the fantastic, where social politics and barbed human dramas were slipped in behind the façade of fantasy: 36 episodes (including "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," the only episode not produced for the series) plus hours of commentaries, interviews and other supplements.

Lindsey Anderson's "If…" (Criterion) quite fittingly debuts on Blu-ray the same week that "Zero For Conduct," one of the films that inspired the director, also debuts on BD. Also this week: "Top Gun" (Paramount), the film that made Tom Cruise a superstar and boosted U.S. Navy recruitment in 1986, and the Oscar-winning "Good Will Hunting" (Lionsgate).

Peruse all the new Blu-rays here

 

The complete calendar of releases this week is after the jump: