300: Rise of an Empire (Warner, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD, Digital HD, On Demand) is a sequel that is also a companion piece, taking on a sea battle that occurs at the same time as the events of the first 300. Zack Snyder, who directed the original, hands the reigns to Noam Munro but remains on hand as producer and co-writer (adapting the Frank Miller’x graphic novel “Xerxes”), while Sullivan Stapleton and Eva Green take the leads for this charge.
Cinephile’s Jeff Michael Vice (who is dearly missed by us all) wrote a review when it was in the theaters back in March, calling the film a “bloody but pulseless and heartless sequel… rehashing the same themes (honor, loyalty, steadfastness) in a far less-successful manner.”
“They’ve also gone to ridiculous lengths to duplicate the style of the first movie…. And say what you will about Scotsman Gerard Butler, the dubiously “talented” (yet fabulously abdominaled) actor who led the original film’s heroic forces, seen briefly in this film’s flashback sequences. His heroic Leonidas and practically all of the more-interesting characters were killed off in the first film, which leaves us with their blander counterparts.”
The exception is Eva Green, who throws herself into the role of a ferocious warrior with the same brio and zeal she tackles pretty much anything, as if possessed by the spirit of Artemisia, the fighting fury of Persian fleet. She’s a full-blooded figure in a graphic novel of a movie. Lena Headey and Rodrigo Santoro reprise their roles from the original 300.
On Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D and DVD special editions, all with the four-part featurette “Behind the Scenes: The 300 Effect,” the historical featurettes “Real Leaders and Legends” and “Women Warriors,” and the brief “Becoming a Warrior” on the training regimen of the performer, plus an UltraViolet digital copy of the film. The Blu-ray features a bonus DVD and the Blu-ray 3D edition includes standard Blu-ray and DVD copy.
Alexander Sokurov’s Faust (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray, DVD) takes a different approach to Goethe’s tale of the man who sells his soul for knowledge. This Faust (Johannes Zeiler) comes off as much a materialist as a scholar, hustling up funds to keep his experiments going but distracted by his lust for lovely young Margarete (Isolda Dychauk), and Devil is, naturally, the town moneylender, who mutates from man to inhuman creature over the course of the film. As presented by Sokurov, with elaborate long takes and images distorted and stretched and increasingly twisted as the film goes on, it feels as if the Devil has already corrupted this world with a cancer that rots it from the inside out. Faust only speeds the process.
Sokorov shoots this in the old 1.33:1 Academy ratio of pre-widescreen cinema and gives the film a queasily claustrophobic style. Crowds swarm Faust from nowhere, as if his gravitational pull draws them in, and bunch up like a sour slapstick comedy at half speed, with bodies sprawling over one another, grabbing at nothing in particular with a half-hearted desperation. Between the oppressive crush, the distorted image and a soundtrack that seems to drown the atmosphere in an aimless din, it’s downright queasy-making, a diseased world in action. German with English subtitles, no supplements.
Also new and notable: 
Rob the Mob (Millennium, Blu-ray, DVD, VOD, On Demand), about a couple (Michael Pitt and Nina Arianda) that pulls a series of heists of Mafia clubs, is based on a true story and c-stars Ray Romano, Griffin Dunne, and Andy Garcia. With commentary and deleted scenes.
Winter’s Tale (Warner, Blu-ray, DVD, On Demand), a time-traveling romantic fantasy adapted from Mark Helprin’s novel by Akiva Goldsman, received some of the worst reviews of the year. It stars Colin Farrell, Jessica Brown Findlay, Jennifer Connelly, and Russell Crowe. With two featurettes and deleted scenes.
Enemy (Lionsgate, DVD) is one of two doppelganger films to come out in 2014 so far. This one, directed by Denis Villeneuve, stars Jake Gyllenhaal as the man with an identical double.
Blood Ties (Lionsgate, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD), the English language debut of French director Guillaume Canet, stars Clive Owen, Marion Cotillard, Billy Crudup, Mila Kunis and Zoe Saldana.
Anita: Speaking Power to Truth (First Run, DVD) is Oscar-winning filmmaker Freida Mock’s portrait of Anita Hill, the law professor whose testimony in the congressional hearings for the confirmation of Clarence Thomas for Supreme Court Justice brought sexual harassment in the workplace out of the closet and into the open. With a bonus speech by Anita Hill and the Eve Ensler-curated performance piece “Speaking Truth to Power.”
More documentaries: Pandora’s Promise (Alive Mind, DVD) looks at the history and future and nuclear power, Fracknation (Magnet, Blu-ray, DVD) takes on the fracking debate and there are two performing arts profiles: Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me (IFC, DVD) and Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq (Kino Lorber, DVD).
VOD / On Demand exclusives:
They Came Together (Lionsgate, On Demand), the spoof of romantic comedies directed by David Wain (Wet Hot American Summer) and starring Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler, will be available to view at home via Cable on Demand on Friday, June 27, same day it debuts in theaters. Also on Friday, same day as theaters, is the Radio Free Albemuth (Freestyle, On Demand), the adaptation of the Philip K. Dick novel with Jonathan Scarfe, Alanis Morissette and Shea Whigham as Philip.
Arriving in advance of their respective theatrical releases are Joe Swanberg’s comedy Happy Christmas (Magnolia, On Demand) withy Lena Dunham and Anna Kendrick and the coming-of-age drama Very Good Girls (Tribeca, On Demand) with Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen.
The horror film Cabin Fever: Patient Zero (RLJ/Image, VOD) and the 1981 hip hop indie Downtown 81 (Music Box, VOD) are now available digitally.
More releases:
Some Velvet Morning (Cinedigm, DVD)
What Richard Did (Cinedigm, DVD)
Two Lives (IFC, DVD)
The Chef, the Actor and the Scoundrel (Well Go, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital)
Redwood Highway (Monterey, DVD, VOD)
Repentance (Lionsgate, DVD)
Driven: From Wheelchair to Racecar (Cinema Libre, DVD)
Basketball Girlfriend (eOne, DVD)
The Jungle (eOne, DVD)
Wolf Creek 2 (Image, Blu-ray, DVD)
Bumblef**k, USA (Ariztical, DVD)
The Legend of Six Fingers (Bloody Earth, DVD)
TV on disc:
The Bridge: The Complete First Season (US) (Fox, Blu-ray, DVD)
Masters of Sex: Season One (Sony, Blu-ray, DVD)
Witches of East End: The Complete First Season (Fox, DVD)
I Spy: The Complete Series (Timeless, DVD)
The Boondocks: The Complete Series (Sony, DVD)
The Boondocks: The Complete Fourth Season (Sony, DVD)
Jack Taylor: Set 2 (Acorn, DVD)
Comedy Bang! Bang!: The Complete Second Season (IFC, DVD)
Lost Girl: Season Four (eOne, Blu-ray, DVD)
NYPD Blue: Season 6 (Shout Factory, DVD)
Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season Six (Paramount, Blu-ray)
Star Trek: The Next Generation – Chain of Command (Paramount, Blu-ray)
Duck Dynasty: Season 5 (Lionsgate, Blu-ray, DVD)
Spiral: Season Four (MHz, DVD)
Arne Dahl (MHz, DVD)
Unni Lindell: The Cato Isaksen Mysteries – Set 1 (MHz, DVD)
Unni Lindell: The Cato Isaksen Mysteries – Set 2 (MHz, DVD)
American Experience: Freedom Summer (PBS, DVD)
NOVA: Escape from Nazi Alcatraz (PBS, DVD)
Escape from a Nazi Death Camp (PBS, DVD)
Secrets of Underground London (PBS, DVD)
Classics and Cult:
A Hard Day’s Night (Criterion, Blu-Ray+DVD Combo, DVD)
The Black Book (Reign of Terror) (Film Chest, DVD)
Nude for Satan (Kino / Redemption, Blu-ray, DVD)
Screamers (Scorpion, Blu-ray)
Calendar of upcoming releases on Blu-ray, DVD, Digital, and VOD
