Top Five (Paramount, Blu-ray, DVD, VOD) is Chris Rock’s third film as a writer / director and his most personal. He plays a comedian named Andre Allen, once branded “the funniest man alive” for his electric stand-up act, who made a fortune in lowbrow comedies, bottomed out in alcohol, and wants to remake himself as a serious actor in his sobriety, which is hard to do when his upcoming marriage is little more than a reality TV stunt as far as his fiancée (Gabrielle Union) is concerned. It all plays out in an eventful 24 hours in NYC as a reporter (Rosario Dawson) tags along his errands and interviews on the opening day of his new film, a stiff of a well-meaning historical drama called “Uprize!,” and the day before his wedding, an affair more stage-managed than planned.
It’s very funny—Rock channels the uncensored language and subject matter of his stand-up act, which lands the film in decidedly R-rated territory—with a serious undercurrent. He’s a recovering alcoholic who’s afraid he’s no longer funny sober, with a career on life support and a marriage he now seems to dread. Dawson, one of the most underappreciated actresses around, matches Rock with confidence and intelligence as the journalist who pushes the comedian to be honest with her—and ultimately with himself.
It’s got an episodic structure, dotted with flashbacks (Cedric the Entertainer takes a starring role in “the lowest moment of his life”) and meetings with old friends (among them Sherri Shepherd, Jay Pharoah, Leslie Jones, and Tracy Morgan) and comedy colleagues. Rock lets these moments reveal different dimensions of the man behind the persona, while generously letting them show off their chops. It’s a familiar structure that Rock juggles well and fills with sharp, smart, and often hilarious take on the mid-life crisis of an artist caught between public expectations, private ambitions and anxieties, and professional compromises and commitments. There’s a complex understanding of the business of entertainment and celebrity behind the comedy, and a smart character portrait behind the performance.
On DVD and Blu-ray, but only the Blu-ray comes with extras: commentary by Rock and co-star J.B. Smoove, the featurettes “It’s Never Just a Movie: Chris Rock and Top Five” and “The Making of Top Five,” the “Top Five” stand-up outtakes and “Moments You Didn’t See in the Film,” plus deleted scenes and bonus DVD and Ultraviolet Digital HD copies of the film.
Also on Cable On Demand and VOD from Amazon Instant, Vudu, and Xbox.
Vice & Virtue (Kino Classics, Blu-ray, DVD) is the titillating title that Roger Vadim gave to his 1963 take on two Marquis de Sade stories, “Justine” and “Juliette,” which he reframed as a morality play set in Nazi-occupied France. Annie Girardot and Catherine Deneuve star as sisters representing diametrically opposed responses to the occupation. Girardot’s Juliette, aka “le vice,” turns collaborator and becomes the willing mistress to a ruthless and equally opportunistic SS colonel (Robert Hossein), while the idealistic young Justine, aka “le vertu,” defies the Nazis and is sent to “The Commandery,” the brothel clubhouse of a particularly sadistic brotherhood of officers in a country castle. Vadim revels in decadence and suggestions of sadism and sexual enslavement, attempting a kind of arthouse version of sexploitation by way of high melodrama and gothic horror, but it’s a weird confusion of bland elegance and tastelessness, a perverse fairy tale of innocence under assault and corruption punished in the end. It was the first major role for Deneuve but her part is small next to the power games and sensual distractions of her high-living sister and her calculating lover. They’re a natural couple with no allegiance to anything but their own power and pleasure.
Vadim made his debut just before the French nouvelle vague broke through, creating a sensation with … And God Created Woman and its voluptuous sex kitten star Brigitte Bardot in 1956. Where the rest of France’s ambitious young filmmakers were experimenting and exploring, trying to find fresh and authentic ways to express themselves and examine the world around them, Vadim was a self-promoter with an eye on the box-office and a canny understanding of how sex sells. He presented himself as both sexual rebel and polished studio man, making films with a flamboyant style and an erotic flair, even if it was all in the licentious suggestion of debauchery. Vice and Virtue comes off as particularly calculated—the spectacle of innocent beauties degraded at the hands of Nazi officers anticipate the grotesque Nazi-sploitation films of the seventies—and cynical, set against elegant locations and directed with self-consciously theatrical flair. His lighting effects, where the screen goes dark but for a spotlight on a single character, is contrived at best and ultimately distracting. But finally, there is no investment in a moral, merely a pageant of depravity mostly hinted it with the hope that the audience will fill in the rest.
The widescreen black and white film is nicely mastered and looks quite nice. French with English subtitles, no supplements beyond a trailer.
Mark of the Devil (Arrow / MVD, Blu-ray, DVD), a sadistic tale of a corrupt inquisitor and his reign of terror in the name of the church in 1770 Austria, is not for all tastes, and certainly not for all stomachs. The commanding Herbert Lom stars as the Inquisitor and a handsome young Udo Kier takes a rare romantic lead as a young Baron who rescues an innocent peasant girl from the clutches of a local witch-hunter (the villainous-looking Reggie Nalder), only to run afoul of Lom’s unholy warrior. An early entry in the “sex and sadism” genre, this is an exploitation film with an intelligence behind it, but an exploitation film nonetheless: director Michael Armstrong (with an uncredited Adrian Hoven, who also produced and co-scripted) revels in the most barbarous tortures as the impotent Inquisitor punishes innocent young maidens for his own unclean desires. It’s not as interesting or powerful as Michael Reeves’ similarly themed The Witchfinder General but Mark makes its own unique mark with Lom’s strong central performance as the power mad inquisitor and solid support from Nalder and Kier. The cynical ending that deliver a dramatic punch along with the grisly nastiness. Barf bags were handed out to audiences on its initial release.
This is the first American release by Arrow, a British label that earned a reputation as the “Criterion of Cult” for its high-quality restorations and supplements, and this is a superb disc. It’s been on DVD before, most notably in a fine edition from Blue Underground, but this is remastered in HD from original film elements and features with both English and German soundtracks (it was a co-production shot in Austria). It is sharp and vivid and preserves the filmic texture and it looks superb, a marked upgrade from the previous SD release and the definitive release of the film. (Note that the grit you see in the opening credits is on the negative, thanks to sloppy optical work by the company that added the credits.) It’s the first time it’s been presented in its complete, uncut form in Britain, where the censorship of horror films is notorious, and that same edition is released stateside as well.
It features brand new commentary recorded for this release by director Michael Armstrong with moderator Calum Waddell and the new feature-length documentary “Mark of the Times,” about the “new wave” of British horror in the 1960s and 1970s (with interviews with director Michael Armstrong among others), plus the featurettes “Hallmark of the Devil” (about the American distributor of the film) and “Mark of the Devil: Now and Then” (a look at the shooting locations) and interviews with actors Udo Kier, Herbert Fux, Gaby Fuchs, Ingeborg Schöner and Herbert Lom (carried over from the earlier Blue Underground DVD) and composer Michael Holm. Exclusive to the Blu-ray is a collection of outtakes, the trailer, and an accompanying booklet.
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Shout! Factory, Blu-ray), Werner Herzog’s breakthrough film, is an astounding vision of imperialism run amuck in the primitive, savage Eden of 15th century Peru. It’s also Herzog’s first collaboration with madman and meglomaniac star Klaus Kinski, who stars as a mad Spanish conquistador searching for the mythical city of gold El Dorado. The imagery is astonishing: jungles layered in mist and fog, broken by a glittering train of armored soldiers with their slaves, their guns, and thrones carrying improbably dressed and coiffed noble women. His vision comes alive in Kinski’s feral, furious evocation of a lunatic soldier overcome with delusions of Godhood. The film’s final scene, with the raving Aguirre reigning over a kingdom of spider monkeys adrift on a raft, is one of the greatest images of man adrift in madness ever put to film.
It was first released on Blu-ray in Shout! Factory’s massive Herzog box set last year. This is the first time it’s been available as a single and it features two commentary tracks: one in English by Herzog, the other in German by Herzog with film critic Lauren Straub (presented with English subtitles), plus a still gallery and the trailer.
Also new and notable: 
The sun will come today when Annie (Sony, Blu-ray, DVD, VOD) drops on disc, digital, and Cable On Demand. Quvenzhané Wallis, the plucky, Oscar-nominated tyke from “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” takes on the sunny singing orphan opposite Jamie Foxx, Rose Byrne, and Cameron Diaz as the scheming Miss Hannigan. Also on Cable On Demand and VOD from Amazon Instant, Vudu, and Xbox.
The Oscar nominated Song of the Sea (Sony, Blu-ray, DVD, VOD) is an Irish fairy tale about a human girl who transforms into a seal in the water (the mythical selkie) drawn in storybook images by director Tomm Moore (whose debut feature, The Secret of Kells, also received an Oscar nomination). Also on Cable On Demand and VOD from iTunes, Amazon Instant, and Vudu.
Ridley Scott takes on the biblical epic in Exodus: Gods and Kings (Fox, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD), with Christian Bale as Moses and Penguins of Madagascar (Fox, Blu-ray, DVD) spins off the flightless birds of the Madagascar films into their own feature.
Ride the Pink Horse (Criterion, Blu-ray, DVD), Robert Montgomery’s offbeat 1948 crime picture about a New York thug looking for revenge in a dusty New Mexico border town, marks the disc debut of the great southwestern film noir. Look for a review later this month.
Turn: Washington’s Spies – The Complete First Season (Anchor Bay, Blu-ray, DVD) and Maude: The Complete Series (Shout! Factory, DVD), which debut today, will be reviewed later this week.
Doctor Who: Last Christmas (BBC, Blu-ray, DVD), the 2014 Doctor Who Christmas special with guest star Nick Frost as Santa Claus, is reviewed here.
Digital / VOD / Streaming exclusives:
Emmanuelle Devos and Mathieu Amalric star in the French comedy If You Don’t, I Will, which debuts on Cable VOD before it comes to DVD.
On Friday, March 20, the action film Tracers with Taylor Lautner and the comic horror Zombeavers (Freestyle, VOD) arrive on Cable VOD, same day as theaters.
Available to purchase as a digital download in advance of disc release:
Interstellar (Paramount, Digital HD)
The Imitation Game (Anchor Bay, Digital HD)
Wild (Fox, Digital HD)
Classics and Cult:
Hester Street (Scorpion / Kino Lorber, Blu-ray, DVD)
My Girl (Sony, Blu-ray)
Troop Beverly Hills (Sony, Blu-ray)
Victory at Sea (feature film version) (Film Chest, DVD)
TV on disc:
Mondovino: The Series (Icarus, DVD)
Ghost Whisperer: The Complete Series (Paramount, DVD)
WKRP in Cincinnati: Season One (Shout! Factory, DVD)
WKRP in Cincinnati: Season Two (Shout! Factory, DVD)
Star Trek: Captain Kirk’s Boldest Missions (Paramount, DVD)
Dexter: Most Shocking Episodes (Paramount, DVD)
Revelation: End of Days (Lionsgate, DVD)
Nova: Big Bang Machine (PBS, DVD)
American Experience: The Forgotten Plague (PBS, DVD)
Ben Franklin’s Bones (PBS, DVD)
More releases:
Son of a Gun (Lionsgate, Blu-ray, DVD)
Vice (Lionsgate, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD)
Muck (Anchor Bay, Blu-ray, DVD)
Disorder (Icarus, DVD)
The Way He Looks (Strand, Blu-ray, DVD)
Wolfy, The Incredible Secret (Cinedigm, DVD, Digital HD)
Halo: Nightfall (Microsoft, Blu-ray, DVD, VOD)
The Divine Move (CJ, Blu-ray, DVD)
Something Wicked (ARC, DVD)
Calendar of upcoming releases on Blu-ray, DVD, Digital, and VOD