VeronicaMarsVeronica Mars (Warner, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD, On Demand) – We used to be friends, a long time ago, Veronica Mars and I.

Okay, that’s not exactly true, I confess, but I watched the show faithfully and was impressed by the display of support when creator Rob Thomas turned to Kickstarter to get starter funds to convince Warner there was an audience for a Veronica Mars movie. And yes, I enjoyed being back with the characters and the great California sunshine version of this corrupt suburb of big city noir.

Veronica (Kristen Bell) returns to Neptune after nearly a decade and a newly-minted law degree, to help out old friend and one-time lover Logan (Jason Dohring), who has been tried and convicted in the media for the murder of his pop star girlfriend. As a murder mystery it’s conventional all down the line. As a movie, it’s the best looking episode ever of the show, a reunion with big screen production values and small screen storytelling values, like a multi-episode arc down to the essential elements with a few subplots jammed in just to get favorite character into the story. And believe me, this is all about revisiting the past while updating to the present, where predictably enough the more things change the more they remain the same.

It’s all about the characters and the setting. Neptune is a fictional bedroom community of Los Angeles dominated by the rich and famous and defined by political and police corruption. It’s a pointed cultural portrait of the insurmountable gap between rich privilege and an impoverished population and it makes Veronica burn. She likes being back in the saddle as an investigator but she’s even more charged up by the injustice of the old town, a place her father (Enrico Colantoni) wanted her to escape more than anything. If Veronica Mars is about anything beyond an entertaining revival of a cult show, it’s about Veronica realizing that the only way she’ll ever get past Neptune is by taking it on directly.

I can’t say if anyone coming in cold would embrace the film, though anyone should be able to follow it easy enough. But this is really for the fans and it delivers on that front. Kristen Bell gets all those pop culture riff-filled narrative asides while making good investigative connections and bad career choices, Jason Dohring is the usual hot-headed rich kid with nice guy instincts and bad boy impulses, all the old buddies are back on the team, and Enrico Colantoni is still TV’s best dad! Look for a couple of fun cameos from Ira Glass and James Franco (as themselves) and Dax Shepard and Justin Long hitting on Veronica at a nightclub.

There’s no commentary on this but there is a generous 56-minute featurette “By the Fans: The Making of Veronica Mars” which indeed features the fans prominently. The “making of” focus, however, is on the Kickstarter campaign and the fan support all down the line, from the launch of the fundraising to the premiere. Rob Thomas, Kristen Bell, Chris Lowell, Ryan Hansen and Jason Dohring are also quite prominent in the documentary. Also includes six goofy behind-the-scenes pieces in the “More On-Set Fun” featurette, deleted scenes and a gag reel.

SonofBatmanSon of Batman (Warner, Blu-ray+DVD Combo, Digital HD) continues the DC Universe tradition of adapting direct-to-disc animated features from stand-out comic book runs, this one from the Grant Morrison-penned four-issue mini-series of the same name. Damian is indeed the son of Batman, the offspring of his affair with Talia al Ghul of the League of Assassins, and he discovers his progeny after the organization is attacked by Deathstroke and Damian targeted for death. So Batman becomes not just a father figure to a young sidekick but in fact a father, trying to teach his arrogant and highly talented ninja assassin of a son a less fatal approach to combat and crimefighting. Jason O’Mara takes his second run at voicing the Caped Crusader, Morena Baccarin is Talia, and Stuart Allan is Damian, with David McCallum doing a superb Alfred, who is not at all impressed by the arrogant young Damian. Author Joe R. Lansdale, who has written a couple of scripts for the old animated Batman, scripts to adaptation.

The DCU Original Animation features have been steadily moving toward more mature material and this one earns its PG-13 rating with some major violence (the blood flowers spray freely in the first scene as bullets and swords cut down the League of Assassins) and an acknowledgement of Batman’s sex life, not to mention a scene with a couple of prostitutes (or “harlots,” in Damian’s words).

This has the usual collection of featurettes providing background on the story and characters (“The Fang and the Demon: The League of Assassins” and “Strange Blood Ties: Damian Wayne,” both featuring original writer Gran Morrison) and the character design, a preview of the upcoming summer DCU Animated Original Batman: Assault on Arkham, and four vintage Batman cartoons with loose connections to the movie (from Batman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, and the Brave and the Bold). Also features bonus DVD and Ultraviolet Digital HD copies of the film.

You can check out the trailer below.

Also new and notable: GenerationWar

Generation War (Music Box, Blu-ray, DVD, VOD) had been called Germany’s Band of Brothers, an epic drama of World War II focusing on the ordeal of five young German men who head out to the Russian front filled with dreams of glory and racial superiority. And it is epic: in three parts and almost five hours long. It played at mini-series on German TV but in theaters stateside. German with English subtitles, two discs on DVD with a panel discussion with the creators and a booklet.

The Art of the Steal (Anchor Bay, DVD, Blu-ray) is a con artist movie with Kurt Russell and Matt Dillon as brothers who reassemble the old team (among them Jay Baruchel and Terence Stamp) for one last con. With commentary and featurettes.

Josh (Against the Grain) (Virgil, DVD) is a drama from Pakistan about a modern schoolteacher who takes on the feudal system of a rural village (in Urdu with English subtitles) and Brownian Movement (First Run, DVD) is a Dutch drama and an English language production built around a troubled marriage, sex addiction and jealousy.

VOD / On Demand exclusives:

If you don’t have Netflix, you may be interested to know that Orange is the New Black: Season One (Lionsgate, Digital HD) is now available as a digital purchase in advance of its disc release next week. The series has become its breakout hit, even more popular than House of Cards and the second season is soon to launch on Netflix.

DevilsKnotAlso debuting in advance of disc is Son of God (Fox, Digital HD)

Atom Egoyan’s Devil’s Knot (RLJ/Image, VOD, iTunes, On Demand), with Reese Witherspoon and Colin Firth, debuts digitally same day as theaters, available via VOD, iTunes, and Cable on Demand.

Available this week via VOD in advance of theaters is Lucky McKee’s horror film All Cheerleader’s Die (RLJ/Image, VOD), and the comedy Friended to Death (Green Step, VOD) arrives a week after its theatrical debut.

Debuting Cable on Demand today, in advance of theaters, is the comedy Trust Me with Clark Gregg and Sam Rockwell and the horror film Anna with Taissa Farmiga and Mark Strong. Coming on Friday, May 9, in advance of theaters, is the dramas Rage with Nicolas Cage and Rachel Nichols. Available same day as theaters is the thriller The Double with Jesse Eisenberg and Sally Hawkins and the comedy Don Peyote with Anne Hathaway and Jay Baruchel.

More releases:StillMine

Still Mine (Fox, Blu-ray, DVD)
Mr. Jones (Anchor Bay, Blu-ray, DVD)
All in Good Time (Lionsgate, DVD – Amazon Exclusive, DVD)
Burn (Passion River, DVD, Blu-ray)
Making the Rules (Lionsgate, DVD, Digital HD, VOD)
Survival Code (Lionsgate, DVD, Digital HD, VOD, On Demand)
Simon and the Oaks (Image, DVD)
Awful Nice (Screen Media, DVD)
JoshMercedes Sosa: The Voice of Latin America (First Run, DVD)
Alexander Calder (First Run, DVD)
Desert Riders (Garden Thieves, DVD, VOD)
Truth (Canteen Outlaw, DVD, VOD)
7 Boxes (Breaking Glass, DVD)
Jim Gaffigan: Obsessed (Paramount, Blu-ray, DVD)
Lewis Black: Old Yeller (Image, DVD)

TV on Disc

The Story of the Jews with Simon Schama (PBS, DVD)StoryJewscap
The Andy Griffith Show: Season One (Paramount, Blu-ray)
Call Me Crazy: A Five Film (Sony, DVD)
Republic of Doyle: Season 1 (Acorn, DVD)
Rookie Blue: The Complete Fourth Season (eOne, DVD)
Laverne & Shirley: The Final Season (Paramount, DVD)
Little House on the Prairie: Season Two Deluxe Remastered Edition (Lionsgate, Blu-ray, DVD)
Agatha Christie’s Poirot: Series 12 (Acorn, DVD)
Adventure Time: The Suitor (Warner, DVD)
Frontline: Secrets of the Vatican (PBS, DVD)
Your Inner Fish (PBS, DVD)
Transformers Energon: The Complete Series (Shout Factory)

Classics and Cult:BlazingSaddlesBDcap

Blazing Saddles: 40th Anniversary (Warner, Blu-ray)
The Women (1939) (Warner, Blu-ray)
The Big Red One (Warner, Blu-ray)
Memphis Belle (Warner, Blu-ray)
Ace In The Hole (Criterion, Blu-ray+DVD Combo)
Countess Dracula (Synapse, Blu-ray+DVD Combo)
Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (Kraken/Section23, Blu-ray, DVD)
Godzilla Vs. Gigan (Kraken/Section23, Blu-ray, DVD)
GodzillaHedorahcapGodzilla Vs. Hedorah (Kraken/Section23, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Rodgers & Hammerstein Blu-ray Collection (Fox, Blu-ray)
The Terminal (Paramount, Blu-ray)
Amistad (Paramount, Blu-ray)
The Bridges of Madison County (Warner, Blu-ray)
The Deep End (Fox, Blu-ray)
Johnny Come Lately (Olive, Blu-ray, DVD)
Love Happy (Olive, Blu-ray, DVD)
Death Occurred Last Night (Raro, Blu-ray, DVD)
TerminalBDcapGodzilla vs. King Ghidorah / Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth (Sony, Blu-ray)
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II / Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (Sony, Blu-ray)
Godzilla vs. Destroyah / Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (Sony, Blu-ray)
Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. / Godzilla: Final Wars (Sony, Blu-ray)
White Zombie: Cary Roan Signature Edition (VCI, Blu-ray)
Werewolf (1977) (One 7 Movies, DVD)
Savage Vengeance (Massacre Video, DVD)
LA Maniac (Troma, DVD)
Bad Mouth (Troma, DVD)
The Real Decameron (1977) (One 7 Movies, DVD)
The Chambermaids (Impulse, DVD)
Honey Buns (Impulse, DVD)

Calendar of upcoming releases on Blu-ray, DVD, Digital, and VOD