Mixed bag
New releases include comedy, thrillers, animation
A simian slacker, the grandson of NASA’s revered chimpanzee-in- space pioneer, becomes an unlikely hero when he and two other primate astronauts seek to salvage a critical mission after their spaceship crash-lands on an unknown world in “Space Chimps” ($29.98; $39.99 Blu-ray; 20th Century Fox; available Tuesday).
The animated family flick features a voice cast that includes Cheryl Hines, Stanley Tucci, Patrick Warburton and Andy Samberg. The movie comes to DVD and Blu-ray with scant extras, just a featurette about selecting the voice cast.
Here are some other new releases:
• “Meet Dave” ($29.9 8 ; $39.99 Blu-ray; Fox; available Tuesday): Eddie Murphy’s seesaw career swings back to bomb mode with this dud of a science-fiction comedy about tiny alien visitors who come to Earth inside a human- shaped vessel on a mission to save their own world. Murphy stars as both the alien captain calling the shots and as the spaceship itself. The DVD has only a gag reel and a featurette, while the Blu-ray release comes with an alternate ending, deleted scenes and a handful of behind- the-scenes segments.
• “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold” ($39.95; Criterion; available Tuesday): Martin Ritt’s chilling 1965 adaptation of John le Carre’s Cold War thriller gets a DVD makeover in a two-disc set with a restored version of the film. Richard Burton stars as a burned-out veteran British agent who strikes up a relationship with a communist sympathizer (Claire Bloom) and is approached by operatives from behind the Iron Curtain to defect. The film is accompanied by an interview with le Carre and a BBC documentary about his career.
• “Fred Claus” (28.98, $35.99 Blu-ray; Warner Bros., available Tuesday): Santa’s black-sheep brother (Vince Vaughn) is bailed out of his latest jam by his saintly sibling (Paul Giamatti) and forced to work off his debt at the North Pole, where he learns to re-evaluate his conniving ways as a heartless efficiency expert (Kevin Spacey) plots to put St. Nick out of a job. The holiday comedy from last year also stars Rachel Weisz, Kathy Bates, Miranda Richardson and Elizabeth Banks. The DVD and Blu-ray releases come with deleted scenes and commentary from director David Dobkin. The Blu-ray disc also has a DVD game, featurettes and a music video by co-star Chris “Ludacris” Bridges.
TV on DVD:
• “Freaks and Geeks: Yearbook Edition” ($169.98, Shout, available Tuesday): Big-screen comedy kings Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow, along with James Franco, Jason Segel and Linda Cardellini, scored an early critical success with this short-lived series about a gang of high school kids in 1980. The eight-disc set comes in a package resembling a school yearbook and packs all 18 episodes, plus deleted scenes, a cast-and-crew panel discussion and a script for an episode that was never shot.
• “Beverly Hills 90210: The Sixth Season” ($61.99, Paramount, available Tuesday): Luke Perry, Jason Priestley, Tori Spelling and the rest of the beautiful and spoiled gang are back in the prime-time soap, whose sixth season arrives in a seven-disc set with 31 episodes.
• “Gomer Pyle, U. S. M. C. The Final Season” ($42.99, Paramount, available Tuesday): Jim Nabors finishes his hitch in the Marine Corps as the 1960s military comedy wraps up. The four-disc set has the last 30 episodes.
• “The Mod Squad: Season 2, Volume 1” ($42. 9 9 , Paramount): Peggy Lipton, Clarence Williams III and Michael Cole star as the flower-power youths recruited by police as undercover crime solvers. The first 13 episodes from the second season come in a four-disc package.
Coming Tuesday
“Bottle Rocket” (Criterion), “Chungking Express” (Criterion), “A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All” (Comedy Central), “David Lynch: The Lime Green Set” ( A bsurda) and “Elton John: Tantrums and Tiaras” (Echo Bridge).
Blu-ray: “Hall & Oates: Live at the Troubadour” (Shout Factory) and “ The Kingdom” (Universal).•
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