Diehard fans of Veronica Mars, which ran on the CW TV network from 2004-2007, contributed money to the on-line Kickstarter website to finance a new film based on the series. The film was made for $6 million, but grossed only $3.4 million partially due to Kickstarter contributors receiving free tickets or downloads to the film. Apparently there wasn’t much interest in the film aside from the show’s rabid fans called “marshmallows”.

Series creator Rob Thomas fashioned the film around series star Kristen Bell, the only one of the large TV cast to have had a sustained career since the series ended. Unfortunately none of them will get much benefit from the film either. They’re all given little to do. Even well-known actors like Jamie Lee Curtis as a high powered lawyer; Jerry O’Connell as a sleazy sheriff and James Franco as himself in a bizarre cameo are under-utilized.

The plot revolves around a murder in Mars’ fictional coastal California home town of Neptune for which amateur sleuth, now law school graduate Mars, returns home to solve. Even casual fans of the series may find something of interest, but those unfamiliar with it will be left scratching their heads trying to understand what all the fuss was about. .

Veronica Mars is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Newly released Blu-ray upgrades of previously released DVDs include The Women; The Bridges of Madison County; Deep End; Amistad; The Big Red One and Memphis Belle.

Even with its vast library of classic films from MGM, Warner Bros.; RKO and other studios at its disposal, Warner Home Video has been slow to release its crown jewels on Blu-ray so it’s cause for celebration when a real gem like The Women makes it.

Claire Boothe Luce’s 1936 Broadway smash, made even funnier by Anita Loos and Jane Murphin’s screenplay, has been the gold standard for sophisticated comedy ever since its initial release in 1939. Director George Cukor’s reputation as the go-to women’s director was solidified by his direction of the film’s all-star female cast which includes Norma Shearer; Joan Crawford; Rosalind Russell; Mary Boland; Paulette Goddard; Phyllis Povah; Joan Fontaine; Lucile Watson; Virginia Weidler and Marjorie Main, most of them at their catty best. Hollywood twice remade it but neither the 1956 musical, The Opposite Sex, with June Allyson; Joan Collins; Dolores Gray; Ann Sheridan; Ann Miller and Joan Blondell, nor the 2008 fiasco with Meg Ryan; Eva Mendes and Annette Bening can hold a candle to it. See the original and bask in its hilarious charms.

The phenomenal 1992 best-seller The Bridges of Madison County was poignantly filmed by of all people, Clint Eastwood three years later with Eastwood playing the photographer who has a brief, but unforgettable romance with an Italian war bride whose husband and children are away. Cast against type, assuming she has a type, Meryl Streep turned in one of her most memorable performances as the wife and mother whose secret romance is revealed upon her death and request to have her ashes scattered across the famous bridges near Des Moines, Iowa.

The film’s Blu-ray release was timed to coordinate with the new Broadway musical based on the book and film. Ironically, the struggling musical whose cast recording will be released on May 19th, is set to close on May 16th. The film, however, lives on thanks to Eastwood, Streep and millions of weeping fans.

A nicely done updating of the novel The Blank Wall, previously filmed in 1949 as The Reckless Moment, 2001’s The Deep End from directors Scott McGeehe and David Segal (What Maisie Knew) provided Tilda Swinton with one of her best roles as a fierce mother trying to protect her son from a murder investigation. She and the film are both unforgettable.

Interest in the Blu-ray release of Steven Spielberg’s 1997 film, Amistad is no doubt inspired by the Oscar winning success of two of last year’s best films. The film about the 1839 mutiny aboard a slave ship had arguably been the best film about the slave era prior to the release of Twelve Years a Slave featuring a good supporting turn from Dallas Buyers Club’s Matthew McConaughey as Roger Sherman Baldwin, the young lawyer and future U.S. Senator and Governor of Connecticut, who represents the mutineers along with former U.S. President John Quincy Adams, memorably played by Anthony Hopkins in an Oscar nominated turn. Djimon Hounsou stars as Cinque, the leader of the mutineers, and Slave’s Chiwetel Ejiofor has a prominent supporting role.

Samuel Fuller’s 1980 classic, The Big Red One about a group of foot soldiers trying to stay alive during World War II and Michael Caton-Jones’ 1990 classic, Memphis Belle about the fabled B-17 bomber, have been released in time for the 69th anniversary of V-E Day (Victory in Europe) on May 8th.

New to both Blu-ray and standard DVD is 1943’s Johnny Come Lately, James Cagney’s first film since his Oscar win for Yankee Doodle Dandy.

The film, based on Louis Bromfield’s novel, is a low-key one about a drifter who helps an old lady run a newspaper that takes on small town corruption in the days before World War I Broadway legend Grace George, who had a minor role in a silent film some years earlier, has her only talkie role as the old lady. The supporting cast includes Marjorie Main; Hattie McDaniel and Margaret Hamilton at the top of their game

Newly released on standard DVD for the first time are Forever Amber; Good Morning, Miss Dove and Kentucky.

Kathleen Windsor’s 1944 novel Forever Amber was banned in fourteen states as pornography due to its graphic sexual content. Otto Preminger’s 1947 film tones down the salacious nature of the 17th Century bodice ripper but was nevertheless quite controversial in its day. Quite tame by today’s standards, it’s worth a look for its elaborate production and costume designs; the performances of Linda Darnell; Cornel Wilde; Richard Greene; George Sanders; Richard Haydn; Jessica Tandy; Anne Revere and others as well as its Oscar nominated score by David Raskin.

Jennifer Jones had one of her best mid-career roles as the dedicated teacher in Henry Koster’s 1955 film, Good Morning, Miss Dove released the same year as her Oscar nominated performance in Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing. See it for her performance.

Walter Brennan won the second of three Oscars in a five year period for playing the old Kentucky colonel in David Butler’s agreeable if predictable 1938 film about young lovers coming together amidst a generations old family feud. Loretta Young and Richard Greene play the lovers.

This week’s new releases include recent Oscar winner Her and the 1949 classic, Home of the Brave.