Blu-Ray Releases MAY 22-29th

One of this week's most anticipated new releases is the Season Two set of Sherlock. Ever since its 2010 BBC premiere, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss' reimagining of the classic Sir Arthur Conan Doyle literary creation has attracted large audiences in both England and the United States, and chief to the program's success is the relationship between Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman's beleaguered Dr. Watson. Their banter is so spirited - and their performances so enormously likable - that they ensure Sherlock's appeal extends past mere narrative modernization or reboot.

Season Two covers some of Holmes' most beloved exploits; "A Scandal in Belgravia" details his first interaction with the devious Irene Adler; "The Hounds of Baskerville" finds Holmes and Watson facing a foe possessing potentially supernatural attributes; and "The Reichenbach Fall" sees the conflict between Holmes and criminal mastermind Moriarty build to a deadly confrontation.

After Sherlock, the week's notable releases come in the form of catalog reissues. Walt Disney Home Entertainment continues its handling of Studio Ghibli's output with a Blu-ray edition of the 1986 animated classic Castle in the Sky. In director Hayao Miyazaki's follow-up to his Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, the acclaimed filmmaker tells the story of Sheeta, an orphaned girl whose interest in her family's history leads her on an often dangerous search for a mystical floating castle.

With Castle in the Sky, one can watch Miyazaki developing his gifts in real time, improving even on the elements that made Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind so engaging. The characters are more likable, the animation is more fluid, and the action scenes have an even more lovely grandeur. In many ways, Castle in the Sky set the standard of excellence that the director maintained from My Neighbor Totoro all the way through 2009's Ponyo.by josh katz

Also noteworthy is Blue Underground's HD version of A Bullet for the General. This rousing Spaghetti Western examines the partnership between a Mexican outlaw (Gian Maria Volonté, A Fistful of Dollars) and an enigmatic American expatriot (Lou Castel, The American Friend), and it offers Western aficionados everything they could want from the genre: gorgeous cinematography, terrific performances (including one from Klaus Kinski), and plenty of violence.

However, Damiano Damiani layers his film with meaning that extends past the surface thrills. Damiani pokes fun at the traditional Spaghetti Western tropes, satirizing its most prevalent clichés, and he also adds in some bracing political commentary. Franco Solinas - the screenwriter behind both Burn! and The Battle of Algiers - penned A Bullet for the General, and he uses the picture to study the revolutionary mindset, with a particular emphasis on how hard it is to subordinate one's own worldly interests in favor of a grand ideal.

Finally, this coming Tuesday is the street date of Warner Home Entertainment's Lethal Weapon Collection. Previously available only though region-free foreign imports, this set bundles together all four entries in director Richard Donner's blockbuster action franchise, two of which - Lethal Weapon 3 and Lethal Weapon 4 - are just now receiving their North American Blu-ray debuts.

The Lethal Weapon series has seen its appeal wane in the twenty-five years since the first film's premiere, thanks to both steadily declining sequel quality and star Mel Gibson's recent tabloid issues. Nevertheless, divorced from controversy, the films still entertain. Even the lesser sequels have good elements, and all benefit from Donner's practically-staged action sequences and the sterling buddy chemistry between Gibson and Danny Glover.