‘Game of Thrones,’ new on DVD, not the typical TV fantasy series

Game of Thrones: The Complete First Season

HBO, $59.99; Blu-ray, $79.98

HBO’s hit adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” novels isn’t your typical TV fantasy series. Writers-producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss find echoes of “Deadwood” and “The Sopranos” in “Game of Thrones’ ” family dynamics and subtle power plays, as well as in the way its characters make bold choices that go dreadfully awry. This is a story about kings in conflict, old grudges and the ancient menaces that lurk in the shadows, yet Benioff and Weiss smartly emphasize the people affected by all this intrigue: an underestimated dwarf, an exiled warrior princess, a bastard patrolling a treacherous frontier and more. The DVD and Blu-ray sets contain all 10 episodes of the first season, plus commentary tracks and multiple featurettes about the phenomenal effort that went into translating Martin’s epic to the small screen.

Footloose

Paramount, $29.99; Blu-ray, $44.99

Writer-director Craig Brewer’s update of the 1984 teen pic “Footloose” honors the plot and vibe of the original while bringing some contemporary Southern grit to its hokey story about a high schooler who challenges a small town’s “no dancing” laws. Kenny Wormald isn’t as charismatic as Kevin Bacon was in the leading role in ‘84, but Wormald and Brewer both get what the movie is really about: how adolescents sometimes need to shake off the meaningless, shortsighted rules that their parents, teachers and preachers throw at them. The new “Footloose” is still exuberant and family friendly (albeit in a PG-13 way), but it also feels like a movie made by the director of “Hustle & Flow” and “Black Snake Moan.” Brewer contributes a commentary track to the DVD and Blu-ray, which also contain deleted scenes and featurettes.

Immortals

20th Century Fox, $29.98; Blu-ray, $39.99/$49.99

After “300,” “Spartacus,” “Clash of the Titans” and dozens of similar movies and TV shows over the last half-decade, audiences may be suffering from sword-and-sandal fatigue, and the Greek-mythology-derived “Immortals” is unlikely to revive interest in gods, slaves and buff warriors in loincloths. Director Tarsem Singh brings his usual visual flair to the story of the despotic Hyperion (played by Mickey Rourke) and the heroic Theseus (Henry Cavill), but as often happens with these kinds of stories, “Immortals” is dark and labored, with no sense of wit or humanity. It’s a lot like watching statues fight. The DVD and Blu-ray add deleted scenes, as well as some genuinely interesting featurettes about the myths that inspired the film.

The Skin I Live In

Sony Blu-ray, $45.99

Pedro Almodóvar delivers his distinctive spin on the mad-scientist horror picture with “The Skin I Live In,” a melodramatic slasher starring Antonio Banderas as a plastic surgeon who uses an abductee for his cruel experiments with new kinds of flesh transplants. The film has a jigsaw structure, with an extended midpoint flashback that explains who’s been kidnapped and why, and though the flashback runs too long — and becomes increasingly predictable — Almodóvar brings such a pristine look to even the goriest sequences that what “The Skin I Live In” lacks in B-movie thrills it makes up in creepy, elegant style. A trio of in-depth featurettes highlight the DVD and Blu-ray.

And …Jack and Jill

Sony, $30.99; Blu-ray, $35.99/$40.99

Like Crazy

Paramount, $29.99; Blu-ray, $39.99

Senna

Arc, $22.99

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