Hysteria!: Season One (Universal, 2 Blu-rays, NR, 422 min.). While the show already has been cancelled after these eight episodes, it still is worth checking out for some good performances and a killer soundtrack of classic rock and heavy metal tunes. The basics are that three neglected high school musicians decide to take on the appearance of a Satanic cult to bring attention to their band.

Their timing is not the best, as 1989 is still part of the 1980s Satanic panic, in which hard rock music was looked upon as evil and leading teenagers astray. Plus, Ryan Hudson, 17, the popular high school quarterback of Happy Hollow, Michigan, has been kidnapped and his defiled body just found, as if it were used in a Satanic ritual.

Nonetheless, the three band members are actually kind of cool. They are guitarist Dylan Campbell (Emjay Anthony of “Krampus,” TV’s “Physical), drummer Spud (Kenzii Curtis of “Dolemite Is My Name”) and vocalist/bassist Jordy Stanwyck (Chiara Aurelia of TV’s “Cruel Summer”). The “let’s go Satanic” idea was Dylan’s because he learned the popular girl in school that he has a crush on likes that. That girl, who is hiding a lot more than just newfound interest in Dylan, is Judith Sanders (Jessica Treska of TV’s “Sharp Objects”), who happens to be the granddaughter of the town’s police chief. Said Chief Ben Dandredge is wonderfully played by genre star Bruce Campbell (“Evil Dead,” “Army of Darkness,” TV’s Ash vs Evil Dead”).

Viewers soon learn that Dylan and his band Dethkrunch are not the only ones pretending to be into satanism. Ryan was only kidnapped due to his being with Faith Whitehead (Nikki Hahn of “Adventures in Babysitting”), the intended “kidnapping” victim. However, Ryan dies from an asthma attack, so the kidnappers manipulate his body to look like it had been part of a Satanic ritual. Faith was being taken so she could be “deprogrammed” by Beaumont Hicks, aka The Reverend (Garret Dillahunt of TV’s “Deadwood,” “Fear the Walking Dead”).

Other key characters include Dylan’s mother Linda (Julie Bowen of TV’s “Ed,” “Modern Family”), who may actually be possessed – she gets dragged around the house by an unseen entity – and Tracy Whitehead (Anna Camp of “Pitch Perfect,” “The Help”), Faith’s mother who is forming an anti-Satanism parent support group. Adding to the possibility of a dark presence in town is an earthquake that was not an earthquake when Ryan’s body was found.

The show starts off with some humor, but then any that remains is black humor, as the horror elements are more played up. The soundtrack includes classics by Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath and others of the heavy metal genre. There also is timely use of Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer.” Grade: series 3.5 stars

Rating guide: 5 stars = classic; 4 stars = excellent; 3 stars = good; 2 stars = fair; dog = skip it

Just Friends (2005, Warner Archive Collection, Blu-ray, PG-13, 94 min.). In high school, a flabby Chris Brander (Ryan Reynolds in not-very-convincing facial prosthetics) and beautiful/popular Jamie Palamino (Amy Smart of “Starship Troopers,” “Rat Race”) were besties, always hanging out together, even though he always wanted more. Now some 10 years later, Chris is a slimmed-down, successful Los Angeles record producer (looking like the Reynolds we know from “The Adam project,” the “Deadpool” films) and she is tending bar in their New Jersey hometown.

Chris’ new assignment is to sign ditzy pop-diva Samantha James (Anna Faris of two “Scary Movie” films) and produce her new record. They one-time dated and now Samantha wrongly thinks they are entering a relationship. Due to Samantha’s wrong use of a microwave during a flight to Paris, they end up in Chris’ hometown, staying at his parents. Julie Hagerty (the two “Airplane” films) has fun playing Carol, Chris’ Mom, while Christopher Rodriguez Marquette (“The Girl Next Door”) steals several scenes as Chris’ annoying younger brother Mikey, who naturally has a crush on Samantha.

While several scenes are fun – Chris’ bad lunch date with Jamie, Chris’ hockey game against kids – much of the so-called humor is lame, and that describes the whole of EMT Dusty Dinkleman (Chris Klein of the “American Pie” series), who suddenly becomes a rival suitor for Jamie. And while funny, the total destruction of an overblown residential outdoor Christmas display seems to belong in a “National Lampoon Vacation” film. Mikey was the only character I was rooting for.

Extras include audio commentary by director Roger Kumble, writer Adam “Tex” Davis, executive producers Richard Brener and Cale Boyter, and co-producers Chris Bender and Jake Weiner; an 11-part behind-the-scenes look, including how Reynolds was made “fat” (59:10); six deleted/alternate scenes (12:08) with optional commentary by Kumble, Davis and Bender – one is an Alanis Morissette cameo; two music videos, “Jamie Smiles” by Klein (2:59) and “Samantha James” (1:59); and a gag reel (2:54). Grade: film 2.5 stars; extras 3 stars

Lili (1953, Warner Archive Collection, Blu-ray, G, 81 min.). This enchanting film, centered around Leslie Caron (“Gigi,” “An American in Paris”), was nominated for six Academy Awards, winning an Oscar for Bronislaw Kaper’s score, which includes the song “Hi Lili, Hi Lo.”

Lili Daurier (Caron) is a naïve 16-year-old orphan who, after her father’s death, travels to a picturesque French town to find her father’s friend, a baker who should be able to employ her … only the baker has also died a month ago. After an encounter in a shop, where it seems the owner wants to take advantage of Lili, she follows a kind man who helped her. He is carnival magician Marcus the Magnificent (Jean-Pierre Aumont of “Day for Night,” “The Cross of Lorraine”).

Marcus helps her get a job as a waitress with the carnival, but she proves helpless. However, puppeteer Paul Berthalet (Mel Ferrer of “Knights of the Round Table,” “War and Peace,” “The World, the Flesh and the Devil”) works her into his act, having her interact with his four puppets – a brash red-haired boy named Carrot Top, sly fox Reynardo, vain ballerina Marguerite and cowardly giant Golo the Goat. The resulting act is a smash.

However, while Lili still pines romantically for Marcus, who actually is secretly married to his assistant (Zsa Zsa Gabor of “Touch of Evil,” “Queen of Outer Space” as Rosalie), it is Paul who actually loves her. Paul is too shy to tell Lili directly, so he uses his puppets to express his feelings. Paul used to be a dancer before a World War II leg injury ended that career.

The film’s ending is memorable as Lili walks down a road, imagining she is with the four puppets who have taken human-like form and they dance.

Oscar nominations also went to director Charles Walters, screenwriter Helen Deutsch, Caron, cinematographer Robert Planck and the combined teams of Cedric Gibbons and Paul Groesse for art direction/Edwin B. Willis and Arthur Krams for set decoration.

Extras are three classic cartoons: “The Impossible Possum” with Barney Bear (6:33); and two Tom & Jerry cartoons, “Pecos Pest,” including a bad song (6:43), and “Puppy Tale,” with mouse Jerry saving a castaway puppy from drowning in the river (7:01). Grade: film 3.5 stars; extras 1.75 stars

Lady with a Sword (Hong Kong, 1971, 88 Films, Blu-ray, NR, 89 min.). In this U.S. Blu-ray premiere of the Shaw Brothers production, Lily Ho (“Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan,” “Hong Kong Nocturne”) plays Feng Fei-fei, who discovers the murderer of her elder sister is the man she has been betrothed to since childhood.

The elder sister (Chi Hsien Po as Feng Ying-ying) had been traveling with her son (Liang Meng as Hu Tua), when Hu Tua spots a dead rabbit. After he picks it up, several men come up, claiming Chin Lien Pai (Nam Seok-hoon of “Five Fingers of Death,” “Secret of the Five Fingers”) shot the rabbit with his arrow and thus should get the animal. The three men fight the child and Lien Pai engages his mother in a sword fight, then kills her while attempting to rape her.

Earlier, bandit Hsiao Pao (Tsai No of “One-Armed Swordsman”), an expert with throwing daggers and using a whip who soon joins Lien Pai, killed Hu Tua’s father. Hu Tua seeks out his Auntie Feng Fei-fei, an even better swordswoman, who tracks the killer so as to avenge her sister’s death. However, just as she is about to kill him, she notices his jade talisman, which matches one she has, a memento that they had been pledged as children for a future marriage.

This twist leads to even more tragedy, including a severed arm that goes flying. At one point, Fei-fei fights her sword-bearing would-be future mother-in-law (Ching Lin of “The Sword of Swords” as Madame Chin) without a weapon.

The film, which has lots of good fight sequences, comes with audio commentary by David West and a two-sided foldout poster. Grade: film 3.5 stars; extras 2 stars

The Adventurers (Hong Kong, 1995, Eureka!, Blu-ray, NR, 110 min.). This strangely-named film – because there is no adventuring going on – marks the only collaboration between action master director Ringo Lam (“City on Fire”) and Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau (“Infernal Affairs” trilogy). This is the film’s first Blu-ray release outside of Asia and is from a new 2K restoration.

Lau plays Wai Lok-yan, who was 8-years-old when his parents, who were working secretly for the American CIA, and younger sister were killed before his eyes in Cambodia during Pol Pot’s ascent to power in the latter days of the Cambodian Civil War. His father’s killer was Ray Lui (Paul Chun of “Royal Tramp”), a double-agent, who in the years since has become a millionaire arms dealer, based in the United States.

The young Wai had been taken to Thailand by his father’s colleague Uncle Shang (David Chiang of “Dynasty of Blood,” “Five Shaolin Masters,” “Vengeance!”) and grows up to join the Thai Air Force as a pilot. When Wai learns Lui killed his father, he intends to get close to Lui so he can kill him.

When Wai’s first attempt at Lui goes astray and Wai is shot, he is helped to escape the police and is mended by Mona (Rosamund Kwan of “Millionaires’ Express”) -- and they almost immediately have sex – despite her being Lui’s current girlfriend.

Working with the CIA, Wai travels to San Francisco to get close to Lui’s estranged daughter Crystal (Wu Chien-Lien of “Eat Drink Man Woman,” “A Moment of Romance”). Wai pretends to be Mandy of the Hwa Fuk-tong family, which controls half of Chinatown. Wai “kidnaps” Crystal, with her telling him to jack up the price, by rescuing her from her real kidnappers, the Black Tigers gang. That gang then attacks Wai’s hideout, while Crystal is taking a shower, no less, and only Wai and Crystal escape – on foot! They later marry, which further complicates things.

The film has some decent action scenes, but some vehicle explosions are too sudden. The film has an explosive ending, with an aerial bombing of drug kingpin General Buboei’s (Ho Ka-Kui of “Prison on Fire,” “Drunken Master III”) hideout and even a helicopter flying through a building.

The sole extra is audio commentary by David West. Grade: film 3 stars; extra 2 stars

Three the Hard Way (1974, Warner Archive Collection, Blu-ay, R, 97 min.). Despite the presence of three black superstars in Jim Brown (“The Dirty Dozen,” “Any Given Sunday”), Fred Williamson (“M*A*S*H*,” “From Dusk Till Dawn”) and Jim Kelly (“Enter the Dragon,” “Black Belt Jones”), this film is rather a mess.

Directed by Gordon Parks Jr. (the far superior “Super Fly”), too often the film seems to skip scenes, and then it lingers too long on Williamson’s Jagger Daniels taking a boat up the Chicago River … and disgustingly tossing a half-spent cigar into the river. Then there is a scene in which Mister Keyes (Kelly) uses three topless women interrogate a man. We see the three women motorcycling for some time beforehand, but luckily, we are spared the actual interrogation.

The basic plot is that a white supremacy group, led by Monroe Feather (Jay Robinson of “The Robe,” “Demetrius and the Gladiators”), is using scientist Dr. Fortrero (Richard Angarola of “Jeremiah Johnson,” “Papillon”) to develop a serum that will only kill members of the black race, what he calls “humane solutions to social disorders.” Apparently, the plan is to put this killing agent in the water supplies of Washington D.C., Los Angeles and Detroit. I found it ludicrous that only one container, slightly larger than a thermos, would be enough to deal with a whole city. Also, luckily Feather’s operation has enough dunderheads that they can be endlessly killed by the dozens.

The plot is first learned by House (Junero Jennings), who escapes from Feather’s enslavement, and tries to warn Jimmy Lait (Brown), who runs a recording studio in Los Angeles. House is killed before he can give Lait a full warning, but the killers also kidnap Wendy Kane (Sheila Frazier), who happens to be Lait’s girlfriend (and the subject of the opening “Wendy” song; the music is the best thing about the film). The kidnapping eventually leads the heroic trio to Feather’s operation.

In one laughable scene, two of the worst drivers ever keep banging into each other while trying to run down Lait in a parking garage and eventually drive over the edge, dropping to their explosive deaths below. This is another film with explosions that occur too quickly. Grade: film 1.5 stars

Captain Planet and the Planeteers: The Complete Franchise (1990-1996, Warner Bros., 9 Blu-rays, TV-G, 2,612 mins.). The box set includes all six seasons and 113 episodes of “Captain Planet and the Planeteers” (3 seasons) and “The New Adventures of Captain Planet” (3 seasons). In the shows, a quintet of teenagers works together to encourage environmentally responsible behavior and can summon a superhero to deal with ecological disasters. The animated show features the voices of Martin Sheen, Meg Ryan, Whoopi Goldberg, LeVar Burton, Tim Curry, John Ratzenberger, Margot Kidder, James Coburn and Edward Asner. David Coburn voices Captain Planet.

The opening narration by Burton goes: “Our world is in peril. Gaia, the spirit of the Earth, can no longer stand the terrible destruction plaguing our planet. She sends five magic rings to five special young people: Kwame, from Africa, with the power of Earth; from North America, Wheeler, with the power of fire; from the Soviet Union, Linka, with the power of wind; from Asia, Gi, with the power of water; and from South America, Ma-Ti, with the power of heart. When the five powers combine, they summon Earth's greatest champion, Captain Planet. Go Planet! The power is yours!”

Each episode is followed by at least one "Planeteer Alert" clip, often connected to the plot, which discusses environmental-political and social-political issues and how the viewer can contribute and be part of the solution rather than the pollution. The series spawned a franchise of eco-friendly toys, comic books, video games and a public charity to further promote its work. Grade: series 3 stars

Wacky Races: The Complete Series (1968-69, Warner Archive Collection, 2 Blu-rays, NR, 408 min.). The series features 11 different cars racing against each other in various road rallies throughout North America, with all of the drivers hoping to win the title of the "World's Wackiest Racer." The show was inspired by the 1965 comedy film “The Great Race.” Originally, the show was intended as a game show in which children would guess the winner of each race and those who answered correctly would win prizes, but CBS dropped these elements during development.

The cartoon had many regular characters, with 23 people and animals riding the 11 race cars. There are 17 20-minutes episodes, each consisting of two parts. The series spawned numerous spin-offs featuring Dick Dastardly through the years, the most similar in theme being “Fender Bender 500” in 1990. Grade: series 3 stars