Phil Villarreal's novel, Zeta Male, is available at Amazon.
TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) Here are the best recent home video releases:
The Finest Hours
The stirring tale of a little-known mid-20th century disaster follows a U.S. Coast Guard rescue of those aboard two tankers who were stuck in a blizzard off the coast of Massachusetts that tore apart two tankers. Chris Pine heads up the cast of this hokey but compelling tale, which is bathed in painstaking period detail. The Blu-ray/digital copy combo includes deleted scenes and featurettes that highlight the journeys of both crews.
Game of Thrones: Seasons 3 and 4 Steelbooks
Available separately, these rereleases pander shamelessly to hardcore "Game of Thrones" fans who will want the sets, if only to post the beautiful, shimmering packaging on their shelves and affix the included sigil magnets to their refrigerators. Deleted and extended scenes, exhaustive featurettes, digital copies and cast interviews are among the extras that overflow in the sets, which are dedicated to what's genuinely agreed to be the greatest show on TV today, if not ever.
Pride & Prejudice & Zombies
Lily James and Sam Riley both deliver starmaking turns in this tongue-in-cheek take on the prim, proper Jane Austen world of subtle romance and feelings suppressed by social customs. A zombie plague has ravaged most of Europe, and it's up to proper society ladies and gentleman, who are trained martial arts assassins, to keep society from being ravaged by the undead. The winning mash-up will charm fans of both Austen and zombies. The Blu-ray/digital copy combo includes several background featurettes, deleted scenes and a gag reel.
Rizzoli & Isles: Season 6
Sofia the First: The Secret Library
More than a standard roundup of episodes from the beloved Disney Channel kids show, the collection rounds up guest appearances from characters in "Frozen" and "Brave." The plot finds Sofia stumbling upon a library of magical tales in which she steps in and helps the heroes overcome villainy and reach their happily ever-afters. The set lacks extras, but the episodes are rewatchable for tykes who are into the characters.
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
Vinyl: Season 1
After a rocky start, this Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger-backed drama about the 1970s record industry casts Bobby Cannavale and Ray Romano as struggling executives trying to stay afloat amid industry turmoil. The season hits its stride at the midpoint, rounding up memorable musical acts and exposing the dark underbelly of the corrupt give-and-take that went into the world of music at the time. In addition to a digital copy, extras include audio commentaries and a making-of featurette.
Zootopia
Disney's in-house animation studio continues to hang with sister studio and friendly rival Pixar with this joyous and socially conscious coming-of-age tale, about a petite female bunny determined to disrupt expectations and become a police officer. She teams up with a hardscrabble thief of a Fox to investigate a mystery that is plaguing the land of anthropomorphic animals. A triumph on par with "Frozen," "Zootopia" is not to be missed. The Blu-ray/DVD/digital copy combo is loaded up with extras, including deleted scenes and storylines, filmmaker roundtables and a look back at the creation of the story.
Studios provided review screeners.
