New to Blu: April 15-21

New Zealand’s entry in the Oscar foreign-language category, The Dead Lands, lands on Blu-ray the same week as Aussie zombie sensation Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead.

The Dead Lands, a Maori language action-adventure about a chieftain avenging his father’s murder, stars Boy’s James Rolleston and Marco Polo’s Lawrence Makoare.

Wyrmwood has been dubbed a “Mad Max meets Dawn of the Dead” and coincides with a commemorative edition of the 1981 release, Gallipoli, which starred the original Mad Max, Mel Gibson.

The week’s other significant movie releases are You’re Not You and The Drop, which boasts James Gandolfini’s last movie role.

“Shot digitally, The Drop features a flawless 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 encoding. From the opening Fox vanity reel to the closing credits, there’s not a single problem within it.

“There’s a perfect sharpness to every frame of every scene. Fine lines are as defined as could be and motion is smooth and natural.”

“The DTS HD-MA 5.1 surround track delivers the goods almost as much as the transfer does.

“Dialogue is consistent through the listening experience, and directional effects, which a tad sparse, are effective when present.”

Everything else is direct to disc  — Extraterrestrial, Wild Card, Among Friends, Autumn Blood, Little Accidents, Laggies, Taking of Deborah Logan, Clown, Roald Dalh’s Esio Trot — except season one of Silicon Valley.

Ironically, the HBO comedy releases on Blu-ray the same week its HD stablemate, Veep, comes out only on DVD (both start new seasons on SoHo on Thursday).

“Pale skin and pallid complexion have never looked so good. The Blu-ray release of Silicon Valley features a terrific 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation, free from artifacting, banding, errant noise and other nuisances.”

“Each episode of Silicon Valley comes with a commentary that usually features [creator] Mike Judge and Alec Berg, and will sometimes feature some variation of the cast.

“These are very funny and lively commentaries, most of which demonstrate just how well the cast works with one another and their different styles of comedy.

“Often times, the commentaries rival the episodes in terms of how easily they’ll make you laugh.”