Typically, April isn’t the best month for new DVD and Blu-ray releases. That most definitely isn’t the case so far this year though. We are only in the second week of the month and so far it’s been one hit after another. Don’t believe us? Just check out the wonderful flicks that are hitting DVD and Blu-ray this week!
Hugh Jackman delivers a fantastic performance as P.T. Barnum in this spectacularly colorful musical for the whole family. Motivated by a desire to provide a good life for his wife (Michelle Williams) and children, Barnum founds a destined-to-be-famous circus which proves to be, not only immensely popular and profitable, but also a place in which a group of talented misfits can call home. Zac Efron, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson co-star; songs include “The Greatest Show,” “Come Alive,” “Rewrite the Stars,” and more.
Her future as a competitive skier ruined due to an accident, Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain) found a new–and extremely lucrative–calling: organizing high-stakes poker games for the rich and famous. But it all came crashing down as Bloom found herself caught up in an FBI investigation into money laundering and the Russian mob. Writer and debuting director Aaron Sorkin’s trademark quick-witted dialogue highlights this drama, based on the real-life Bloom’s memoir. With Idris Elba, Michael Cera, and Kevin Costner.
In 1950s London, imperious fashion designer Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) gained the focus to rise to his profession’s peak through rigorous routine and the ability to regard the women in his life as wholly disposable. Drawn to ordinary waitress Alma (Vicky Krieps), he pulls the young naif into his lifestyle as a muse–and ultimately discovers that this Galatea can’t and won’t be summarily dealt with. Stylish character study from Paul Thomas Anderson co-stars Lesley Manville, Sue Clark.
In 1973, oil tycoon J. Paul Getty’s (Christopher Plummer) teenaged grandson (Charlie Plummer) was kidnapped and held for a $17 million ransom. When the billionaire refused to pay a dime, his ex-daughter-in-law, Gail Harris (Michelle Williams), turned to Fletcher Chase (Mark Wahlberg)–Getty’s business manager and a former agent with the CIA–for help in getting her son back. Based on a true story, director Ridley Scott’s tight crime drama (which made headlines itself) also stars Romain Duris, Timothy Hutton.
John Cassavetes’ “Gloria” is re-imagined as a blaxploitation throwback starring Taraji P. Henson as Mary, a professional killer who works for a Boston crime family. When she encounters young Danny (Jahi Di’Allo Winston)–orphaned and running drugs for the Russian mob ever since Mary killed his father–she decides to become the boy’s guardian, putting herself in the middle of a bloody battle between rival criminal organizations. With Billy Brown, Neal McDonough, Xander Berkeley, and Danny Glover.
At a Cleveland-area high school in the late ‘70s, senior John “Derf” Backderf (Alex Wolff) and his cronies decided to make a mascot out of the graduating class’s oddest duck–the disruptive and death-fixated Jeffrey Dahmer (Ross Lynch). The insights into the depressed teen’s sad home life with his combative parents (Anne Heche, Dallas Roberts), and the hints towards the path of a serial killer he’d soon follow, mark this adaptation of Derf’s graphic novel memoir. Vincent Kartheiser also stars.
When you need heroic acts of bravery and selflessness, you call the good guys. When you need something stolen, you call these guys. In this adult-oriented animated feature based on the popular DC Comics team, villains Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Bronze Tiger, Captain Boomerang, Killer Frost, and Copperhead are recruited by the government to “acquire” a mystical artifact of great power–or die trying. Christian Slater, Vanessa Williams, Tara Strong, C. Thomas Howell supply voices.
Which of these will you be watching?