This week’s new offerings include the big winner at this year’s Oscars, the latest Jack Black comedy, an insightful examination of stardom and fatherhood, a compelling documentary about New Orleans, a classic Western double feature and many more. Let’s take a look at what DVDs and Blu-rays are now available!
Four Academy Awards-including Best Picture, Director, and Actor-went to this biopic of 1930s Britain’s King George VI. Colin Firth shines as the monarch whose stuttering is seen as a liability in an age when leaders must be appealing on the radio and in newsreels. George (then Prince Albert) turns to Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) for help before ascending to the throne in the wake of his father’s death and his older brother’s unexpected abdication. Helena Bonham Carter also stars.
Embittered mailroom clerk Lemuel Gulliver (Jack Black) fakes his way into securing a hot assignment to travel to the Bermuda Triangle, only to survive a terrible shipwreck and find himself stranded on the strange island of Lilliput. Gulliver then gets a “Swift” kick in the pants when he is taken captive by the island natives, tiny people who regard the castaway as a menace. Modern spin on the classic satire co-stars Amanda Peet, Jason Segel, and Emily Blunt.
Music teacher and family man Gosta Ekman falls in love with pianist Ingrid Bergman, and the two begin a doomed affair, in “Intermezzo” (1936). This original Swedish version of the classic cinema romance is the film that brought Bergman to the attention of American movie producers. Inga Tidblad, Erik “Bullen” Berglund co-star. In “A Woman’s Face” (1938), Bergman is superb as the beauty who has been horribly scarred in an accident. After plastic surgery, her life follows a different course when she gets involved with a wealthy businessman, whom she discovers has plans to use her in a deadly scheme. Anders Henrikson, Karin Kavli also star. After her American film debut in the remake of “Intermezzo,” Ingrid Bergman returned to Sweden to star in “June Night” (1940), a romantic melodrama about a young woman who attempts to end her relationship with a sailor and is accidentally shot by the suicidal lover. Per Lindberg directs; Marianne Lofgren, Olof Widgren co-star.
Powerful adaptation of the play by David Lindsay-Abaire stars Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart as a married couple whose lives are shattered when their young son is killed after being hit by a car. As emotional distance grows between them, Kidman develops a strange fixation on the young man (Miles Teller) who was driving the car, while Eckhart leans on a fellow support group member (Sandra Oh). Will they ever be able to find their way back to each other? Dianne Wiest co-stars.
Writer/director Sofia Coppola (“Lost in Translation”) deftly examines the ennui felt by a rich, spoiled movie star (Stephen Dorff) whose life is turned upside down by a surprise visit from his young, clever daughter (Elle Fanning). Being abruptly obligated to modify his hedonistic lifestyle to look after his child proves challenging for the overstimulated thespian…but will it also prove to be enlightening? With Chris Pontius, Lala Sloatman.
Keeping audiences in stitches with broad and brainy comedy, legendary TV personality Ernie Kovacs is celebrated with this impressive compilation of appearances from over a decade in his illustrious career. Boasting many rare programs taken from original 16mm kinescopes, the six-disc set features “The Early Years,” with 1951 “It’s Time for Ernie” and “Ernie in Kovacsland” shows, and more; select 1955-56 episodes from “The NBC Morning Shows” and “The NBC Evening Shows”; various appearances from “The Late 1950s”; “The ABC Specials” from 1961-62; “Classic Pieces” such as Mr. Question Man and Leroy L. Leroy; the color version of the revered “Silent Show,” and much more.
If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise
Director Spike Lee returns to the city of New Orleans five years after Hurricane Katrina and four years after documenting the catastrophe’s initial aftermath in “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts” to survey how the Big Easy is coping. Lee’s two-part documentary for HBO focuses on everything from the further deterioration of the city’s housing and healthcare, and most notably the BP oil spill, and even the New Orleans Saints’ Super Bowl victory.
The Lone Ranger Movie Double Feature
Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels made their feature film debut as the Masked Rider of the Plains and his faithful ally, Tonto, in the frontier drama “The Lone Ranger” (1956), as the pair must stop a range war between settlers and Indians fueled by a villain out to mine silver on Native American land. Lyle Bettger, Bonita Granville co-star. Then, the Old West dynamic duo saddle up to protect the surviving owners of a set of five gold medallions which, when placed together, reveal the location of a fabulous treasure in “The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold” (1958). With Douglas Kennedy, Noreen Nash.
For details and availability of more of this week’s new releases, click here.
Here’s a look at last week’s new DVD and Blu-ray releases.