Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, this week’s assortment of new DVDs and Blu-rays are a bit lighter than usual — which isn’t to say that you won’t find something here to throw on before you pass out in a haze of post-turkey bliss. Take a look at what offerings we’re now serving up!
With his high-end commissions drying up after a botched assignment, security expert Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds) needed his reputation salvaged. That’s why he agreed to safely shepherd an old nemesis–professional assassin Darius Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson)–to the Hague, where he’s to testify in the war crimes trial of an Eastern European dictator (Gary Oldman). Bryce has his hands full, as much with his charge as those who want him silenced, in this unabashedly old-school action farce. Salma Hayek, Richard E. Grant, Elodie Yung, Joaquim de Almeida co-star.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
Luc Besson wrote and directed this vivid sci-fi actioner based on the French comic book series “Valérian and Laureline.” Twenty-eighth-century military operatives/would-be couple Maj. Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Sgt. Laureline (Cara Delevingne) become embroiled in a sprawling adventure involving a mysterious creature that replicates matter, a government conspiracy, and a giant city in space that’s home to species from all across the universe. With Clive Owen, Ethan Hawke, and Rihanna.
Having spent her young life in a late-19th-century Brittany orphanage, Felicie (voiced by Elle Fanning) wanted to become a ballerina…and, joined by her wannabe inventor friend Victor (Nat Wolff), escaped for Paris in pursuit of their dreams. Having intercepted an invitation to audition for the Paris Opera Ballet, can she–under the tutelage of sympathetic staffer Odette (Carly Rae Jepsen)–learn enough on the fly to take the stage? Charming CGI-animated effort from France also features the voices of Kate McKinnon, Maddie Ziegler, and Mel Brooks.
For Michigan housewife Francine Hughes (Farrah Fawcett), her turbulent 13-year marriage to high school boyfriend Mickey (Paul Le Mat) was marked by incessant emotional and physical abuse for herself and their children. With no meaningful help coming from family or the state, and fearing for her life, she took matters into her own hands…and her case would shock and galvanize a nation. Fact-based, critically acclaimed made-for-TV drama co-stars Richard Masur, Grace Zabriskie, Penelope Milford.
Let us know which of these you’ll be checking out!