A tribute concert for singer/songwriter Carole King leads this weeks new movies on Blu-ray and DVD.
A MusiCares Tribute to Carole King (Shout!/Blu-ray/DVD, 2014, not rated). If you dont know who Carole King is, you havent been paying attention when the DJ mentions the writer of a song youve heard on the radio. King has written or co-written so many hit songs its impossible to list them all here, but during this concert, more than 20 are performed by Lady Gaga, Alicia Keys, Martina McBride, James Taylor and many others, including King herself. Some of the tunes include Youve Got a Friend, Natural Woman, One Fine Day, Will You Love Me Tomorrow and I Feel the Earth Move.
The Salt of the Earth (Sony Classics/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital, 2015, PG-13, in color and b/w, deleted scenes, audio commentary, featurette). Filmmaker Wim Wenders collaborated with Juliano Ribeiro Salgado for this excellent biographical documentary of Salgados father, Sebastiao Salgado, a renowned photojournalist whose work has been documentary in tone, often chronicling international conflicts and the plight of workers in underdeveloped nations, and more recently hes been photographing areas of the world that have managed to remain unspoiled.
Timbuktu (Cohen/Blu-ray/DVD, 2014, PG-13, featurette, in French and Arabic with English subtitles). In a stinging look at Middle Eastern fundamentalism, this low-key film chronicles the absurdities of enforced law by jihadi militants who have taken over the city of Timbuktu, with its central focus on a proud cattle herder who accidentally kills a local fisherman with whom hes had a dispute, which leads to mounting further tragedy.
Ex Machina (Lionsgate/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital, 2015; R for nudity, language, violence; featurettes). It's a captivating low-key sci-fi about pushing research too far regarding artificial intelligence. A young programmer (Domhnall Gleeson) is summoned to the remote estate of his eccentric boss (Oscar Isaac) where he is to study a female robot (Alicia Vikander). But sinister events suggest he may actually be there as a guinea pig.
Song One (Cinedigm/Blu-ray/DVD, 2015, PG-13, deleted scenes, featurette, trailer). Anne Hathaway is a doctoral student studying in Morocco who returns home to New York after her estranged brother (Ben Rosenfield) is in a car accident that leaves him in a coma. To try and reach him, she reads aloud from his journal and then approaches his favorite musician (Johnny Flynn) to play for him, sparking an unlikely romance. Mary Steenburgen co-stars.
The Forger (Lionsgate/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital, 2015, R for language and violence; featurette). John Travolta is an art forger who makes a deal with the devil, or rather, mobsters. They arrange for him to be released early from prison and in exchange, he is to forge a Monet painting, then break into the museum that has the original to make a switch. So he recruits his father (Christopher Plummer) and his son (Tye Sheridan) to help.
If There Be Thorns (Lifetime/Lionsgate/DVD, 2015, not rated). This is the third Lifetime cable channel movie in the Flowers in the Attic franchise (followed by Seeds of Yesterday, scheduled for DVD release next month). This one is set six years after the second film, Petals On the Wind, as brother and sister Christopher Jr. (Jason Lewis) and Cathy (Rachael Carpani), themselves products of incest, are living as a married couple and hoping to put their past behind them. Then their mother (Heather Graham) moves in next door. Uh, oh.
Cross (Well Go/DVD/Digital, 2015, not rated, in Cantonese with English subtitles). Hong Kong thriller with Chinese star Simon Yam as a man whose wifes suicide has driven him over the edge. Believing that it is a sin to take ones life, and that he can save the souls of potential suicides by killing them, he searches out his prey through social media Internet sites. But a police psychologist (Kenny Won) figures it out and tracks him down.
Mutant World (Sony/DVD, 2014, not rated). A decade after a meteor has devastated the Earth, a group of survivors (led by Kim Coates) that has been living underground comes to the surface only to find themselves surrounded by crazed mutants. As they struggle to survive, a stranger shows up played by pop singer Ashanti and offers them safe haven.
A MusiCares Tribute to Carole King (Shout!/Blu-ray/DVD, 2014, not rated). If you dont know who Carole King is, you havent been paying attention when the DJ mentions the writer of a song youve heard on the radio. King has written or co-written so many hit songs its impossible to list them all here, but during this concert, more than 20 are performed by Lady Gaga, Alicia Keys, Martina McBride, James Taylor and many others, including King herself. Some of the tunes include Youve Got a Friend, Natural Woman, One Fine Day, Will You Love Me Tomorrow and I Feel the Earth Move.
The Salt of the Earth (Sony Classics/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital, 2015, PG-13, in color and b/w, deleted scenes, audio commentary, featurette). Filmmaker Wim Wenders collaborated with Juliano Ribeiro Salgado for this excellent biographical documentary of Salgados father, Sebastiao Salgado, a renowned photojournalist whose work has been documentary in tone, often chronicling international conflicts and the plight of workers in underdeveloped nations, and more recently hes been photographing areas of the world that have managed to remain unspoiled.
Timbuktu (Cohen/Blu-ray/DVD, 2014, PG-13, featurette, in French and Arabic with English subtitles). In a stinging look at Middle Eastern fundamentalism, this low-key film chronicles the absurdities of enforced law by jihadi militants who have taken over the city of Timbuktu, with its central focus on a proud cattle herder who accidentally kills a local fisherman with whom hes had a dispute, which leads to mounting further tragedy.
Ex Machina (Lionsgate/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital, 2015; R for nudity, language, violence; featurettes). It's a captivating low-key sci-fi about pushing research too far regarding artificial intelligence. A young programmer (Domhnall Gleeson) is summoned to the remote estate of his eccentric boss (Oscar Isaac) where he is to study a female robot (Alicia Vikander). But sinister events suggest he may actually be there as a guinea pig.
Song One (Cinedigm/Blu-ray/DVD, 2015, PG-13, deleted scenes, featurette, trailer). Anne Hathaway is a doctoral student studying in Morocco who returns home to New York after her estranged brother (Ben Rosenfield) is in a car accident that leaves him in a coma. To try and reach him, she reads aloud from his journal and then approaches his favorite musician (Johnny Flynn) to play for him, sparking an unlikely romance. Mary Steenburgen co-stars.
The Forger (Lionsgate/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital, 2015, R for language and violence; featurette). John Travolta is an art forger who makes a deal with the devil, or rather, mobsters. They arrange for him to be released early from prison and in exchange, he is to forge a Monet painting, then break into the museum that has the original to make a switch. So he recruits his father (Christopher Plummer) and his son (Tye Sheridan) to help.
If There Be Thorns (Lifetime/Lionsgate/DVD, 2015, not rated). This is the third Lifetime cable channel movie in the Flowers in the Attic franchise (followed by Seeds of Yesterday, scheduled for DVD release next month). This one is set six years after the second film, Petals On the Wind, as brother and sister Christopher Jr. (Jason Lewis) and Cathy (Rachael Carpani), themselves products of incest, are living as a married couple and hoping to put their past behind them. Then their mother (Heather Graham) moves in next door. Uh, oh.
Cross (Well Go/DVD/Digital, 2015, not rated, in Cantonese with English subtitles). Hong Kong thriller with Chinese star Simon Yam as a man whose wifes suicide has driven him over the edge. Believing that it is a sin to take ones life, and that he can save the souls of potential suicides by killing them, he searches out his prey through social media Internet sites. But a police psychologist (Kenny Won) figures it out and tracks him down.
Mutant World (Sony/DVD, 2014, not rated). A decade after a meteor has devastated the Earth, a group of survivors (led by Kim Coates) that has been living underground comes to the surface only to find themselves surrounded by crazed mutants. As they struggle to survive, a stranger shows up played by pop singer Ashanti and offers them safe haven.
