The second Divergent movie, a Danish Western and a British costume drama are on Blu-ray and DVD this week.
The Divergent Series: Insurgent (Summit/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital/On Demand, 2015, PG-13, audio commentary, featurettes, poster gallery). This sequel to Divergent begins a few days after the events of the first film and is set in and around post-apocalyptic Chicago.
Tris (Shailene Woodley) and friends are on the run after defying ruthless leader Jeanine (Kate Winslet) and theyre looking for answers. Will they find them before another sequel is necessary? Not-bad entry in the teens-defying-tyrants-in-a-burned-out-future genre with a great cast that includes Octavia Spencer, Miles Teller, Maggie Q, Ashley Judd and Naomi Watts.
The Salvation (IFC/Blu-ray/DVD, 2015, R for violence, featurettes, trailer). This film is a very good, if brutal, revenge yarn with some High Noon thrown in, directed in the unforgiving spaghetti-Western style. A Danish ex-soldier (Mads Mikkelsen) homesteading in the American West kills two creeps who attack his wife and son, unaware that one of them is the brother of a powerful local land baron (Jeffrey Morgan). Co-stars include Jonathan Pryce and Eva Green. It was filmed in South Africa.
A Little Chaos (Universal/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital/On Demand, 2015, R for sex and nudity). Alan Rickman co-wrote, directed and co-stars as King Louis XIV in this British period piece about a female gardener (Kate Winslet) being hired to lend her unique abilities to Versailles, despite opposition from her own workers and members of the court plotting sabotage. This could have been a PG film without the unnecessary sex and nudity. Co-stars include Matthias Schoenaerts (Far From the Madding Crowd), Stanley Tucci and Jennifer Ehle.
Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal (Well Go/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital, 2015, not rated, in Mandarin with English subtitles, featurette, trailer). A striking example of style over substance, but wow, what style. This fantasy follows a demon hunter and his difficult relationship with the demon Snow Girl as both vie for the title crystal, a relic that binds heaven and earth. Or something like that. Videogame influences abound, but the colorful detail is eye-popping, especially in Blu-ray.
A La Mala (Falling for Mala) (Pantelion/DVD/Digital/On Demand, 2015, PG-13, in Spanish with English subtitles). This Mexican romantic comedy stars Aislinn Derbez as an aspiring actress hired by her best friend to test her boyfriends faithfulness by flirting with him, which leads to a new career, but not without its own complications.
Little Loopers (Cinedigm/DVD/Digital, 2015, not rated). A family-friendly comedy-drama about a disgraced, alcoholic former golf pro (Boyd Kestner) reluctantly who is coerced into coaching a group of teenage golfers which, naturally, leads to his own redemption. Think The Bad News Bears with golf and minus the profanity. Rob Morrow co-stars.
Barely Lethal (Lionsgate/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital, 2015, PG-13, deleted scenes, audio commentary, featurette). This teen comedy is a variation on Spy Kids about a girl (Hailee Steinfeld) who has been trained as a special-ops agent since childhood in a government-run private academy. But she yearns for a normal life, so she fakes her death during an operation and settles in a typical high school as an exchange student. Let the culture-clash begin. Co-stars include Jessica Alba and Samuel L. Jackson.
Child 44 (Summit/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital/On Demand, 2015; R for violence, language, sex; featurette). The film is a disappointing, confused adaptation of Tom Rob Smiths gripping novel about a Soviet secret-police officer (Tom Hardy) in the repressive 1950s Soviet Union who rediscovers his humanity while defying the state to investigate a brutal series of child killings that are obviously connected, though his superiors deny that possibility. Co-stars include Noomi Rapace, Gary Oldman and Joel Kinnamn.
She Loves Me Not (Monarch/DVD, 2015, not rated). Cary Elwes stars in this talky, low-budget, episodic independent comedy-drama about a reclusive, self-loathing alcoholic novelist who continually sabotages possibilities of reviving his faded literary career. Co-stars include Joey Lauren Adams, Lisa Edelstein, Briana Evigan and Karen Black.
Black & White: The Dawn of Assault (Shout!/Blu-ray/DVD, 2015, not rated, in Mandarin with English subtitles or in dubbed English, featurette, trailer). This Taiwanese cops n robbers thriller has a Die Hard vibe as a straight-arrow suspended cop and a bumbling gangster reluctantly team up to retrieve stolen diamonds, each with a different endgame in mind. Too long at nearly 2 hours, and some of the comedy falls flat, but theres no denying that the physics-defying action gets the blood pumping.
The White Storm (Lionsgate/DVD/Digital, 2015, R for violence and drugs, in Mandarin with English subtitles or in dubbed English, trailers). Three childhood friends form a team of undercover cops deep in a drug lords domain when one decides he needs to get out for the sake of his young family. But this leads to some unanticipated situations that will reverberate years later as friendship and loyalty are tested. This Hong Kong thriller suffers from a routine script but offers some intense moments.
The Dead Lands (Magnet/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital, 2015, R for violence, in Maori with English subtitles or English dubbed, featurettes). This rough, brutally violent New Zealand action picture is set among Maoris before European colonization. A longstanding rivalry between tribes heats up when one attacks the other, sending a chieftains teenage son out for revenge.
Black Box (Lionsgate/DVD/Digital, 2015; R for violence, sex, language; trailers). This dark fantasy is about a mysterious black box that floats from one owner to another, granting those who open it their most earnest desires. But, of course, it comes with a price in the form of gun-toting Kevin Sorbo as a sort of angel of death. Brad Dourif, Jason London and Ray Park co-star.
Into the Grizzly Maze (Sony/DVD, 2015; R for violence, language, sex, nudity; trailers). Bart the Bear 2, an Alaskan brown bear that lives in Heber City, Utah, with his trainers Doug and Lynne Seus, is the real star of this thriller about a bear stalking two estranged brothers (James Marsden, Thomas Jane) that have reunited at their childhood home in the Alaskan wilderness (actually British Columbia). Co-stars include Billy Bob Thornton, Piper Perabo and Scott Glenn.
The Last Survivors (Dark Sky/Blu-ray/DVD/On Demand, not rated, deleted scenes, audio commentaries, featurettes, slide show, trailer). Haley Lu Richardson stars in this post-apocalyptic thriller as a 17-year-old girl at a farm for wayward youths in an expansive Oregon valley that has dried up. Shes left alone to care for a few young survivors and a well that has the only drinking water left in the area, but now a ruthless land baron is claiming it. Violent confrontations ensue. At least there are no zombies.
Lake Placid vs. Anaconda (Sony/DVD/Digital, 2015, not rated). In the campy, bad-on-purpose spirit of Sharknado, this coming together of two video franchises has a giant anaconda and a monster crocodile taking a break from chowing down on humans to go up against each other.
The Divergent Series: Insurgent (Summit/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital/On Demand, 2015, PG-13, audio commentary, featurettes, poster gallery). This sequel to Divergent begins a few days after the events of the first film and is set in and around post-apocalyptic Chicago.
Tris (Shailene Woodley) and friends are on the run after defying ruthless leader Jeanine (Kate Winslet) and theyre looking for answers. Will they find them before another sequel is necessary? Not-bad entry in the teens-defying-tyrants-in-a-burned-out-future genre with a great cast that includes Octavia Spencer, Miles Teller, Maggie Q, Ashley Judd and Naomi Watts.
The Salvation (IFC/Blu-ray/DVD, 2015, R for violence, featurettes, trailer). This film is a very good, if brutal, revenge yarn with some High Noon thrown in, directed in the unforgiving spaghetti-Western style. A Danish ex-soldier (Mads Mikkelsen) homesteading in the American West kills two creeps who attack his wife and son, unaware that one of them is the brother of a powerful local land baron (Jeffrey Morgan). Co-stars include Jonathan Pryce and Eva Green. It was filmed in South Africa.
A Little Chaos (Universal/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital/On Demand, 2015, R for sex and nudity). Alan Rickman co-wrote, directed and co-stars as King Louis XIV in this British period piece about a female gardener (Kate Winslet) being hired to lend her unique abilities to Versailles, despite opposition from her own workers and members of the court plotting sabotage. This could have been a PG film without the unnecessary sex and nudity. Co-stars include Matthias Schoenaerts (Far From the Madding Crowd), Stanley Tucci and Jennifer Ehle.
Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal (Well Go/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital, 2015, not rated, in Mandarin with English subtitles, featurette, trailer). A striking example of style over substance, but wow, what style. This fantasy follows a demon hunter and his difficult relationship with the demon Snow Girl as both vie for the title crystal, a relic that binds heaven and earth. Or something like that. Videogame influences abound, but the colorful detail is eye-popping, especially in Blu-ray.
A La Mala (Falling for Mala) (Pantelion/DVD/Digital/On Demand, 2015, PG-13, in Spanish with English subtitles). This Mexican romantic comedy stars Aislinn Derbez as an aspiring actress hired by her best friend to test her boyfriends faithfulness by flirting with him, which leads to a new career, but not without its own complications.
Little Loopers (Cinedigm/DVD/Digital, 2015, not rated). A family-friendly comedy-drama about a disgraced, alcoholic former golf pro (Boyd Kestner) reluctantly who is coerced into coaching a group of teenage golfers which, naturally, leads to his own redemption. Think The Bad News Bears with golf and minus the profanity. Rob Morrow co-stars.
Barely Lethal (Lionsgate/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital, 2015, PG-13, deleted scenes, audio commentary, featurette). This teen comedy is a variation on Spy Kids about a girl (Hailee Steinfeld) who has been trained as a special-ops agent since childhood in a government-run private academy. But she yearns for a normal life, so she fakes her death during an operation and settles in a typical high school as an exchange student. Let the culture-clash begin. Co-stars include Jessica Alba and Samuel L. Jackson.
Child 44 (Summit/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital/On Demand, 2015; R for violence, language, sex; featurette). The film is a disappointing, confused adaptation of Tom Rob Smiths gripping novel about a Soviet secret-police officer (Tom Hardy) in the repressive 1950s Soviet Union who rediscovers his humanity while defying the state to investigate a brutal series of child killings that are obviously connected, though his superiors deny that possibility. Co-stars include Noomi Rapace, Gary Oldman and Joel Kinnamn.
She Loves Me Not (Monarch/DVD, 2015, not rated). Cary Elwes stars in this talky, low-budget, episodic independent comedy-drama about a reclusive, self-loathing alcoholic novelist who continually sabotages possibilities of reviving his faded literary career. Co-stars include Joey Lauren Adams, Lisa Edelstein, Briana Evigan and Karen Black.
Black & White: The Dawn of Assault (Shout!/Blu-ray/DVD, 2015, not rated, in Mandarin with English subtitles or in dubbed English, featurette, trailer). This Taiwanese cops n robbers thriller has a Die Hard vibe as a straight-arrow suspended cop and a bumbling gangster reluctantly team up to retrieve stolen diamonds, each with a different endgame in mind. Too long at nearly 2 hours, and some of the comedy falls flat, but theres no denying that the physics-defying action gets the blood pumping.
The White Storm (Lionsgate/DVD/Digital, 2015, R for violence and drugs, in Mandarin with English subtitles or in dubbed English, trailers). Three childhood friends form a team of undercover cops deep in a drug lords domain when one decides he needs to get out for the sake of his young family. But this leads to some unanticipated situations that will reverberate years later as friendship and loyalty are tested. This Hong Kong thriller suffers from a routine script but offers some intense moments.
The Dead Lands (Magnet/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital, 2015, R for violence, in Maori with English subtitles or English dubbed, featurettes). This rough, brutally violent New Zealand action picture is set among Maoris before European colonization. A longstanding rivalry between tribes heats up when one attacks the other, sending a chieftains teenage son out for revenge.
Black Box (Lionsgate/DVD/Digital, 2015; R for violence, sex, language; trailers). This dark fantasy is about a mysterious black box that floats from one owner to another, granting those who open it their most earnest desires. But, of course, it comes with a price in the form of gun-toting Kevin Sorbo as a sort of angel of death. Brad Dourif, Jason London and Ray Park co-star.
Into the Grizzly Maze (Sony/DVD, 2015; R for violence, language, sex, nudity; trailers). Bart the Bear 2, an Alaskan brown bear that lives in Heber City, Utah, with his trainers Doug and Lynne Seus, is the real star of this thriller about a bear stalking two estranged brothers (James Marsden, Thomas Jane) that have reunited at their childhood home in the Alaskan wilderness (actually British Columbia). Co-stars include Billy Bob Thornton, Piper Perabo and Scott Glenn.
The Last Survivors (Dark Sky/Blu-ray/DVD/On Demand, not rated, deleted scenes, audio commentaries, featurettes, slide show, trailer). Haley Lu Richardson stars in this post-apocalyptic thriller as a 17-year-old girl at a farm for wayward youths in an expansive Oregon valley that has dried up. Shes left alone to care for a few young survivors and a well that has the only drinking water left in the area, but now a ruthless land baron is claiming it. Violent confrontations ensue. At least there are no zombies.
Lake Placid vs. Anaconda (Sony/DVD/Digital, 2015, not rated). In the campy, bad-on-purpose spirit of Sharknado, this coming together of two video franchises has a giant anaconda and a monster crocodile taking a break from chowing down on humans to go up against each other.
