A low-key comedy-drama art film leads new movies on DVD and Blu-ray this week.
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (Anchor Bay/Blu-ray/Digital/On Demand, 2015, not rated but probable PG for some profanity and gore, deleted/alternate scenes, audio commentary). This wonderfully off-center comedy-drama is about a socially inept Japanese office drone named Kumiko (terrifically played by Rinko Kikuchi), who finds a VHS tape buried in a cave. On the tape is an American movie that begins by saying its a true story, which Kumiko takes literally. But the film is actually the Coen brothers dark comedy Fargo, and the assertion that its true is just a very dry joke.
Undaunted and convinced that its real, Kumiko takes particular note of the films conclusion, as a suitcase filled with stolen cash remains unrecovered in a snowbound North Dakota field. She decides to go to America and find this buried treasure, certain that it will solve her problems. The result is a series of zany road-trip situations that are alternately hilarious and heartbreaking.
While Were Young (Lionsgate/Blu-ray/DVD, 2015, R for language, featurettes). Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts star in this comedy-drama as a childless 40-something couple that starts hanging out with a 20-something freewheeling couple (Adam Driver, Amanda Seyfried), and they try to keep up. But, like Stiller, Driver is a documentary filmmaker and he may have ulterior motives. Charles Grodin offers great support as Watts father, a famous and respected documentary filmmaker. It's uneven but generally amusing coming-of-middle-age yarn from writer/director Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale, Greenberg).
I Am Evel Knievel (Virgil/Blu-ray/DVD, 2015, not rated, featurettes). Documentary about the daredevil motorcyclist who was a major figure in the arena of risk-taking stunts during the 1960s and 70s, building a following and performing live on television. Among those interviewed are Matthew McConaughey, Kid Rock, Michelle Rodriguez and Bob Einstein, whose comic Super Dave character spoofed Knievel. The real highlights, however, are provided by footage of Knievels stunts.
Danny Collins (Universal/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital/On Demand, 2015; R for language, drugs, nudity; featurettes). Al Pacino is great as the title character, an aging pop-music star who discovers that 30 years earlier John Lennon had written him a fan letter that he never received, urging him to stay true to his muse. Instead of feeling encouraged, however, he becomes depressed, feeling hes sold out. So he hides away in a hotel and tries to write, striking up an arm's-length relationship with hotel manager Annette Bening and reaching out to his long-estranged adult son (Bobby Cannavale). The cast, which also includes Christopher Plummer and Jennifer Garner, is terrific, but this comedy-drama is cliched, sentimental and unnecessarily raunchy.
The Gunman (Universal/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital/On Demand, 2015; R for violence, language, sex). Sean Penn gets his Liam Neeson on in this thriller about a former black-ops assassin who is being targeted by his old organization. He eludes them across Africa and Europe as he tries to figure out why hes been thrust into this cat-and-mouse game. Javier Bardem co-stars.
Last Knights (Lionsgate/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital, 2015, R for violence, featurettes, trailers). Sword-and-sandal adventure about a fallen warrior (Clive Owen) who takes on a corrupt and sadistic minister (Askel Hennie) to avenge his unjustly dishonored master (Morgan Freeman in an all-too-brief appearance). It's a routine swordplay revenge yarn.
Soldate Jeannette (IndiePix/DVD/On Demand, 2015, not rated, in German with English subtitles, featurettes). This German riff on Thelma & Louise is very much an experimental film of the kind we dont often see these days. Cast members ad-libbed much of their dialogue in what is an apparent screed against materialism as a well-to-do but about-to-be-bankrupt member of the Viennese bourgeois withdraws a bundle of cash, goes camping and burns the money. And shes also a fraudster pursued by the police. After she hides out at a farm and is befriended by a farmgirl, the police show up and the two women go on the lam together.
Get Hard (Warner/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital, 2015; R for language, nudity, drugs; theatrical and unrated versions, deleted scenes, featurettes, bloopers). Depending on your affinity for the stars, youll either love or hate this raunchy dumb-and-dumber farce about a hedge-fund manager (Will Ferrell) learning that hes going to prison for fraud and hiring a black acquaintance (Kevin Hart) to teach him how to survive incarceration, unaware that the guys never even been in jail.
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (Anchor Bay/Blu-ray/Digital/On Demand, 2015, not rated but probable PG for some profanity and gore, deleted/alternate scenes, audio commentary). This wonderfully off-center comedy-drama is about a socially inept Japanese office drone named Kumiko (terrifically played by Rinko Kikuchi), who finds a VHS tape buried in a cave. On the tape is an American movie that begins by saying its a true story, which Kumiko takes literally. But the film is actually the Coen brothers dark comedy Fargo, and the assertion that its true is just a very dry joke.
Undaunted and convinced that its real, Kumiko takes particular note of the films conclusion, as a suitcase filled with stolen cash remains unrecovered in a snowbound North Dakota field. She decides to go to America and find this buried treasure, certain that it will solve her problems. The result is a series of zany road-trip situations that are alternately hilarious and heartbreaking.
While Were Young (Lionsgate/Blu-ray/DVD, 2015, R for language, featurettes). Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts star in this comedy-drama as a childless 40-something couple that starts hanging out with a 20-something freewheeling couple (Adam Driver, Amanda Seyfried), and they try to keep up. But, like Stiller, Driver is a documentary filmmaker and he may have ulterior motives. Charles Grodin offers great support as Watts father, a famous and respected documentary filmmaker. It's uneven but generally amusing coming-of-middle-age yarn from writer/director Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale, Greenberg).
I Am Evel Knievel (Virgil/Blu-ray/DVD, 2015, not rated, featurettes). Documentary about the daredevil motorcyclist who was a major figure in the arena of risk-taking stunts during the 1960s and 70s, building a following and performing live on television. Among those interviewed are Matthew McConaughey, Kid Rock, Michelle Rodriguez and Bob Einstein, whose comic Super Dave character spoofed Knievel. The real highlights, however, are provided by footage of Knievels stunts.
Danny Collins (Universal/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital/On Demand, 2015; R for language, drugs, nudity; featurettes). Al Pacino is great as the title character, an aging pop-music star who discovers that 30 years earlier John Lennon had written him a fan letter that he never received, urging him to stay true to his muse. Instead of feeling encouraged, however, he becomes depressed, feeling hes sold out. So he hides away in a hotel and tries to write, striking up an arm's-length relationship with hotel manager Annette Bening and reaching out to his long-estranged adult son (Bobby Cannavale). The cast, which also includes Christopher Plummer and Jennifer Garner, is terrific, but this comedy-drama is cliched, sentimental and unnecessarily raunchy.
The Gunman (Universal/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital/On Demand, 2015; R for violence, language, sex). Sean Penn gets his Liam Neeson on in this thriller about a former black-ops assassin who is being targeted by his old organization. He eludes them across Africa and Europe as he tries to figure out why hes been thrust into this cat-and-mouse game. Javier Bardem co-stars.
Last Knights (Lionsgate/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital, 2015, R for violence, featurettes, trailers). Sword-and-sandal adventure about a fallen warrior (Clive Owen) who takes on a corrupt and sadistic minister (Askel Hennie) to avenge his unjustly dishonored master (Morgan Freeman in an all-too-brief appearance). It's a routine swordplay revenge yarn.
Soldate Jeannette (IndiePix/DVD/On Demand, 2015, not rated, in German with English subtitles, featurettes). This German riff on Thelma & Louise is very much an experimental film of the kind we dont often see these days. Cast members ad-libbed much of their dialogue in what is an apparent screed against materialism as a well-to-do but about-to-be-bankrupt member of the Viennese bourgeois withdraws a bundle of cash, goes camping and burns the money. And shes also a fraudster pursued by the police. After she hides out at a farm and is befriended by a farmgirl, the police show up and the two women go on the lam together.
Get Hard (Warner/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital, 2015; R for language, nudity, drugs; theatrical and unrated versions, deleted scenes, featurettes, bloopers). Depending on your affinity for the stars, youll either love or hate this raunchy dumb-and-dumber farce about a hedge-fund manager (Will Ferrell) learning that hes going to prison for fraud and hiring a black acquaintance (Kevin Hart) to teach him how to survive incarceration, unaware that the guys never even been in jail.