TV

New on DVD: March 5

This week on DVD, a misunderstood video game villain searches for redemption in Wreck it Ralph

PICK OF THE WEEK

Wreck-it Ralph

This animated film features cameo appearances from a who’s who of familiar video game characters as the title character (voiced by John C. Reilly) discovers that he no longer wants to be the villain is his game and so he heads out to find a new life as a hero which leads him through a series of different styles of games. EXTRAS include the Oscar-nominated animated short film Paperman; commercials for the fake video games used in the film; Disney Intermission – which features Chris Hardwick explaining in-jokes and other references when you pause the movie; as well as the usual alternate and deleted scenes. (Disney)

DVDs:

The Twilight Saga: Braking Dawn — Part 2

In the final chapter of the popular franchise, Bella (Kristen Stewart) and Edward (Robert Pattinson) and their baby are enjoying life until they become the target of a vengeful vampire (Maggie Grace) and must bring together others of their kind from around the world to save their daughter’s life. (eOne)

The Master

Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood) wrote and directed this thinly-veiled fictional look at the early days of Scientology in which a distressed Navy veteran (Joaquin Phoenix) becomes involved with The Cause and its charismatic leader (Philip Seymour Hoffman). (eOne)

Red Dawn

In this remake of the 1984 film, The Avengers’ Chris Hemsworth and The Hunger Games‘ Josh Hutcherson head up a squad of high-school students who valiantly take on an invading army of North Korean terrorists. (Fox)

The Bay

Barry Levinson (Rain Man) directed this “found footage” environmental horror film about something that has infected the waters of Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay and it’s terrifying affects on the locals.

A Dark Truth

Andy Garcia stars as an ex-CIA operative who is now the host of a politically-charged talk show who is invited down to a South American country to help expose the corporate cover-up of a massacre on a small village.

Lay the Favorite

A Las Vegas sports bookie (Bruce Willis) develops a crush on his hot young protégé (Rebecca Hall) which causes problems between him and his wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones) in this all-star comedy which also co-stars Fringe‘s Joshua Jackson and That ’70s Show‘s Laura Prepon.

Collaborator

Martin Donovan (Weeds) makes his writing and directing debut with this comedy-drama about a failed playwright who returns to his home town and ends up being held hostage by his childhood nemesis (David Morse). (eOne)

Unconditional

True Blood’s Lynn Collins stars in this faith-based drama about a woman who contemplates vengeance after the senseless and violent death of her husband.

California Sol

When a former British rocker (Once Upon a Time’s Robert Carlyle) faces deportation after a drunk driving arrest, he takes the opportunity to delve into his past and how he ended up where he is today.

The Jungle Book: The Movie

Not to be confused with the Disney classic, this short (barely an hour long) CGI-animated film tells the story of Mogli and his wild animal pals based on the stories by Rudyard Kipling. (Kaboom)

CLASSIC RE-ISSUE:

Schindler’s List 20th Anniversary Limited Edition

This Oscar-winning 1993 biopic of little-known Austrian businessman Oskar Schindler and his efforts to save the lives of hundreds of Jews during the Second World War gets a worthy treatment on this anniversary edition . EXTRAS include not only the first appearance of this film on DVD, but also a feature-length documentary Voices From the List which features director Steven Spielberg interviewing survivors and their descendants about this momentous moment in history. (Universal)

TV ON DVD:

Thorne: Sleepyhead/Scaredycat

In 2001, former actor and stand-up comic Mark Billingham’s debut novel Sleepyhead became a best-seller and went to make a list of the 100 Books to Shape the Decade.

The thriller follows the investigation of a London-based serial killer whose fourth victim didn’t die. The way she was strangled caused her to have a stroke and left her paralyzed – unable to move at all, but with the terrifying prospect of being completely aware of everything going on around her. While the police think this was a tragic mistake the killer made, Detective Inspector Tom Thorne (David Morrissey of the Red Riding Trilogy and Nowhere Boy) soon believes that this was his intention all along – to keep his victim in a state halfway between life and death which is clinically known as “Locked-in Syndrome”. 

It isn’t long before Thorne has a prime suspect, a prominent anesthetist named Jeremy Bishop, but in trying to prove his theory and catch the killer, Thorne walks the knifes-edge of professional policing – especially when it comes to his burgeoning relationship with Bishop’s friend and colleague Anne Coburn.

In Scaredycat, Thorne races to track down the killer of two women in different areas of London who were murdered at roughly the same time – a case which resembles an unsolved one from months earlier. But while the police suspect the work of one man, Thorne suspects that it may be a rare case of two killers working together in deadly harmony.

In these adaptations of Billingham’s series of best-selling mystery thrillers featuring the character of Thorne, (director Stephen Hopkins (24; Californication) captures the gritty tension of this urban nightmare perfectly.