Susan Granger’s DVD Update for week of Fri., Jan. 25:
Filled with brutal violence, “Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning” continues the franchise with Scott Adkins seeking revenge against killing machines Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren.
Southern Gothic to its sexploitation core, “The Paperboy” is a tacky, tawdry, murky melodrama with Matthew McConaughey, Zac Efron, John Cusack and Nicole Kidman.
Long before she made “Hunger Games,” Jennifer Lawrence was in Jonathan Mostow’s banal, low-budget horror thriller, “House at the End of the Street,” playing a high-school girl-in-jeopardy.
“Hit & Run” is a car chase caper comedy with Dax Shepard as a former getaway driver, pursued by Tom Arnold and Bradley Cooper (in bleached-out dreadlocks).
“For a Good Time, Call…” is a smutty, salacious female relationship comedy, revolving around a mousy editor (Lauren Anne Miller) who loses her publishing job and – at the suggestion of her real-estate broker buddy (Justin Long) – moves into the spacious Gramercy Park apartment owned by Katie (Ari Graynor), a phone-sex operator.
Ira Sachs’ electrifying, gay drama “Keep the Lights On” chronicles the emotional and sexually-charged journey of two compulsive risk-takers who share friendship, love and addiction.
Jeffrey Kimball’s “Birders: The Central Park Effect” charts more than 200 wild bird species that flock to Manhattan’s grandest park each year – and the impassioned birdwatchers fascinated by them, including author Jonathan Franzen and matriarch Starr Saphir.
Foreign-language films: Set in the frozen landscape of northern Finland, “Lapland Odyssey” is an edgy comedy about a bizarre quest to purchase
a cable box, despite obstacles like hostile reindeer, bikini-clad babes and
naked, gun-toting Russians. Plus, Wim Wenders’ “Pina” celebrates the dance creativity of legendary choreographer Pina Bausch.
Three acclaimed documentaries are my PICKS OF THE WEEK: 1) “The Impostor” relates the unbelievable-but-true story of a 23 year-old French Algerian con man who assumes the identity of a missing Texas teenager. 2) “The Gatekeepers” is an eye-opening account of non-violent resistance in Bil’in, a Palestinian West Bank village threatened by encroaching Israeli settlements. And 3) Malik Benjelloul’s “Searching for Sugar Man” is the astonishing story of Detroit’s long-lost, enigmatic folk singer/musician Sixto Rodriguez.