Susan Granger’s dvd update for Friday, March 19:
The documentary “The Brothers Warner” is an intimate family portrait of four legendary Hollywood pioneers who founded and ran Warner Bros. studio for more than 50 years. Written and directed by Cass Warner Sperling, Harry Warner’s granddaughter, it contains never-before seen photos and footage of Hollywood’s Golden Years, including interviews with Dennis Hopper, Debbie Reynolds, Angie Dickinson, Norman Lear, Tab Hunter, Efrem Zimbalist Jr. and Samuel Goldwyn Jr.
“Hachiko: A Dog’s Story” is a G-rated tearjerker of faith, devotion and undying love, starring Richard Gere and Joan Allen in a re-make of the Japanese movie “Hachi” about a dog who each day waits by the train station years after his human friend dies.
Matt Dillon propels the action thriller “Armored” as an armored-truck guard who plans with his colleagues (Jean Reno, Laurence Fishburne, Skeet Ulrich) to heist $42 million from one of their company’s vehicles. But there’s a weak link in their chain, a good guy (Columbus Short), who is burdened by a conscience. And “Ninja Assassin” is an ultraviolent, chopsocky thriller about Japanese martial arts warriors, featuring South Korean pop star Rain as an orphan who was abducted by the 2,000 year-old Ozunu Clan and then went rogue.
For quirky comedy, there’s “Gentlemen Broncos” with Jemaine Clement, Jennifer Coolidge and Sam Rockwell about a lovable loner whose life is turned upside down when a pretentious fantasy author steals his story at a writers camp.
Inspired by the 1994 best-seller by French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam, “The Stoning of Soroya M.” chronicles in Farsi and English the story of an innocent Iranian woman stoned over fabricated charges of infidelity; director/co-writer Cyrus Nowrasteh spares little in depicting the execution, in which Soroya is buried to her chest with arms bound, and pelted with heavy rocks from close range until she bleeds to death.
PICK OF THE WEEK: “Astro Boy” is a sweet, endearing computer-animated adaptation of the 1950s-created child-turned-robot from Osamu Tezuka, the godfather of Japanese manga and anime utilizing the voices of Freddie Highmore, Kristen Bell, Nicolas Cage, Donald Sutherland and Nathan Lane.