New on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital: 22 Jump Street, Maleficent and A Most Wanted Man
A Most Wanted Man - 3 ½ stars
The tense and paranoid espionage thriller A Most Wanted Man, based on the 2008 John le Carré novel of the same name, features one of the last performances of the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman. Directed by Anton Corbijn (The American), it's a cerebral spy story that updates Cold War moviemaking tropes for our modern war on terrorism.
The film is set in German port city of Hamburg -- where the 9/11 attacks were planned 15 years ago -- and where past intelligence failures haunt the conscience of veteran anti-terror field agent Günther Bachmann.
Bachmann is played by Hoffman, and both the character and the actor have clearly been living hard. Pale and heavy, drink perpetually in hand, Bachmann moves with the slow, ponderous gravity of a rogue planet.
When a Chechen refugee named Issa Korpov (Grigoriy Dobrygin) arrives in the city, Bachmann's antennae twitch. Korpov takes shelter in the city's Muslim community and lays claim to an inheritance, worth 10 million Euros, at a Hamburg bank run by Tommy Brue (Willem Dafoe).
Other intriguing characters drop into the story: An Islamic philanthropist (Homayoun Ershadi) who may not be as philanthropic as he seems; an earnest civil rights attorney (Rachel McAdams) who takes up Issa's cause; and a suspiciously helpful CIA agent (Robin Wright).
Director Corbijn manages the twists and turns with casual storytelling confidence. Scenes are carefully assembled to provide the audience with what it needs to know, and nothing more. Tension is generated not with gun fights or chase scenes, but with quiet rendezvous in bleak locales -- a dilapidated river ferry, a basement pub. Well, there's one chase scene, through a strobe-lit disco, which is apparently de rigueur in Euro thrillers. But if I remember right, there are no guns fired in the entire movie.
You need heavyweight performers to pull this off, and that's what you get with Hoffman, Dobrygin, Dafoe and especially Robin Wright, who projects a lethal iciness beneath her calm professionalism (and alarming haircut). You also get some intriguing specifics on the actual process of international money laundering.
Fans of le Carré and his long procession of novels will appreciate the featurette included in the DVD/Blu-ray edition: "Spymaster: John le Carré in Hamburg."
Also New to DVD, Blu-ray and Digital:
One of the year's better family movies, Disney's visually lush Maleficent stars Angelina Jolie in the story of Sleeping Beauty, as told from the wicked witch's point of view. The digital effects are graceful and artistic in the manner of classic Disney animation, but with the power and pop of high technology. Even Jolie gets digitally painted with impossible horns and razor-sharp cheekbones. Extras include a package of behind-the-scenes featurettes on various aspects of the production -- concept art, fight choreography, digital effects and the film's elaborate costuming.
Hollywood's most surprisingly successful TV series reboot franchise returns with 22 Jump Street, starring Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill as undercover cops looking to bust a college drug ring. It's a buddy-cop action-comedy that's also a farce about buddy-cop action comedies. See how they did that?
In 1990, horror author Clive Barker directed the alt-slasher Nightbreed, a film which was itself ironically slashed to bits by the studio, resulting in a huge commercial flop. With Nightbreed: The Director's Cut, from pop culture archivists Shout Factory, the movie has been restored by Barker himself to its original vision. The 3-disc DVD/Blu-ray package includes 40 minutes of excavated footage.
The long-awaited film adaptation of the Tony-winning musical, Jersey Boys tells the origin story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.
Personally, I'm a sucker for disaster movies and Into the Storm offers up the latest in digital storm-of-the-century special effects.
A cop (Eric Bana) and a priest (Edgar Ramirez) team up to battle demons in the supernatural thriller Deliver Us From Evil.
The comedy/drama Begin Again stars Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo as a singer and a record label executive, respectively, navigating the rapidly changing world of the music business.
Actor/director Zach Braff returns with the crowdfunded indie Wish I Was Here, about an aspiring actor turned stay-at-home dad.
Based on the Elmore Leonard book The Switch, the comedy Life of Crime flew under the radar a bit, despite an ensemble cast including Jennifer Aniston, Tim Robbins, Will Forte, Isla Fisher and John Hawkes.
The Newsroom: Season 2 continues HBO's excellent political drama on the broadcast news business starring Jeff Daniels.
The New Zealand comedy horror movie Housebound -- which has been winning awards all over the place after its debut at South by Southwest last spring -- is now available on DVD.
Plus:
And So It Goes
Deadliest Catch: Season 9
The Dog
Drive Hard
If I Stay
Happy Christmas
Hercules
Hot in Cleveland: Season 5
Land Ho!
Let's Be Cops
Planes: Fire & Rescue
Queens of the Ring
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
Step Up All In
Tammy
Touch: Season 2
True Blood: Season 7
White Collar: Season 5
