New on DVD and Blu-ray: Blackhat, American Sniper, Fifty Shades of Grey
Hacker movies go back a surprisingly long way in Hollywood -- you can make the case that Francis Ford Coppola's 1974 classic The Conversation is a kind of proto-hacker movie. Stories of nefarious computer criminals peaked in the '80s and '90s, when the first iterations of the Internet started to freak us out a little.
Director Michael Mann's Blackhat -- new to DVD, Blu-ray and Digital HD -- is the latest hacker movie to mine our fears of cybercriminality. In computer security circles, a blackhat -- usually spelled as "black hat" -- is a hacker who manipulates computer systems for simple maliciousness or personal gain.
Alpha hunk Chris Hemsworth -- a curious casting choice -- headlines as computer genius and furloughed convict Nichoas Hathaway, doing time for high-end cyber fraud. He's the sort of hacker that can manipulate the prison commissary accounts given five minutes on a contraband mobile phone.
Hathaway is sprung from the penitentiary by FBI agent Carol Barrett (Viola Davis), who needs his expertise to track down a vicious hacker responsible for a nuclear plant explosion in China. Also on the team: Hathaway's old MIT roommate Chen (Wang Leehom), now a high-ranking Chinese intelligence official, and Chen's sister (Tang Wei), commercial software expert and designated love interest.
The utility infrastructure hack and subsequent nuclear explosion are intriguing and scary, but the computer hacking details are gradually abandoned as the gun fights, chase sequences and action scenes pile up. Mann and cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh tear through several locations in Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Jakarta, toggling between moody nighttime skylines and brutal urban combat.
The film also provides some cool CGI sequences where we follow the action of intrusion software on the silicon substrate level. If you're a fan of previous Michael Mann films like Heat, Miami Vice or Public Enemies, you'll find that Blackhat falls neatly into line. The DVD/Blu-ray retail combo pack includes featurettes on the characters, the locations, and the real world of cybercrime.
Also new on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital HD:
Nominated for six Academy Awards -- including Best Picture -- director Clint Eastwood's American Sniper tells the real-life story of Navy SEAL marksman Chris Kyle, who was killed by a fellow veteran in 2013. The film is based in part on Kyle's 2012 book American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History. The Blu-ray edition of the film includes two special features, One Soldier's Story and the behind-the-scenes doc The Making of American Sniper.
Based on the very, very popular book, Fifty Shades of Grey stars Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan a college student and billionaire, respectively, who enter into a -- hmm, "unconventional romance" is probably the polite term. The DVD bonus materials feature character profiles and some behind-the-scenes material; Blu-ray adds a half-dozen additional features, including an unrated cut of the film.
Julianne Moore headlines the indie drama Still Alice, as a college professor diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease. The role won Moore won last year's Academy Award for Best Actress. Both the DVD and Blu-ray editions add deleted scenes and three featurettes on the film's production and background.
From the Dept. of Reissues: Timed to the release of the sequel Mad Max: Fury Road, the original 1979 film has been released, with a truckload of bonus materials, in the Mad Max Collector's Edition Blu-ray. Speaking of the 1970s, the new box set Battlestar Galactica: The Definitive Collection packages all 24 episodes of the original series with the spin-off Galactica 1980 and hours of deleted scenes and bonus materials.
Plus: American Hercules: Babe Ruth, Hot Tub Time Machine 2, Leviathan, Lost River, Mommy, Mortdecai, These Final Hours and -- if you're in the market for a very funny sitcom collection -- Welcome to Sweden: The Complete First Season.
