Pacino hits right notes in ‘Danny Collins’
What’s new for home viewing on video-on-demand and Netflix, Amazon Prime and other streaming services.
Pay-per-view/ video on demand
“Danny Collins,” a genial redemption story about a rock legend who tries to reconnect with the son he’s never met, is a small character piece for Al Pacino, who makes the most of the role. Annette Benning, Bobby Cannavale, Jennifer Garner and Christopher Plummer co-star. It’s rated R for language, nudity, and drug use – he’s a rock star, after all – but it’s really quite sweet. Also on Blu-ray and DVD.
Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart team up for “Get Hard,” a comedy with an R rating and a juvenile sense of humor, and Sean Penn is “The Gunman” in an action film rated R for violence and language. Both also on disc.
Available same day as select theaters nationwide is the science fiction invasion adventure “Robot Overlords” with Ben Kingsley and Gillian Anderson and the romantic drama “Jackie and Ryan” with Katherine Heigl and Ben Barnes. Both are PG-13.
Amazon Instant Prime
The PBS historical drama hit “ Downton Abbey: Season 5” takes the Edwardian soap opera into the 1920s, and episodes of the CBS series “ Under the Dome: Season 3” are available the day after their network showing for Amazon Prime members.
“Nobody puts baby in a corner!” Get an ‘80s flashback with “ Dirty Dancing” (1987) with Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey, and “ Flashdance” (1983), starring Jennifer Beals as a welder by day and an exotic dancer by night.
For action fans there’s the cult gang thriller “ The Warriors” (1979) and the mismatched buddy picture “ 48 HRS.” (1982) with Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte, both from hard-edged action stylist Walter Hill, and the more lighthearted “ Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969) with Paul Newman and Robert Redford as the lovable western outlaws.
Netflix
“The Reluctant Fundamentalist” (2012), based on Mohsin Hamid’s best-selling novel, stars Riz Ahmed as a successful Pakistani businessman in America after the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. Kate Hudson, Liev Schrieber and Keifer Sutherland co-star.
John Sayles directs “The Secret of Roan Inish” (1994), a mix of family drama and modern fairy tale set in 1940s Ireland.
Hulu
Two takes on modern love: “Happy Accidents” (2000) is an old-fashioned romance starring Marisa Tomei as an unlucky-at-love New Yorker and Vincent D’Onofrio as a sensitive, sweet soul who may be a time traveler, and “Weekend” (2011), from the creator of HBO’s “Looking,” charts the evolution of a romance between two men from a one-night-stand to a weekend-long idyll.