‘Man’ probes post-9/11 power politics
Here’s what’s new for home viewing on video-on-demand and Netflix, Amazon Prime and other streaming services.
“A Most Wanted Man” (2014), the final film completed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, is a complex thriller of politics and intelligence in the post-9/11 world featuring one of the actor’s finest performances. He’s the head of a covert German intelligence team that monitors potential terrorist activity, a devoted patriot with a moral code in a culture of self-interest and power politics. Rated R for language. Now on Netflix and Amazon Prime.
“Transformers: Age of Extinction,” the fourth film in the blockbuster series based on the line of toys, is somewhat more juvenile. Much destruction is delivered in more than 2 1/2 hours of giant robot combat, which was curiously a hit in China. PG-13 for CGI mayhem and language. On Netflix and Amazon Prime.
Pay-per-view/ Video on Demand
Liam Neeson is back in action in the gritty crime thriller “Run All Night,” this time playing an alcoholic ex-mobster who sobers up to protect his estranged son from the vengeance of an Irish mobster (Ed Harris). R for bloody violence and language. Also on Blu-ray and DVD.
Where “Run” is gritty, “Chappie,” a “Robocop” fable in the crime-ridden future of Johannesburg, is downright brutal, not to mention poorly written and badly judged. The robot is cute, but this is R for sadistic violence and is not for kids. Also on Blu-ray and DVD.
“Wild Tales,” an Argentine anthology of short, punchy stories of frustration in the modern world with a streak of mordant humor, was nominated for a Foreign Language Oscar (also on disc). Much gentler is “Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter,” a sweetly offbeat American indie road picture about a young Japanese woman (Rinko Kikuchi) on a deluded quest in Minnesota (weeks before disc).
Available the same day as in select theaters is “The Face of an Angel,” Michael Winterbottom’s fictionalized take on the Meredith Kercher murder and the Amanda Knox media circus, plus the romantic drama “Manglehorn” with Al Pacino and the horror comedy “Burying the Ex” from director Joe Dante.
Netflix
Looking to keep the kids occupied? The 2006 animated film “ Curious George,” featuring the voices of Will Ferrell and Drew Barrymore, now joins the six seasons of the TV show, a favorite of the preschool set. For older kids, there’s the live action series “ Some Assembly Required,” a comedy about a toy company run by teenagers.
For the grownups, there’s “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” (2013), which chronicles decades of American social politics through the life of a White House butler (Forest Whitaker), and the latest seasons of the hit Shonda Rhimes shows “ Scandal: Season 4” and “ Grey’s Anatomy: Season 11.”