In 1957, Joanne Woodward delivered an Oscar®:-winning performance in The Three Faces of Eve as a young woman with three distinct personalities struggling for dominance. Thanks to Woodward’s performance and the film’s pedigree and polish, it overshadowed another film that arrived in theaters a few months earlier starring Eleanor Parker as a young woman with – you guessed it – three distinct personalities.

Parker, a three-time Oscar® nominee in her own right, was 35 when she played the role of the 25-year-old Elizabeth Richmond, an assistant in a natural museum who is plagued by headaches and illness. With simple dresses and skirts, minimal make-up and hair pulled back to create the plain, mousy girl, she plays the role with a nervous, furtive quality, as if living in perpetual fear. Lizzie, in sharp contrast, leaps out of the eternally tired Elizabeth aggressive and angry, like a coiled spring suddenly let go, and she applies make-up like a war mask to announce her arrival. It’s a plum role for the actress and Parker runs with it. As Elizabeth, she plays a convincingly younger woman, but looks older in experience, if not years, as the feral Lizzie, who comes on like an aggressive barfly version of Sunset Boulevard’s (1950) Norma Desmond. She adds another dimension when the third persona is pulled out through hypnosis, but the extremes of the shy, timid Elizabeth and the “coarse and evil” (in the words of the doc himself) Lizzie give Parker her meatiest opportunities.

Hugo Haas directs and plays the good-natured neighbor who takes an avuncular interest in Elizabeth.

Continue reading at TCM Online

Plays Monday, June 17 on Turner Classic Movies

New Releases:

James Franco plays “Oz the Great and Powerful” (Disney) in the Frank L. Baum adaptation from director Sam Raimi that plays out as a prequel to the classic “The Wizard of Oz.” Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, and Michelle Williams play the witches of Oz in this lavish production, originally released in 3D, and are more interesting characters than the shallow huckster who grows into a hero. Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD, and VOD. Videodrone’s review is here.

“Snitch” (Summit) is a Dwayne Johnson thriller that favors gritty crime drama over action movie superheroism. Susan Sarandon and Barry Pepper co-star. Blu-ray, DVD, On Demand, VOD, and at Redbox. Reviewed on Videodrone here.

“Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters” (Paramount) stars Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton as fairy tale character grown up into fantasy warriors dispatching wicked witches and other monsters preying on the hamlets of medieval Germany. Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD, On Demand, VOD, and at Redbox. More from Videodrone here, including an exclusive clip from the Blu-ray extras.

On the indie front is Quentin Dupieux’s “Wrong” (Drafthouse, Blu-ray and DVD), an absurdist tale of a man looking for his lost dog, and from the small screen comes “Betty & Coretta” (Lionsgate, DVD) with Angela Bassett and Mary J. Blige as civil rights leaders Coretta Scott King and Dr. Betty Shabazz.

And arriving from foreign shores is the erotic thriller “The Taste of Money” (IFC, DVD) from South Korean filmmaker Im Sang-soo, plus “11 Flowers” (First Run, DVD) from China and “The Monk” (Flatiron, DVD) with Vincent Cassel from France.

Most releases are also available as digital download and VOD via iTunes, Amazon, and other web retailers and video services.

Browse the complete New Release Rack here

TV on Disc:

“The Newsroom: The Complete First Season” (HBO), Aaron Sorkin’s HBO original series set at a cable news channel that is remarkably idealistic and full of brilliant people who have sharp political instincts and poor impulse control, arrives a month before the second season launches. 10 episodes on Blu-ray and DVD. Videodrone’s review is here.

“House of Cards: The Complete First Season” (Sony) brings the Netflix original series, produced by David Fincher and starring Kevin Spacey as a savagely Machiavellian politician, to disc. 13 episodes on Blu-ray and DVD. Reviewed on Videodrone here.

“Major Crimes: The Complete First Season” (Warner) reworks the TNT original series “The Closer” with Mary McDonnell taking charge of the crack Major Crimes squad, and I actually prefer this incarnation. 10 episodes on DVD.

“Killing Lincoln” (Fox, Blu-ray and DVD) is the docudrama originally produced for the National Geographic Channel and “After People” (History) collects four speculative documentaries on DVD. Also arriving this week: ”Wedding Band: The Complete First Season” (Fox, DVD), ”Burn Notice: Season Six” (Fox, DVD) and “Perry Mason: The Ninth and Final Season, Vol. 1” (Paramount, DVD)

Flip through the TV on Disc Channel Guide here

Cool and Classic:

“Enter the Dragon: 40th Anniversary” (Warner) is a new edition of the film that elevated martial arts star Bruce Lee to the status of international icon, and the last film that Lee completed before his untimely death. Blu-ray and DVD with new supplements. Videodrone’s review is here.

Ingmar Bergman’s “Wild Strawberries” (Criterion), a road movie transformed into a contemplative journey of an aging professor into his unexamined past, debuts on Blu-ray in a new restored digital film transfer. Reviewed on Videodrone here.

“At Long Last Love” (Fox) is the disc debut of Peter Bogdanovich’s musical which flopped on release but is getting a second look in a new cut on Blu-ray and DVD.

“Richard Pryor – No Pryor Restraint: Life in Concert” (Shout Factory) is a substantial package with all three concert films of the pioneering comedian and seven CDs of live performances, and “Rockshow” (Eagle Vision) delivers the 1980 Paul McCartney and Wings concert film on Blu-ray and DVD.

From Disney comes three Blu-ray+DVD Combo Pack double features, including “Atlantis: The Lost Empire / Milo’s Return” (Disney), and on the cult side, James Vanbebber’s “The Manson Family” (Severin) debuts on Blu-ray.

The MOD movies wrap this week looks at “Sitting Pretty” (20th Century Fox Cinema Archives), “A Guy Named Joe” (Warner Archive), and other classics making their disc debut.

All of the Cool and Classic here

Streams and Channels:

“Upstream Color” (2013), the latest low-budget / big-ideas headtrip from filmmaker Shane Carruth, hits Netflix mere weeks after its disc release. Not so much recommended as simply new is “Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection” (Lionsgate), which pairs Madea (Tyler Perry) up with Eugene Levy. Far less mainstream is “Kaboom” (2010) from queer icon Gregg Araki.

Reaching back a few more years, there’s the romantic thriller “The Deep End” (2001) with Tilda Swinton, the heist film “The Score” (2001) with Robert DeNiro and Edward Norton, and “At Close Range” (1986) with Sean Penn and Christopher Walken.

And for instant TV there is the ABC Family Channel series “Pretty Little Liars: Season 3,” “Private Practice: Season 6” (which is the final season of the medical series), and “The Glades: Season 3.”

HBO’s summer documentary series begins this week with “Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer,” a portrait of the art collective tried on charges of religious hatred in Russia. More on the series at Channeling Movies.

Browse more streaming and/or cable offerings here

New On Demand:

“Snitch,” starring Dwayne Johnson as a blue collar guy who goes undercover in a drug ring to save his son from prison, and “Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters,” the revisionist fairy tale as action fantasy with Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton, are available same day as disc and VOD.

Available on Friday, June 14, same day as theaters, is “Berberian Sound Studio,” an unusual tribute to the art of Italian horror filmmaking starring Toby Jones. Also making the rounds in theaters is “As Cool As I Am,” a comedy with Claire Danes and James Marsden.

Arriving before disc is the comedy anthology “Movie 43“ with an all-star cast but poor reviews, and the horror film “Twixt” from Francis Ford Coppola.

Available from Redbox this week:

“Snitch” (Summit, Blu-ray and DVD) with Dwayne Johnson and “Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters” (Paramount, Blu-ray and DVD) with Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton, are available same day as video stores and VOD.

Also arriving in Redbox kiosks this week: “Cloud Atlas” (Warner, Blu-ray and DVD), the sprawling, dazzling, ambitious collaboration between “Matrix” makers Lana and Andy Wachowski and Germany’s Tom Tykwer, and “Frankie Go Boom” (Universal, DVD), a comedy about sibling rivalry and practical joking gone awry starring Charlie Hunnam and Chris O’Dowd.

For a calendar of upcoming releases, click here

The Burglar (1957), a sweaty, tawdry pulp crime thriller set in the seedy lower depths of low-rent crooks and raw passions, was released as the classic studio system — and the era of prime film noir — was coming to an end. It both looks back to the tales of down-and-out criminals in a world of shifting loyalties and betrayals and forward to the more lurid suggestions of sixties movies and the stark imagery and striking location shooting more common to independently-made films.

Novelist David Goodis, author of such classics as Dark Passage (which was turned into a 1947 classic with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall) and Down There (transformed by Francois Truffaut into the nouvelle vague masterpiece of doom Shoot the Piano Player, 1960), adapted his own novel for the screen, and Paul Wendkos, a documentary filmmaker and a fellow Philadelphian, made his feature debut directing the film. Bringing it even closer to home, Wendkos shot the film largely in Philadelphia in the summer of 1955 (Wendkos captures the sweltering atmosphere of the city in summer) and even used the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra to perform the score.

The great character actor Dan Duryea centers the film with an easy, almost world-weary confidence as Nat Harbin, a career criminal and veteran safecracker who steals a priceless necklace and then holes up in a dump of a safe house in a seedy part of the city with his not-altogether-trustworthy gang.

Continue reading at TCM website

Plays on Friday, June 14 on Turner Classic Movies

New Releases:

Memorial Day week is usually light in new releases and this year is no different.

“Dark Skies” (Anchor Bay) stars Keri Russell and Josh Hamilton as suburban parents who find their haunted home is actually the work of aliens who have targeted their family for abduction. These are clearly not exactly the benevolent extraterrestrials of “E.T.” Blu-ray, DVD, On Demand and at Redbox. Reviewed on Videodrone here.

“Lore” (Music Box) looks at Germany in the aftermath of defeat from the perspective of a teenage girl getting her first hard look at the culture of bigotry and Antisemitism when survival is on the line. Blu-ray, DVD, and at Redbox.

Also new: “The Numbers Station” (RLJ, Blu-ray and DVD) with John Cusack and Malin Ackerman and “Priest of Evil” (Shout Factory, DVD) from Finland.

Most releases are also available as digital download and VOD via iTunes, Amazon, and other web retailers and video services.

Browse the complete New Release Rack here

TV on Disc:

“Longmire: The Complete First Season” (Warner), the new A&E modern frontier cop show based on the Wyoming-set mystery novels by Craig Johnson, stars Robert Taylor as Sheriff Walt Longmire, a hard-bitten Sheriff with cowboy sensibility. The show has a style and attitude to match the character and setting. It is now the channel’s top drama, and deservedly so, and this set arrives as the new season begins on A&E. 10 episodes on two discs on DVD. Videodrone’s review is here.

“Doctor Who: Season Seven, Part Two” (BBC) and the Christmas special “Doctor Who: The Snowmen” (BBC) introduce the Doctor’s new companion: Clara (Jenna-Louise Coleman), the impossible girl and the spunkiest, most self-assured sidekick yet. Blu-ray and DVD. Reviewed on Videodrone here.

New seasons of two of USA network’s most successful shows roll out before they return for their summer runs: the legal drama “Suits: Season Two” (Universal) and the spy series “Covert Affairs: Season Three” (Universal) with Piper Perabo. Both 16 episodes on three discs on DVD.

“Red Widow: The Complete First Season” (ABC, DVD) is in fact the only season of the short-lived thriller with Radha Mitchell and runs a mere eight episodes on two discs, while ”Beetlejuice: The Complete Series” (Shout Factory, DVD) collects all 94 episodes of the animated series in a 12-disc box set.

Flip through the TV on Disc Channel Guide here

Cool and Classic:

“Medium Cool” (Criterion), Haskell Wexler’s 1969 social portrait starring Robert Forster as a disconnected news photographer, is most famous for shooting scenes at the riots of the 1968 Democratic National Convention. But apart from that, this introspective drama is a fascinating document from the late 1960s and a response to the political cinema of Jean-Luc Godard in an American idiom. Blu-ray and DVD and packed with new and archival supplements. Reviewed on Videodrone here.

“Shoot First, Die Later” (Raro), from Italian gangster specialist Fernando di Leo, stars Luc Merenda as a corrupt cop on a mission of revenge against the mob. It’s another of his gritty, violent dives into the underworld, but this time the conflicts are more personal. It’s on Blu-ray and DVD and is also slated for inclusion in Raro’s second box set of Fernando di Leo gangster movies coming later this year. Videodrone’s review is here.

Debuting on Blu-ray is “Cleopatra: 50th Anniversary” (Fox), the most lavish, grandiose epic of the 1960s in a newly remastered edition, and “Rolling Thunder” (Shout Factory), the seventies revenge thriller co-written by Paul Schrader.

Also new: “Life is Sweet” (Criterion, Blu-ray and DVD), Mike Leigh’s 1990 seriocomic working class comedy, and “Swimming to Cambodia” (Shout Factory, DVD), the Spalding Gray performance piece directed by Jonathan Demme.

The MOD Movies feature for the week profiles more pre-code releases from Warner Archive: “Forbidden Hollywood: Volume 6” (Warner Archive) and “Forbidden Hollywood: Volume 7” (Warner Archive), plus Eddie Cantor in “Whoopee!” (Warner Archive) and Clark Gable in “Polly of the Circus” (Warner Archive). At Videodrone here.

All of the Cool and Classic here

Streams and Channels:

Seven years after it left the air, a new season of the cult sitcom, “Arrested Development” debuts on Netflix. All 15 episodes of the show debuted at once on Sunday, May 26, just in time for fans to binge-watch through the Memorial Day weekend. More here.

Also on Netflix is “The Intouchables” (2011) from France, starring Omar Sy as a brash Senegalese man who becomes caregiver to the rich, cultured, and paralyzed François Cluzet, and “Leaving Las Vegas” (1995), which earned Nicolas Cage an Oscar for his performance as an alcoholic who decides to end it all by drinking himself to death.

Reaching way, way back are some silent movie landmarks, including some of the great films of Fritz Lang: “Die Nibelungen: Siegfried” (1924) and “Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild’s Revenge” (1924), which together make the original blood and thunder fantasy epic, the dizzying, breakneck-paced thriller “Spies” (1928), and his science fiction epic “Woman in the Moon” (1929).

Debuting on HBO this week is “Behind the Candelabra,” Steven Soderberg’s take on the queasily strange but true story of Scott Thorson, who for five years was Liberace’s live-in lover before he was booted to the curb without a cent. The made-for-cable film stars Michael Douglas is Liberace and Matt Damon as Thorson. Videodrone’s review is here.

Browse more Instant offerings here

New On Demand:

“Dark Skies,” the alien possession horror film with Keri Russell and Josh Hamilton, is available same day as disc. Also available is the German-language drama “Lore.”

Arriving before theaters is the documentary “The Secret Disco Revolution” (Tuesday, May 28) and the Viking adventure “Hammer of the Gods” (Thursday, May 30).

Available from Redbox this week:

The horror film “Dark Skies” (Anchor Bay) is available on Blu-ray and DVD same day as stores. Also arriving in Redbox kiosks this week is “Broken City” (Fox) with Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

For a calendar of upcoming releases, click here

New Releases:

“Side Effects” (Universal), medical drama-turned-psychol​ogical thriller with Jude Law and Rooney Mara, is ostensibly the last feature film from Steven Soderbergh, and it’s a pretty sharp piece of filmmaking. Kind of like an updated Joe Esterhaus thriller from the nineties, only smarter and without any ice picks in sight. Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand. Videodrone’s review is here.

“Beautiful Creatures” (Warner), the latest teen romance with a supernatural setting, stars Alice Englert as the new girl in town with magical powers and Alden Ehrenreich as the local boy entwined with her fate. Apparently it wasn’t popular to spawn a franchise. Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand.

On the more traditionally action-oriented front, there is “The Last Stand” (Lionsgate, Blu-ray, DVD, On Demand and at Redbox), the Arnold Schwarzenegger come-back film, and “Parker” (Sony, Blu-ray, DVD, On Demand and at Redbox), with Jason Statham as the brutal anti-hero of the Richard Stark’s crime novels. Skewing older is “Stand Up Guys” (Lionsgate, Blu-ray, DVD, and at Redbox), the geriatric gangster buddy film with Al Pacino, Christopher Walken and Alan Arkin.

“The ABCs of Death” (Magnet, Blu-ray and DVD) is an indie anthology horror film with 26 short pieces, “The Rolling Stones: Crossfire Hurricane” (Eagle Rock) looks back on the first two decades of the legendary band, and the Israeli drama “Yossi” (Strand, DVD) toplines the foreign list this week.

“Citizen Hearst” (HBO, DVD) and “Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters” (Zeitgeist, DVD) lead off the features in the monthly “True Stories” roundup. More releases here.

Most releases are also available as digital download and VOD via iTunes, Amazon, and other web retailers and video services.

Browse the complete New Release Rack here

TV on Disc:

“True Blood: The Complete Fifth Season” (HBO) is the final season of HBO’s gothic pulp vampire melodrama supervised by Alan Ball, and he goes for broke with the most extreme season yet: more blood, more conspiracies, more transformations, and way more internal wars within and between the species. A little too much for many fans, but it’s still addictive supernatural soap opera for many others. Oh, Sookie! 12 episodes on Blu-ray and DVD, plus commentary tracks, featurettes, and other supplements. Videodrone’s review is here.

“Teen Wolf: Season 2” (Fox), MTV’s entry in the supernatural teenager series, is turning out to be one of the best of the genre and a much more interesting and engaging series than “True Blood,” as far as I’m concerned. 12 episodes on two discs on DVD. Reviewed on Videodrone here.

“Perception: The Complete First Season” (ABC) is TNT’s latest attempt at the high-concept detective show with a damaged genius in the lead, this one with Eric McCormack as a schizophrenic neuroscience professor who can’t separate his hallucinations from real life. 10 episodes on two discs, DVD. Videodrone’s review is here.

Plus: “Saving Hope: The Complete First Season” (eOne), which is also the only season of this cancelled medical show-turned-supernat​ural drama, and “The Aquabats Super Show: Season One” (Shout! Factory), a kid’s show with “the world’s first musical crime-fighting super group.” Both DVD.

Flip through the TV on Disc Channel Guide here

Cool and Classic:

“The Ultimate Gangsters Collection: Classics” (Warner) and “The Ultimate Gangsters Collection: Contemporary” (Warner) present nine films on Blu-ray, from 1931 to 2006, and a bonus documentary on DVD, across two box sets. You can enter to win a copy of both volumes in a giveaway from MSN and Warner Home Entertainment. Videodrone’s review is here.

Two of Hayao Miyazaki’s animated films debut on Blu-ray: “My Neighbor Totoro” (Disney) from 1988, a gentle film of magic and imagination in a time of childhood anxiety and Miyazaki’s first genuine masterpiece, and his 2004 fantasy adventure “Howl’s Moving Castle” (Disney). Both in Blu-ray+DVD combo packs with Japanese and English soundtracks. Reviewed on Videodrone here.

“National Lampoon’s Vacation: 30th Anniversary Edition” (Warner) is a new Blu-ray release of the family road movie comedy with a new documentary.

Cult films from Italy: “Cold Eyes of Fear” (Redemption) and “The Sinful Nuns of St. Valentine” (Redemption), two exploitation horrors of the seventies, are restored for Blu-ray and DVD, and the spaghetti western “Grand Duel” (Blue Underground) with Lee Van Cleef arrives in DVD with the four-disc collection “Spaghetti Westerns Unchained” (Blue Underground).

Also new: the disc debuts of horror films “The Burning” (Shout! Factory) and “The Town that Dreaded Sundown” (Shout! Factory) on Blu-ray+DVD Combo Pack special editions and the Blu-ray debut of the 1990 “Captain America” (Shout Factory) in its correct aspect ratio.

All the Cool and Classic here

Streams and Channels:

The Netflix original revival of “Arrested Development” debuts on Sunday, May 26 with 15 episodes. Meanwhile, here’s what currently new and available on Netflix Instant.

“The Dictator” (2012) is a Sacha Baron Cohen comedy without the mock-documentary stuntwork of “Borat.” Which means the gleefully outrageous bad taste and wild exaggerations are pushed to even more cartoonish extremes.

“Defiance” (2008) is a real-life World War II drama with Daniel Craig. Not new but getting a lot of renewed interest is “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” (1982), still the best of the big screen “Star Trek” movies.

And here are a couple of recommended titles that aren’t on disc yet: “Longmire: Season 1,” the A&E original series starring Robert Taylor, Katee Sackhoff, and Lou Diamond Phillips, and the shadowy British psychological drama “The October Man” (1947).

Browse more Instant offerings here

New On Demand:

“Side Effects,” Steven Soderbergh’s medical drama-turned-psychol​ogical thriller with Jude Law and Rooney Mara, and “Beautiful Creatures,” the first film in a new supernatural teen romance franchise, are now available.

Also new is Arnold Schwarzenegger’s come-back action film “The Last Stand” and “Parker” with Jason Statham and Jennifer Lopez.

Arriving before theatrical release are two comedies: “Free Samples” with Jess Weixler and Jesse Eisenberg and “Kid-Thing” with Sydney Aguirre and Nathan Zellner.

Available from Redbox this week:

Arriving day and date with video stores is “The Last Stand” (Lionsgate Blu-ray and DVD), Arnold Schwarzenegger’s come-back action film, “Parker” (Sony, Blu-ray and DVD) with Jason Statham, and “Stand Up Guys” (Lionsgate, Blu-ray and DVD) with Al Pacino, Christopher Walken and Alan Arkin.

Also arriving in Redbox kiosks this week is “Gangster Squad” (Warner, Blu-ray and DVD), with Josh Brolin and Ryan Gosling as cops in 1940s Los Angeles, and “Promised Land” (Universal, Blu-ray and DVD), a drama about fracking in Midwest farmlands written by and starring Matt Damon and John Krasinski.

For a calendar of upcoming releases, click here

New Releases:

“Cloud Atlas” (Warner), the sprawling, dazzling, ambitious collaboration between “Matrix” makers Lana and Andy Wachowski and Germany’s Tom Tykwer weaves together the six distinctive stories in six different eras with a cast that reappears throughout the timelines. At once literal and evasive, this is a film that wears its heart on its beautifully stitched sleeve and its meaning in its design and yet finds so many facets in which to mirror its ideas throughout its incarnations. It failed to connect with audiences on its initial release, but gets a second chance on home video, where its 170-minute length may not be such an issue. Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand. Videodrone’s review is here.

Check out MSN’s exclusive “Cloud Atlas” infographic and enter to win a Blu-ray combo pack from MSN and Warner Home Video.

“A Glimpse Inside the Mind Of Charles Swan III” (Lionsgate), the first feature from Roman Coppola since “CQ” more than a decade ago, stars Charlie Sheen as a hedonistic, ego-fueled graphic artist facing an early-life crisis. Blu-ray and DVD, also at Redbox.

“Frankie Go Boom” (Universal), a comedy about sibling rivalry and practical joking gone awry starring Charlie Hunnam and Chris O’Dowd “possesses a surprisingly sweet heart,” recommends MSN film critic Kat Murphy. Blu-ray and DVD

Plus: the latest reboot of the landmark horror film titled simply “Texas Chainsaw” (Lionsgate, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD, On Demand and at Redbox) and the historical epic “Back to 1942” (Well Go, Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand) from China.

Most releases are also available as digital download and VOD via iTunes, Amazon, and other web retailers and video services.

Browse the complete New Release Rack here

TV on Disc:

The central conflict of “Dexter: The Seventh Season” (Paramount), Showtime’s blackly-comic series about TV’s favorite serial-killer hero, isn’t with another killer. This season Dexter’s (Michael C. Hall) adoptive sister Debra (Jennifer Carpenter), who happens to be a police detective, discovers his secret and has to come to terms with the fact that her brother is the killer she’s been hunting all these seasons. Family secrets can be so divisive. Blu-ray and DVD. Videodrone’s review is here.

“The Bletchley Circle” (PBS) is a self-contained British mystery mini-series set in 1950s London, but it could easily launch a continuing series based on the strength of its characters, a quartet of women who were code breakers during World War II, and its setting. Blu-ray and DVD. Reviewed on Videodrone here.

“Liz and Dick” (eOne, DVD) is the Lifetime original movie starring Lindsay Lohan as Elizabeth Taylor and Grant Bowler as Richard Burton and “Dance Academy: Season One” (Flatiron, DVD) is the Australian teen drama about first-year students at a ballet school in Sydney that debuted stateside on TeenNick.

Flip through the TV on Disc Channel Guide here

Cool and Classic:

Two pair of smart adult westerns from director Delmer Daves get the Criterion treatment: the original “3:10 to Yuma” (Criterion) with Glenn Ford as a cunning outlaw and Van Heflin as the farmer who takes him to prison, and “Jubal” (Criterion), a reworking of “Othello” on a frontier ranch with Ford, Ernest Borgnine, and Rod Steiger. Both on Blu-ray and DVD with minimal supplements. Reviewed on Videodrone here.

“French Masterworks: Russian Émigrés in Paris 1923-1928” (Flicker Alley) presents of the DVD debut of five silent classics from Film Albatros, a French studio founded by Russian artists: “The Burning Crucible,” “Kean,” “The Late Mathias Pascal,” and two director by Jacques Feyder, “Gribiche” and ‘The New Gentlemen.” Videodrone’s review is here.

“The Henry Fonda Film Collection” (Fox) collects ten features from 1939 to 1958, including “Drums Along the Mohawk” (1939), “The Grapes of Wrath” (1941), and “My Darling Clementine” (1946). DVD

More Hal Hartley comes back to disc, including his feature debut “The Unbelievable Truth” (Olive, Blu-ray and DVD) and the double feature “The Book of Life / The Girl from Monday” (Olive, DVD). Reviewed on Videodrone here.

John Stahl’s noir-tinged Technicolor melodrama “Leave Her to Heaven” (Twilight Time) debuts on Blu-ray.

The MOD Movies round-up this week looks at a selection of films by the great directors debuting on disc through manufacture-on-deman​​d.

All of the Cool and Classic here

New on Netflix Instant:

Horror films take top honors on Netflix new releases, from “House at the End of the Street” (2012) with newly-anointed Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence to the Norwegian Nazi zombie film “Dead Snow” (2009) to Ben Wheatley’s “Kill List” (2011), a hitman thriller that swerves into a jangly horror film.

For fans of extreme cinema, here are a couple that will shake up even the hardiest souls: Lars von Trier’s “Antichrist” (2009) with Willen Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg and Gaspar Noe’s violent “Irreversible” (2002). Much lighter is the action comedy “Hit & Run” (2012) with Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell and the Bollywood musical “Lagaan” (2001).

Plenty of classics have also recently arrived, including the 1941 swashbuckler “The Corsican Brothers” (1941) and a number of film noirs and dramas with darker edges, like “Raw Deal” (1948), “99 River Street” (1953), and “The Gun Runners” (1958).

Browse more Instant offerings here

New On Demand:

“Cloud Atlas” arrives On Demand same day as disc, as does the horror reboot “Texas Chainsaw” and the Chinese historical drama “Back to 1942.”

Arriving days after theatrical debuts (and long before disc) are Ben Wheatley’s black comedy “Sightseers” and the action film “Java Heat” with Kellan Lutz and Mickey Rourke.

Available Friday, same day as theatrical release, are the thriller “Black Rock” with Kate Bosworth and Lake Bell, Kim Ki-Duk’s “Pieta” from South Korea, and the documentary “Hating Breitbart.”

Available from Redbox this week:

“A Glimpse Inside the Mind Of Charles Swan III” (Lionsgate, DVD), a comedy starring Charlie Sheen as a hedonistic graphic designer in the seventies, and the “Texas Chainsaw” (Lionsgate, Blu-ray and DVD) topline the new arrivals in the kiosks this week.

For a calendar of upcoming releases, click here

New Releases:

“Jack Reacher” (Paramount), based on the ninth novel in Lee Child’s “Jack Reacher” series, brings the action hero to the screen with Tom Cruise in the lead. Fans were resistant – Cruise is not exactly the strapping six-foot-two-inch figure described by Child in the books – but Child gave his approval, director / screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie wrote a sharp adaptation, and Tom Cruise is an actor who commits completely to his films. Blu-ray, DVD, On Demand and at Redbox. Reviewed on Videodrone here.

“Safe Haven” (Fox), this season’s Nicholas Sparks adaptation, pairs up Julianne Hough as a mysterious beauty with a dangerous past and Josh Duhamel as a ruggedly handsome widower. MSN has a giveaway for Mother’s Day; details on the contest and the prize package here. Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand.

“Side Effects” (Universal), a medical drama-turned-psychol​​ ogical thriller with Jude Law and Rooney Mara, is ostensibly the last feature film from Steven Soderbergh, and it’s a pretty sharp piece of filmmaking. Kind of like an updated Joe Esterhaus thriller from the nineties, only smarter and without any ice picks in sight. Blu-ray and DVD

“Mama” (Universal) is “a good old-fashioned horror story” starring Jessica Chastain. Guillermo Del Toro, who knows a thing or two about eerie horror with human dimensions, produces. Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand.

“Upstream Color” (New Video, Blu-ray+DVD Combo and On Demand), the latest headtrip from filmmaker Shane Carruth, hits disc while still fascinating audiences in theaters. “Starlet” (Music Box, Blu-ray and DVD) is an indie character drama from Sean Baker. ”The Rabbi’s Cat” (GKids, Blu-ray+DVD Combo Pack) is an animated feature from France and “Citizen Hearst” (HBO, DVD) is a documentary on William Randolph Hearst that received a limited theatrical release.

And don’t forget Videodrone’s B-sides wrap-up of direct-to-disc and made-for-cable films.

Most releases are also available as digital download and VOD via iTunes, Amazon, and other web retailers and video services.

Browse the complete New Release Rack here

TV on Disc:

“Fringe: The Complete Fifth and Final Season” (Warner) brings closure to the brainy weird science fiction show of parallel universes and dimension-hopping villains with a final chapter set twenty years in the future. It’s not the show’s best season but it is a memorable wrap to an ambitious show that filled the gap left by “The X-Files” with stories built around trippy concepts. 13 episodes on Blu-ray and DVD. Also arriving is the box set “Fringe: The Complete Series” (Warner, Blu-ray and DVD). Videodrone’s review is here.

“30 Rock: Season 7 – The Final Season” (Universal), meanwhile, brings happy endings to Tina Fey’s madcap sitcom of life in the halls of network television and insane TV stars. 13 episodes, DVD. Reviewed on Videodrone here.

“Steel Magnolias” (Sony) is the updated TV movie remake of the hit stage play with Queen Latifah, who co-produced the film for Lifetime. “Liberace: The Ultimate Entertainer” (Timeless) is a two-disc set of TV appearances featuring the flamboyant pianist and celebrity entertainer. Both DVD.

Plus: “K9: The Complete Series” (Shout Factory, DVD), the 2009 “Doctor Who” spin-off for the kid set, and the end of the run for two more TV shows: the contemporary medical drama “Private Practice: The Complete Sixth and Final Season” (ABC, DVD) and the classic western “Have Gun-Will Travel: The Final Season” with Richard Boone (Paramount, DVD).

Flip through the TV on Disc Channel Guide here

Cool and Classic:

“Band of Outsiders” (Criterion) is one of Jean-Luc Godard’s most cinematically playful films, an anti-”Jules And Jim” love triangle crime caper with Anna Karina (Godard’s muse of the early sixties) as the innocent sucked into the schemes of best friends Claude Brasseur and Sami Frey. Criterion released it on DVD a decade ago but remasters it from a new 2010 high-definition restoration for its Blu-ray debut. Videodrone’s review is here.

“The Great Escape” (Fox), the prison escape classic starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, and Charles Bronson and directed by John Sturges (of “The Magnificent Seven” fame), debuts on Blu-ray for the film’s 50th anniversary.

“Superman: Unbound” (Warner) is the latest DC Universe Animated Original Movie, this one based on the graphic novel “Superman: Brainiac.” Blu-ray and DVD, with lots of supplements.

Marlon Brando made his screen debut in “The Men” (Olive) and the superstars of old Hollywood come out in “The Enforcer” (Olive), the 1950 crime thriller with Humphrey Bogart, and “Cloak and Dagger” (Olive), a World War II conspiracy thriller with Gary Cooper. All on Blu-ray and DVD.

“Shanghai Noon / Shanghai Knights” (Touchstone) presents the respective Blu-ray debuts of both Jackie Chan / Owen Wilson old west action comedies in a double feature. And arriving on Blu-ray from Fox is “The Verdict” (Fox) with Paul Newman in one of his great performances, “Brubaker” (Fox) with Robert Redford, and “Viva Zapata” (Fox) with Marlon Brando (the latter previously available exclusively in a box set).

Plus Videodrone’s B-sides wrap-up of direct-to-disc and made-for-cable films.

All of the Cool and Classic here

New on Netflix Instant:

“The Cabin in the Woods” (2011) is the wily, witty, very entertaining love letter to horror movie fandom from director Drew Goddard and co-writer / producer Joss Whedon.

“John Dies at the End” (2012), from cult filmmaker Don Coscarelli, sends two college dropouts (Chase Williamson and Rob Mayes) on a drug-induced journey into another dimension where an invasion of Earth may be underway.

Netflix recently got a lot of hate press when some 1800 titles expired last week. But don’t panic, there’s a big batch of new titles filling in the back catalog, from classics like “The Three Musketeers” (1975) and “Pulp Fiction” (1994) to hits like “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” (2001) and “Dirty Dancing” (1987) to films waiting to be rediscovered like “Big Night” (1996) with Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub, “Murder by Decree” (1979) with Christopher Plummer as Sherlock Holmes, and “The Man in the Moon” (1991) and the film debut of Reese Witherspoon.

Browse more Instant offerings here

New On Demand:

“Jack Reacher,” with Tom Cruise as Lee Child’s tough-guy drifter hero, toplines the On Demand offerings this week. Also arriving same day as disc is the Nicholas Sparks romantic drama “Safe Haven” with Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel, the horror film “Mama” with Jessica Chastain, the headtrip indie drama “Upstream Color” from Shane Carruth, and the suburban satire “The Oranges.”

Available before disc release is the mob comedy “Stand Up Guys” with Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, and Alan Arkin, and the documentary “Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey,” the portrait of a Journey cover band.

Arriving Friday, May 10, same day as its theatrical debut, is the horror film “Aftershock” with Eli Roth and Selena Gomez. And available before it hits theaters is the action film “Vehicle 19” with Paul Walker.

Available from Redbox this week:

“Jack Reacher” (Paramount) arrives same day as disc and digital on both Blu-ray and DVD. Also arriving in Redbox kiosks this week: “Hyde Park on Hudson” (Universal) starring Bill Murray as Franklin D. Roosevelt, “John Dies at the End” (Magnolia) from cult filmmaker Don Coscarelli, and the spoof “A Haunted House” (Universal).

For a calendar of upcoming releases, click here

Fifteen years after the American transcontinental railway was completed, construction began on the Canadian Pacific Railway to connect British Columbia to Eastern Canada. For the purposes of the 1949 film Canadian Pacific, it’s simply a setting for a western in the mountains and forests of western Canada, where the challenge of finding a route through the Rocky Mountains is compounded by the opposition of local trappers and Indian tribes. It is, shall we say, a portrait that refuses to let history dictate the details of the story.

Randolph Scott stars as Tom Andrews, the buckskin-clad surveyor and “trouble boss,” a kind of foreman who has an instinct for spotting troublemakers and intervening in a very physical way before they have a chance to make any trouble. Scott plays Tom as a classic Scott cowboy: ramrod straight, with a big smile, quick fists, and fast draw. He instantly clashes with the railway’s new doctor, Edith Cabot (Jane Wyatt), a cultured pacifist who abhors violence, before returning to Cecille (Nancy Olson), the frontier girl he met in the local trapper settlements while searching for the pass. It’s a classic dichotomy: the man of the west torn between the wild frontier gal and the civilized society woman. In this pairing, trapper’s daughter Olson is the gentler, more romantic of the two, while Wyatt plays the doctor as a fiery, obstinate woman under the corset and severe speeches.

Needless to say, circumstances toss Tom together with Edith while Cecille’s people are whipped up into an anti-railway frenzy by the wonderfully-named villain Dirk Rourke (Victor Jory), a fur trader who fears his monopoly on the trading posts will be broken by the railway. Stir in stolen dynamite, Indian tribes on the warpath, and liquor-induced labor unrest, and you’ve got a war over the rails. Prolific character actor J. Carrol Naish, usually relegated to roles as villains or even Indians, provides color and comic relief as the sourdough Dynamite Dawson, an old coot with a bushy beard who drawls tall tales (“I once won the Kentucky Derby!”) as the railway munitions man and Tom’s most trusted ally.

Continue reading at Turner Classic Movies

Plays on Saturday, May 11 on TCM

New Releases:

“Silver Linings Playbook” (Anchor Bay), directed by David O. Russell, earned eight Academy Award nominations and won an Oscar for Jennifer Lawrence as a young widow who is only slightly less crazy that Bradley Cooper’s bi-polar schoolteacher. Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver co-star in this offbeat comic drama of an oddly functional family of dysfunctional individuals. Blu-ray, DVD, On Demand and at Redbox. Reviewed on Videodrone here.

“Not Fade Away” (Paramount), the autobiographical feature debut by David Chase, got lost in the awards-season releases at the end of the year. Ostensibly the story of a band, it’s really the story of growing up in the sixties and it is as interesting and unexpected as you would hope for from the creator of “The Sopranos.” Blu-ray, DVD, On Demand and at Redbox. Videodrone’s review is here.

“Broken City” (Fox) is a drama of compromised cops and corrupt politicians with Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe and Catherine Zeta-Jones. MSN has a drawing for a free Blu-ray and a poster signed by Wahlberg and director Allen Hughes. Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand.

Also new this week: the road movie comedy “The Guilt Trip” (Paramount, Blu-ray, DVD, On Demand, and at Redbox) with Barbra Streisand and Seth Rogen and the black comedy “The Details” (Anchor Bay, Blu-ray and DVD) with Toby Maguire and Elizabeth Banks.

“Thale” (XLrator, Blu-ray+DVD Combo), a dark fairy tale from Norway, leads off the foreign films and the documentaries of the week are toplined by “Happy People: A Year in Taiga” (Music Box, DVD), a Russian documentary reedited by Werner Herzog, and “Walk Away Renee” (IFC, DVD) from Jonathan Caouette.

Most releases are also available as digital download and VOD via iTunes, Amazon, and other web retailers and video services.

Browse the complete New Release Rack here

TV on Disc:

“China Beach: The Complete Collection” (Time Life) is not the first American TV series to tackles the war in Vietnam in a dramatic format, but it was the first successful such show, running for four seasons and winning Emmy awards of Dana Delaney (she won for Lead Actress twice) and Marg Helgenberger. 62 episodes on 21 discs in a DVD box set. Videodrone’s review is here.

“Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season Three” (Paramount) and “Star Trek: The Next Generation – The Best of Both Worlds” (Paramount), the epic two-part Season Three finale edited into a feature-length presentation (it played theaters in a special-event screening earlier this year), debut on Blu-ray.

Plus: the 2010 TV mini-series “Ben Hur” (Sony, DVD), the five-part British drama “The Syndicate: Series 1” (Acorn, DVD), and the box set “The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries: Complete Collection” (Acorn).

The MOD disc coverage this week rounds up recent TV offerings via manufacture on demand, including “Dr. Kildare: The Complete First Season” (Warner Archive), which made a star of Richard Chamberlain. The complete round-up here.

Flip through the TV on Disc Channel Guide here

Cool and Classic:

“The Notebook: Ultimate Collector’s Edition” (New Line) delivers a Blu-ray+DVD Combo special edition of the tear-jerker romance that made a star of Ryan Gosling. Based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks, it stars Rachel McAdams, James Garner, and Gena Rowlands, and the new edition comes with keepsakes. MSN’s drawing for a free copy is over but the details are on the contest page here.

“Major Dundee” (Twilight Time), the epic western that Sam Peckinpah called his “lost masterpiece,” debuts on Blu-ray with both the original theatrical and extended version of the film. Videodrone’s review is here.

“The Vampire Lovers” (Shout Factory), the first of Hammer Films’ trilogy of erotic horror based on Sheridan Le Fanu’s “Carmilla,” stars her culty-ness Ingrid Pitt and debuts on Blu-ray. Reviewed on Videodrone here.

“French Masterworks: Russian Émigrés in Paris 1923-1928” (Flicker Alley) presents of the DVD debut of five silent classics from Film Albatros, a French studio founded by Russian artists: “The Burning Crucible,” “Kean,” “The Late Mathias Pascal,” and two director by Jacques Feyder, “Gribiche” and ‘The New Gentlemen.”

Plus “Message From Space” (Shout Factory, DVD), a Japanese “Star Wars” knock-off from director Kinji Fukasaku with Vic Morrow and Sonny Chiba, and a new edition of the Australian time-travel drama “The Navigator” (Hens Tooth, DVD).

All of the Cool and Classic here

Streams and Channels:

New on Netflix this week: “The Paperboy” (2012), Lee Daniels’ overheated crime thriller follow-up to “Precious,” is an aggressively sordid swamp noir starring Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron, and Matthew McConaughey.

Plus: “A Royal Affair” (2012), one of the five nominees for Best Foreign Language Feature at this year’s Academy Awards, is an historical costume drama with Mad Mikkelson, currently starring as Hannibal Lector on American TV. ”Girl in Progress” (2012) stars Eva Mendes as a single mom with a rebellious daughter (Cierra Ramirez) who is wise beyond her years, or at least she thinks so and “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” (2012) is not actually recommended by anyone, but it is a new comedy with a big, bright cast. So there’s that.

And I dug into the new series on Netflix, Jane Campion’s “Top of the Lake” and Eli Roth’s “Hemlock Grove,” on Videodrone here.

Browse more Instant offerings here

New On Demand:

“Silver Linings Playbook,” the offbeat romantic comic drama Bradley Cooper, Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence, and Robert DeNiro, is Videodrone’s pick of the week, but there’s plenty more to choose from: the cop thriller “Broken City” with Mark Wahlberg and Russell Crowe, the comedy “The Guilt Trip” with Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand, and “Not Fade Away” from “The Sopranos” creator David Chase.

“The Reluctant Fundamentalist,” which debuted in theaters last week, is now also available On Demand. And arriving before its theatrical debut is the comedy “Syrup” with Kellan Lutz, Amber Heard, and Brittany Snow. It premieres on May 2.

Available from Redbox this week:

Arriving day and date with video stores is “Silver Linings Playbook” (Anchor Bay, Blu-ray and DVD) with Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, and Robert DeNiro; “The Guilt Trip” (Paramount, Blu-ray and DVD) with Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand, and “Not Fade Away” (Paramount, Blu-ray and DVD), plus the 2010 TV mini-series “Ben Hur” (Sony, DVD).

For a calendar of upcoming releases, click here

New Releases:

“Django Unchained” (Anchor Bay), Quentin Tarantino’s spin on the spaghetti western, is the most audacious confrontation of slavery in pre-Civil war America yet made. Along with the extreme violence, operatic drama, eccentric characters, and brutal portrait of frontier existence of the genre is Tarantino’s genre-mixing wit and inventive soundtrack, but behind the revenge plot is a swooning love story and a powerful friendship. Blu-ray, DVD, digital and On Demand platforms, and at Redbox kiosks. Videodrone’s review is here.

“A Monster in Paris” (Shout Factory), a French animated musical from director Bibo Bergeron (“The Road to El Dorado” and “Shark Tale”), is a busy but simplistic fantasy set in early 20th Century Paris with Vanessa Paradis and Sean Lennon providing the singing. Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, and DVD, available at Redbox. Reviewed in Videodrone here.

“The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia” (Lionsgate), the in-name-only sequel to the 2009 horror hit, stars Abigail Spencer, Chad Michael Murray, and Katee Sackhoff facing ghosts of slaves killed on the Underground Railway. Blu-ray and DVD, available at Redbox.

Also new this week: the romantic comedy “Late Bloomers” (Olive, Blu-ray and DVD) with William Hurt and Isabella Rossellini, the drama “Womb” (Olive, Blu-ray and DVD) with Eva Green and Matt Smith, the American indie comedy “Save the Date” (IFC, DVD) with Lizzy Caplan and Alison Brie, and the Australian comedy “Not Suitable For Children” (Well Go, Blu-ray and DVD, available at Redbox) with Ryan Kwanten.

Foreign arrivals this week include the Chinese action film “Dragon” (Anchor Bay, Blu-ray and DVD) with Donnie Yen and Takeshi Kaneshiro and the French drama “A Bottle in the Gaza Sea” (Film Movement, DVD) set in the gulf between the Israelis and Palestinians on the Gaza Strip.

“Orchestra of Exiles” (First Run, DVD), a profile of Bronislaw Huberman, a musician who saved over 1,000 Jewish musicians and their families in the 1930s, leads off the week’s non-fiction offerings, which also includes the natural history documentary “Wings of Life” (Disney), narrated by Meryl Streep.

Most releases are also available as digital download and VOD via iTunes, Amazon, and other web retailers and video services.

Browse the complete New Release Rack here

TV on Disc:

“Spies of Warsaw” (BBC) stars David Tennant as a French intelligence agent in 1939 Poland, trying to uncover the German invasion plans in the days before the outbreak of World War II. The BBC mini-series, adapted from the Alan Furst novel, was shown in BBC America. Blu-ray and DVD. Videodrone’s review is here.

Also arriving this week by way of BBC is “Women in Love” (BBC) , the 2011 British miniseries adaptation of the D.H. Lawrence novel with Rosamund Pike and Rachael Stirling and the 1964 TV adaptation of Ford Maddox Ford’s “Parade’s End” (BBC) with Judi Dench. Both DVD.

“Makers: Women Who Make America” (PBS) is a three-part documentary series originally produced for PBS profiling the most influential and powerful women in business, law, and politics in the past fifty years.

“Flash Gordon: The Complete Series” (Mill Creek) presents all 22 episodes of the short-lived 2007 SciFi Channel update of the science fantasy adventure starring Eric Johnson.

Flip through the TV on Disc Channel Guide here

Cool and Classic:

“Police Story / Police Story 2 – Jackie Chan Double Feature” (Shout Factory) delivers the Blu-ray debut of Jackie Chan’s landmark action films, the blockbuster hits that elevated Chan to international superstar and combined his brand of acrobatic martial arts (with all its comic flourishes) with big budget set pieces and eye-popping stunts in a modern urban context. Videodrone’s review is here.

“Repo Man” (Criterion), Alex Cox’s instant cult classic starring Emilio Estevez a disaffected white urban LA punk, has lost none of its satirical inspiration or its delicious black humor. It gets the Criterion treatment on Blu-ray and DVD. Reviewed on Videodrone here.

“The Hudsucker Proxy” (Warner Archive), the third Blu-ray released from the Warner Archive, is the Coen Bros.’ take on the thirties screwball comedy with Tim Robbins, Paul Newman, and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

“Masaki Kobayashi Against the System (Eclipse Series 38)” (Eclipse) presents four films by the Japanese director from the 1950s and 1960s on Criterion’s budget line, with no supplements. DVD.

All of the Cool and Classic here

New on Netflix Instant:

“Scream 4” (2011) reunites director Wes Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson for a revival of the self-aware horror franchise, with Hayden Panettiere, Emma Roberts, and Kieran Culkin joining series vets Neve Campbell, David Arquette, and Courtney Cox.

The new Netflix Original Series ”Hemlock Grove” from Eli Roth debuts on Friday, April 19, the same week that it picks up the entire Jane Campion series “Top of the Lake,” right after completing its seven-episode run on the Sundance Channel.

Hong Sang-soo’s “In Another Country” (2012), starring Isabelle Huppert in three different stories about a French tourist in South Korea, is one of the funniest films to come for the low-key director.

Also from South Korea are the heist film “The Thieves” (2012), the top-grossing films of all-time in Korea, and gangster thriller “The Man From Nowhere” (2010), its top box office hit of 2010, while “Dangerous Liaisons” (2012) is a Chinese-language version of the French novel directed by a Korean filmmaker and starring Ziyi Zhang.

Instant TV includes the cable mini-series “Titanic: Blood and Steel” and the ABC Family Channel series “Switched at Birth: Season 2,” arriving on Netflix before it comes to disc.

Cult offerings this week include the Hammer films swashbuckler “Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter” (1974) and “Pi” (1998), the debut feature by director Darren Aronofsky.

Browse more Instant offerings here

New On Demand:

Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained“ breaks the binds of disc and arrives On Demand the same day as DVD and Blu-ray.

The Tribeca Film Festival is reaching out to audiences outside of the New York area by putting four of the featured films On Demand in advance of their Tribeca debuts: the American indie comedy “The English Teacher“ with Julianne Moore and Lily Collins and “Greetings from Tim Buckley” with Imogen Poots and Penn Badgley (as Jeff Buckley), the horror film “Fresh Meat” from New Zealand, and the Irish drama “What Richard Did.” The films debut On Demand on Tuesday, April 16. More details here.

Available from Redbox this week:

Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained” (Anchor Bay) arrives day and date with video stores and sales shelves on both Blu-ray and DVD. Also arriving same day as sales and video rentals are the animated musical “A Monster in Paris” (Shout Factory, DVD), the horror sequel “A Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia” (Lionsgate, DVD), and the comedy “Not Suitable For Children” (Well Go, DVD).

Also arriving in Redbox kiosks this week is “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” (Warner), on both Blu-ray and DVD, and arriving on Friday, April 19, is the Oscar-winning musical “Les Miserables” (Universal) and Judd Apatow’s comedy “This is 40” (Universal), both on Blu-ray and DVD.

For a calendar of upcoming releases, click here