New on DVD this week
Non-Stop
What better way to usher in the busy summer travel season than with an airline-hijacking movie? Late-in-life action star Liam Neeson plays Bill Marks, a U.S. Air Marshall who may or may not be the anonymous hijacker of a trans-Atlantic flight. According to Bill’s Blackberry someone on board will be killed every 20 minutes unless $150 million is deposited into a numbered account. We go down the list of would-be suspects and benign passengers, including Bill’s seatmate Jen (Julianne Moore) and the flight attendant (Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery), while Bill himself becomes the target of suspicion. There’s a story here (a boozing Bill’s need for redemption) but really it’s all about the fight scenes and stunts, which are silly and great fun. The blu-ray features an extra on all that action, and the challenges of shooting in tight places according to the actors, director and stunt coordinator. Suspense at 40,000 Feet discusses the “whodunit” elements of the script, according to Neeson, Moore, and extended cast.
A Birder’s Guide to Everything
The last three members of a high school birding club take a hasty road trip after 15-year-old David (Kodi Smitt-McPhee) thinks he may have spotted a Lazarus species of duck, a species previously considered extinct. The boys reluctantly add a girl to the group (Katie Chang) since she has a killer camera. Local birding expert Dr. Konrad (Sir Ben Kingsley) eggs them on, while dad (?) is worried that David won’t be back in time to see him get remarried. A lovely, nerdy coming-of-age movie about grief, growing up and moving on. Plenty of extras on the standard disc including a making-of extra with cast and crew, dissection of a scene, a bird-song ID game from Cornell Ornithology, birding convert/director Rob Meyer talks about capturing the spirit of birding, plus audio commentary.
Stalingrad
The film opens with a magnitude 9 earthquake and resultant tsunami in Japan. A rescuer tells German victims that he has had five fathers, and the tale of “the bloodiest battle in human history” begins. Stalingrad has fallen to the Germans but a small contingent of Russians keep the fires burning from withinThe film’s scale and artistry of the film is impressive, with the retro colourized look of period war movies and actual sets instead of green screen technology. Battle scenes are intercut with the very human story of an 18-year-old girl still holed up in the overrun city. The film’s making-of extra contains interviews with director Fedor Bondarchuk, producers, costume designers and stunt coordinators, and the newly mined Russian stars.
