Ambushed (IndiePix DVD)
In the final decades of Apartheid, a South African film industry emerged for black audiences. Retro Afrika has been releasing them on DVD in an ambitious project to digitalize and salvage those productions. Although shot a painfully tight budget, the latest Retro Afrika release, Ambushed (1988), is among the better examples of the genre for solid acting and capable continuity and editing. The cast was all black, speaking in a local language (with English subtitles), but judging by their names, the director, screenwriter and crew were white. Ambushed is the story of a park ranger rescuing his kidnapped family from “the rebels.” In black Apartheid pictures, politics were usually kept vague or unstated. (David Luhrssen)
Fukishima 50 (Capelight Blu-ray)
Japanese cinema has a long relationship with nuclear disaster and with good reason. Although the atom bomb never brought prehistoric beasts to life, the country suffered a real postwar nuclear catastrophe in 2011—the subject of this dramatization. The modestly budgeted flick reenacts the meltdown at the Fukishima power plant largely from the perspective of the crew inside. After an earthquake delivered the first blow, the plant began to shut down until it was overtaken by a tsunami. Fukishima 50 becomes a race to stave off the worst possible outcome. The Blu-ray is dubbed in English. (David Luhrssen)
The Last Married Couple in America (Kino Lorber Blu-ray)
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) brought divorce out of the courtroom and into move theaters. The drama opened the door to comedies on the subject, including The Last Married Couple in America (1980). It stars George Segal and Natalie Wood (in one of her last roles) as a seemingly happily married couple. The running gag is that everyone they know is getting divorced in an “epidemic of irreconcilable differences.” The screenplay is occasionally insightful and funny but comedic timing is off. Guest star Dom DeLuise injects moments of much needed hilarity. (David Luhrssen)
The Mitchells vs. The Machines (Streaming April 30 on Netflix)
Family dynamics, along with a barrage of jokes, position Sony’s latest animated comedy as a crowd-pleaser. Nature-loving dad Rick Mitchell (voiced by Danny McBride) unilaterally decides the family is going on a cross-country road trip to deliver his daughter Katie (Abbi Jacobson) to college. A would-be filmmaker of the YouTube generation, Katie nearly forgets what a downer her family can be when the new PAL robots decide to take over the world. Unlikely as it seems, Katie and her family (including Maya Rudolph as the mom and co-director Mike Rianda as her quirky little brother), are humankind’s last best hope. Rated 95% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, the Mitchells could be real-life oddballs, but funnier. (Lisa Miller)
Without Remorse (Streaming April 30 on Amazon Prime)
Also known as Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, the film alters the story to fit along Hollywood lines. First and foremost, it provides its protagonist with a more sympathetic justification for his killing spree that constitutes the origin story of John Clark (Michael B. Jordan)—a popular character from the Jack Ryan universe. Clark, a U.S. Navy SEAL, seeks revenge against a squad of Russian mercenaries. He receives support from his SEAL Commander Karen Greer (Jodie Turner-Smith), and from a shadowy CIA agent (Jamie Bell). When Clancy published this tale in the mid-‘90s, he quickly sold the film rights but the project languished for two decades despite several screenplay attempts. Though the film veers off from its source, it remains an entertaining actioner. (Lisa Miller)
