New releases: In ‘Warm Bodies,’ zombie has a sensitive side
Warm Bodies
Summit, $29.95; Blu-ray, $39.99
Available on VOD beginning Tuesday
For those with the stomach and patience for yet another zombie saga, writer-director Jonathan Levine’s adaptation of Isaac Marion’s novel offers a different take on the genre, with Nicholas Hoult playing a walking corpse with a sensitive side, who regains his humanity when he meets a pretty survivor played by Teresa Palmer. The movie was sold as a wacky spin on “Twilight” when it came out this year, but it’s really more like a heartfelt indie dramedy, exploring both what it means to be “alive” and how it feels to be a young person in love. The DVD and Blu-ray add a commentary track by Levine, Hoult and Palmer, plus deleted scenes and featurettes.
Breaking Bad: The Fifth Season
Sony, $55.99; Blu-ray, $65.99
The last eight episodes of TV’s best drama will begin airing in August on AMC, leaving fans plenty of time to refamiliarize themselves with the intense, shock-filled run of episodes that set up the big finish. The fifth-season DVD and Blu-ray come with hours of behind-the-scenes material and commentaries, capturing what goes into making this story of a science teacher turned drug kingpin so entertaining and artful. More than anything, it’s a pleasure just to rewatch these eight episodes, in which Bryan Cranston’s Walter White expands his criminal empire at devastating cost.
Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie
Available on VOD beginning Friday
For someone who wielded such enormous cultural influence, talk show host Morton Downey Jr. has been largely forgotten, replaced by the shock jocks and political commentators who’ve taken his place as America’s premier loudmouthed moralists. This documentary reminds even those who lived through the ‘80s just how crazy Downey’s TV show could be, with the chain-smoking conservative openly insulting guests while whipping his audience into a frenzy. The doc hears from people who knew Downey when he was a wannabe pop idol (trying to escape the shadow of a famous father) as well as those who worked to make his TV show so wildly popular before it rapidly flamed out. “Évocateur” tries to understand what drove both Downey and his viewers and is a fascinating, unsettling look at how people with a big enough platform can monetize outrage.
The Law in These Parts
Cinema Guild, $29.95
Ra’anan Alexandrowicz’s documentary attempts to understand the legality of Israelis’ seizing Palestinian-occupied territory. Mixing archival footage and new interviews with lawyers and judges who’ve been involved with Israeli politics since the 1960s, Alexandrowicz documents the slippery slope of “security measures,” as laws originally drafted to protect the citizenry ended up denying people of their internationally recognized human rights. “The Law In These Parts” puts its subjects on trial, and though Alexandrowicz’s acknowledgment of the artificiality of this whole exercise ultimately weakens his case, he still gets people on the record, explaining how they took a position first and then legally justified it later.
PHOTOS: Celebrities by The Times
And …
Escape From Planet Earth
Starz/Anchor Bay, $29.98; Blu-ray, $39.99
Available on VOD beginning Tuesday
A Good Day to Die Hard
20th Century Fox, $29.98; Blu-ray, $39.99
Available on VOD beginning Tuesday
Identity Thief
Universal, $29.98; Blu-ray, $34.98
Available on VOD beginning Tuesday
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