ENTERTAINMENT

Home Video: For those who can no longer rock

Todd Hill
Reporter

For stories about the way we live today, television has become the go-to destination for most people. If you're looking for realism at the movies these days, you may have to go backward a few decades to find something that's readily identifiable as commonplace human behavior. This week's assortment of home-video releases, however, is remarkably grounded, and a marked departure from the titles filling theaters at the height of the summer movie season.

New movies

"Danny Collins." Al Pacino stars as an aging rock star (think Neil Diamond or maybe Rod Stewart) who re-evaluates his life after receiving a letter from John Lennon 40 years too late. The result is a rapprochement with a long-lost son that's fully as trite as can be imagined, but this movie still has a lot going for it. It provides Pacino, complete with orange tan, feathered hair and a ridiculous wardrobe, his best role in a long while, and Christopher Plummer, Annette Bening, Jennifer Garner and Bobby Cannavale round out a solid cast. And all's well, more or less, until Pacino tries to sing. Rated R for language, drug use and some nudity. 106 min.

Al Pacino in a scene from the film "Danny Collins."

"While We're Young." It took a very long time for Woody Allen to grow up as a filmmaker (if he even has). His heir apparent, writer/director Noah Baumbach, is already there with the release of this comedy about a fortysomething couple (Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts) enamored of a twentysomething, hipster couple (Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried). Baumbach hit a career high point with 2013's "Frances Ha," and his win streak continues here. "While We're Young" has a plethora of cogent things to say about how digital technology has transformed our daily lives as well. Rated R for language. 97 min.

Naomi Watts in a scene from “While We’re Young."

"Get Hard." The title refers to the mission Will Ferrell's character embarks upon after being sentenced to prison for fraud. He needs to prepare himself for a harsh life behind bars, and fast. His tutor is played by Kevin Hart, who's been popping up everywhere this year. Among the many film comedies Ferrell has helmed over the years, few have attained anything close to classic status, with "Anchorman" probably coming closest. Ferrell has never been farther away than with "Get Hard." Rated R for pervasive crude and sexual content and language, some graphic nudity, and drug material. 100 min.

Kevin Hart and Will Ferrell in "Get Hard."

Old movies

"Five Easy Pieces." Making its Blu-ray debut this week is this 1970 effort by Bob Rafelson, a character piece about alienation staring Jack Nicholson, in one of the best roles of his long career, and Karen Black, who delivers a truly memorable performance. Nicholson stars as a classical pianist who prefers to just drift through life, right along with this movie, but the end result is a portrait of period-specific angst that's actually quite timeless. This is one of the more important films of a crucial decade for American cinema, and deserves a place in every serious cinephile's vocabulary.

"The Decline of Western Civilization Collection." For a very small, exclusive coterie of punk-rock and heavy metal enthusiasts, the Shout! Factory release of these three documentaries, directed by Penelope Spheeris ("Wayne's World") from 1979 to 1998, is nothing less than a watershed event. Despite the digital age we now live in, even snippets of these films have been impossible to find on YouTube or anywhere else, thanks to Spheeris' diligence. Viewers get performances by the likes of X and Black Flag, but these films actually document an entire lifestyle. Four DVD/Blu-ray discs.

Top 10

Here are this week's most popular DVD/Blu-ray rentals as compiled by Rotten Tomatoes – "American Sniper," "Jupiter Ascending," "Kingsman: The Secret Service," "Seventh Son," "Fifty Shades of Grey," "Selma," "Get Hard," "The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water," "Paddington" and "Chappie."

thill3@nncogannett.com

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Twitter: @ToddHillMNJ