By David Weiner
9:33 AM PDT, April 23, 2013
Ryan Gosling & Emma Stone turn up the heat in Gangster Squad; Jurassic Park roars onto 3D Blu-ray; Matt Damon heads to the Promised Land; Naomi Watts survives The Impossible and more in this week's new releases.
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New on Blu-ray & DVD: April 23
Warner Bros.
Ryan Gosling & Emma Stone turn up the heat in Gangster Squad; Jurassic Park roars onto 3D Blu-ray; Matt Damon heads to the Promised Land; Naomi Watts survives The Impossible and more in this week's new releases.
Gangster Squad
Warner Bros.
Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn, Josh Brolin and Emma Stone star in this exciting gangster flick set in the forties that chronicles Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen's (Penn) ruthless domination of Los Angeles – and the super-secret crew of LAPD outsiders recruited to stop him. Cohen rules the City of Angels by controlling the drugs, the guns and prostitutes and, most importantly, the police and the politicians. Now, it's up to Sgt. John O'Mara (Brolin) and Jerry Wooters (Gosling) to try to tear Cohen's world apart and take back the town from one of the most dangerous mafia bosses of all time. Nick Nolte, Robert Patrick, Michael Peña, Giovanni Ribisi and Anthony Mackie also star.
Promised Land
Universal
Matt Damon reunites with his Good Will Hunting director Gus Van Sant for this stirring drama about the American heartland. Matt plays Steve Butler, a corporate salesman sent along with his partner, Sue Thomason (Frances McDormand), to close drilling rights in a key rural town in his company's expansion plans. Hit hard by the economic decline of recent years, Butler's generous offer seems too good to be true. But the seemingly slam-dunk deal becomes complicated by the objection of a respected schoolteacher (Hal Holbrook) with support from a grassroots campaign led by another local (John Krasinski), not to mention some romantic interest in Butler from a local teacher (Rosemarie DeWitt). Will the deal fall through? Or has Butler lost perspective between right and wrong?
The Impossible
Summit Entertainment
The true story of the devastating 2004 tsunami that consumed the coast of Phuket, Thailand -- and how one real-life family survived it – is told in this incredible film that finds Naomi Watts as Maria and Ewan McGregor as her husband Henry, who are enjoying their winter vacation in Thailand with their three sons. On the day after Christmas, their relaxing holiday in paradise becomes an exercise in terror and survival when their beach-side hotel is pummeled by an extraordinary, unexpected tsunami. The film tracks just what happens when this close family and tens of thousands of strangers must come together to grapple with the mayhem and aftermath of one of the worst natural catastrophes of our time.
Jurassic Park 3D
Universal
Steven Spielberg's action-packed, blockbuster dino flick is now available on 3D Blu-ray in celebration of its 20th anniversary! Based on the best-selling books by Michael Crichton about genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok, the Spielberg-directed film pioneered special effects with its incredibly realistic, wow-inducing T-rex, velociraptors, triceratops and brontos. Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Samuel L. Jackson face off against the bloodthirsty reptiles.
A Haunted House
Universal
Marlon Wayans returns to his hilarious Scary Movie roots with the horror spoof A Haunted House, riffing on every recent scary movie from Paranormal Activity to The Last Exorcism. Essence Atkins plays Marlon's sometimes possessed wife and Nick Swardson is the exorcist who requires a little bit too much information to do his job. David Koechner also stars.
Celebrate Earth Day with BBC Home Entertainment
BBC Home Entertainment
Celebrate Earth Day with three breathtaking new BBC Home Entertainment releases on Blu-ray and DVD, showing the wonders of the world as never seen before, from One Life, which captures the most brilliant and imaginative stories of survival from the natural world (narrated by Daniel Craig), to the Emmy Award-winning The Blue Planet: Seas of Life and Great Barrier Reef, an unparalleled look at our incredible oceans and the life sustained within.
Cheech & Chong's Animated Movie
20th Century Fox
Legendary funnymen Cheech and Chong are back in an all-new animated movie! The "toker jokers" deliver their most outrageous routines and laugh-out-loud lines from their Grammy Award-winning albums, including "Dave's not here," "Let's make a dope deal" and more. Add a bud-lovin' body crab named Buster, and you're get high with laughter watching the "masters of smokin' word"!