Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Check out John Travolta in ‘The Forger’
If for no other reason than to catch John Travolta’s best performance in years, “The Forger” (2015, Lionsgate, R, $20) is worth checking out. In the film, an odd mixture of heist thriller, disease movie and father/son bonding drama , an emotionally raw Travolta stars as a Boston art copyist who pays off a local gangster (Anson Mount) to help arrange his early release from prison so he can spend time with his elderly father (Christopher Plummer) and fatally ill teenage son (Tye Sheridan.) The action ping-pongs between the men planning a heist (to pay off the aforementioned gangster) and checking items off Sheridan’s bucket list. There are implausibilities galore but if you go with the flow, “The Forger” begins to feel like the real deal. Extras: featurette.
ALSO NEW THIS WEEK
Timbuktu: (2014, Cohen, PG-13, $30) An Oscar nominee in 2015for Best Foreign Language Film, this stunner from Mali’s Abderrahmane Sissako looks at the effects of religious fundamentalism on a primitive community outside Timbuktu. Every day, the self-described jihadists who run the county come up with new edicts banning music, cigarettes and soccer. Even though a cattle herder named Kidane (Ibrahim Ahmed) lives in the desert and is mostly immune from the absurd regulations, an act of violence has tragic ramifications for him and his family. “Timbuktu” takes a piece out of you. Extras: featurette.
Run All Night: (2015, Warner, R, $30) There’s a lot of shouting and shooting in this generic actioner that pits a Brooklyn mobster (Tenafly-raised Ed Harris) against his boozy, one-time enforcer (Liam Neeson.) Director Jaume Collet-Serra collaborated with Neeson on the entertaining “Unknown” and “Non-Stop.” This time, though, the filmmaker has nothing to work with but a threadbare revenge plot so he overedits the movie in hopes of making it feel vital and fast-moving. But the only reason “Run All Night” is even halfway watchable is because of Neeson who plays the role of a weary hitman with enormous conviction. Extras: deleted scenes and featurettes.
Kingsman - The Secret Service: (2015, Fox, R, $30) The latest from “X-Men: First Class” helmer Matthew Vaughn is an ultraviolent spy yarn that excels at continually knocking you off-balance. Newcomer Taron Egerton is terrific as a tough working-class teenager who’s enlisted into the super secret agency’s training program by swanky boss Harry Hart (Colin Firth). Samuel L. Jackson tries too hard as a lisping billionaire villain named Valentine. But at least Valentine’s assistant Gazelle ( Sofia Boutella) is a stunner. Her prosthetic legs can, literally, slice and dice the competition to shreds. Extras: featurettes.
Red Army: (2015, Sony, PG, $30) You don’t have to be a hockey fan to enjoy Gabe Polsky’s fascinating documentary about Russia’s Red Army hockey team. With the film, Polsky demonstrates how the organizations’ rise and fall mirrored social and cultural changes in Cold War Russia. The central figure is Slava Fetisov, the team’s captain who went from national hero to political enemy after he moved to the U.S. to play for the National Hockey League. If you like Cymbelin: (2014, Lionsgate, R, $20) In this modernday adaptation of the Shakespeare play, a biker gang led by the title outlaw (Ed Harris) is drawn into a take-no-prisoners war with dirty cops. Even though director Michael Almereyda brings a lot of energy and visual panache to the saga of betrayal, murder and star-crossed romance, there’s so much plot and so many supporting characters (Ethan Hawke, Dakota Johnson) that “Cymbeline” sags under the weight of its own ambitions. Extras: commentaries and featurettes.
A Master Builder: (2014, Criterion, unrated, $30) Two decades after the acclaimed “Vanya On 42nd Street,” Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory reunite to produce a re-imagining of Henrik Ibsen’s play “Master Builder Solness.” Unlike “Vanya,” this Jonathan Demme-directed drama doesn’t quite transcend its theatrical roots. That said, it ambitiously tackles themes of guilt, aging and betrayal. Shawn stars as a brilliant but selfish architect who, on his death bed, is haunted by figures from his past, including a mysterious woman (Lisa Joyce) he might or might not have abused a decade earlier. Once you adjust to the torrent of talk, “A Master Builder” has the power to sweep you away. Extras: featurettes.