The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tom Hanks travels the West in ‘ News of the World’
“News of the World,” a Western with a surprisingly topical message, tops the DVD releases for Tuesday.
Tom Hanks plays Capt. Jefferson Kyle Kidd, who travels from one Texas town to the next, reading newspaper stories to large crowds amid a ( gulp) deadly epidemic in 1870. The movie is directed by Paul Greengrass (“Flight 93,” “Bourne” films). Greengrass previously worked with Hanks on “Captain Phillips.”
Los Angeles Times film critic Justin Chang had this to say: “Like a few recent Westerns, ‘ News of the World’ is an imperfect but sensitive attempt to confront, or at least sidestep, some of the reductive tropes and historically problematic representations of the genre.”
But ultimately, Chang found “News of the World” to be something of a bumpy ride: “Greengrass can be as shrewd and skillful a storyteller as his hero, even if ‘ News of the World’ finally inspires something less than total belief.”
Also new on DVD Tuesday
■ “Breaking News in Yuba County”: A woman buries her husband’s body after he dies of a heart attack while cheating on her, and she tries to keep it secret.
■ “Hero Dog: The Journey Home”: Dog leads shipwrecked blind man out of the wilderness.
■ “Soulmates, Season 1”: AMC series about a company that develops a surefire way to match people to their soulmate, for better or worse.
■ “The Undoing Limited Series”: HBO thriller series starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant.
New on digital HD Tuesday
■ “Cosmoball”: Earthlings and aliens play space soccer with the fate of the planet hanging in the balance in this Russian sci- fi sports movie.
■ “Donny’s Bar Mitzvah”: Revisiting a wild 1998 bar mitzvah, via video of the event.
■ “Earwig and the Witch”: 3D animated version of British children’s book. ( DVD, Blu- ray release: April 6)
■ “Sheep Without a Shepherd”: A family man and his daughter are on the wrong side of the law in this Chinese thriller.