Spring Preview: Anywhere But a Movie Theater

What's new on demand, online and on DVD this spring.

April 6

“Dolan’s Cadillac” – A beloved short story from Stephen King’s “Nightmares and Dreamscapes” collection, “Dolan’s Cadillac” long intrigued Hollywood for its tale of revenge, once setting Kevin Bacon to star as a science teacher whose wife is murdered by a mafia don (tipped to be Sylvester Stallone). That version never panned out, so instead we get Christian Slater as the mafioso and Wes Bentley as the man done wrong.

“211: Anna” – A selection of last year’s Sundance Film Festival, Italian documentarians Paolo Serbandini and Giovanna Massimetti examine the life and death of the late Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist killed in her apartment that was suspected to be due to her hard-hitting coverage of the government and specifically their conduct in Chechnya.

“Air: The Musical” – Jeremy Osbern’s song-and-dance extravaganza starts with the lives of six people trying to find love, but stuck in the doldrums of their dull daily lives.

“Big Gay Musical” – Casper Andreas and Fred Caruso also find themselves in a musical mood when telling the story of two actors whose real lives start eerily sharing similarities with the Off-Broadway show they’re performing in.

“Black Crescent Moon” – The quote on the box cover for Adam Pertofsky’s black comedy calls it a “redneck ‘Fargo’ with Gil Bellows and William Atherton as the featured players in this whodunit in a small-town diner.

“Blood Red Moon” – Just in time to take advantage of the vampire craze, Scott Patrick’s thriller centers on the romance between the human Megan and the bloodthirsty Victor, who is suspected of being responsible for a spate of murders in her hometown.

“Boycrazy” – Wolfe Releasing puts together a package of successful gay shorts including Tom Gustafsen’s musical “Fairies,” Brian Harris Krinsky’s “Dish,” Christopher Banks’ drama “Teddy,” Patricia Bateria’s “Frequent Traveler,” Greg Ivan Smith’s “The Back Room,” and of course, John Sobrack’s “Boycrazy.”

“Finn on the Fly” – Ana Gasteyer headlines this Canadian kiddie comedy about a boy and his dog — that turns into a grown man through a genetic mutation serum given to him by a scientist (Gasteyer). Let the misadventures (and inappropriate jokes) begin.

“Home of the Giants” – Haley Joel Osment continues to power through his teenage years as a high school journalist who faces a crisis of conscience when he learns that his best friend and star of the basketball team (Ryan Merriman) is pressured by a local drug dealer to throw the state championship.

“Jade Warrior” – A big hit in its native Finland, Lionsgate imports A.J. Annila’s 2006 kung fu flick about a blacksmith who discovers he was once a Chinese swordsman in a previous life and must conquer a demon by traveling back in time to win over the love of his life.

“Murder.com” – “Baywatch”‘s Alexandra Paul and David Chokachi reunite in Rex Piano’s thriller about a Miami lawyer who returns home to California upon learning her sister’s been murdered and begins contacting the many men in her sister’s little black book when its discovered she participated in an online sex ring.

“Ratko: The Dictator’s Son” – The National Lampoon brand is alive and well with this production that brings together the random likes of Pedro from “Napoleon Dynamite” (Efren Ramirez), “30 Rock”‘s Katrina Bowden, Curtis Armstrong, Kato Kaelin, Mr. Belding (Dennis Haskins), and Adam West, among others in this comedy about one famous émigré’s enrollment in a U.S. university. Not surprisingly, Savage Steve Holland directs.

“Sensored” – “Star Trek: Voyager” star Robert Picardo toplines this thriller about a children’s author losing his grip on reality as a murder from long ago threatens to upset his future in Ryan Todd’s feature debut.

“War Eagle, Arkansas” – Brian Dennehy and Mary Kay Place are the elder statesmen in this drama about a young man who faces the difficult decision to pursue his professional baseball career or stay close to his home in the Ozarks where his family and his pal afflicted with cerebral palsy need him.

“We Believe” – Usually disappointed at season’s end, Cubs fans will be cheered up by David Leaf’s documentary about one of baseball’s most hallowed franchises and their long-suffering followers, which count among their number narrator Gary Sinise, Hugh Hefner, Dennis Franz, and Joe Mantegna, all of whom make an appearance.

Other indies that played theaters, but you might’ve missed: “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans,” the Marcus Dunstan horror film “The Collector,” the Kyle Patrick Alvarez festival fave “Easier With Practice,” the Damon Wayans street drama “Harlem Aria,” Henry Jaglom’s “Irene in Time,” Francis Ford Coppola’s “Tetro,” “The Yes Men Fix the World,” “Youssou N’Dour: I Bring What I Love”

Oldies But Goodies Resurfacing or Appearing for the First Time on DVD: A deluxe, two-disc edition of Ralph Bakshi’s “The Lord of the Rings,” Sony’s three-disc “Icons of Suspense: Hammer Films”

New to Blu-ray: The Shaw Brothers’ “Brothers Five” and “The Heroic Ones,” the 1984 Dennis Quaid fantasy film “Dreamscape,” John Milius’ “Flight of the Intruder,” the infamous David Caruso bomb “Jade,” “The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy,” the Robert Redford baseball drama “The Natural,” Wolfgang Petersen’s “Poseidon,” “The Relic,” the Pierce Brosnan remake of “The Thomas Crown Affair”

April 13

“Tenderness” – Unless you were attended the Quad Cinema’s stealth one-week run of this Russell Crowe drama back in December, you probably haven’t even heard of his collaboration with fellow Aussie and “Swimfan” director John Polson on this adaptation of Robert Cormier’s novel about a detective (Crowe) who trails a troubled teen (Jon Foster) after his release from prison for the murder of his parents since he is accompanied by a young woman obsessed with him (Sophie Traub) that could become his next victim.

“Creature of Darkness” –Just as he did in the first “Final Destination,” Devon Sawa is having visions again, this time seeing a monster attack in his future that could come to pass when he and his friends go on an off-roading adventure in the desert. Sanoe Lake, Matthew Lawrence and Kevin Alejandro co-star.

“Crimes of the Past” – Reititled since it played the Seattle Film Festival as “The Spy and the Sparrow,” Garrett Bennett’s thriller tells the tale of a CIA operative (David Rasche) who takes a 25-year leave of absence from his marriage when he discovers his wife’s cheating on him and reunites with his daughter (Elisabeth Röhm) decades later. Eric Roberts co-stars.

“The Daisy Chain” – Samantha Morton and Steven Mackintosh star as a married couple in mourning in a psychological thriller for “Songs for a Raggy Boy” director Aisling Walsh that takes place after the death of their baby daughter when they relocate to a small Irish village and are emboldened by an autistic girl who lifts their spirits, but may not be as innocent as she appears to be.

“Front Man” – Ray Genadry’s drama is a character study of a band leader who jeopardizes a potential record deal and his life by fooling around with the wife of a mobster.

“Happy Endings?” – Tara Hurley directed this documentary about an Asian massage parlor in Rhode Island through the perspective of a recent Korean émigré trying to make ends meet.

“Stoic” – It’s been three months since the release of Uwe Boll’s last movie, so it’s high time the man usually regarded as the world’s worst filmmaker returns with Edward Furlong in tow for this drama about three prisoners who torture and kill their fellow inmate over a game of poker.

“Tenure” – A selection of the Hamptons and Austin Film Festivals, this comedy stars Luke Wilson as a professor vying for tenure in the English department at Grey College versus a new hire from Yale (Gretchen Mol) who appears to be all that he’s not. David Koechner, Bob Gunton and Rosemarie DeWitt co-star in Mike Million’s feature debut.

“Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon” – Maggie Q, Andy Lau, and Sammo Hung star in this Chinese war epic based on the same Luo Guangzhong novel as John Woo’s recent “Red Cliff,” but details the rise of one man (Lau) through the ranks to become the leader of an entire army.

Other indies that played theaters, but you might’ve missed: Tim Allen’s directorial debut “Crazy on the Outside,” the Michael Shannon-Amy Ryan mystery “The Missing Person,” the Turk Pipkin doc “One Peace at a Time,” the Richard Curtis comedy “Pirate Radio,” Broken Lizard’s “The Slammin’ Salmon,” the Woody Harrelson self-made superhero flick “Defendor”

Oldies But Goodies Resurfacing or Appearing for the First Time on DVD: The 1974 Richard Burton-Sophia Loren remake of “Brief Encounter,” Criterion’s “Essential Art House: Volume 5” (with Ozu’s “Floating Weeds,” Truffaut’s “Jules and Jim,” the original “Brief Encounter,” Milos Forman’s “Loves of a Blonde,” Fellini’s “8 ½” and available for the first time Gillo Pontecorvo’s “Kapò”)

New to Blu-ray: The 15th Anniversary edition of “Apollo 13,” the original “A Nightmare on Elm Street”

April 20

“Peacock” – Credit to The Playlist for keeping tabs on this Midwestern-set thriller starring Cillian Murphy as a bank teller hiding his multiple personality disorder until a train crash forces him to reveal both sides of his true nature. Ellen Page, Josh Lucas, Bill Pullman and Susan Sarandon co-star in Michael Lander’s directorial debut.

“And the Winner Is” – Jerry Springer puts in an appearance as a pageant host in this mockumentary from Christina Grozik about a small American town that makes the unconventional decision to elect their next mayor not by democratic vote, but in the style of a Miss America-esque contest.

“Big Heart City” – First-time filmmaker Ben Rodkin has drawn comparisons to John Cassavetes with this 16mm-shot drama that stars Cassavetes regular Seymour Cassel and Shane Andrews, the latter playing a gambler whose girlfriend disappears, which leads both of them to criss-cross the streets of L.A. looking for her.

“Citizen Duane” – A teenager runs for mayor in this 2006 family comedy from Canada that co-stars Donal Logue, Devon Bostick and Vivica A. Fox.

“Comrades in Dreams” – Former projectionist Uli Gaulke traverses the globe to capture different cultural interactions with cinema, whether it’s a film club in North Korea to a tent in India to one American’s screening in Burkina Faso.

“Crimes of Fashion” – Now that Megan Fox is a household name, Image is dusting off this 2004 comedy that actually has “The Big Bang Theory” star Kaley Cuoco in the lead as a fashion student who has worked her way to the top until the death of her grandfather (Dominic Chianese) thrusts her into being a mafia don.

“Drawn Together: The Movie” – For those lamenting the cancellation of the Comedy Central series, this direct-to-DVD should tie up some loose ends regarding the faux-reality show about a group of animated characters living together in the same house, a la “Real World.” And Seth McFarlane fans will want to take note that the “Family Guy” creator will lend his voice to a new character called I.S.R.A.E.L. (Intelligent Smart Robotic Animated Eraser Lady).

“Escape From Darwin” – As popular as the evolution pioneer has been in recent months, the Darwin of writer/director Istvan Criste’s western is actually a mining town where a group of murderous hombres fight over a bag of cash left by a dead getaway driver.

“Every Other Day is Halloween” – Folks in the Washington D.C. area will know from voice alone the subject of C.W. Prather’s documentary about Dick Dyszel, the man behind the television personas “Count Gore De Vol,” “Captain 20” and “Bozo the Clown” during the 1970s and ‘80s. “30 Days of Night” writer Steve Niles and scream queens Eleanor Herman and Leanna Chamish are among those offering testimonials.

“Ex Drummer” – A hit at Fantastic Fest in 2008, a year after it premiered in Toronto, this Belgian black comedy from Koen Mortier revolves around a band of disabled musicians who recruit a writer (Dries Van Hegen) that in turn manipulates the group toward his own benefit.

“Family That Eats Soil” – Many have not made it through this 75-minute experimental Filipino “brown comedy” that features little people, cockfighting, and plenty of sex and violence (including a claymation rape sequence). Now, Pathfinder Pictures allows one a way to press the pause button.

“A Fork in the Road” – Jim Kouf, a writer best known for films like “Stakeout,” “Rush Hour” and “National Treasure,” directs this crime comedy about a wrongly accused man (Josh Cooke) who makes a break for it when his police escort literally hits a fork in the road, which leads him to actual criminal activity when he meets a woman (Jamie King) who needs his help to hide a dead body.

“Grind” – Tom Sizemore, C. Thomas Howell and Danny Trejo fill out a pretty random cast in John Millea’s gritty ensemble thriller about a con man named Luke (Howell) who plans to make good on his debt to the Mexican mob by financing a porn Web site, though when the boss (Trejo) changes the terms of his debt, Luke finds himself in over his head.

“The Hiking Trip” – How many times must a group of girls go out into the woods before learning it’s not a good idea? Robert Parent’s thriller answers the call with this thriller about a woman (Kortney Adams) who starts losing her mind among the trees.

“I Can Tell the World” – Larry Bograd and Coleen Hubbard’s documentary claims to be “the first documentary about the original American music,” referring to its history of African-American spirituals, as performed by an interracial, multigenerational vocal ensemble.

“Junk Dreams” – Documentarian Skye Borgman tags along on the adventure of octogenarian brothers Ernie and Charlie, who travel by boat from Washington to Alaska as they face rough seas and occasionally rough memories from their shared past.

“Knife Edge” – “My Summer of Love” star Natalie Press is featured as a day trader who, with her husband and son, leaves the urban life for the British countryside where she begins to believe her new house is haunted. “Hellraiser III” director Anthony Hickox knows a thing or two about such matters.

“My True Self” – A young doctor (Jerod Edington) gets the unfortunate diagnosis that he himself has Stage IV melanoma and wonders what he will do with the rest of his short life in this drama from Rohit Nahata.

“Neowolf” – Director Yvan Gauthier apparently pulled the Alan Smithee card on this horror flick originally called “The Band from Hell,” but that isn’t stopping Lionsgate from releasing it. “As the World Turns” star Agim Kaba plays a rocker on tour with a backing band of lycanthropes. Horror staples Veronica Cartwright and Tiffany Shepis co-star.

“Prom Wars” – Although Twihards may still take umbrage at the recasting of Victoria, they can still catch Rachelle Lefevre in this comedy. Ditto for “Arrested Development” fans yearning for Alia Shawkat – the two actresses play pupils of an all-girls school gearing up for their first prom, leading to a bum rush for the boys of a rival private school to vie for the right to escort them.

“Spring Break Massacre” – It’s what it sounds like. And B-movie scream queen Linnea Quigley stars as the deputy on duty to protect the co-eds from their fate as slasher bait.

“Surviving Crooked Lake” – Alysha Aubin, Candice Mausner, Morgan McCunn, and Stephannie Richardson star as a group of 14-year-olds who go out on a canoe ride and would be lucky to come back alive.

“The Telling” – Ever see that episode of “The Girls Next Door” where Playboy playmate Bridget Marquardt was shooting a horror movie? Well, this is it, so expect plenty of boobs and blood in Nicholas Carpenter’s anthology film.

“Wake” – Bijou Phillips stars in Ellie Kanner’s romantic comedy as a young woman who takes comfort in attending the funerals of strangers before finding herself attracted to a man (Ian Somerhalder) who recently lost his fiancée. Jane Seymour, Danny Masterson, and Marguerite Moreau.

Other indies that played theaters, but you might’ve missed: The German romantic drama “Cloud 9,” the frontier drama “Godspeed,” Lukas Moodysson’s “Mammoth,” the Joseph Gordon-Levitt-Lynn Collins drama “Uncertainty,” the Emily Blunt starrer “The Young Victoria,” the gay fairy tale “The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela,” “The Blue Tooth Virgin”

Oldies But Goodies Resurfacing or Appearing for the First Time on DVD: Jean-Luc Godard’s “Vivre Sa Vie”

New to Blu-ray: The Leonardo DiCaprio drama “The Basketball Diaries,” Steven Spielberg’s “Minority Report,” Olivier Assayas’ “Summer Hours” (Criterion), “Battleship Potemkin”

April 27

“Veronika Decides to Die” – Brazilian author Paulo Coelho has proved to be something of an enigma to film producers trying to adapt his work, but that didn’t deter Brit helmer Emily Young from trying to take on the 1998 novel about a suicidal young woman (Sarah Michelle Gellar) whose failed attempt to kill herself leads to a stay in a mental hospital where she realizes she’s far more comfortable than in the real world. David Thewlis, Erika Christensen, Jonathan Tucker and Melissa Leo co-star. A trailer can be found here.

“Alice Neel” – The famous painter gets a documentary on her life as a single mother and a female artist ahead of her time, courtesy of her grandson Andrew, who directs.

“Dark Nature” – Marc de Launay’s thriller arrives from Scotland, centering on a family vacation gone horribly awry.

“The Descent: Part II” – Speaking of vacations gone horribly awry, Shauna MacDonald returns (though original director Neil Marshall does not) for this sequel to the 2005 spelunking horror flick in which she, as the lone survivor, goes back into the caves with the hope of finding her friends. While this went theatrical in the U.K., no such luck in America where it will hit DVD first.

“Dogora” – God bless the good folks at Severin for releasing this 2004 dialogue-free documentary from Patrice Leconte (“Girl on the Bridge,” “My Best Friend”) on American shores. Leconte ventures to Cambodia to observe its culture and the beauty of Southeast Asia.

“Life Blood” – Once titled “Pearblossom,” Sophie Monk and Anya Lahiri star as lesbian vampires forced to walk the earth for all eternity in this Ron Carlson-directed horror flick co-starring Angela Lindvall and “Halloween”’s Scout Taylor Compton.

“Malice in Wonderland” – Frequent Jean-Claude Van Damme DTV collaborator Simon Fellows gets a leading lady in “Lost”’s Maggie Grace to star in his latest thriller, a violent take on “Alice in Wonderland” that throws Grace down the rabbit hole of England’s criminal underworld.

“Megapiranha” – Hoping to duplicate the inexplicable success of last year’s Debbie Gibson-Lorenzo Lamas extravaganza “Mega Shark Vs. Giant Octopus,” The Global Asylum backs this schlocky sci-fi flick that casts ’80s pop star Tiffany and “The Brady Bunch”’s Barry Williams against a piranha with its sights set on the Florida coastline.

“Why We Laugh: Black Comedians on Black Comedy” – Robert Townsend’s 2009 Sundance-selected documentary traces the history of African-American comedians from the low of Stepin Fetchit to the highs of Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy and Dave Chappelle. Bill Cosby, Keenan Ivory Wayans and Angela Bassett are just a few of the talking heads.

Other indies that played theaters, but you might’ve missed: “District B13: Ultimatum,” the John Malkovich drama “Disgrace,” the Liam Neeson-James Nesbitt drama “Five Minutes of Heaven,” the doc “Milton Glaser: To Inform & Delight,” the horror spoof “Transylmania,” Michael Haneke’s “The White Ribbon,” “William Kuntsler: Disturbing the Universe”

Oldies But Goodies Resurfacing or Appearing for the First Time on DVD: Sidney Lumet’s “The Fugitive Kind” (Criterion), Ang Lee’s director’s cut of “Ride With the Devil” (Criterion), the ‘60s stock-carsploitation pic “Thunder in Carolina,” Raul Ruiz’s 1974 Chilean drama “Dialogues of the Exiled,” the 1970 cross-dressing drama “Dinah East,” “Euro Fantastico Double Feature” (with 1963’s “No Survivors, Please” and 1979’s “Black Cobra”), “Greydon Clark’s Drive-In Double Feature” (with “Hi-Riders” and “The Bad Bunch”), Harun Farocki’s short film collection “How to Live in the German Federal Republic,” Malcolm Leigh’s cult Brit witchcraft doc “Legend of the Witches,” the ‘80s Alyssa Milano horror flick “Old Enough,” the 1974 doc “The Unquiet Death of Julius & Ethel Rosenberg,” Ewa & Czeslaw Petelski’s 1969 World War II epic “Red Rowan”

New to Blu-ray: Michael Bay’s disasterpiece “Armageddon,” “Class of Nuke ‘Em High,” “Tombstone,” the horror flick “Wicked Lake,” Troma’s “Dark Nature,” Cate Blanchett’s regal turns in “Elizabeth” and “Elizabeth: The Golden Age,” Steven Soderbergh’s “Traffic,” David Lynch’s “Dune,” “Out of Africa”

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