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Every week, I search through movie release schedules to find movie rentals that I would have otherwise missed for lack of TV advertising. I'll watch the big name releases along with everyone else, but I know from experience that sometimes the box office failures, critically panned, straight-to-DVD, and independently financed movies that nobody's heard of can offer some real hidden gems. As they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure. This column is dedicated to bringing awareness to those potential treasures. Listed alphabetically, each movie includes a list of notable cast members, a basic plot summary, its DVD and/or cloud release date (based on Netflix - other services may have the movie earlier), and the basic reason why the movie caught my attention. With any luck, one or more of these will catch your attention, too. My picks of the week are listed at the end of the column.

Here's my watchlist of DVD and cloud releases for the weeks of
May 28th (click the movie title to see the trailer)

Angel in the House [aka Foster]
Who: Toni Collette, Ioan Gruffudd, Richard E. Grant, Maurice Cole, Hayley Mills, Anne Reid
What: A family friendly comedy drama starring Collette and Gruffudd as a couple who can't have children but their lives are changed when a precocious kid (Cole) shows up for adoption.
When: May 28th - DVD and online on demand
Why: Collette is always interesting to watch. In this movie she has a fairly strong Scottish(?) accent, which may be hard to get used to. I actually brightened up when I saw that Hayley Mills is in the cast (supporting), because I've liked her ever since I saw The Parent Trap. Families will probably find this nice viewing, especially those with a soft spot for precocious kids.

Back to 1942
Who: Adrien Brody, Xu Fan, Zhang Ghuoli, Tim Robbins
What: A war drama set in China, which suffered a wide and deadly drought during the war with Japan. Brody plays a character who follows the army and the refugees from famine, while Robbins plays a monk.
When: May 28th - DVD
Why: This is a big, epic war drama, featuring plenty of weighty emotion over the collateral damage of war. It also has some great looking cinematography, and might be an interesting history lesson. The downside is it could be a long downer of an evening.

Dark Skies
Who: Keri Russell, Josh Hamilton, Dakota Goyo, J.K. Simmons
What: A paranormal horror centered around the ultimate scare: inevitable home invasion. Russell and Hamilton play a suburban couple who see an increasing number of signs that an alien force is targeting their kids for something. They bring in a specialist (Simmons) who breaks the bad news: they're coming, and there's no way to stop them.
When: May 28th - DVD and online on-demand
Why: I'm not big on poltergeist movies that turn into imploding bodies and gore everywhere, but this movie uses the threat of an alien and puts the emphasis on mind and body control in a PG-13 rating. It's very Hitchcock in style (and even looks like The Birds in one part of the trailer), which is the kind of suspense thriller I like.

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