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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 week of:

August 13th (click the movie title to see the trailer)

42
Who: Chadwick Boseman, Harrison Ford, Nicole Beharie, Christopher Meloni, Ryan Merriman, Lucas Black, Andre Holland, Alan Tudyk, John C. McGinley, Linc Hand, director Brian Helgeland.
What: A biopic starring Chadwick Boseman as Jackie Robinson, the first African American player in Major League Baseball. The movie covers 1946 and 1947, with Harrison Ford playing Brooklyn Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey, Lucas Black as teammate Pee Wee Reese.
When: August 13th - DVD and online on demand
Why: Robinson actually played himself in the 1950 movie The Jackie Robinson Story, but apart from made-for-TV versions, this is the first movie about this great baseball legend to reach theaters in over 60 years. Critical response was very good, though maybe too early in the year to be a strong award candidate six months from now. 42 also earned the highest box office opening weekend of a baseball-themed movie to date. I'm looking forward to the performances and the history lesson.

Bullet to the Head
Who: Sylvester Stallone, Sung Kang, Sarah Shahi, Jason Momoa, Christian Slater, Brian Van Holt, Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje
What: Stallone plays a career hitman who reluctantly teams up with an out-of-town police detective (Kang) in order to take down a corrupt real estate deal in New Orleans and get revenge for the murder of Stallone's partner. Momoa plays a mercenary for Akinnouye-Agbaje's kingpin, and Shahi plays Stallone's daughter.
When: August 13th - DVD and online on demand
Why: Speaking before I saw this, I thought the trailers looked pretty good. Stallone at 67 looks like he could still beat the crap out of a lot of younger generation action heroes. The Expendables has done okay, and this movie looked like it was in his wheelhouse, but it bombed when it opened in February, putting up his worst opening weekend in three decades. Having seen it now, I will say it starts off weak, with cheap genre dialogue, but it's fun to watch how unrelenting a killer Stallone's character is. Momoa, who has delivered even more mindless muscle performances than Stallone, actually gives his best performance to date. It's no Rush Hour, but I'd call this slightly better than average action.

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