VOD Squad: Benedict Cumberbatch's 'Doctor Strange' available for couch potatoes

I admit it freely: I don't much care for comic book superhero flicks and I'm getting tired of the tsunami of goofy movies that Hollywood has unleashed. But I must say I really enjoyed the comic book debut of Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) in Doctor Strange, released today on all home entertainment platforms.

Cumberbatch is immensely likable in the story as a narcisistic big-city neurosurgeon who is humbled by a car crash that leaves his hands permanently damaged. Desperate to get his old job back, he tries every remedy under the sun. He even flies to Tibet after hearing about a guru who can put broken bodies back together. What the guru (Tilda Swinton) offers is far more valuable: a spiritual awakening. And that's just the first act. There's plenty of mind-bending CGI-driven action in the film which costars Rachel McAdams, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong and Benjamin Bratt.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Keeping with the comic-book-y theme, I'm also a big fan of director David Yates' adaptation of J.K. Rowling's first post-Harry Potter picture, a rousingly odd and charming entry starring Oscar-winning British thesp Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler and Alison Sudol. The picture already has raked in more than $812 million at the box office worldwide. It's due March 7 on Amazon Video, iTunes and Xbox and on March 28 on Movies on Demand, Vudu and on DVD/Blu-ray.

A Man Called Ove. Rolf Lassgård turns in an extraordinary performance in this Oscar-nominated import from Sweden. He's a misanthropic, suicidal, retired widower who gets a new lease on life when he befriends his new neighbors, a young couple who seem thoroughly devoted to each other and to life. Adapted from Fredrik Backman's international best-selling novel, it's available on all platforms.

Bad Santa 2. Couch pilots will enjoy this profoundly profane and juvenile R-rated holiday comedy starring Billy Bob Thornton and  Kathy Bates. It's available on all platforms.

Kikoriki: Legend Of The Golden Dragon. A family animated fantasy suitable for all ages, this gentle Russian import (the dialogue is dubbed in English) is about a scientist who has developed a helmet that can transfer the personality of one person to another. Kids may know the Kikoriki character from the GoGoRiki TV series that aired on The CW. It's due on DVD from Shout Factory! On March 7.

The Girl with All the Gifts. Set at an Army base in England, this rather clever dystopian sci-fi thriller is about a disease that has transformed most humans into flesh-eating "hungries." Only a few kids seem immune to its effects. The plot sounds familiar but the script, which is based on the  M. R. Carey novel is exceptional as is the cast which includes Gemma Arterton, Paddy Considine and Glenn Close. It's available this week on digital platforms, due April 25 on DVD/Blu-ray.

Sophie and the Rising Sun. Julianne Nicholson, Takashi Yamaguchi, Margo Martindale and Diane Ladd star in this love story from indie writer-director Maggie Greenwald (The Ballad of Little Jo, Songcatcher). Set in 1941 in a small fishing village in South Carolina, it's about an interracial relationship that develops between a Japanese stranger and a local woman. Available now on all platforms.

Every once in a while even the most hardened couch potato gets an uncontrollable, irresistible urge to go out to an actual movie theater. So while director Joseph L. Mankiewicz' exquisitely vicious showbiz satire All About Eve is readily available for home viewing, a digitally-restored edition of the 1950 masterpiece will make a brief appearance on the big screen for two days only, Sunday March 5 and Wednesday, March 8.

Adapted from actor Mary Orr's short story "The Wisdom of Eve" and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, All About Eve features a stunning turn by Anne Baxter as a wide-eyed ingénue named Eve who is so thoroughly seduced by the promise of fame and by New York society's bright lights that she schemes to supplant  legendary – if rapidly aging – Broadway superstar  Margo Channing (the incomparable Bette Davis).

Davis, who was 49 when she made the film, was well past her prime – at least according to Hollywood's somewhat perverse standards – and not much work was coming her way.

Mankiewicz' call was welcome. "As I told Mankiewicz, he resurrected me from the dead," Davis famously said in a quote captured by the behind-the-scenes documentary Backstory (see it on YouTube).

Davis' career was hardly over: A decade later, Robert Aldrich would cast her opposite her real-life frenemy Joan Crawford in his Grand Guignol horror melodrama Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

As All About Eve opens, Baxter's character Eve is merely a pesky fan  – she shows up at the stage door every night after Margo's performances just to behold her hero. One day, she gets to meet her idol. Before you know it Eve has insinuated herself into Margo's life and she manages quickly to become the star's understudy. But that's only the first step in Eve's dastardly plan!

George Sanders is particularly snarky and witty as Manhattan's leading theater critic, while Marilyn Monroe is terrific in one of her first major roles as a somewhat empty-headed bombshell.

All About Eve, which is No. 16 on the American Film Institute's "100 Years, 100 Movies" list, will be shown as part of TCM's Big Screen Classic Series Sunday and next Wednesday at three area theaters: Riverview Plaza 17 by the river in South Philly, Cinemark University City 6 in University City and the Carmike Ritz Center 16 in Voorhees. For tickets and information visit the Fathom Events website.

Rather watch it at home? The film, which was digitally restored in 2011, is available in a gorgeous transfer on Blu-ray from 20th Century Fox.

A selection of the most popular online video providers:
Amazon Video: www.amazon.com/video/
FandangoNow: www.fandangonow.com/
Flixster:  www.flixster.com/
Hulu: www.hulu.com/
iTunes: www.apple.com/itunes/video/
Movies On Demand: www.rentmoviesondemand.com/
Netflix: www.netflix.com
Vimeo On Demand: https://vimeo.com/ondemand
Vudu: www.vudu.com/
Xbox: www.microsoft.com/en-US/movies-and-tv

Many cable and Satellite providers also have their own VOD service:
DirecTV On Demand: www.directv.com/technology/on_demand
Dish TV On Demand: www.mydish.com/perks/on-demand
Xfinity On Demand: www.xfinity.com/xod.html