This Week in Blu-ray / DVD Releases: Deadpool, The Boy, Scream...

This Week in Blu-ray / DVD Releases: Deadpool, The Boy, Scream…

By John Law

May 10th 2016, 6:45am

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

This Week: The demented delights of Deadpool, some '70s horror comes to blu-ray, and Scream slides onto TV.

► Flash back to six months ago: Had someone asked you which would be the bigger movie, ‘Batman vs. Superman’ or DEADPOOL, you’d think it was a trick question. There’s only one obvious answer, and it wasn’t the little Marvel movie that seemingly no one – except Ryan Reynolds – wanted to make. Here we are in May and this crazy, R-rated carnival ride of a movie didn’t just beat Bats and Supes, it’s (for now) the year’s highest-grossing movie. And it totally deserves the title. Here’s a gamble that paid off by brazenly flipping the bird to other superhero movies while taking its rightful place alongside them. And its crude laughs aren’t just for shock value; it’s actually one of the most faithful versions of a comic character we’ve ever seen. Here is a genuinely funny action movie – a dying breed – which fully satisfied some of the most fickle fans out there. Blu-ray coughs up commentaries by Reynolds and director Tim Miller, deleted scenes, and a ‘comics to screen’ feature.

► Not to be confused with ‘The Boy’ that came out on blu-ray two month ago, William Brent Bell’s THE BOY has a Montana woman fleeing an abusive relationship by accepting a job as a nanny to a British family. Once there, she’s introduced to the couple’s son…who happens to be a porcelain doll. She’s given rules, which she ignores, which you probably can guess leads to a bunch of weird shit. Lauren Cohen and Rupert Evans co-star with the doll.

► The SCREAM movies felt like teen melodrama anyways, so it’s no surprise to see the franchise head to TV. Season 1 begins with a cyberbullying incident, which conjures bad memories in the town of Lakewood and leads to more teens being stalked by a masked killer. ‘Scream’ matriarch Wes Craven died just before the season finale. Season 2 starts May 30.

► Between ‘Taxi Driver,’ ‘Freaky Friday’ and ‘Bugsy Malone,’ Jodie Foster had a huge year in 1976. Even a middling thriller like THE LITTLE GIRL WHO LIVES DOWN THE LANE was a big deal. Foster plays a 13-year-old Maine kid fending off the curious neighbors who want to know where her father is. As they soon discover, it’s best not to pry. Foster is superb in a movie that hasn’t aged very well. Martin Sheen co-stars as her landlord’s sleazy son.

► The devil is in the details in the Canadian-made thriller REGRESSION. Ethan Hawke is a detective investigating a man in 1990 who can’t recall sexually abusing his daughter (Emma Watson), despite admitting to it. When he starts poking around, he suspects a satanic cult is responsible.

► It wasn’t ‘Smoky & the Bandit’ which led to my hopeless crush on Sally Field, it was the troubled 1981 romantic comedy BACK ROADS. Fields, in one of her more underrated movies, is an Alabama hooker who heads to California with ex-prize fighter Tommy Lee Jones after he slugs a cop. They argue the whole trip, which pretty much describes them on set as well. They eventually reconciled and both starred in ‘Lincoln’ 31 years later.

► Taking its cue from ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’ the SyFy series KILLJOYS aims for fun instead of deep. Aaron Ashmore, Luke Macfarlane and Hannah John-Kamen are bounty hunters bringing in the galaxy’s baddest scumbags while trying to remain neutral during a planetary class war. Ten-episode first season drew heavy comparisons to ‘Firefly.’ Season 2 premieres July 1.

► The long lost 1974 UK horror flick SYMPTOMS has finally resurfaced from Mondo Macabro, 33 years after it was last shown on British TV. Angela Pleasance (Donald’s daughter) stars as a woman invited by a friend to a country mansion, but the trip has her doubting her sanity. For years this was only available in grainy bootlegs. Blu-ray includes a 2011 documentary on director Jose Ramon Larraz and new interviews with stars Pleasance and Lorna Heibron.

Also out this week: