This week’s new releases are highlighted by the latest installment from a sarcastic superhero franchise, plus several classics now made available via the Warner Archive Collection and the Criterion Collection. Regardless of what type of movies you enjoy, we think you’ll find something to your liking here. And for your TV fans, we’ve got some fantastic season sets making their debut this week. Here’s a rundown of what DVD and Blu-ray releases are now available!
Marvel’s potty-mouthed mercenary anti-hero is back in this laugh- and action-packed sequel. Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) assembles a team of mutants called X-Force in order to stop cybernetic, time-traveling soldier Cable (Josh Brolin) from killing Russell Collins (Julian Dennison), a young mutant who will murder Cable’s family in the future. What could possibly go wrong when Deadpool and Cable are forced to put their differences aside and work together? With Zazie Beetz, Morena Baccarin.
Barred from seeing his heiress girlfriend (Rita Johnson) by her disapproving dad (Walter Connolly), a crafty playboy (Franchot Tone) finagles access to the house by pretending to be a neighboring chauffeur…and flirting with a newly hired maid (Franciska Gaal). His scheme backfires, though, as she develops real feelings for him–and he reciprocates. Sweet romantic farce, remade from a 1936 Hungarian starring vehicle for import Gaal, co-stars Reginald Gardiner, Reginald Owen, Franklin Pangborn.
Though the buffalo population of the Dakotas was decimated by the 1800s, grasping gunslinger Charlie Gilson (Robert Taylor) thought there was still money to be made in hides, and forged an alliance with world-weary hunter Sandy McKenzie (Stewart Granger). Gilson’s racism and bloodthirst toward the Native American locals, however, might ensure the partnership will end in blood. Richard Brooks’ stunning psychological frontier saga co-stars Lloyd Nolan, Debra Paget, Russ Tamblyn.
Storming out after being stiffed by her upper-crust boss, house servant Lizzie (Ruth Donnelly) offers her services to Joan Smith (Margaret Lindsay) and her scuffling insurance salesman husband Jimmy (Warren Hull), asserting her insider knowledge for ascending the social ladder. As she indeed gets them upwardly mobile, why’s she interceding between Joan’s brother (Frank Albertson) and a haughty debutante (Anita Louise)? Comedy of manners co-stars Arthur Treacher, Henry O’Neill, Bill Elliott.
His heroism in the wake of a dirigible crash cost Bill Austin (George Brent) a leg, and his Naval future…but his optimistic determination wasn’t lost on San Francisco lumber magnate Cappy Ricks (Charles Winninger), who chose to roll the dice on the job seeker. However, Cappy’s daughter Margaret (Anita Louise) wanted to take a chance on him as well…and the possessive dad started rolling out the roadblocks on the relationship! Inspiring comedy co-stars John Eldredge, Henry O’Neill; Busby Berkeley directs.
In the wake of a nervous collapse, detective Lance O’Leary (Patric Knowles) had the questionable fortune of being booked in the sanitarium where his ex, Sara Keate (Ann Sheridan), was head nurse. Their differences would have to keep, as a wealthy patient is murdered–his pricey personal store of medicinal radium is discovered missing–and a chart full of likely suspects piles up. Effective take on the Mignon Eberhart whodunit co-stars John Ridgely, Cliff Clark, Rosella Towne, Charles Trowbridge.
Soldier of fortune Tom Baldwin (Vinton Haworth) was providing security for the delivery of a priceless diamond to Shanghai…and it didn’t go well, as the bauble was swiped during a gunfight. The trail takes him to a San Francisco-bound, suspect-packed freighter, where he teams with U.S. customs agent Jane Dunn (Constance Worth) for a perilous pursuit of the prize. Atmospheric thriller co-stars Leslie Fenton, Gordon Jones, Joyce Compton, Philip Ahn, Alec Craig.
Heaven Can Wait (Criterion Collection)
Delightful fantasy/comedy from Ernst Lubitsch that despite its title opens in the “other place,” where deceased womanizer Henry Van Cleve (Don Ameche) renews his exploits with the Devil while waiting to learn his afterlife destination. Gene Tierney also stars as Henry’s wife, Martha; with Charles Coburn, Marjorie Main, Eugene Pallette, and Laird Cregar as the Satanic “His Excellency.”
Smithereens (Criterion Collection)
Director Susan Seidelman’s (“Desperately Seeking Susan”) first feature was this gritty look at life in the New Wave music scene of Manhattan. Wren (Susan Berman) is an ambitious, if untalented, “singer-promoter” who tries to latch onto a successful performer (Richard Hell) while sharing a van with a naive boy newly arrived from the Midwest. With Brad Rinn, Nada Despotovich.
Josie Potenza (Halle Berry) had long ago discovered that being the trophy bride of a workaholic–and alcoholic–film producer (Christopher McDonald) had its share of challenges. However, her barroom venting over her woes to a seemingly sympathetic stranger (Peter Greene) would ultimately result in her husband’s death…and with her on the end of the killer’s blackmail. Well-crafted, snap-ended suspenser co-stars Clive Owen, Frankie Faison, Charles Hallahan, Clea Lewis.
Masters of Sex: The Complete Series
Based on actual events, this racy Showtime series details the work of Dr. William Masters (Michael Sheen) and his assistant, Virginia Johnson (Lizzy Caplan), researchers whose extensive studies into the complexities of human sexuality at Washington University in the late 1950s broke new ground and made them pioneers in the field. Caitlin Fitzgerald, Teddy Sears, Nicholas D’Agosto also star. All 46 episodes from the series are included in this eight-disc set.
Wild at Heart (Collector’s Edition)
David Lynch, film’s Grand Wizard of Weird, takes you on a road trip like no other. Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern are Sailor Ripley and Lula Fortune, two lovers on a disturbingly funny cross-country getaway from Lula’s psychotic mama, who sends a variety of assassins and voodoo gangsters to take out Sailor. Diane Ladd, Harry Dean Stanton, Isabella Rossellini, and Willem Dafoe also star in this dark comedy based on Barry Gifford’s novel.
CIA operative Wheeler (Jean-Claude Van Damme) was in pursuit of a mole when an ambush left his partner dead and him unconscious. He awoke to find himself imprisoned at a black site, about to be tortured to give up what he knows…and given that the black site’s a submarine, with no chance of escape. Can an imposing fellow prisoner (Dolph Lundgren) help change the odds? Al Sapienza, Courtney B. Turk, Jasmine Waltz, Kris Van Damme also star.
Distraught after a patient commits suicide in front of him, New York psychiatrist Dr. Bill Capa (Bruce Willis) goes to L.A. to visit friend and fellow analyst Bob Moore (Scott Bakula). And when Moore is suddenly killed, Capa takes over his group therapy sessions. At the same time, he begins an intense affair with Rose (Jane March), a mysterious and sexy young beauty who may have played a part in the murder. Steamy suspenser co-stars Ruben Blades, Lesley Ann Warren.
Aging minister Ernst Toller (Ethan Hawke) subsumed a lifetime’s regrets in his quiet shepherding of a historic but fading small-town church. However, when a pregnant parishioner (Amanda Seyfried) sought special counsel for her environmentally conscious and despondent husband (Brian Ettinger), the reticent reverend might meet his own dangerous crisis of faith. Engrossing return to form for writer-director Paul Schrader co-stars Cedric the Entertainer, Michael Gaston, Victoria Hill.
Blue Bloods: The Eighth Season
Family drama and crime drama are often one and the same in this hit series that focuses on a multi-generational clan of New York City law enforcement officials. The family includes Police Commissioner Frank Reagan (Tom Selleck) and his three kids: veteran detective Danny (Donnie Wahlberg), assistant district attorney Erin (Bridget Moynahan), and rookie officer and Harvard law grad Jamie (Will Estes). With Len Cariou, Jennifer Esposito, Amy Carlson. All 22 episodes from the eighth season are included in this six-disc set.
The Walking Dead: The Complete Eighth Season
Based on the popular graphic novel series, this hit AMC series focuses on a small group of survivors living in the wake of an unknown catastrophe that has revived the dead as “walkers,” shambling, flesh-eating zombies. As the ragtag band, led by Southern lawman Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), makes their way across a walker-infested America, they soon discover that the dead may be the least of their problems. Norman Reedus, Chandler Riggs, Melissa McBride, Danai Gurira co-star. All 16 episodes from the eighth season are included in this five-disc set.
Thirty years since he last did combat with the demonic forces conjured by the Book of the Dead, Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) has aged out into a pathetic, hard-drinking retail clerk. Having accidentally loosed the Deadites onto our plane once again, Ash has to gather his courage, his cronies, and his prosthetic chainsaw in order to face his destiny. Campbell and “Evil Dead” franchise creator Sam Raimi reunited for this fun and fear-filled follow-up that aired on Starz; Ray Santiago, Dana DeLorenzo, Jill Marie Jones, and Lucy Lawless also star. All 10 episodes from the third season are included in this two-disc set.
Gotham: The Complete Fourth Season
Years before a caped vigilante watched over the dangerous streets of Gotham City, the unenviable task fell to an idealistic cop named Det. James Gordon. Gordon finds himself caught in Gotham’s complex web of organized crime and police corruption while becoming an unlikely mentor to young orphan Bruce Wayne. This dark and gritty prequel series, based on DC Comics’ Batman mythos, stars Ben McKenzie, Donal Logue, Sean Pertwee, Jada Pinkett Smith, David Mazouz, and Robin Lord Taylor as the Penguin. All 22 episodes from the fourth season are featured in this five-disc set.
Which of these are you looking forward to checking out?