This Week in Blu-ray / DVD Releases: Goosebumps, Downton Abbey, Burnt

By John Law

January 25th 2016, 10:05pm

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

This Week: A groovy Goosebumps movie, a fan favourite season of Doctor Who, and saying goodbye to Downton Abbey.

► Back in the ‘90s they could never decide which R.L. Stine book to adapt for a GOOSEBUMPS movie, so it got shelved. Nearly 20 years later, they just decided to include all of them for a Jumanji-like comedy that was better than a lot of folks expected. Jack Black plays the reclusive author Stine, whose monsters are very real and trapped in books which he guards. His daughter’s new friend accidentally releases them, and the town is soon terrorized by many of Stine’s well-known creations (the lawn gnomes, the giant praying mantis, etc.). A fun-enough monster flick – the movie ‘Pixels’ wanted to be and fell far short of.

► And that’s a wrap on DOWNTON ABBEY after six mostly glorious seasons. Despite its overkill and a few middling seasons near the end, this was still an engaging British drama with enough great characters to overcome its soapy premise. The final season picks up in 1925, and as their elaborate estate becomes more obsolete, the new world finally forces the Crawley family and their faithful servants into major change. The annual Christmas special makes for a poignant and satisfying finale. As always, the DVD is out before the season has finished airing in the U.S. on PBS (it’s only up to episode 4).

► For BURNT, Bradley Cooper is a chef who pissed away a promising career in Paris through drugs and arrogance. After ruining the restaurant and people’s careers, he tries atoning by shucking oysters at a New Orleans bar before heading to London with a plan to earn his third Michelin star and salvage his reputation. Sienna Miller and Daniel Bruhl co-star, and Uma Thurman shows up as a famous food critic. Coupled with ‘Aloha,’ however, this was Cooper’s second big whiff of 2015 after he was in 2014’s biggest movie.

► Season 9 of the revived DOCTOR WHO was a huge hit with longtime fans, with episodes like ‘The Woman Who Lived’ and ‘Heaven Sent’ among the show’s all-time classics. Lots of heart to go with the time-traveling fun this time, as the show’s 12th Doctor, Peter Capaldi, is joined by Jenna Coleman as an equal, not just a companion. Ghosts, vikings and of course the Daleks crash the party. Includes 12 episodes plus the 2014 and 2015 Christmas specials (British shows sure love their Christmas specials).

► These really are strange times in movieland. THE WANNABE is executive produced by Martin Scorsese, and stars last year’s Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actress, Patricia Arquette. Heard of it? Me neither, until now. Based on the true story of a New York couple who robbed several mafia social clubs and met their fate on Christmas Eve, 1992. Co-stars Michael Imperioli and Vincent Piazza.

► Lifetime’s UNREAL has Shiri Appleby as a reality TV producer pushed by her boss (Constance Zimmer) to manipulate events on her dating show ‘Everlasting’ – basically ‘The Bachelor’ – for maximum drama. It’s the dirty little secret we conveniently ignore with every reality show. Got great buzz last summer and was renewed for a second season.

► Unlike the new six-part miniseries currently airing on BBC One and A&E, the 1972 version of WAR & PEACE which aired on BBC contains many of the characters and subplots dropped from other adaptations of Leo Tolstoy’s massive novel. Five DVDs contain all eight hours and 20 episodes. Anthony Hopkins leads a huge cast that includes David Swift as Napoleon.

► The offbeat 1989 thriller SONNY BOY gets dusted off by Shout! Factory this week, complete with commentary from director Robert Martin Carroll and writer Graeme Whifler. In one of the most batshit crazy performances David Carradine ever did, he plays Rose – no explanation given why he’s a woman – who insists on raising a baby her crazy criminal family brings home, after killing the parents. The kid is raised like an animal, used to kill the family’s enemies. When he escapes, the townsfolk grab their pitchforks. Brad Dourif co-stars, in one of his loonier roles as well.

Also out this week: