Bad Milo (2013/Magnolia Blu-ray)/Blind Date (1987/Image Blu-ray)/In A World... (2013/Sony Blu-ray)/Maverick: The Complete Fourth Season, Part One + Part Two (1960 - 1961/Warner Archive DVD)/Touchy Feely (2013/Magnolia Blu-ray)

Picture: B-/B-/B-/C+/B- Sound: C+/C+/B-/C+/B Extras: C-/D/C/D/C Main Programs: C-/C/C/C+/C-

PLEASE NOTE: The Maverick DVD sets are only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.

Here is a round of various comedies that show how hard comedy can really be...

Jacob Vaughan's Bad Milo (2013) is another bizarre project with the wacky Duplass Brothers, who will take any concept and try to make it into a feature narrative, no matter how pointless. This time out, Ken Marino plays a guy who has a killer monster that comes out of his digestive system (via his rear end) and kills people when he gets mad at them. Getting there for reasons too idiotic to go into, this is more C.H.U.D. and less David Cronenberg which renders this a bad one-joke comedy that seems longer than it 84 minutes.

Acting turns by Peter Stormare, Gillian Jacobs, Patrick Warburton, Mary Kay Place and Stephen Root combined cannot stop the script from being figuratively and literally in the toilet. The creators definitely have a bad case of 1980s B-movie-itis, but the other thing besides a pretty wasted cast is simply an opportunity missed to deal with men in a crazy vulnerable position the lead is in. Guess Scorsese's After Hours is not on their radar. This gets gross very early on and just gets dumber and dumber. See it at your own risk.

Extras include a feature length audio commentary track, AXS-TV piece to promote it, Extended Outtakes, Ken Marino Interview, Extended Dinner Scene, Deleted Scene, an Original Theatrical Trailer and two featurettes on creating Milo.

Blake Edwards' Blind Date (1987) was the underrated director's attempt to update the screwball comedy, but it becomes a losing battle early on when the screenplay starts making concessions to the constrictions of 1980s regressive cinema, it is doomed to failure. Bruce Willis was still on Moonlighting when he made this and recycles some of his David Addison persona for his role here as a corporate guy needing a date for an important dinner. His car salesman brother (the late, great Phil Hartman) arranges the title event with Nadia (Kim Basinger in her early glory) with the warning not to let her drink alcohol.

She does just that and becomes so tipsy that she says everything that comes to her mind and for starters, wrecks the big corporate dinner. Then her ex-boyfriend (John Larroquette) is stalking them both with amusing results. However, we get a mix of old-styled humor, new humor, too many safe, flat moments, a lack of energy that does not help and a phony ending complete with a hidden ad placement and self-congratulatory feel-good duel that is highly forgettable.

After the collapse of the Pink Panther series on the early 1980s, Edwards still made comedies and that all have some sort of cult following (That's Life, A Fine Mess, Sunset) plus a few good moments each, so this is worth one look if you have never seen it. Willis is not bad, but Basinger is better here than she got credit for at the time and holds her own against the leads, plus talents like William Daniels and Sab Shimono. This deserved a Blu-ray, buy there are oddly no extras, though Edwards always gave great interviews, et al.

Lake Bell's In A World... (2013) has the actress starring, writing and co-producing this comedy about voiceover people, but the film wants to spoof advertising on some level as well as well as the movie industry (think movie trailers), but it is barely better than the badly done Syrup (reviewed on Blu-ray elsewhere on this site) in this respect. Still, Bell is likable and Ken Marino shows up here giving a better performance than in Bad Milo, which was no stretch.

The result is a one-joke movie with some character development and some potential, but it is not realized either as it cannot find new places to go or ways to be more energetic than a mumblecore film or any generic comedy. Only some ideas and cast chemistry stop this form being a bad cable movie. Rob Cordory also stars.

Extras include Promo Trailers, a feature length audio commentary track with Bell, an Alternate Opening Sequence, Deleted Scenes and a Gag Reel.

Maverick: The Complete Fourth Season, Part One + Part Two (1960 - 1961) is the season where contract negotiations with James Garner and Warner TV got so bad, they hired a then-unknown Roger Moore to be his British cousin Beau (no joke) and though maybe the show was so popular on its own that viewers would accept any lead named Maverick. Instead, this would be Garner's last season where he appeared anywhere and the shows days were numbered.

The writing is still not bad, yet the show was starting to become formulaic and if Garner had been joined by Moore, then they would have had a new direction to go into that made sense. Instead, we get more con artistry that is supposed to be wise and funny, but the weekly TV grind was catching up to the show to begin with. 32 episodes were produced and it did promote Moore beyond the feature films he started turning up in. Warner TV was correct about Moore, as he would break out as soon as the show ended the following season in the massive 1960s TV version of The Saint on British TV where he made Simon Templar an international megahit.

There are remarkably no extras, despite the fact that Roger Moore does some of the best interviews and audio commentaries of any actor.

Finally we have Lynn Shelton's Touchy Feely (2013) which wants to be a comedy, but also a drama, but is as mumblecore as anything on the list as a massage therapist (Rosemary DeWitt) develops a sudden aversion to touching anyone. That could have made a good character study and/or outright drama, but the makers want to have I both ways here and it does not ever really work.

Add a dentist brother (Josh Pais) barely holding his business together, a daughter (Ellen Page playing yet another variation of herself with almost the same haircut!) who we are supposed to identify with, Allison Janney as her best friend and a boyfriend (Scoot McNairy) who is not exactly together himself and we get 88 mostly predictable minutes that could have worked much better if it could have made up its mind what it was and develop these characters more. The only feely you'll have when finished is bored and disappointed.

Extras include BD Live interactive functions, Outtakes, Original Theatrical Trailer, Deleted Scenes, a feature length audio commentary track by Shelton (also here in an on camera interview), Rosemary DeWitt & Josh Pais (also here in an on camera interview), an AXS-TV promo look at the film and separate on camera interviews with Allison Janney and Scoot McNairy.

The Blu-rays all sport 1080p digital High Definition image transfers that all have their limits as HD shoots (1.85 X 1 on Milo, 1.78 X 1 on Touchy, 2.35 X 1 on World) and the one 35mm shoot in real anamorphic Panavision, Date in limited-color range MetroColor with possibly a slightly older HD master. It has as good a look as anything here though and the best form & color on the list.

The 1.33 X 1 black & white image on all the Maverick episodes have prints as good as anything here since Warner likely had to make new (or recent) copies and/or transfers of good archival prints since these episodes are rare shown on TV. If these were on Blu-ray, they could easily compete with the rest of the releases on this list.

All the Blu-rays offer DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes, save Date, but Touchy is easily the sonic champ with a rich, solid soundfield despite some slight compression. World is second best with some soundfield limits, but has monophonic or simple stereo moments on purpose and some rough archival audio at times. That leaves Milo a big disappointment, sounding like it was not even recorded for multi-channel sound in mind and too often coming from the center channel. Date is here in a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo lossless mix from its original A-type analog Dolby Stereo theatrical release, so using Pro Logic (et al) on a home theater system will decode just enough of a monophonic surround to enjoy the film as originally intended.

The lossy Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono the Maverick episodes ties Milo and Date for weakest sound, though it should be weaker overall, these tracks from show to show are surprisingly clean and for its age for that matter.

To order this latest Maverick season set, or any others on Warner Archive DVD, go to this link for them and many more great web-exclusive releases at:

http://www.warnerarchive.com/

- Nicholas Sheffo