
Blunt
Talk (2015/Starz/Anchor
Bay DVD Set)/The Carol
Burnett Show: The Lost Episodes - The Ultimate Collection
(1966 - 1972/Star Vista/Time Life 22-DVD Box Set)/The
Hudsucker Proxy
(1994/Warner/Universal/Umbrella Region B Import Blu-ray)/If
Its Tuesday, It Must Belgium
(1969/United Artists/MGM/Olive Blu-ray)
Picture:
C+/C+/B/B Sound: C+/C+/B-/B- Extras: C/B/D/C- Main
Programs: C+/A/C/C+
PLEASE
NOTE:
The
Hudsucker Proxy
Import Blu-ray is now only available from our friends at Umbrella
Entertainment in Australia, can only play on Blu-ray players that can
handle Region B locked Blu-rays and can be ordered from the link
below.
Here's
a new
group of comedy releases, including a huge megaset of an all-time
classic...
Blunt
Talk
(2015) casts
Patrick Stewart as a talk show host about to get in all kinds of
personal trouble being bored with his life and hitting some kind of
mid-life crisis. Stewart and his comic abilities are underrated and
underseen, but this show has some really bad, dumb humor that does
not work and the few parts that work in that respect are few and far
between. Part of the problem is that the situation and the humor too
often are too obvious and we have seen this 'big media guy in a
downfall story' one too many times already, so the gaudiness
backfires there.
There
are even a few in-jokes (Seth MacFarlane is co=producer) and having
Jacki Weaver as a co-star does not hurt, but 10 shows here have an OK
start in the first episode, but slowly go into decline following the
same old same old. For fans only.
Three
Making Of/Behind The Scenes featurettes (two very short) are the only
extras.
The
Carol Burnett Show: The Lost Episodes - The Ultimate Collection
(1966 - 1972) is the second huge box set of extensive work from her
classic, landmark hit variety TV series (this Time Life release is a
22-DVD Box Set!) and is loaded with hilarious, enduring work. One of
the best DVD boxes we have ever
covered, some of its content has been released on its own including a
smaller set under the same name...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13843/Carol+Burnett+Show:+The+Lost+Episodes+(1967
As
well as the Carol + 2 DVD single...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/14199/Carol+++2:+The+Original+Queens+Of+Comedy
Being
a big fan and having covered releases of this show several times
already, you would think I would have run out of superlatives or
laughs, but this deeper version of the release reconfirms in
extensive detail just how funny, inventive, innovative and hilarious
all involved were, the massive chemistry between the cast, guests and
the underrated talents behind the scenes and because they were so
excellent from broadcast minute one, how this became an instant
classic and truly a now-rare form of event television we don't see
much of anymore anywhere.
The
Vault set offers great episodes with Johnathan Winters, Dionne
Warwick, Joan Rivers, Barbara Feldon, Nannette Fabray, an early
prophetic turn by Sonny & Cher before they joined Carol & the
gang at CBS doing the same kind of show, Marilyn Horne, Shirley
Jones, George Chakiris, Ken Barry (soon to be a semi-regular of sorts
all the way to Mama's Family), Paul Lynne, Dyan Cannon, Soupy
Sales, Mel Torme, Pat Boone, Gwen Verdon, Mickey Rooney, John
Davidson, Peter Lawford, Minnie Pearl, Martha Raye, Betty Grable and
the great Art Carney.
The
spoofs, satires, send-ups, great music and dance numbers continue on
the Classic Carol set we are seeing for the first time
anywhere and includes Tim Conway (as semi-regular before he was a
regular later in the series' run), Ray Charles, Lucille Ball, George
Carlin, Bernadette Peters, Mike Douglas, Martha Raye (in her comeback
after a backlash for her pro-military position in Vietnam), Diahann
Carroll, Nancy Wilson, Nanette Fabray, Frank Gorshin (the first
Riddler from Batman), Lana Turner, Ricardo Montalban, Cass
Elliott (promoting her underrated theme from Monte Walsh),
Debbie Reynolds, John Davidson, Ken Berry, Imogene Coca, Robert
Goulet, Totie Fields and Garry Moore. Its a massive amount of talent
you could not get on any TV show today and the prices I have seen for
this set are more than justified. If ever there were an inarguable
DVD gift set, this is the one. I had not seen many of these shows
for a long time and certainly not in their entirety since they were
broadcast back in the day.
Extras
in this great box set packaging include a reproduction of the
autograph book Burnett would have all her guests sign at the end of
every
single episode
of her show and the larger DVD sets have episode guide booklets with
comments and color illustrations, while the DVDs add a backstage tour
of CBS Studio 33 where the show was originally taped, 13 exclusive
new interviews with stars of yesteryear and today, with Alan Alda,
Julie Andrews, Vikki Carr, Carol Channing, Bill Hader, Jack Jones
(longer than expected but worth it), Jim Nabors, Queen Latifah,
Gloria Loring, Don Rickles, Lesley Ann Warren & others,
Never-Before-Seen Bloopers & Outtakes, Bonus sketches including
''Morton
at the Movies''
and the all-time classic ''The
Dentist''
and the opening number from the historic Julie
and Carol at Lincoln Center
TV special with a new introduction by Carol from the smaller Lost
Episodes
release, an interview featurette where Burnett discusses the origins
of her 'Charwoman' character from the Carol
+ 2
release (part of the green-labeled Exclusive
Bonus Features
DVD, which also adds a second new DVD with A Message To Carol, Golden
Age Of The Variety Show featurette and new interview clips with
Burnett, Alan Alda, Randy Doney, Tina Fey & Bill Hader),
newly-shot interviews with Tony Bennett, Steve Carell, Kristin
Chenoweth, Tina Fey, Burt Reynolds and others; hilarious bonus
sketches, featurettes including ''The
Song and Dance: Crooners, Hoofers & Balladeers,''
''Expecting
the Unexpected,''
and ''The
Making of a Mackie,''
as well as never-before-seen outtakes from the Vault
DVD set, new interviews with dancer Randy Doney and ballet dancer
Edward Villella, plus the first half of ''A
Writer's Roundtable''
interview featurette from the Classic
Carol
set and finally, the blue-labeled Exclusive
Bonus Features
DVD adds a continuation of ''A
Writer's Roundtable,''
Outtakes and more interview clips. This time, they are with Julie
Andrews, George Chakiris, Shirley Jones, Buz Kohan, Shirley Jones
(all on DVD 1) and Marty Ingels, Arnie Kogan, Chita Rivera and Saul
Turteltaub (DVD 2).
If
you are thinking of getting this set for yourself or anyone else, DO
IT!!!!
The
Coen Brothers' The
Hudsucker Proxy
(1994) took a few years to make and release, but when it finally
arrived, it did poor box office and lost money due to its huge
budget. We previously reviewed the U.S. Warner Archive Blu-ray
release (only available online) here...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12316/The+Hudsucker+Proxy+(1994/Warner+Archive+Blu
I
was not a big fan of the film, especially as a follow up to a pair of
ingenious gems like Miller's Crossing and Barton Fink.
Now that we have the new Umbrella
Region B Import Blu-ray version, I can add my thoughts on the film.
Needless to say my fellow writer thought it was a total bomb, but a
few parts of it worked, looked good and show this had promise at some
point. At the time, I was shocked that actionmeister Joel Silver was
co-producing it. When it was announced, then suddenly disappeared
for a while, that fact explained something had gone wrong.
Now
those who have seen many more of their films will want to catch it as
a curio and all of their films should always be in print. Yet, when
talking of their older work, this one rarely comes up by as a
footnote at best. All serious film fans should see it once because
its the Coens and because of the cast, but I'm still disappointed in
what is over two decades later and counting. Glad this did not kill
their career.
There
are sadly no extras.
Last
but not least is Mel Stuart's If
Its Tuesday, It Must Belgium
(1969), a travel comedy with a really impressive cast in which
American tourists go on a bus tour in Europe led by Ian McShane as
their skirt-chasing host. He gets involved with customer Suzanne
Pleshette with initially mixed results, but that is one of several
storylines in this attempt to combine Tati's Playtime
with It's
A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
on a subtler level. Produced by David L. Wolper through United
Artists, the cast gives its best to make this all work, but the
screenplay is mixed and stops this from being a potential classics.
I
cannot say this about a cast that also includes Norman Fell, Michael
Constantine, Murray Hamilton, Mildred Natwick, Sandy Barron, Senta
Berger, Joan Collins, John Cassavetes, singer Donovan, Vittorio De
Sica, Catherine Spaak, Anita Ekberg, Virna Lisi, Robert Vaughn, Peggy
Cass, Pamela Britton, Aubrey Morris, Patricia Routledge, Else
Martinelli and Ben Gazzara. Stuart (the director of the original
Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory was known mostly for
documentaries like Wattstax), handles the comedy, joy and
energy well enough, but this does not nearly add up to what it could
have outside of a time capsule with many curios about it and in it.
All in all, its still worth a good look for how good it looks and for
a;ll the funny moments that do work.
An
Original Theatrical Trailer is the only extra, though a featurette
would have been interesting.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Blunt
is a bit dark and that affects detail and gives us black crush at
times, but color is consistent and some of that is to be expected
from a tradedown of an HD shoot, while the 1.33 X 1 color on the
Burnett
DVDs are about as high quality as they can be for older 2-inch analog
NTSC reel-to-reel low-def videotape of the time. There are still
some flaws including slight ghosting at time, a bit of video noise
once in a while, video banding here and there, a few slight tape
scratching incidents, a little cross color at times and color
changing a little, but this is minor and never hurts the viewing.
The
1080p 1.77 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Proxy
looks to be the same transfer as the warner Archive U.S. Blu-ray and
can show the age of the materials used in a few spots, but this is
far superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film save the
Warner version.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Belgium is
even more colorful (color was processed by DeLuxe) and can also show
the age of the materials used, but Is also superior to all previous
releases of the film on home video and the grain is never a problem,
though you can see some more in some scenes than others.
I like this was this is shot and edited.
The
lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on Blunt
is a good set of recording/mixing on each episode, but something is
being lost from the soundmaster, so I bet a lossless version would
perform better, thus, the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on the Burnett
DVDs can more than compete and sound really good for their
age.
As
was the case with the U.S. Blu-ray, the DTS-HD 2.0 Stereo Master
Audio lossless mix (with Pro Logic surrounds, though this was a 5.1
theatrical release!) on Proxy
was the first Coen Brothers film issued theatrically in digital sound
and it is fine, though why it is not 5.1 is odd. Still, this has its
moments, even if something is a bit missing.
The
DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix on Belgium
was a mono theatrical release, which holds back the music and songs
we get, but this is as well mixed and presented as an older such film
from its time could be. Nothing too surprising, but it is clear and
consistent.
To
order The
Hudsucker Proxy
Umbrella import Blu-ray, go to this link for it and many other
exclusives at:
http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/
-
Nicholas Sheffo