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Category:    Home > Reviews > Documentary > Music Industry > Record Stores > Dance > Contest > Teens > Drama > Comedy > Ireland > Musical > All Things Must Pass (Tower Records documentary/2015/Film Rise/MVD DVD)/Centerstage: On Pointe (2016/Sony DVD)/The Commitments: 25th Anniversary Edition (1991/RLJ Blu-ray)/The Gang's All Here (1943/Fo

All Things Must Pass (Tower Records documentary/2015/Film Rise/MVD DVD)/Centerstage: On Pointe (2016/Sony DVD)/The Commitments: 25th Anniversary Edition (1991/RLJ Blu-ray)/The Gang's All Here (1943/Fox/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/Honey 3: Dare To Dance (2016/Universal Blu-ray w/DVD)/Scorpions: Forever And A Day (2015/Cleopatra Records/MVD Visual Blu-ray)/Stop The World, I Want To Get Off (1966/Warner Archive DVD)



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



PLEASE NOTE: The Gang's All Here Blu-ray is now only available from our friends at Twilight Time, is limited to only 3,000 copies and can be ordered while supplies last, while Stop The World... is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive series. All can be ordered from the links below.



Here's our latest round of music releases for you to know about...



Colin Hanks' All Things Must Pass (2015) is a great, surprisingly informative documentary on the rise and fall of the Tower Records music chain. Though it is reflective of so many great and decent music chains that are no longer with us (Borders, Sam Goody, Media Play, National Record Mart and so many others, some of which were purposely run into the ground and gutted for what they were worth), Tower offered the unthinkable to the music industry, the first-ever music superstore and when it as a huge hit, a big boom and much fun followed. Tower was ahead of the rest, even if expansion was not in every U.S. state.


Through interviews, vintage clips, photos and twists all over in the story that starts in the 1970s, it also gives us insight into the industry itself and the smart ideas the propelled it as well as the mistakes that backfired bigtime. David Geffen has some of the choicest observations here, but he is far from alone. It also shows how much fun, how proud and how great the industry used to be before so much overly angry music, lame artists and played out genre start ruining everything. That started somewhat in the late 1980s, but it just got worse and worse. Hanks does an ace of a job filling the 96 minutes in and it is easily one of the must-see documentaries of the last few years.


There are sadly no extras.



Director X's (?!?) Centerstage: On Pointe (2016) is the lame new entry in the 'who asked for this' movie series about dancing and joy that is weak in the former and highly lacking in the latter. Without counting the duds, we covered one of the tired entries a while ago here...


http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8062/Center+Stage+%E2%80%93+Turn+It+Up+(Sony


This one involves ballet and yet another contest, as if ballet made its artsier or better. The dancing is fairly good, but like the script here, nothing memorable and this becomes 92 minutes of bad musical genre torture. Peter Gallagher also shows up, but is given little to do. 'Pointe' your music viewing interests elsewhere instead of at this zombified series.


A Dance Tutorial with co-star Chloe Lukasiak is the only extra.



Alan Parker's The Commitments: 25th Anniversary Edition (1991) is finally out on Blu-ray for fans of the film, for which there are a good few, including our critic who covered an older DVD many years ago at this link...


http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/872/Commitments+(Fox+DVD+set


I give him credit for explaining the film's appeal so well, hitting the nail on the head, but I was never a big fan. Parker has made better films (Bugsy Malone in particular, despite its flaws) and better films have been made of Roddy Doyle's books (like those of Peter Medak), but within its mostly believable world, it holds up. I was just never totally convinced of the connection the people make here, though the touches about Dublin, Ireland are more accurate than the film might sometimes get credit for. The film just never added up for me, but I at least respect what it accomplishes and it is a serious film that respects the viewer. Now, its also a time capsule worth a look.


Extras from the DVD like the Original Theatrical Trailer and a feature length audio commentary by Director Parker are joined by a Collectible Booklet in the Blu-ray case, Music Videos, Image Galleries, Four Behind The Scenes featurettes and a new featurette on the film's 25th Anniversary, so this is definitely the definitive release of the film.



Busby Berkeley's The Gang's All Here (1943) is back on video again, but unlike the last two DVDs, Fox has handed this gem to Twilight Time to be part of their extraordinary Limited Edition Blu-ray series. As discussed before, the film stars Carmen Miranda, Alice Faye (it appears in both of their DVD box sets), Benny Goodman, Eugene Pallette, Edward Everett Horton, Sheila Ryan and The Benny Goodman Orchestra. To repeat what I said before, this clever Technicolor Musical extravaganza also has a big star in director Berkeley making his first-ever color film and delivering a classic in the genre. Though this addresses WWII directly, it is still very escapist with its boy-meets-girl storyline and is clever throughout. The Nestor Arnaral & S.K. Russell music is also a plus and the sometimes gloriously gaudy and bizarre musical numbers are as fun as ever. This is also one of the best films any of the participants ever made and


Extras from the DVD are also here including the Original Theatrical Trailer, ''$64 Question'' deleted scene, two audio-only network radio excerpts that are very entertaining, another outstanding feature length audio commentary track by film scholar Drew Casper, Busby Berkeley: A Journey With A Star featurette and 'We Are Here'' - the last film Alice Faye ever made. It is a very good short promo film for a major pharmaceutical company where she reminisces about her career. It is the last thing you should see from this set, ending it with grace the sponsor could have never expected. New extras include another nicely illustrated booklet on the film including informative text and another excellent, underrated essay by the great film scholar Julie Kirgo, while the Blu-ray adds a second new feature length audio commentary track by Glenn Kenny, Ed Hulse & Farran Smith Nehme and an Isolated Music Score. All in all, that makes this a solid upgrade all around and a fine collectible.



Bille Woodruff's Honey 3: Dare To Dance (2016) is a boring homey trap to avoid unless you REALLY love dance and Rap/Hip Hop combinations, yet longtime music video director Woodruff comes up with next to nothing new here in this long, long, long 97 minutes where we get to see minority persons in a rare positive light. That is the only way this film is ahead of the many bad films we've all suffered through in the last few years, begging the question, can't these actors be in mainstream films so we don't have to suffer this segregated dud?


Woodruff has a great music videography that includes clips for Toni Braxton, Luther Vandross, Britney Spears, Brian McNight, Lil' Kim, TLC, The Backstreet Boys, Gloria Estefan, Outkast, Dru Hill, Usher, Chico DeBarge, Jody Watley, Shanice, Salt 'n' Pepa, Keith Washington, Des'ree, Babyface, R Kelly, Celine Dion, Kelly Price, Jermaine Dupri, Trisha Yearwood, Chante Moore, 98 Degrees, Lil' Wayne, Blu Cantrell, Nelly and The Isley Brothers. With that kind of amazing track record, this should have been better, but then again, music video directors do not get the respect they deserve, so its hard to say how much control or resources Woodruff had. The talent is there, but this is all a very straight-jacketed affair and disappointing on most levels. Oh well.


Extras include Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and other cyber iTunes capable devices, while the discs add Deleted Scenes Extended Dance Sequences, a feature length audio commentary track by Director Woodruff and a Making Of featurette.



Katja Von Garnier's Scorpions: Forever And A Day (2015) is a pretty decent documentary on who may be one of the greatest Heavy Metal bands of all time, unabashedly German, transcending language and making some of the most important music the genre has ever seen. Great in the studio and live, this not-long-enough 100 minutes does a good job of capturing their rise and continual success over the decades and gives us new reasons to see why they were and are so successful. The new interviews are interesting, the vintage footage great and I liked this better than some of their home video concert releases. A valuable volume worth your time, even non-fans will be surprised.


A trailer and vintage June 1985 interview clip from the Night Flight TV series (at 10 minutes) are the only extras.



Philip Saville's Stop The World, I Want To Get Off (1966) is a deconstructive backstage musical film of the hit British musical by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse, whose theme for the James Bond film Goldfinger (1964) is one of the most well-known and imitated movie theme songs of all time. More hits resulted in ''Gonna Build A Mountain'' and especially ''Once In a Lifetime'' and ''What Kind Of Fool Am I?'', so this is considered a significant work and provided us more music standards.


The film is basically set on one stage (reminding me of Jacques Tati's later film Parade, reviewed elsewhere on this site), which can make the affair a bit hit and miss. They were experimenting to their credit, but some sequences work, while others are dated or just never worked. Still, this is as well filmed as it could be and the actors/singers/dancers are really good here. The film starts backstage with the performers preparing, so it is happy to call attention to its artifice, but this was more cutting edge in its time than now, where this might be 'hip' without a point. If you've never seen this work, its a good place to start.


There are sadly no extras.




The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on World and an nnamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image in the Pass, Pointe and Honey DVDs are on a even level looking about as goos as they can in the format. All are digital productions, save World, shot in Mitchell System 35 35mm film and issued in dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor prints. The result is that it is the most consistent of the four, but by a narrow margin. The color is pretty decent throughout, but the opening and a few other spots are in black and white.


The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image on Honey is definitely better than its DVD version and a bit better than the same presentation (but 1.85 X 1) on the Scorpions Blu-ray, which shares with Pass older analog videotape clips that are standard definition if that and display the usual analog videotape flaws like video noise, video banding, telecine flicker, tape scratching, cross color, some tape damage and in the case of digital copies, digital blocking or digititis.


Narrowly the best are the 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Commitments in a fine restoration that outdoes the previous DVD transfers with ease in the color, detail and depth department. The 1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Gang can show the age of the materials used, but this is far superior a transfer to the previously reviewed DVDs we covered and improves in definition, depth and most of the color. Also issued in 35mm a dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor prints, the print(s) used miss the mark slightly for the full color range you would expect from one of the best color formats (including all digital HD shoots) of all time is capable of. Still, this is the best the film has looked in a long time.


As for sound, Honey, Commitments and Scorpions offer DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes, but Honey is the sonic winner by default, a new recording that has nothing special going for it except no one botched it, though the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 DVD mix is weak. Commitments was made just before digital sound (CDS notwithstanding) was before the industry moved to digital sound for their feature film releases, but this upgrade is better than any

DVD version we've heard before, so those who love the music will be happy with this upgrade.


The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix on Gang is a bit better than the DVD sound from before, but there are also new limits to be heard in the sound, but the tradeoff is worth it for the gains. The isolated music score has some more clarity, but limits are still there, yet it is a great bonus and music (as well as musical fans) will be happy with its inclusion. That leaves the DVDs offering lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on Pointe sounding problematic, at a low volume and with a poor soundfield, the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on Pass sounding the best of the three with its older audio vying between stereo and mono and the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on World being so weak, be careful of high playback volumes and volume switching. Pointe and World disappoint and need upgrading and (especially in the case of Pointe) fixing.



To order The Gang's All Here limited edition Blu-ray, buy it and other great exclusives while supplies last at these links:


www.screenarchives.com


and


http://www.twilighttimemovies.com/



...and to the Stop The World... Warner Archive DVD, go to this link for them and many more great web-exclusive releases at:


https://www.warnerarchive.com/



- Nicholas Sheffo


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