Bring It On: Worldwide #Cheersmack (2017/Universal Blu-ray)/Change Begins Within: A Benefit For The David Lynch Foundation (2017/Universal Music/Eagle DVD)/Jane's Addiction: 2016 Silver Spoon Anniversary Tour Ritual De La Habitual Alive At Twenty-Five (MVD Visual Blu-ray w/DVD & CD)/Kid Galahad (1962/United Artists/MGM/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/Percy Faith & His Orchestra: Chinatown featuring The Entertainer (1974) + Love Theme from ''Romeo & Juliet'' (1969/Sony Music Albums/Vocalion Multi-Channel Super Audio CD/SACD/SA-CD w/CD layer Hybrid)/Saxophone Colossus featuring Sonny Rollins (1986/MVD Visual Blu-ray)/Tom Sawyer/Huckleberry Finn (1973, 1974 musical feature films/Reader's Digest/United Artists/MGM/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)

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

PLEASE NOTE: The Kid Galahad and Tom Sawyer/Huckleberry Finn Blu-rays are now only available from our friends at Twilight Time, are limited to only 3,000 copies and can be ordered while supplies last, while the Percy Faith double album Super Audio CD is now only available from our friends at Vocalion Records. All can be ordered from the links below.

Up next are the latest round of coverage we have to offer of music titles, more wide ranging than usual...

Bring It On: Worldwide #Cheersmack

Brainless cheerleading teenagers from all over the world can now rejoice in the dreadful new entry to the now direct-to-video Bring It On series as Worldwide #Cheersmack (2017) lands on Blu-ray disc. This paint-by-numbers film mixes cheerleading and social media in an attempt to reach younger viewers, but instead, merely gives its older ones a splitting headache in the process. The series got its start in the remotely funny 2000 film starring Kirsten Dunst and has since spiraled into obscurity with a whopping five direct-to-video sequels. This is the series first entry since the lukewarm reception to Bring It On: Fight to the Finish (2009).

The film stars Vivica A. Fox (Kill Bill, Independence Day) and newcomers Cristine Prosperi (Degrassi: The Next Generation, Betrayed), Jordan Rodrigues (The Fosters, Dance Academy), Sophie Vavasseur (Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Evelyn), and Gia Re (Jinx, Rocket's Island).

Using real cheerleaders from countries all over the world, the film centers around the Smackdown, which is a worldwide cheerleading competition. Interesting for the display of athletics alone, the film doesn't fire on many other cylinders aside from that factor. Which country will win the competition and is there a mature way to do so?

In a way, it's a brilliant low risk project for the studio as it probably didn't cost too terribly much to produce and predominantly features real dance choreography that probably didn't need too much rehearsal time with the usual thumping music. Vivica A. Fox is no stranger to picking bad low budget movies and this is no exception, though she does what she can with the material.

Presented in 1080p high definition with a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.40:1 and a nice sounding DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless track, the film looks as good as it can on Blu-ray disc. Shot flat with high key sterile-looking lighting, the film looks like it should be on broadcast television with no real interesting visual style or colors that put it above many TV movies.

A Digital UV copy is also included.

Special Features...

Around the World: Building the Squads - Discover how actors were able to master the escalating difficulty of cheer routines choreographed by Tony Gonzalez featuring teams from South Africa and Brazil.

A New Routine - Filmmakers, cast, and crew discuss what sets the latest chapter of the Bring It On franchise apart, including focusing on social media's potential negative impacts in the world of all-star cheerleading. This piece also includes cheer teams from England, Ireland and Costa Rica.

The Look of Bring It On: Worldwide - A look into how the set design and costumes provide a vibrancy and unique flair to the film's backdrop.

Gag Reel

Unless you really like cheerleading films, I think it may be wise to avoid this one at all costs and just watch the original again.

Change Begins Within: A Benefit For The David Lynch Foundation

Benefit concerts are always a good thing, but sometimes they make for some amazing music and music moments by bringing together talent that might not come together otherwise or in the way such an event brings that other collaborations might not. The great filmmaker David Lynch has other projects and this includes being a major proponent of meditation as a way to help people help themselves.

To show you how much respect and love Lynch and the project brought to this event, Jerry Seinfeld showed up to tell a few jokes in the middle of all thee fine music performances by some of the biggest and best names in the history of the business...

Natural Blues - Moby, Betty LaVette, TM Choir
Rise - Eddie Vedder
Under Pressure - Eddie Vedder & Ben Harper
My Sweet Lord - Sheryl Crow
Hurdy Gurdy - Donovan & Jim James
Isle of Islay - Donovan and Paul Horn
It Don't Come Easy - Ringo Starr
Boys - Ringo Starr
Yellow Submarine - Ringo Starr
Baby You Can Drive My Car - Paul McCartney
Jet - Paul McCartney
Got To Get You Into My Life - Paul McCartney
Let It Be - Paul McCartney
Here Today - Paul McCartney
Band On The Run - Paul McCartney
With A Little Help From My Friends - Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr
Cosmically Conscious - All members
I Saw Her Standing There - All members

Running 110 minutes, you'll wish for more and I bet there is more, but it is a solid show and one of the best live releases of the year. We received the DVD version with its anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image that is pretty good for the format, though I know a Blu-ray would deliver this more clearly with better color. I was a bit mystified why we only get a lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track, especially when Eagle has issued endless DVDs with DTS and Dolby 5.1, but it is fine for what it is. Still, not having any 5.1 mix disappoints a bit.

Extras include an illustrated paper foldout with tech info and extra interview footage on the disc with Lynch, Vedder, McCartney, Starr and Harper.

Jane's Addiction 2016 Silver Spoon Anniversary Tour

If you're a fan of the rock group Jane's Addiction or any of its particular members, then you will enjoy this new collection from the 2016 Silver Spoon Anniversary Tour. Centering around their landmark album Ritual De Lo Habitual, the performance captures the essence of that album as well as some of the band's greatest hits spanning their 30-year career. Included in this DigiPak set is the live performance on Blu-ray and DVD, along with the CD as well. The disc packaging and inserts are all great looking with very cool artwork and the presentation of the concert itself is of high standards.

Perry Farrell, Dave Navarro, Stephen Perkins and Chris Chaney are Jane's Addiction. The show is directed by Mark Ritchie (Madonna, Kanye West) and produced by Barry Summers (Rock Fuel Media).

13 songs make up the performance and include:

Stop!

No One's Leaving

Ain't No Right

Obvious

Been Caught Stealing

Three Days (with special guest Taylor Hawkins)

Then She Did...

Of Course

Classic Girl

Mountain Song

Just Because

Ted, Just Admit It...

Jane Says

Filmed with 20 different cameras and presented in both 1080p and standard definition, this unique set includes a widescreen presentation in 1.78:1 and an English Dolby Digital 5.1 lossy track the presentation is up to standards with both formats but nothing particularly mind blowing. The sound track on the disc is similar to that of the CD soundtrack which is a live performance. Some of the camera formats for the concert itself vary but all have been converted and look mostly fine.

No additional extras, but here's more of the band live on Blu-ray for you to check out on this site...

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10266/Jane%E2%80%99s+Addiction+%E2%80%93+Live

Kid Galahad

No matter how weak or convoluted, every Elvis Presley film ever made made money and he is the only movie star in history (even if it was not his day job, singing obviously was) to never have a film lose money or bomb. That's fan loyalty!!! One of his odder films is Phil Karlson's Kid Galahad (1962) that has Elvis in a 'musical' remake of the 1937 drama as a young man coming out of the U.S. military to a new life. He can do hard work, hard labor, mind a store, be a car/truck mechanic and even sing, but suddenly, a promoter (Gig Young) gets involved with a trainer (a young Charles Bronson) to have him be a boxer!!!

That makes him more of a jack-of-all-trades than you would expect, but that's the convoluted tale we get, remake or not. There is even the film debut of Ed Asner to go with female leads Lola Albright and Joan Hackman, yet they and the cast get lost in the shuffle here of an uneven film I was only so much of a fain of. Even Elvis is not always in his element here, making this one of the most unusual films of his career up there with Change Of Habit, his last dramatic role. Yet, it is worth a look to see what does work and what does not, plus this is an interesting mix of talent just the same. Karlson can direct is was a solid journeyman in his time, while the great Hal David (of Bacharach/David fame) co-wrote some of the songs. Though not for everyone, this is a Kid some are sure to find worth looking into. Ned Glass, Michael Dante and an uncredited Bert Remsen also star.

The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer can show the age of the materials used a little bit, but this is far superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film and the DeLuxe Color is about as good as it can probably get here. Unfortunately, the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix is weaker than I would have liked and marks how the 'Elvis Musical' was about to start to take a slow rollercoaster ride into lesser quality (though the much better Viva Las Vegas (reviewed on Blu-ray elsewhere on this site) is one of his best) those films became infamously known for, nearly killing his career.

Extras include a nicely illustrated booklet on the film including informative text and yet another excellent, underrated essay by the great film scholar Julie Kirgo, while the Blu-ray disc adds an Isolated Music Score with select Sound Effects track and the Original Theatrical Trailer.

Percy Faith & His Orchestra: Chinatown featuring The Entertainer/Theme From ''Romeo & Juliet''

In 1960, Canadian composer, conductor, arrange Percy Faith saw his theme from the hit feature film A Summer Place spend a whopping nine weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, an amazing accomplishment in any year. It established him as film music affiliated and though he only had one other major Top 40 hit, it was more than enough for him to issue a long and successful series of albums where he would cover more movie music and other standards.

The Vocalion label out of the U.K. has issued two of his albums not just on one CD, but on a Super Audio CD that includes three sonic choices: 2.0 PCM Stereo on the CD layer, a Super Audio CD ultra high definition Direct Stream Digital (aka DSD) 2.0 Stereo version and a Super Audio CD ultra high definition Direct Stream Digital in 4.0 discreet Quadraphonic Stereo from the original 4-track masters of the time few heard. All the major record labels gave it their all hoping quad would be the next big sonic trend, but competing versions of quad and some formats sounding better than others (some of which were not even true 4-track) held it back much like the comings and goings of 3D video. However, the soundmasters we've encountered over the years on this site and otherwise have been interesting and impressive, something we can say about the following two albums which turn out to be much better engineered, produced and recorded than you might expect. The content are as follows...

CHINATOWN

1. The Entertainer (Joplin adapt Faith) from the film The Sting
2. I'm Gonna Go Fishin' (Ellington; Lee)
3. What’ll I Do? (Berlin) from the film The Great Gatsby (1974 Redford version)
4. Deep in the Morning (Diamond)
5. Chinatown (Goldsmith) theme from the film the classic Jack Nicholson thriller
6. Fifth Movement (Tubular Bells) (Oldfield, known from The Exorcist)
7. Moody (Paris; Mitchell)
8. I Got Rhythm (G & I Gershwin)
9. Midnight at the Oasis (Nichtern)
10. 1, 2, 3, 4 (Faith)

LOVE THEME FROM ROMEO AND JULIET

11. A Summer Place (Steiner; Discant) theme from the film as noted above
12. Spinning Wheel (Thomas)
13. The April Fools (Bacharach; David) from the film with Jack Lemmon (reviewed elsewhere on this site; originally sung by Dionne Warwick)
14. Aquarius (MacDermot; Ragni; Rado) from the musical Hair
15. Love (Can Make You Happy) (Sigler)
16. Hello, Tomorrow (Craig)
17. Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet (Rota; Kusik; Snyder) from the 1969 film
18. Good Morning Starshine (MacDermot; Ragni; Rado) from the musical Hair
19. One (Nilsson)
20. Without Her (Nilsson)
21. Through the Eyes of a Child Un Jour, Un Enfant (Stern; Marnay; Maitland)

Needless to say these are not necessarily (no pun intended) faithful to the original hit recordings or even the arrangements originally intended by the composers, but tend to be laid-back versions of the hits and standards that are alternative at least and amusing (sometimes unintentionally) for those who like the more original versions. The Romeo album features far more vocals with female background singers that will remind one of The Ladybirds from the brilliant, classic Benny Hill Show of the 1970s.

Thus, they are not tales for all tastes, but they are interesting and definitely ambitious in their own right. Many would not even dare such arrangements in today's atmosphere of angry, pointless popular music, adding an unexpected new charm to these releases. It shows a real love and devotion to music that is undeniable, even if it is not your style or considered an older one.

As for sonic performance, the CD tracks sound a little aged, but fine for the format. The higher definition 2.0 Stereo DSD tracks are more like it, but the 4.0 Quad sound on both albums is the way to go. I was pleasantly surprised at their clarity, depth, warmth (something too many new digital recordings lack) and richness, though the Romeo album can have a slight edge of harshness to it. It is hard to believe these albums sound this good, but they do and deserve the credit for it. Brief liner notes in the paper foldout in the jewel case are the only extras.

Saxophone Colossus featuring Sonny Rollins

The remasters of Robert Mugge's important series of music films continues from MVD Visual with the new Blu-ray edition of his 1986 Sonny Rollins profile Saxophone Colossus, a film we reviewed many, many years ago on DVD at this link...

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8116/Sonny+Rollins+%E2%80%93+Saxophone+Colossus

Fans will love how much better this looks and sounds, but even non-fans and novices will find it a pleasant and interesting 101 minutes of the music legend in prime form. Mugge just has a knack for this. The films holds up well and remains more than just a time capsule, though some serious Jazz fans consider it one of the best Jazz films ever made. I could see that, even if I wanted more and only so much of this stayed with me.

Either way, it is worth revisiting with its impressive restoration of the original 16mm color film elements presented nicely here in 1080p digital High Definition and a much better PCM 2.0 Mono track than the older Dvd that also happened to have PCM sound. The new track may expose more flaws, but it is warmer and clearer overall, if not stereo like I would have liked.

Extras include audio only presentations of ''G-Man'' and ''Don't Stop The Carnival'' along with an illustrated Mugge commentary.

Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn

Two Mark Twain classics as ambitious musicals produced back-to-back, Tom Sawyer (1973) and Huckleberry Finn (1974), have landed on Blu-ray disc courtesy of Twilight Time with a stunning new transfer and sound mix. It seems that in the past few decades, Hollywood has overlooked these characters and somehow they have avoided being rebooted ala Tarzan last year, for better or for worse.

These musical adaptations feature music by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman (who wrote the songs for the original Disney Mary Poppins among much work at that studio alone). This is a loaded release for Twilight Time with more extras than usual. In a way, I'm shocked that all of this content fit on one disc!

Tom Sawyer is directed by Don Taylor and stars Johnny Whitaker, Celeste Holm, Warren Oates, Jeff East, (a young) Jodie Foster, Lucille Benson, Henry Jones, and Dub Taylor. The score is by one of (if not the best) the greatest living composers alive - John Williams.

Huckleberry Finn is directed by J. Lee Thompson and stars Jeff East, Paul Winfield, Harvey Korman, David Wayne, Arthur O'Connell, Gary Merrill, Natalie Trundy, and Lucille Benson.

I'm sure you probably recall the storylines of each film but nevertheless, here's a quick rundown.

In Tom Sawyer, he and his likeminded pal Huckleberry Finn both have great adventures on the Mississippi River where they pretend to be swashbuckling pirates, attend their own funeral, and even become witnesses to a murder. Despite the obligations others try to throw on them, they would rather live a life full of peril that ultimately overcomes the harsh reality of the times.

In Huckleberry Finn, Finn a boy adventurer full of dreams and ambitions that is chafing under the bonds of civilization. Soon, he escapes this drab world and his selfish, plotting father by sailing a raft down the Mississippi River. Accompanying him is Jim, a slave running away from being sold. Along the way, both strike a bond that leads to a powerful friendship that pits them against Mother Nature and other obstacles.

Both features are on one 1080p Blu-ray disc with a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and lossless soundtrack presentations (for Tom Sawyer) English 5.1 DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) / English 4.0 DTS-HD MA / English 2.0 DTS-HD MA, (for Huckleberry Finn) English 2.0 DTS-HD MA. The films look nice considering their age on Blu-ray disc as have little noise or grain evident, and saturated colors that pop more than they did on previous compressed versions on DVD, which were previously released by MGM. Arthur P. Jacobs, who produced the five original Planet Of The Apes films, had musical film experience before with the big 70mm Doctor Dolittle from Fox in 1967 with Rex Harrison.

Special Features...

Isolated Music Tracks

Tom Sawyer Audio Commentary with Screenwriter

Songwriter Richard M. Sherman and Music Producer/Historian Bruce Kimmel

Tom Sawyer Audio Commentary with Director Don Taylor and Screenwriters

Songwriters Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman

Tom Sawyer River Song featurette

Tom Sawyer Rehearsal with John Williams and the Sherman Brothers

Original Theatrical Trailers

Collectible Full Color Insert Booklet with Linear Notes by Julie Kirgo

These films represent a simpler time in cinema and are both cheery and upbeat films that the whole family can enjoy. It's nice to see them remastered and put out on Blu-ray in this fashion, that will no doubt please fans of classic Hollywood movies.

To order Kid Galahad and Tom Sawyer/Huckleberry Finn limited edition Blu-rays, buy them while supplies last at these links:

www.screenarchives.com

and

http://www.twilighttimemovies.com/

and you can order the Percy Faith & His Orchestra double feature album exclusively and directly from Vocalion Records at this link...

https://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=CDLK4599

- James Lockhart (Bring, Jane, Sawyer) and Nicholas Sheffo

https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/