Blockers (2018/Universal Blu-ray w/DVD)/Designing Woman (1957/MGM/Warner Archive Blu-ray)/Every Day (2018/Warner Blu-ray)/Pacific Banana (1981/Umbrella Region Free PAL Import DVD)/Take A Girl Like You (1970/Sony/Columbia/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)

Picture: B+ & B-/B/B/C+/B- Sound: B+ & B-/B-/B/C+/C+ Extras: B/C/C+/C+/C+ Films: C/C+/C+/C+/C+

PLEASE NOTE: The Take A Girl Like You 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, the Pacific Banana Import DVD is now only available from our friends at Umbrella Entertainment in Australia, can only play on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray players that can handle the PAL DVD format and the Designing Woman Blu-ray is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive series. All can be ordered from the links below.

Here's a new mixed group of comedies, old and new...

Universal's new comedy Blockers (2018) arrives quickly on home video after mixed fanfare theatrically. Blockers has a pretty funny concept and isn't badly executed by any means. Still it hits on every plot point that you would expect that comes with a coming of age comedy but isn't as charming or clever as a Judd Apatow film.

The film stars John Cena and Leslie Mann who star as two parents who have a problem letting go off their little girl (Kathryn Newton) as she blossoms into adulthood. When they catch wind that she is trying to lose her virginity on prom night via a leaked text, they decide to stop that from happening at any cost. The film also stars Ike Barinholtz, Graham Philips, and Colton Dunn to name a few.

This combo pack features both the 1080p high definition Blu-ray presentation and the standard definition DVD presentation as well. The film features a 2.39:1 widescreen aspect ratio paired with a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on the Blu-ray to deliver a clean HD transfer. The DVD features the same widescreen specs in an anamorphically enhanced, standard definition 1.85 X 1 image and a lossy 5.1 Dolby Digital mix. For a comedy of this natural, these specs are standard and up to par for both formats. A digital copy is also included.

Special Features are more generous than maybe they should be and include (per the press release)...

Audio commentary by director Kay Cannon

Deleted Scenes

Gag Reel - The entire cast contributes to these on-set flubs.

Line-O-Rama - The laughs continue after the take!

Rescue Mission - Being a parent isn't easy, as Leslie Mann, Ike Barinholtz, and John Cena make abundantly clear. Hear them and director Kay Cannon discuss parental mistakes and lessons learned. They even top it off with a good old-fashioned car explosion!

Prom Night - Filmmakers and cast discuss how they achieved the perfect prom look and also share some of their own personal prom stories.

The History of Sex with Ike Barinholtz - Ike Barinholtz explains the origins of human sexuality and its evolution through time.

John Cena's Prom Survival Kit for Parents - John Cena shows off a survival kit filled with items that will help parents survive the most stressful time of year - prom season!

Chug! Chug! Chug! - The film introduced the world to the concept of "butt chugging." Hear cast, crew, and butt-chugger John Cena discuss how they handled this standout scene.

Puke-a-Palooza - One memorable scene involves copious amounts of projectile vomit. See what cast, filmmakers, and crew went through to make sure the puke was as authentic as possible.

Vincente Minnelli's Designing Woman (1957) has Gregory Peck as as a sports reporter and Lauren Bacall as his fashion designer wife so busy with their careers that they have more than drifted apart, so he's being wooed by a gal he knew years ago, people are talking bout their problems and some are trying to take advantage of them in what is a comedy!

What's not funny is that the script tells the story with SO MUCH voice over narration that this cold have been a network radio program and they cold have skipped filming it. This is fine at first, but when you realize they will keep doing this and it will go on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on... you either accept it as part of the joke or you abandon it. I lean towards the latter crowd, just thinking it is too much, but this MGM release exists like this whether you land up liking it or not and Warner Bros. has issued it as part of their Warner Archive Blu-ray series of offerings that need to be in print.

I want to add that I like Bacall and Peck, the film looks good and supporting actors like Dolores Gray, Jesse White, a young Chuck Connors and Mickey Shaughnessy are well cast and more than capable of comic turns, but the film just does not work for me you should only watch with the 'disclaimer' of excessive voice over if you try it out at all.

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer can show the age of the materials used and the CinemaScope lenses, slight distortions and all, but this is far superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film on home video and Warner once again has restored the film as well as can be expected. Issued in MetroColor prints, this is pretty much a correct approximation of what audiences would have seen then. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix is passable, but the film was apparently a 4-track magnetic stereo sound with traveling dialogue and sound effects whose soundmaster was lost. It might not be in the current Warner archive, but MGM had an awful period where they trashed many of their stereo masters for reasons too dumb to go into here. The sound will do, but more tracks would have been nice if they'd survived.

Extras include the Original Theatrical Trailer and 'mini-documentary' on the film including Costume Designer Helen Rose.

Every Day (2018) is a bizarre romantic comedy that is about as silly and hokey as it can get without it being a soap opera. A girl falls in love with a celestial being that jumps bodies every twenty four hours. So every day she is dating a different guy... but the same guy in all reality. It only gets more twisted and convoluted as it goes along as this YA novel turned movie tries to witty but instead becomes a chore to sit through.

The film stars Debby Ryan, Maria Bello, Owen Teague, Angourie Rice, and Colin Ford.

Presented in 1080p high definition with a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.39:1 and a nice sounding English DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix, the film has a natural look to it and vivid colors that are captured nicely here. Overall, a solid and noiseless transfer that's fine for what it is.

Special Features include...

An A By Any Other Name - Explore the main character A and how the filmmakers and cast portrayed an entity that wakes up in a different body every day.

Love is Love - See what it really means to love another human being, accepting people for who they are.

Every Day People - The cast of Every Day provides insight into their characters and the story.

Book to Film Adaptation - The cast, filmmakers and author of Every Day discuss the process of bringing the book to life for the big screen.

and Deleted Scenes

John D. Lamond's Pacific Banana (1981) is a later OzPloitation sex comedy from the director of the sex comedy classic Felicity, but written by the author of Alvin Purple. Sadly, this leans much more towards Purple than the classic and the result is no laughs, few chuckles and a tired film with (again) too much voice over dialogue. This time, that aspect seems desperate and the final film tries too much. Graeme Blundell of Alvin Purple is back looking for more quick sex with any gal he gets the hots for, add taking a small flight (i.e., the title of the film) to an exotic locale and you have the idea of a comedy that is everything Airplane! was not.

The gals are as watchable as the travelogue locations, but the script does not know what to do with itself and the film becomes desperate and seems like a time capsule relic of an era that had ended a few months at least before this was released. Issued by Umbrella entertainment in a Region Free PAL Import DVD, this works best when it tries the least hard (no pun intended, please!) in an 80 minutes that still seems too long. Deborah Grey, Alyson Best and Luan Peters stop us from falling asleep, as the music does not. A curio worth seeing once, but disappointing overall.

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is a good transfer from good 35mm elements, with good color, while the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono shows its age a bit more. It is still clear enough to enjoy or be disappointed by the jokes.

Extras include Grey & Peters singing their single ''Trouble'' (not the Lindsay Buckingham hit), a Stills/Poster Gallery, Original Theatrical Trailer and two Behind The Scenes/Making Of featurettes in Pacific Banana Unpeeled and Confessions Of An R-Rated Movie Maker.

Finally we have Jonathan Miller's Take A Girl Like You (1970) with a rare turn by Oliver Reed as a good guy (of sorts) interested in being with a young Hayley Mills (past her Disney child star era) who happens to be a virgin. Will she or won't she and will it be him? Noel Harrison (The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.) is the 'other guy' and though this never becomes any kind of love triangle film, we get a light sexual comic romp that is never goofy or condescending, but it is not too memorable and might remind some of the Tony Curtis/Monica Vitti 'comedy' The Chastity Belt (also reviewed on this site) that tends to be sillier.

It is at least a competent, consistent film, the kind of solid mid-to-low budget film that the British were making as much as anyone else. Sony has decided that this Columbia Pictures curio would go to Twilight Time to become one of their Limited Edition Blu-rays and it is another good choice for a film that was not a huge hit, but deserves to be issued. Seeing the actors (Sheila Hancock and Ronald Lacey also star) and locales is enough to see this one once, plus to see how Mills handles a role stripped of anything Disney.

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 any previous releases of the film and in the U.S., Columbia issued the film in theaters in 35mm dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor prints. As usual, you can see in many places how good that would have looked in such now valuable copies, which in this case is very good.

The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix shows its age as well with the dialogue sounding more its age, but good enough to enjoy. Fortunately, the Stanley Meyers music score is available as an Isolated Music Score track in the extras along with Original Theatrical Trailers, plus you get another great, illustrated booklet on the film including informative text and yet another excellent, underrated essay by the great film scholar Julie Kirgo in the Blu-ray case.

To order the Take A Girl Like You limited edition Blu-ray, buy it and other exclusives while supplies last at these links:

www.screenarchives.com

and

http://www.twilighttimemovies.com/

To order the Pacific Banana Import DVD, go to this link for it and other hard-to-find releases at:

http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/

...and to order the Warner Archive Designing Woman Blu-ray, go to this link for them and many more great web-exclusive releases at:

http://www.wbshop.com/

- Nicholas Sheffo and James Lockhart (Blockers, Every Day)

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