Captain
Applejack (1931/Warner
Archive DVD)/Frat Pack
(2018/DVD)/National
Lampoon's Van Wilder
(2002/4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray/both Lionsgate)/Women
Who Kill (2016/MVD Visual
DVD)/Young Sheldon: The
Complete First Season
(2017 - 2018/Warner DVD Set)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: B Picture: C/B-/B-/B/C Sound: C/B-/B/B/C
Extras: D/D/C/D/C Main Programs: C+/C/C/C+/B-
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Captain
Applejack
DVD is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner
Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.
What
follows is a very wide variety of comedies, often getting gross and
vulgar, but with more genre and even gender twists than you might
expect...
We
start with a short film that still manages to be a genre twister,
which is all the more surprising considering its age. Hobart
Henley's comedy Captain
Applejack
(1931) starts with the story of the Applejohn Family finding the
family on an appropriately stormy night seeing in the paper that a
relative has put the mansion up for sale without telling them! Then
a bunch of mysterious people start to show up, the house starts to
seem haunted and then, it turns out the place might have a long-lost
hidden treasure that explains why so many people have suddenly shown
up.
Louise
Closer Hale is the irritated Aunt, John Halliday is Ambrose (the news
of the treasure has him dream an elaborate pirate fantasy sequence)
and Mary Brian is the gal looking for excitement who will tip the
entire mess into unexpected directions. For a running time of only
62 minutes, it is impressive what the script stuffs into this early
talking picture triumph from Warner Bros., so its great their Warner
Archive division has issued this amusing gem on DVD. Even by today's
standards, some of this is truly very funny and genre fans will be
pleasantly surprised if they go out of their way for this one.
Warner even put more money in this one than expected.
As
for playback quality, this is a well-shot, good looking and even
atmospheric film, but the 1.33 X 1 black and white image has little
specks of dirt on it most of the time and a few rough patches, while
the theatrical mono sound is here in a lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
presentation that also retains the original recording's background
noise a bit more than I would have liked. This one needs and
deserves a restoration and with what plays well here otherwise, that
should not take much effort or time.
There
are sadly no extras, but maybe if there was a restored Blu-ray
edition...
If
you like over the top fish out of water college-themed comedies with
more sex and gross out jokes than you can handle then Frat
Pack
(2018) might be the low rent comedy for you. The story centers
around a shy at first British college graduate who goes to America
with his soon to be stepbrothers on a cross country road trip. Along
the way there's plenty of girls, booze, drugs, and barf jokes for
those yearning for the days of when Adam Sandler was funny, Chris
Farley was still alive and Tom Green well... tried to entertain us.
The
film stars Danny Trejo, Richard Reid, Melissa Bolona, Rachel Risen,
Hana Mae Lee, and Beverly D'Angelo to name a few.
Frat
Pack
is presented in anamorphically
enhanced standard
definition DVD with a 1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio and a lossy 5.1
Dolby Digital audio track. The look is compressed as is to be
expected with the format and has an overall natural look that isn't
too stylized.
The
only extras are more trailers for other Lionsgate releases.
Over
the years, Nation Lampoon Magazine's name on comedy nosedived from
some of the greatest cutting edge comedy around to a bad joke, the
latter of which happened during the original run of the Chevy Chase
Vacation movies. However, that did not stop the name from being
licensed to death pointlessly. Of the MANY forgettable, disposable
feature films and straight-to-video duds that were released was
National
Lampoon's Van Wilder
(2002) that helped make a star of now blockbuster comedy actor Ryan
Reynolds. Trading on his in-shape body and pressing all kinds of
buttons on the levels of sexuality and gross, inappropriate behavior,
it now is a curio as well as a past hit, so no surprise that with
both Deadpool
films being available on home video (et al) and 4K for that matter
(see elsewhere on this site), why not have Lionsgate issue the comedy
in 4K, a format not used as much for comedies yet like you might
expect.
Well,
the film is just as one-note as it always was with some jokes you
might recently not be able to get in a film without a backlash and
Reynolds playing the title character somewhere in the intersection of
Val Kilmer in the far superior Real
Genius,
something like Jim Carrey in the embarrassment department and any
other smarmy guy that we can trace back to better Hollywood comedies
of the 1970s.
He
may never graduate from college, but now his peace of mind is
interrupted by an ambitious campus reporter (Tara Reed) who wants to
unwrap the truth about his escapades on campus and beyond, which he
will do anything to stop. In between, he has escapades where he is
half or totally naked (playing coy with him being casually
objectified, more of a shocking role reversal then than now) and how
many insecure students and other people can you fit in one film for
cheap comedy?
Sadly,
had the screenplay been more ambitious, this could have been its own
series like say, Deadpool,
but the makers (including Director Walt Becker) make a film with no
long-term thoughts and only because of slight chemistry in the cast
and because of some of the cast (Tim Matheson, Kal Penn, Curtis
Armstrong and future Big
Bang Theory
star Simon Helberg) are more formidable than the lesser cast of other
post-Vacation product un the Lampoon name.
Of
course, fans of the cast and film will be thrilled the film is
getting such treatment, but being a simple comedy, improvements are
minimal but notable. Shot on 35mm film, the
2160p HEVC/H.265, Dolby Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced
1.85 X 1 Ultra High Definition image is clearer and has less motion
blur and flaws than the 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image
transfer also included here in a separate Blu-ray (also sold on its
own in reissued form) and makes it a little easier to watch. Depth,
color range and detail are slightly improved too.
Sound
has been upgraded, believe it or not, to a Dolby Atmos 11.1 lossless
(Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown) mix, which improves a little bit over the
older PCM 7.1 surround sound on the older Blu-ray (recycled for this
release), though only marginally so. In the long run, the 4K
edition is more like the film should be seen, but it is not a giant
jump over the older HD master. If I had to choose, I'd still go for
the 4K version.
Extras
include the 'Party
Legends, Pledges, and 'Bull'-ies'
featurette, Sweet Drunken Idiot 'Kommentary', 'Ultimate
College Party Guide'
featurette, 'Gwen-ezuma's Revenge' featurette, Testicles of the
Animal Kingdom - Interactive Quizzicle (Blu-ray Only), Write That
Down - Quotes from and Inspired by the Film (Blu-ray Only), Sugarcult
''Bouncing
Off the Walls''
Music Video, Deleted Scenes, Outtakes, Burly Bear TV Specials, 'Half
Baked,' 'Imposter,' 'Movie Junky', Comedy Central's ''Reel
Comedy: National Lampoon's Van Wilder'',
Van Wilder Blu-Book Exam: Exclusive Blu-ray Interactive Game and
Theatrical Trailers.
The
thriller/comedy Women
Who Kill
(2016) is the story of two lesbians Morgan Jean (who are actually
exes) that have a podcast centers around true crime. However, things
get weird when Morgan's new love interest who be the daughter of an
infamous local murderer. A hit on the film festival circuit, this
offbeat comedy is quirky and funny in the same vein as So
I Married an Axe Murderer,
only with a LBGQ twist.
The
film is presented on anamorphically
enhanced standard
definition DVD with a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.40:1 and a lossy
Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, both of which are standard for the DVD format.
Aside from the compression, the film looks okay, but would be
improved naturally in HD.
No
extras.
Finally,
after 12 seasons and 13 years, the massive hit network TV sitcom The
Big Bang Theory
will wrap production, which is great for a show no one was watching
in its first season, but Jim Parsons is still the voiceover narrator
for its new hit spinoff, Young
Sheldon: The Complete First Season
(2017 - 2018) now hitting DVD from Warner. It is his early years and
it is sometimes predictable and obvious, but also very consistent.
Iain
Armitage is fine casting as a very young Sheldon Cooper, already
developing his overly scientific mind, phobias and other hangups,
driving his family crazy and making all kinds of differences in their
possibly 'normal' family like. The rest of the cast of new actors
(plus Annie Potts in most episodes of this debut season) are also
good, but the show is only in its honeymoon period and I don't know
where it can/needs to go in the next season to be more than a
footnote to the hit it comes from. However, despite predictability,
I give the makers credit for thinking this one through as much as
possible. Its not bad for what we get, plays it safe in some ways
and I almost believe this was Sheldon's life years ago. Thus, it is
worth a look, especially for fans.
My
only real complaint is the playback performance in the older format
of DVD with the anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image a little
softer than I would have liked (the show is not as visually colorful
as its predecessor) and the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 is recorded at a
bit of a lower overall volume than it ought to be, so be careful of
high playback levels and volume switching.
Extras
include two Behind The Scenes/Making Of featurettes: Young
Sheldon: An Origin Story
and Sibling
Rivalry.
To
order the Captain
Applejack
Warner Archive DVD, go to this link for it and many more great
web-exclusive releases at:
http://www.wbshop.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo and James
Lockhart (Frat,
Kill)
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/
