Enter
The Fat Dragon
(2020/Well Go Blu-ray)/Girl
Crazy
(1943/MGM/Blu-ray*)/Head
Of The Class: The Complete First Season
(1986 - 1987/DVD*)/Strike
Up The Band
(1940/MGM/Blu-ray*)/Sunday
In New York
(1963/MGM/Blu-ray/*all Warner Archive)
Picture:
B+/B/C/B/B Sound: B+/B-/B-/C+/B- Extras: C-/B-/D/C+/C-
Main Programs: B/B-/B/C+/C+
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Head
Of The Class
DVD and Blu-rays of Girl
Crazy,
Strike
Up The Band
and Sunday
In New York
are now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive
series and all can be ordered from the link below.
Here
are our latest group of comedies, most of which add something else to
the mix...
First,
check out international superstar Donnie Yen (IP
Man,
Star
Wars: Rogue One)
in a brand new and comical light as he wears a fat suit and still
kicks the same amount of ass.
Filmmakers
Jing Wong and Kenji Tanigaki's new action comedy, Enter
The Fat Dragon
(2020), is packed full of laughs and incredible fight sequences to
match. If you're into Jackie Chan comedies or simply a fan of Donnie
Yen's work, then this is definitely in the same genre as Yen
comically kicks butt in a way few can!
The
film also stars Niki Chow, Wong Jing, Teresa Mo, Jessica Jan, Naoto
Taeknaka, Hiro Hayama, and Jim Chim to name a few.
A
badass police officer (Yen) suspect suffers a mysterious death that
he is determined to investigate, even if he has gained a few pounds
over a broken heart. Teaming up with an undercover inspector and
wok-wielding restaurant owner, they together solve his complex
mystery.
Enter
the Fat Dragon
is presented in 1080p on Blu-ray disc with a widescreen aspect ratio
of 2.39:1 and audio mixes in Cantonese DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1
and Cantonese LPCM 2.0 Stereo lossless, which have English subtitles.
The film looks and fine great on the Blu-ray format with minimal
complaint. This is a high budget feel and the money is certainly on
the screen here.
Special
Features are lacking and just have some trailers for the film and
other Well Go releases.
This
is a fun movie to watch and certainly is recommendable to action /
comedy lovers!
The
Blu-ray presentation here is solid as well!
Norman
Taurog's Girl
Crazy
(1943) is the first of two Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney movies we are
covering this time out (they made about 10 altogether) and the better
of the two as they were older, the previous formula approach was
played out and the studio put out more money than usual for this
Gershwin musical adaptation. In addition, Tommy Dorsey and his
orchestra are on hand, June Allyson shows up and Nancy Walker
eventually shows up and steals the show at times.
Rooney
is the son of a rich man who is unhappy when he makes the wrong kind
of splash in the society pages, so he sends him to a school in the
middle of nowhere, with the film switching quickly from high society
city life to a comedy western, albeit a musical. ''I
Got Rhythm''
and ''But
Not For Me''
are among the songs and the comedy is hit and miss, but this was the
last pairing of Garland and Rooney under the legendary Arthur Freed
unit at MGM. It has the feel of an era coming to en end, but not yet
and was a huge hit in the midst of WWII. Its worth a look for the
curious, but (as I will explain below) am not a big fan of the
Rooney/Garland cycle.
The
inspirational and funny sitcom, Head
Of The Class: The Complete First Season
(1986 - 1987)
gets a nice DVD release courtesy of Warner Bros.
A
New York high school substitute teacher (Howard Hesseman) ends up at
the head of an honors class of very brilliant young people. He
reaches these complex and super smart kids by relating to them and
showing concern for their well being, crafting a great and
inspirational teacher figure for them to look up to.
The
show stars Robin Givens, Khrystyne Haje, Dan Frischman, Dan
Schneider, Tony O'Dell, Jeannetta Arnette, Leslie Bega, and Brian
Robbins.
22
episodes span three DVD discs and include
Pilot, Back to the Future, Charliegate, Love at First Byte, The
Outsider, Teacher's Teacher, Volleyball, Anyone?, Critical Choices,
Cold Turkey, You've Got a Friend, As Time Goes By, The Way We
Weren't, Rebel Without a Class, Ode To Simone, Past Imperfect, A
Problem Like Maria, The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming,
Valentine's Day, Video Activity, Privilege, Crimes of the Heart,
and The
Secret Life of Arvid Engen.
Head
of the Class
is presented in standard definition on DVD with a 1.33 X 1 full
screen aspect ratio and a standard, lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
mix. The presentation is NOT that detailed and it shows that not
much has gone into the show's restoration sadly with this release.
Compression issues and an overall lack of detail are the main issues
in the DVD image.
No
extras.
This
show is actually pretty good. It's funny and Howard Hesseman is
really easy to watch. The cast of young people are diverse and
interesting with each episode outlining what it's like to be a
teenager in a funny sitcom kinda way. This is a nice flashback to
the past and worth revisiting (or watching for the first time), if
you like '80s sitcoms. The only glaring issues are the aging and
compressed transfer and lack of special features in what is otherwise
a great release.
Busby
Berkeley's Strike
Up The Band
(1940) is an earlier Arthur Freed-supervised Judy Garland/Mickey
Rooney film, directed professionally enough as Rooney plays a
drummer, Garland is a singer and they are in high school. Can their
talent help them get to where they want to go?
Even
with dance number/song combos like 'the title tune, ''Do
The La Conga!''
and ''I
Ain't Got Nobody'',
the film never worked for me like pretty much all the Rooney/Gar;and
films as he seems in a world of the time and of his own, but as soon
as she starts singing, everything else but her vocals make the films
seem dated and they do not hold up too well. I never bought their
chemistry either, though I have no problems with Rooney per se, but
they were a hit in their time and MGM spent the money to make these
films work.
To
bad Berkeley could not make this work better, give it more energy or
some kind of surprise, but it is what it is, a backstage musical with
mixed results. Now you can see for yourself.
Finally
we have Peter Tewksbury's Sunday
In New York
(1963) based on the comedy stage play with Jane Fonda engaged to
Robert Culp, but unsure of things, meets and starts to fall for Rod
Taylor. This puts her brother (Cliff Robertson) in a strange
position as well and the question is, will she make the best choice
for herself and will it work out?
The
film never makes anyone a bad person, so it is a lite comedy about
people trying to figure out who they are when they are at an age
where they are expected (unreasonably) to know it all so soon, so
this is also a smart comedy that takes its time to explore the
material and characters without being a deep character study, but to
be more than just a token TV sitcom. Jim Backus and Jo Morrow are
among the supporting cast that are a plus.
Sure,
the film has dated and seeing Fonda before her career kicked in and
her off-screen life took off is always interesting as well. She was
two years away from Arthur Penn's The
Chase
(reviewed elsewhere on this site) so whatever choice her character
makes in the film, that will be an ironic echo of what was about to
happen in real life. Though not all of this works, it is worth look
just for the talent, seeing New York of the time and for its time
capsule value.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 black and white digital High Definition image
transfers on Crazy
and Band
can show the age of the materials used in a few spots, but they look
really good and Warner has once again saved two more gems. You can
see how expensive the MGM black and white-handled film was.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Sunday
also looks good with its decent MetroColor
cinematography. There were no major flaws here and it might be the
best-looking film on the list to me.
All
three Warner Archive movies offer DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono
lossless sound and they sound as good as they likely ever will, but
Band
does sound a little older than the other two, which makes sense as it
is the oldest of all the films. Otherwise, the restoration work
payed off here too.
Finally,
all three Warner Archive movies have extras in their Original
Theatrical Trailers, but Crazy
and Band
add menus to go directly to their songs, introductions by Mickey
Rooney recorded decades later, live action shorts (Hollywood
Daredevils
on Crazy,
Wedding
Bills
on Band)
and animated MGM cartoon shorts (The
Early Bird Dood It
on Crazy,
Romeo
In Rhythm
on Band).
Band
also adds a Leo
Is On The Air
radio promo, 1940 Lux
Radio Theater
version of the film and stereo remix of ''Do
The La Conga!''
Crazy
also adds a ''Bronco
Busters''
outtake and stereo remix of ''I
Got Rhythm''.
To
order the Head
Of The Class
DVD and/or Blu-rays of Girl
Crazy,
Strike
Up The Band
and Sunday
In New York,
go to this link for them and many more great web-exclusive releases
at:
http://www.wbshop.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo (Archive movies) and James
Lockhart
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/