Here
Today (2021/Sony DVD)/The
House Next Door: Meet The Blacks 2
(2021/Lionsgate Blu-ray)/Overboard
(1987/MGM/Severin Blu-ray)/Perfumes
(2019/Icarus DVD)
Picture:
C+/B-/B/C+ Sound: C+/B-/B-/C+ Extras: C/C/C/D Films:
C/C/C+/C+
Up
next are a odd group of comedies that could have been funnier...
Billy
Crystal's Here Today
(2021) has Crystal as an aging comedy writer unhappy with young
know-it-alls in his business who know nothing and he is feeling his
age to boot. Enter a young lounge singer (Tiffany Haddish) who wants
to move up in the world of entertainment and gets to have a meeting
with him... then lands up in the hospital with a food allergy form
the lunch!
Running
a long 117 minutes, I did not laugh much as this followed Crystal's
lite comedy approach, though it has an unexpected slight charm in the
middle of a pandemic. Too bad it did not go further or try something
new, but it is safe enough for fans and those who want lite comedy.
Otherwise, I was bored.
Extras
include on cameras interviews with the filmmakers and cast and a
feature length audio commentary with Crystal, Haddish and Alan
Zweibel.
Deon
Taylor's The House Next
Door: Meet The Blacks 2
(2021) is going into the Horror spoof territory of the likes of Mel
Brooks and The Wayan Brothers, et al, but since those entities made
such films, the genre classics Get
Out and Us
have happened. Can they take advantage of that?
Well,
Mike Epps is a writer who moves back to his hometown of Chicago when
he realizes he suddenly has neighbors that might creep out The
Musters and The Addams Family. This includes Kat Williams, as well
cast as Epps. Epps thinks maybe they are a vampire family. Will
they try to make his family theirs... permanently and forever?
I
like the set-up and there are a few chuckles here and there, but the
film is just too slightly silly throughout to work and sometimes
coasts, though its leads can overcome those problems in spots. The
script and director just don't know how to take advantage of current
trends or is able to get around the genre. Still, someone will get a
kick out of this, so those very interested should still give it a
look.
Extras
include Digital Copy, while the disc adds Bloopers, Deleted Scenes, a
few Making Of featurettes and a cast/crew audio commentary track.
Garry
Marshall's Overboard
(1987) was his moderate hit a few years before the Infamous Pretty
Woman became a hit,
offering still-top box office star and always comically capable
Goldie Hawn as a major snob who needs help with a redesign on her
yacht (she shares it with her husband, Edward Herrmann cast to type)
and they hire a fix it man (Kurt Russell) to do the job. However,
she is rude to him from the first second.
He
brushes her attitude off at first, needing the money and figuring
this will be a quick job to add new drawers for her clothes, but
things get wacky quickly when she does not like the material he used
to build them and then he starts telling her off. Then things get
crazier when she falls overboard and when she actually survives, has
amnesia!
When
her real husband pretends not to know her at the hospital, the fix-it
guy decides to get extended revenge by pretending to be her husband
(he has three young sons) as part of an elaborate charade to get back
at her. Of course, that does not go as planned either.
The
film has a decent script, but get too cartoonish for its own good,
with Hawn's snob self never totally working. A few moments work, but
this is basically (like so many other Marshall big screen comedies) a
high concept comedy that does not work often enough. Having a good
supporting cast that also include Roddy McDowall and Katherine
Helmond does not hurt, but the film isa basically a showcase for the
leads who became a big press item for being an off-screen power
couple. They have chemistry here and 34 years later as we post this,
are still together. That makes it a curio, but see it only if you
are very interested.
Extras
include an Original Theatrical Trailer and nice 15-minutes interview
with Writer Leslie Dixon that I wish went on for an hour at least.
Finally
we have Gregory Magne's Perfumes
(2019) which mixes drama and comedy as a demanding woman (Emmanuelle
Devos) who is an expert in producing and evaluating perfumes
professionally has a chauffeur (Gregory Montel) who will push back at
her when she gets annoying, but he is in more serious trouble of his
won. He is in a custody battle for the daughter he loves.
At
101 minutes, the film is trying to have it both ways and some things
work, but too much here is obvious and I wish the writing would have
tried to do something more original or different or tried some
character development because the contrast of the woman who thinks
she has it all the the father just trying to keep it together has
more to offer than the makers seem to realize. At least it is a
mature work.
There
are no extras.
Now
for playback performance. The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High
Definition image transfer on House is an HD shoot that can be
hit and miss, with good shots followed by a few bad or sloppy ones,
though some are supposed to be for style, it is just too mixed. The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix is also hit and miss,
sometimes sounding fine, but other times has audio that was badly
recorded, not as well recorded and/or not edited in well. The result
is one of the odder transfers I have seen in a while.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Overboard
can sometimes show the age of the materials used, but this is far
superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film with good
color and consistency for the most part. Expect a little grain if
you are used to (often generic) HD images. The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo lossless mix is a little weaker
as the film was produced in Dolby's older A-type analog noise
reduction system, but some will find this early Alan Silvestri score
interesting and dialogue is clean and clear considering.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on Here Today is a
consistent HD shot that looks as good as it can in the old DVD
format, but expect the usual softness, while the lossless Dolby
Digital 5.1 is a new recording that is dialogue-based, but just fine.
Bet it would sound better lossless.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on Perfume
is also just fine for a recent HD shoot, though the scope framing
does not necessarily make this funnier and I don't know why it was
chosen. The lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has Pro Logic-like
surrounds, is also dialogue-based and just fine for the digital
recording it is. Why no 5.1?
-
Nicholas Sheffo