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Category:    Home > Reviews > Comedy > Satire > Cyberspace > Musical > British > Sexuality > Slapstick > Arts > Animation > Surrealism > Sho > Free Guy 4K (2021/20th Century/Disney 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray)/Kinky Boots (2018 musical version/Liberator/MVD Blu-ray)/A Night At The Opera (1935)/Tex Avery Screwball Classics, Volume Three (19

Free Guy 4K (2021/20th Century/Disney 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray)/Kinky Boots (2018 musical version/Liberator/MVD Blu-ray)/A Night At The Opera (1935)/Tex Avery Screwball Classics, Volume Three (1941 - 1957/both MGM/Warner Archive Blu-rays)



4K Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: B Sound: B+ & B/B/B-/B- Extras: C/D/B/C- Main Programs: C+/B/B/B-



PLEASE NOTE: The A Night At The Opera and Tex Avery Blu-rays are now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.



We start with the surprise hit of Summer 2021, Shawn Levi's Free Guy 4K with Ryan Reynolds as a too-happy bank employee who we catch in the middle of his life that seems too surreal to be real... and it is! Instead, he is in a videogame cyberworld without knowing it, at first, but we have seen this before in other variants (the overrated Truman Show, Benjamin Buttons (noted in the dialogue here and The Matrix, a version I at least think works functionally enough) though this will be more like another cycle of films.


They are the ever-controversial ones where the characters (Space Jam films, live-action Josie & The Pussycats, etc.) are in a world of globalization that mixes consumer products (soap, fast food, cars, etc. by brand name) with entertainment franchises from film, TV, music, etc. and without zero ironic distance (versus more pointed spoofs in De Palma's Phantom Of The Paradise, Russell's feature film version of The Who's rock opera Tommy and even the strange Sgt. Pepper's movie with Peter Frampton and The Bee Gees!) so this cycle often plays like a feature length string of ad placements than anything with a narrative or anything entertaining.


The only thing that makes this work better than most of these average to horrid productions is that it has some laughs, some chuckles, Reynolds is funny and we get a few small surprises, but this is all quickly forgotten once finished unless you are a big Reynolds fan. Otherwise, this plays lie a stop-gap before the next expected Deadpool film. Jodie Comer and Taika Waititi are among the welcome supporting cast, but this will date quickly. For fans only!


Extras (per the press release) include Deleted and Extended Scenes

    • Guy and Buddy Hit the Beach

    • Hot Nuts Gets Blown

    • NPC Rally (Extended)

Plus a Gag Reel, Dude vs. Guy - Join Ryan Reynolds, director Shawn Levy and the creative and stunt teams as they reveal the innovative process of creating ''Free Guy'''s ultimate showdown between Guy and the wildly amped-up, spray-tanned, frosted-tipped version of himself known as Dude, Creating Molotovgirl - Jodie Comer transforms from a brilliant programmer to her fierce avatar in ''Free Guy.'' Watch as the award-winning action star and filmmakers deconstruct the conceptualization, evolution and execution of bringing Molotovgirl to life, It's Taika's World - ''Free Guy'''s outrageous action may exist in a virtual world, but Taika Waititi makes the real world just as crazy with the over-the-top Antwan. See him at work in this entertaining showcase of a genuinely talented and hilarious performer and Welcome to Free City - Delve into the reality-skewing universe that is Free City, as revealed by director Shawn Levy, the cast, and its inventive creative teams. Find out how they transformed a real metropolis into a virtual playground where anything is possible.



Back in 2005, a remarkable British film arrived called Kinky Boots, in which a show factory is doomed because it is making shoes no one wants or wants to pay full price for, but what can the family owners do? Inspiration arrives in the form of a cross-dresser who is being attacked one night when the son of the owner, an owner himself, stops the violence. Eventually, the near-victim suggests footwear that could save the factory, business and the people in it. Though the film had a few off moments, it was making a big statement about Thatcherism, people and a viable future for the U.K. and was a moderate hit.


Then it inspired a musical version with a book by Harvey Fierstein and a music score by Cyndi Lauper. Could they make this work and pull it off? Fierstein had already made a name for himself by baring his soul and in an uncompromised manner, never toning down his sexuality or what that kind of life had and has been for him. He got criticized and verbally attacked in a way that would not meet with the silence it got then today, but he was classy about it, is one of the industry's great survivors and can still write.


Lauper is one of the great singer/songwriter/performers of our time and all time, equal to all her contemporaries and still underrated and underestimated. This disc's production happens to be from the U.K. stage (tape in 2018) and has some 'Britishisms' that many in the U.S. might miss that were likely not in the original Broadway stage version with Billy Porter, but that's a good and important thing here to address the many things the production wants to deal with and does so successfully.


It is about people, love, finding what will work for one best and that everyone deserves to have their dreams come true and find happiness in the process. It takes the long way to do this, which makes it very thorough and that takes it beyond its solid big screen origins. It also continues the values and messages Lauper has always feature in her greatest songs and albums, which is why there is still tons of love and good will for her, her music and talent.


I do not want to ruin any of the fun, but when we look back, this will turn out to be one of the great musicals of our time and one of the few adaptations of a film into a stage musical that will hold up and endure. Instead of just throwing together something predictable and putting up on stage, the makers (including Director/Choreographer Jerry Mitchell) do what you need to do no matter where or when you do a musical today: reinvent the story from top to bottom. They succeed brilliantly here (Hairspray is another rare example of a non-musical movie turned into a great musical) and I highly recommend it, especially if you live music and dance with heart and soul.


Matt Henry and Killian Donnelly lead an exceptional cast of singer/dancer/actors we really need to see much, much more of. This is the best of the non-classical music stage musicals on Blu-ray I have seen in years. See it!


There are sadly no extras, but here's my review of the 2005 comedy/drama that this musical is based on, long overdue for a Blu-ray release itself:


http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4438/Kinky+Boots+(Comedy



Sam Wood's A Night At The Opera (1935) is the comeback feature film for The Marx Bros., who almost threw in the towel after their run at Paramount Pictures ended with their masterpiece Duck Soup bombing at the box office at the time! Fortunately, Chico had a good friend at MGM and the result was remarkable comeback classic where the now trio (Chico left to work behind the scenes in the business) land up tormenting snobs and trashing class division in this new-style film for them as they help a beautiful opera singer (Kitty Carlisle) get together with the opera singer she loves versus the snob egotist she is doing everything to avoid while helping themselves to anything and everything they want!


Irving Thalberg produced this classic, one of his many hits running MGM with Louis B. Meyer before his sadly, untimely passing and to show you how smart all involved are, Harpo has an amazing middle sequence on the deck of a boat (the trio has just driven all of Italy nuts!) as he plays piano while pretending to keep hurting his hands with a bunch of children watching. They are actors/extras, but the laughs are real and that alone would be a great moments, then he moves to play a harp nearby and no one plays it like him.


Though he is humorous at times doing this (more so than his classic I Love Lucy performance, where it is a total break from the comedy) his panache and finesse is nothing short of ingenious and his total command of the instrument unbeatable. Then he finishes and the message is clear: the arts are for everyone, no matter their mood, temperament, education, wealth, class, creed or anything else in life. It is among the many reason this is one of their greatest films and why it is always celebrated, referenced and beloved, all the way to the greatest album (one of many!) the band Queen ever recorded. A Night At The Opera is a classic, including all of its actual opera sequences that are not butchered down for time and is a must-0see for all serious film fans, especially those who want to laugh!


Allan Jones and Margaret Dumont lead the rest of the great supporting cast.


Extras include the Remarx On Marx documentary, three vintage live-action shorts (Los Angeles: Wonder City Of The West, Sunday Night At The Trocadero and the comical How To Sleep, which won Robert Benchley an Oscar,) an Original Theatrical Trailer, a 1961 Grouch Marx appearance on The Hy Gardner Show and an early, feature length audio commentary track by film historian and critic Leonard Maltin. He was sometimes bashed for liking films from the Classical Hollywood period over newer films, but he is one of a increasingly rare group of critics who actually not only know about movies, but watch them from all eras and actually love them. He never sold out or changed his position or backed down and that is an achievement he deserves more credit for than he gets.



Last but not least, in speaking of some inspiration for Ryan Reynolds comedy style, watching the 21 classic animated shorts on Tex Avery Screwball Classics, Volume Three (1941 - 1957) reminded me of how just being outright looney with a certain calculated, reserved approach that still is in your face is not easy to pull off. Avery was excellent at it and though so many of the great shorts were already featured in the first two sets, there are more and this set is as essential as the first two.


The shorts this time, including more than a few Droopy shorts, include...


BLITZ WOLF (a WWII short that has some interesting moments)
THE EARLY BIRD DOOD IT
ONE HAM'S FAMILY
HAPPY GO NUTTY
JERKY TURKEY
THE SHOOTING OF DAN McGOO
SWING SHIFT CINDERELLA
WILD AND WOLFY
NORTHWEST HOUNDED POLICE
SLAP HAPPY LION
KING SIZE CANARY
WHAT PRICE FLEADOM
LITTLE TINKER
SENOR DROOPY
COCK-A-DOODLE DOG
ROCK-A-BYE BEAR
LITTLE JOHNNY JET
BILLY BOY
DEPUTY DROOPY
and CELLBOUND


To new viewers, they will be howling and to those who have seen these a good few times, this will often be the best screening you have ever had of any of these cartoons (save if you saw a few on Blu-ray somewhere before or have been lucky enough to see a fine color film print) so even if he repeats some of his gags here and there, this all still works and most of this hold sup well with little to complain about (though we get the disclaimer if anything offensive still remains and a few points are problematic, but that also reflects the time) so definitely consider catching this latest batch of save and restored animated classics. Yes, some risks do not work as well as others, but at least Avery was always trying.


The only extra is the original version of a Warner Bros. animated short Avery made for them in 1941 entitled Crackpot Quail. There apparently were odd, unnecessary changes made to its soundtrack for some odd reason in later reissues of the short, but it is here in its original version and looking good.



Now for playback performance. The 2160p HECV/H.265, 2.35 X 1, HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on Free Guy 4K is an all-HD shoot and has some serious money in it. It is the best performer here, just besting the other Blu-rays on the list, including its own 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition Blu-ray version with better color range and light values. The 4K disc has a lossless Dolby Atmos 11.1 (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for older systems) is not the best 12-track mix ever, but has its sonic moments and the regular Blu-ray has as its best soundtrack a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 7.1 lossless mix that is not bad, but is also a mixdown.


The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Boots is an HD stage shoot that is a few years old and has some flaws and minor blur, but plays fine otherwise and has decent color throughout, while the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless sound mix is just fine for a stage program and compares favorably with recent such Classical and Musical Blu-rays we've reviewed in the last few years.


The 1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image transfer on Opera can show the age of the materials used in a few places, but this is far superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film and the best any Marx Bros. film has looked to fate in any video format ever and they've had a tin of releases since the advent of VHS and Beta, so that says something. The glossy monochrome of MGM's labs really shines in many scenes and is sharp and vivid more than you would expect from a film this or any age. Warner Archive has done an amazing job of restoring and saving this classic to the point that some shots exceed my rating, so here's hoping the rest of their films will get the same impressive treatment and Warner owns a few more, so hope to see them soon. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix on the film allows you to hear the dialogue and jokes as clearly as you ever will and I doubt this will ever sound better than it does here. Nice for a film of its age.


Finally, the 1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on the 21 Avery animated shorts can obviously show their age, not counting any animation style, but they were all created and issued in 35mm dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor film prints, so the color can go from really good to absolutely amazing depending on the short. The later shorts are obviously going to be more refined, but some of the color on the earlier ones will impress. Note how the early MGM shorts have fun with the color of the ribbon draping the MGM logo and its legendary Leo The Lion.


All the shorts are here in DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless sound mixes and they can vary in quality, but most sound as good as they ever will and that increases the impact of visual gags, jokes and much more. The result is a set worthy of its predecessors performance-wise.



To order either of the Warner Archive Blu-rays, A Night At The Opera and/or any or all three (so far) of the Tex Avery sets, go to this link for these and many more great web-exclusive releases at:


https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/ED270804-095F-449B-9B69-6CEE46A0B2BF?ingress=0&visitId=6171710b-08c8-4829-803d-d8b922581c55&tag=blurayforum-20


- Nicholas Sheffo


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