Foghat: Slow Ride Live In Concert (1999/Blu-ray*)/One From The Heart: Reprise 4K (1982, 2023/Coppola/Lionsgate 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray)/Smokey Robinson & The Miracles (1967-1972/Motown/Universal Music/Cherry Red Records/SoulMusic CD Set)/U.K. Subs: Last Will & Testament (2023/DVD + CD Combo/*both MVD/Cleopatra)/You're A Big Boy Now (1966/Seven Arts/Coppola/Warner Archive Blu-ray)

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

PLEASE NOTE: The Smokey Robinson & The Miracles CD Set is now only available from our friends at Cherry Red Records U.K., while You're A Big Boy Now is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive series. Both can be ordered from the links below.

Now for a group of music oriented releases, including concerts, albums and two feature films by Francis Coppola, recently restored...

Foghat: Slow Ride Live In Concert (1999) has the English band known for that legendary 1976 classic, but the band, in the last concert of their original line up here, also deliver other hits like Drivin' Wheel, I Just Want To Make Love To You and Stone Blue in this 10-song set. For a band over three decades in, this is a good show and fans will be happy, though one of the band members (Dave Peverette) soon died of an illness way too young. They did not know this would happen and play like everything is good, which is it here.

Of course, their other songs barely get any airplay, despite four more hits after the international success of Slow Ride, which barely hit the Top 20 in the U.S. long before it became the permanent rock and pop culture classic it is now. Those curious will enjoy the show.

There are unfortunately no extras.

Francis Coppola's One From The Heart: Reprise 4K (1982, 2023) is back and fully restored just in time as Megaopolis arrives at Cannes and shakes up the comatose world cinematic community. Coppola went from an early favorite in Hollywood with an Oscar to huge surprise hits with the first two Godfather films to critical success with The Conversation, but then, he wanted to go further with Apocalypse Now (originally a project for George Lucas) and Hollywood was too afraid to fund it.

He self-funded that and when it went through the roof at the box office despite mixed reviews, he launched a larger studio version of his legendary American Zoetrope outfit. The musical was dead, but music was not and Grease had gone through the roof. You can read more about that and the film in my original review at this link:

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/2082/One+From+The+Heart

Since that earlier reissue and all I spoke of, Coppola used the style of this film on future works of his, while hit musicals like Chicago and that of Baz Luhrmann were ultimately influenced by this film. Some of his innovations here, partly inspired by live TV of the 1950s, are now standard in digital movie and TV production, if not as inspired or with the same creativity or energy. It turned out to be part of a cycle of such studio-bound films as Blade Runner and Absolute Beginners that upset moviegoers that were enjoying big epics that took outside and/or in large spaces, but why not have both?

The different cuts are only highlighted by the fact that the big argument between the leads has been cut and I actually like that choice, though some have questioned it and even said it throws the narrative off. Without it, their separation becomes more naturalistic and allows the film to flow better. It oddly was the most dated thing about the older cut. Now you can compare the two and judge for yourself.

Extras are many and not only repeat the videotaped rehearsals, deleted scenes, 1982 Original Theatrical Trailer, six alternate songs for the film by Tom Waits, press conference at the studio that is one of four pieces in the ''Found Objects'' section and four documentaries: The Electronic Cinema (at 9 minutes), The Dream Studio (28 minutes), a 14-minute piece on Waits music and an original 24 minutes-long Making Of on the film. New extras include Digital Copy, the 4K disc adds NEW 2024 theatrical trailer, One From The Heart: Reprise, Restoration Comparison, Reinventing the Musical: Baz Luhrmann One from the Heart and the featurettes: The Look of One From The Heart, The Cast of One From The Heart and The Choreography of One From The Heart. The regular Blu-ray also offers Deleted Scenes, Videotaped Rehearsals, Francis Ford Coppola Speaks to the Exhibitors, This One's from the Heart Music Video and a Stop-Motion Demo.

In 1967, Motown decided to start adding the names of the lead singer of their popular groups to the group. The new Smokey Robinson & The Miracles 4-CD set offers the last four albums form the group before Smokey went solo to more amazing success, though The Miracles had new hits, grew and had growth too with the likes of ''Love Machine'' and this set picks up after the newly renamed group had classic hits like ''Baby, Baby Don't Cry'' and ''I Second That Emotion'' and starts in 1970, though bonus tracks make the set a little older in scope. The albums include A Pocket Full Of Miracles (1970), One Dozen Roses (1971), and Flying High Together (1972, per the press release) are all making their worldwide CD debuts, while What Love Has Joined Together (1970) has been out-of-print for decades!

That's hard to believe, but the SoulMusic label does a great job once again with another archival set and for the tracks I have heard over the years, they never sounded so good and that includes one of my favorite songs of theirs and Motown's late (read pre-disco) classic period: ''The Tears Of A Clown''. You can read more about it at the page with ordering details below, but it is a great set and I hope we see many more of them. Listening to these albums, the group definitely went out on top.

A highly detailed, illustrated booklet and the bonus tracks are the extras, but they are really good.

U.K. Subs: Last Will & Testament (2023) has the legendary, enduring punk rock band back together again for a long concert that will make fans happy and drive other neighbors to plug their ears as the guys get rowdy and bonkers for a 25-song set that shows they still have it and their punk attitude could care less about their age. Though for fans only, they should be happy with it, but it makes a good introduction for the newly curious.

Extras include a colorful paper foldout with a few notes, while the disc adds a trailer and two small interview segments, but be sure to catch our review of a much older documentary DVD from the band, Julien Temple's Punk Can Take It, at this link:

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/648/U.K.+Subs+-+Punk+Can+Take+It

Francis Coppola's You're A Big Boy Now (1966) follows a cycle of films, mostly comedies, there (thanks in part to The Beatles and their big screen success) hit music was landing up in narrative films. Otto Preminger's Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965) offered now songs and an appearance by The Zombies, Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow-Up (the 1966 murder thriller issued the same year as this film) featured The Yardbirds and of course, Mike Nichols' The Graduate (1967) had the music of Simon and Garfunkel. Coppola delivers new songs by The Lovin' Spoonful in this tale of a young man Bernard (Peter Kastner) overly controlled by his parents.

He works for his father (the great Rip Torn) at a library where he tries to make it fun as he is being efficient, but his father sees him and complains. Both parents want him to have his own apartment, but not to see girls and the like, spied on by the landlady! His mother (Geraldine Page) drives him nuts in other ways with her neurosis, but he at least has a great sheepdog as a pet.

Coppola actually made this as his UCLA master thesis film (!) and landed an amazing supporting cast that included introducing icon Karen Black, as well as featuring Michael Dunn, Tony Bill, Dolph Sweet, Julie Harris and Elizabeth Hartman. Hartman plays a customer at the library looking for a book and really gets Bernard's attention, but it is Amy (Black) who is more interested in him, so a sort of semi-love triangle begins in all the madness.

New York City also features very prominently and there is one early moment that is really bad and would NEVER be in a movie today, but outside of that, this is a decent film that has some funny and poignant moments. It is also a time capsule of a New York and cinema of the past that was better than people realized at the time. Coppola proves here he can do more than just cheap exploitation films on his own and the fine cast even has some chemistry. Definitely recommended.

The Original Theatrical Trailer is sadly the only extra, but I wish any surviving cast or crew had been interviewed.

Now for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 1.33 X 1, Dolby Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on Heart is now from a restored version off of the original 35mm camera negative and the results surpass the old Fantoma DVD we previously reviewed handily, plus the older Blu-ray that followed with its issues. Detail, depth and color are great, especially when the color gets heightened and I would give the image one grade higher in those instances and add they amount to demo shots. The only thing is, some naturalistic yellow may be slightly lost or not here, depending.

The 1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer of the older cut is also greatly improved over the previous editions, but cannot compete with the 4K version and both have two lossless soundtracks: DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 and PCM 2.0 Stereo. They all sound good and Coppola decided no DTS: X, Auro 3D or Dolby Atmos upgrade here, though the dialogue is fine, sound effects and music great. I just have one complaint and it is something early on in the film you can hear on the old DVD version.

As the first Tom Waits/Crystal Gayle duet, we get to Vegas in the film and a slow machine goes off, then 'JACKPOT' as a bunch of money sounds like it is coming out of the one-armed bandit. In the new mix, you can only hear coins here and there. In the original, the sound makes it sound like a hundred coins pouring out and falling outward, and in effect, all over and at the audience. Hope it is not something about the original sound stems of the coins going soft, but it is the one glaring error. Sad too, because Gayle in lossless sound is amazing and Waits is a great match.

The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image of the Foghat concert can have some good color, but is from low definition video source offering video flaws including video noise, video banding, telecine flicker, tape scratching, cross color, faded color and tape damage, as is the anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on the U.K. Subs DVD with softness, color a little out of place and lacking detail like all older, basic and/or plain digital recordings. It only comes with a lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo option that is passable, but a 5.1 might have helped the loud music sound better. The Foghat shocks with a PCM 2.0 Stereo track, not because it sounds good for its age, but because it is an extremely rare instance where a music title from Cleopatra on Blu-ray has lossless sound of any kind.

The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Big Boy can sometimes, though rarely show the age of the materials used, but this is far superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film and has been beautifully restored with superior color to the point that it looks newer than its age, originally processed by the Pathe labs. It even looks better than the Heart Blu-ray and makes me wish Warner would issue this in 4K at some point. One reason is that the work of Director of Photography Andrew Laszlo, A.S.C., delivers some great shots over and over again. His later works include Streets Of Fire, The Warriors, The Night They Raided Minsky's, the original Shogun TV mini-series and very fitting here, The Beatles at Shea Stadium. His work really holds up here.

The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix has also been worked on extensively and the film sounds as good as it ever will.

Finally, the PCM 2.0 Stereo sound on the Miracles CDs sound terrific and all these songs sound the best they ever have digitally and I will bet better than most magnetic tape and vinyl versions of them. Smokie solo and in his legendary group have not received the lossless sound and audiophile treatment they deserve to the point of criminality, but this set is the beginning of correcting that.

To order the Warner Archive You're A Big Boy Now Blu-ray, go to this link for it 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

And to get the Smokey Robinson & The Miracles CD Set, you can order directly from this link:

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/smokey-robinson-the-miracles-what-love-has-joined-together-a-poc

- Nicholas Sheffo