Meatballs – Special Edition (DVD-Video)

 

Picture: B-     Sound: C+     Extras: C+     Film: B-

 

 

Bill Murray had been in many feature films, but when Ivan Reitman’s Meatballs arrived in 1979, Murray was red hot thanks to helping to put Saturday Night Live on the map and the ads claimed the film “introduced” him.  Well, maybe as a lead.  Following the cycle of teen comedies that Animal House (reviewed on HD-DVD elsewhere on this site) made possible, it was a huge hit and Murray continued his ways as a comic legend.

 

The film has him running a summer camp, so you know this will not be the stuffy kind.  The film has its peer pressure and cruel moments, then has its broad comedy moments, but the Daniel Goldman screenplay somehow keeps it all balanced.  Murray often steals the show, but there are other good character actor performances and the film introduced Chris Makepiece, who soon went on to co-star in the enduring, underrated My Bodyguard.

 

Instead of being just a time capsule of the moment, the film is a raw comedy that is often honest about the people it portrays, while keeping the comedy going as Caddyshack (also reviewed on HD-DVD elsewhere on this site, but available in Blu-ray as well) and a few other memorable comedies would be before the blockbuster mentality (as in Reitman’s Ghostbusters) killed these little comedies that could.

 

Helping it is that adults often did not like it, validating it all the more, though few give it credit for its Canadian comic sensibilities, an influence that helped Hollywood comedies more than hurt them.  It could almost be argued that Meatballs is a minor comedy classic, but even if you totally can’t go that far, people still talk about it and for all the reasons they would for good comedies.  That it is better than most we’ve seen lately speaks for itself.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is from a new digital High Definition master that Reitman is said to have supervised.  Though some shots do not look as good as others, the film looks the best it has looked since its original theatrical release.  Sony is also supposed to issue a Blu-ray when this DVD arrives and if we get one, we’ll compare the two.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 tries to spread out the old monophonic sound, but the Dolby 2.0 actually sounds a bit better.  The combination with either soundtrack is fine.

 

Extras include a feature length audio commentary by Reitman and writer/producer Goldman and a making of documentary split in three sections.  One may ask where the promotional materials are, but as another studio’s logo is at the beginning, they likely own that, but fans should still be very satisfied with what they get here.

 

By the way, give or take the lame sequels that followed, this and the underrated Little Darlings (1980) are the last major films about a summer camp where the guests were not annihilated in a violent, brutal manner.  Who knew it was the end of an era.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo