The Lost Collection Lionsgate DVD Series (Hiding Out/Homer & Eddie/Irreconcilable Differences/Morgan
Stewart’s Coming Home/My Best Friend
Is A Vampire/The Night Before/Repossessed/Slaughter High)
Picture: C
(D on Differences & Repossessed) Sound: C
Extras: C- Films:
All D
except C- on Night Before
In an
attempt to sell some films that are curios at best and turkeys all around,
Lionsgate has issued some 1980s clunkers in a wave of 8 DVDs and dubbed them The Lost Collection. These are very bad films, some somewhat
ambitious and all failed. Here is what
they have issued:
Hiding Out (1987) has Jon Cryer as a
stockbroker hiding from gangsters who want o kill him, so he wears bad make up
disguises and somehow survives. The
choreographer/Music Video director Bob Giraldi directed this feature to no
avail, but a young Annabeth Gish does show up.
Homer & Eddie (1989) has James Belushi mentally
handicapped and Whoopi Goldberg in her “I can be Eddie Murphy too” cycle. She plays Eddie here in this highly
unnecessary road film. Karen Black and
John Waters also show up, but none of them can save this really misguided mess.
Irreconcilable Differences (1984) is the highest profile of
these films and therefore, the best-known bomb.
The team of Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer (the Father Of The Bride revival and other bombs like I Love Trouble and the Alfie remake) have Ryan O’Neal in
career decline, Shelley Long unable to become a movie star (even after leaving Cheers) as parents whose daughter (Drew
Barrymore, before her near self-destruction) wants to divorce them. Yawn!
The film tries to claim it introduced Sharon Stone, though she had done
plenty of TV before this.
Morgan Stewart’s Coming Home (1987) is the other Jon Cryer
bomb that tried to save him from obscurity and capitalize on his Brat Pack-like
status. He is trying to drive his
conservative parent nuts, but they are oblivious until he gets really
goofy. A carbon copy of other such teen
films of the time, the director took his name off of the project.
My Best Friend Is A Vampire (1988) is a bad comedy that was
banking on launching Robert Sean Leonard further into the spotlight, but no
matter how much time they spend lighting him well, it is effort the script
needed. Fannie Flagg and Rene Auberjonois
also show up.
The Night Before (1988) is a film Keanu Reeves
made before his iconic acting “style” set in the same year he was in the
underrated Permanent Record. Here, Co-Writer/Director Thom Eberhardt rips
off Martin Scorsese’s After Hours (1986)
and it is a disaster. The film is also
racist, misogynist and has other issues.
The best of the bunch, only Reeves is worth your time.
Repossessed (1990) has Leslie Nielsen in
another unfunny would-be comedy, this time with Linda Blair cashing in her Exorcist success in another bad film
that also wastes Ned Beatty. Throw in
some phony evangelists and you get a mess.
Slaughter High (1986) is not sure if it is a
comedy or slasher film, starting out like De Palma’s Carrie (boy is attacked in shower, toilet, etc.) and is later
disfigured, so here he comes to kill.
The cast of unknowns is joined by Caroline Munro (The Spy Who Loved Me, Adam Ant’s Goody Two Shoes video) coming across more like Vanity. This is an “uncut version” and it is still
flat. Maybe three directors has
something to do with that.
All are
1.33 X 1, save Hiding
(anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1) which still looks weak and dated. Some of the transfer are VHS/Beta recycles
and you can see it in the old home video logos.
It also reminds us of how low film print standards started to plummet in
the 1980s, but that is another essay.
All have Dolby Digital 5.1 that is often weak, especially since mostly
of the films are monophonic releases.
Extras include weak, infrequent “trivia tracks” all eight discs, plus
they found trailers for Hiding, Morgan, Repossessed and Slaughter
that they slapped on their respective discs.
- Nicholas Sheffo
