Too Cool For School Collection: The Van/The Pom Pom
Girls/Coach/Malibu Beach/The Beach Girls/My Tudor/Weekend Pass/Cavegirl/Tomboy/Jocks/My Chauffer/Hunk (Mill Creek DVD Set)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: C- Films: C+
Mill
Creek is picking up the many interesting and sometimes interesting B-movies
from the Crown International catalog recently distributed by the now-defunct
BCI Eclipse. They made all kinds o genre
films, especially with teens and drive-ins in mind. The Too
Cool For School collection offers 12 comedies that had not been issued in
years in a decent, simple DVD set.
The films
can be split into two eras. One are the
better, bolder drive-in films with more nudity, sex and sex jokes out of the
counterculture era, while the latter jump on the 1980s teen bandwagon going for
more humor and less sex or nudity, helping to kill the company. This happens with My Tudor in 1983, which features would-be next-big thing Matt
Lattanzi, Caren Kaye, Kevin McCarthy and a young Crispin Glover. The nudity is slowly replaced with Flashdance-era clothing and the company
was eventually eclipsed by imitating the same Hollywood product despite hits
like this and the similarly titled My
Chauffer (1986) where there are as many name stars as there are teens.
The Pom Pom Girls (1976) stars Robert Carradine as
one of several seniors trying to have fun, even when it clashes with the
upcoming realities of adulthood and the things they entail at a time when teens
were taken more seriously and not everyone was going (or needed to go) to
college. Has some good moments and holds
up surprisingly well. Bill Adler also stars.
The Van (1977) was roughly inspired by
the fun 1975 Sammy Johns’ hit Chevy Van,
though the decked-out Straight Arrow is actually a Dodge model here. The title vehicle lands up in the hands of a
good guy and the result is a summer he’ll never forget. Danny DeVito shows up in a scene-stealing
supporting role.
Coach (1978) has the beautiful Cathy
Lee Crosby as a basketball coach, becoming involved with one of her students,
played by future action genre star Michael Biehn in a very early role. Keenan Wynn also stars.
Malibu Beach (1978) offers teens heading to
the famed title location for wild times.
More of a comedy than the other two, but a worthy follow-up just the
same.
The Beach Girls (1982) involves a trio of female
friends and one of them is introverted, so the other two intend top change
that.
My Tudor (1983) is explained above and
offers mixed results, but the need for Crown to make a 1980s film really starts
to show here.
Weekend Pass (1984) gives us four sailors
visiting Loa Angeles on leave with mixed results. That applies to the movie too.
Cavegirl (1985) is the worst film here, as
teens looking for that perfect gal go back in time (no joke) with not-so-comic
results.
Tomboy (1985) centers around race cars
as a young female driver gets involved with her male idol.
Jocks (1986) has tennis team go on road
trip to Las Vegas with silly results.
This underwhelming film has Christopher Lee and Richard Roundtree in
supporting roles.
My Chauffer (1986) was a hit with Deborah
Foreman as a limousine driver and wacky 1980s comedy results that are only
mildly amusing. E.G. Marshall, Sam
Jones, Howard Hesseman and even Penn & Teller show up. A curio at best.
Hunk (1987) is a
“sell-your-soul-to-the-devil” comedy as a guy makes said deal to gain the title
qualities to be with women, but it is not done that well and you see why Crown
lost its soul trying to imitate instead of lead in the teen market.
The
picture is presented in various aspect ratios from 1.33 to anamorphically
enhanced 1.85 X 1, but quality is usually soft, has aliasing errors and prints
can have scratches. However, the early
films have a richer look and better color.
In addition, some of the 1.33 film are a full 35mm frame in soft matte,
so if you zoom in on an HDTV at 16 X 9/1.78 x 1, you’ll discover how it looked
in theaters. The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound
is usually monophonic or barley stereo towards the end, often with distortion
in any case. They are watchable and what
you would expect, but need work and some ought to be available on Blu-ray when
restored. A few sparse trailers are the
only extras here.
- Nicholas Sheffo