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