A Very Brady Sequel (1996)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1996
Running Time	86:14
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (48:00)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Programme
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Arlene Sanford
Studio Distributor	Paramount Home Entertainment	Starring	Shelley Long Gary Cole Tim Matheson
Case	?
RPI	$24.95	Music	Steve Tyrell Guy Moon

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Arabic Bulgarian Croatian Czech Danish Dutch Finnish French German Greek Hebrew Hungarian Icelandic Italian Norwegian Polish Portuguese Romanian Serbian Slovenian Spanish Swedish Turkish English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, animation over end credits

    Watch out! Just when you think the world is now safe from all things Brady, along comes a sequel.

    This film is appropriately entitled A Very Brady Sequel, and continues the premise laid down in the original film, which is that the Brady family is somehow living in "modern day" (circa 1996) Los Angeles with their wholesome family values and attitudes intact.

    The film starts with an Indiana Jones type sequence featuring Roy Martin (Carol's first husband, presumed lost) and his accomplice exploring the remote jungles of Thailand, and encountering a mountain that looks eerily like the mountain in Paramount's studio logo. They realise that the mountain is actually the location where the statue of a horse (dating back to the first "Tang" Emperor) has been buried, presumed lost for centuries. They eagerly dig up the statue, but on their journey back one of them sabotages the boat and escapes.

    However, Roy has mailed the statue to Carol (Shelley Long), and hence the horse is now sitting in the Bradys' living room. They are blissfully unaware of the horse's significance and value (now estimated to be well over $20m), until one day a man (Tim Matheson) shows up on the Brady doorstep claiming to be the long-lost "Roy Martin". Whilst it is clear to the audience that he is an impostor, the Bradys accept him at "face value", although it does create a sense of discomfort - will Carol and Mike (Gary Cole) have to separate now that "Roy" is here?

    In the meantime, we have the usual number of sub-plots: Jan (Jennifer Elise Cox) creates an imaginary boyfriend called "George Glass" to make herself feel more desirable, Greg (Christopher Daniel Barnes) and Marcia (Christine Taylor) share the attic and discover they have developed "feelings" for each other, "Roy" teaches Peter (Paul Sutera) some bad behaviours, the kids take "Roy" to the mall, Alice (Henriette Mantel) cooks "Roy" some "magic mushrooms", Carol goes in for a make-over and re-emerges looking exactly the same ...

    There are now some clues that the Brady siblings have absorbed some of the "innovations" in the world around them - Marcia raises the issue of "women's liberation", and Jan uses a "Dial a Hunk" number to pretend that "George" is giving her a call. Also, the growing "relationship" between Greg and Marcia hearks of troubled times ahead.

    Just what will happen when "Roy" gets hold of the statue, which has conveniently been sent out to be cleaned prior to it being donated to charity?

    Fans of the first film will no doubt enjoy the sequel, and there are just as many subtle "references" to Brady Bunch episodes in this as in the previous film, however it doesn't have members of the TV series playing cameo roles (although RuPaul does reprise the role of "Mrs. Cummings"). Although the same cast is used as per the previous film, this time around the "kids" have all grown a little bit older and a little bit less like the original cast of the original TV series.

Video

    This is a widescreen, 16x9 enhanced, transfer. The aspect ratio is 1.78:1, which is close enough to the intended aspect ratio of 1.85:1 based on a 35mm film print.

     This is a much better looking transfer than the previous film (also released on DVD). Colours are sparkling and fully saturated (as they should be, given the strong usage of primary colours in the costumes) and detail levels are good.

    I did not notice any significant compression artefacts. The film source appears relatively clean.

    There is a wide selection of subtitle tracks, covering most languages on the greater European continent, as well as both English and English For The Hearing Impaired. I turned on both English tracks briefly. Dialogue accuracy seems about average, although some subtle phrases were not captured. The Hearing Impaired track also includes description of Foley effects, but doesn't feature a lot of dialogue attribution.

    This is a single sided dual layered disc (RSDL). The layer change occurs at Chapter 14 around 48:00 and is reasonably well placed, although you may notice (depending on your player) the slightly over-long pause on Greg's face.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are several audio tracks available: English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s), French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s), German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s), Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s), and Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s).

    Despite the use of the higher bitrate for the English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track, the quality of the transfer appears average and I did not notice anything out of the ordinary.

    Dialogue was relative clear and crisp, and there were no audio synchronization issues.

    Background music was nicely rendered, though not exceptional.

    Surround and subwoofer channel usage is minimal, despite the original theatrical print boasting a Dolby Digital soundtrack (one of the first films to do so). I can hear a few directional pans of Foley effects, but these are still confined mainly to the front channels and the rear channels are mostly used for ambience.

    All in all, this is a fairly average track.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    The menu is 16x9 enhanced but static, and available in several languages. There are no extras.

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on:

• English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded audio track

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on:

• Additional foreign language menus, audio tracks and subtitle tracks

    I would rate both versions as the same apart from foreign language content.

    A Very Brady Sequel features the cast from the first film in a brand new adventure. Carol's long lost husband Roy returns, but is it really Roy?

    The video transfer is okay.

    The audio transfer is acceptable.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall