Caddyshack II (1988) (NTSC)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Comedy	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1988
Running Time	97:12 (Case: 99)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	1,4	Directed By	Alan Arkush
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Jackie Mason Robert Stack Dyan Cannon Dina Merrill Jonathan Silverman Brian McNamara Marsha Warfield Paul Bartel Randy Quaid Chevy Chase Dan Aykroyd
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$24.95	Music	Ira Newborn

    There's a saying "less is more". Unfortunately, I think the makers of this film (and this DVD) took that saying too literally, because this is very much less.

    The original film, Caddyshack, was not a masterpiece, but it was fun. Perhaps the highlight was the life-and-death struggle between the demented greenkeeper (Bill Murray) and the gopher. Oh, you may remember a golfing bet between the snob (Ted Knight) and the construction magnate (Rodney Dangerfield), or the conflict between the upper-class types and the caddies (and their friends).

    This film, despite retaining the name Caddyshack, reduces the number of speaking parts for caddies to one, Harry (Jonathan Silverman), and it is not a very big part. We still have a construction magnate - this time it is Jack Hartunian (Jackie Mason) - who is building low-rent housing near the Bushwood Country Club, much to the horror of the members. The president of the country club is Chandler Young (Robert Stack, who looks a bit uncomfortable). Chandler invites Jack to visit the club at the prompting of his daughter Miffy (Chynna Phillips), who is good friends with Kate (Jessica Lundy), Jack's daughter. To make up a foursome, Chandler invites a cousin, Elizabeth (Dyan Cannon, who seems to be relishing her part). Elizabeth is the only one of the snobs to like Jack at all — his lack of sophistication puts all the others off. Kate would like to fit in with the sophisticated set, so she would like her father to act more sophisticated (we can tell where this is going, right?).

    We still have a gopher (in fact, the gopher's part is expanded somewhat), but it doesn't feel right without Bill Murray's crazed pursuit. They've tried to cover this by having Chandler hire a hitman (played in a high-pitched voice by Dan Aykroyd), but it really doesn't work. Apart from the gopher, the only actor to return is Chevy Chase, playing Ty Webb again. There are a couple of other characters shoved in, such as Randy Quaid playing, umm, Randy Quaid the psycho lawyer, and Brian McNamara, playing smarmy nasty upper-class-boy-due-for-his-comeuppance Todd, but these characters are so stereotyped you can recognise them from their first speech.

    There are some amusing moments: the golf equipment Jack uses in his first round, Elizabeth's idea of an evening gown, Randy Quaid's idea of legal negotiation...

    All in all, this is a slightly changed, poorer quality, remake of the first film, and I can't really recommend it. If you want a film like this, get the original — it's a better film, and has a better transfer. And speaking of transfer...

Video

    This DVD is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, not 16x9 enhanced. I really hate it when a film starts with that smarmy slide: "This film has been formatted to fit your screen"; it doesn't fit my screen, buster — I have a 16x9 ratio screen, and there are lots of people like me.

    Adding insult to injury, this disc is NTSC. If your system won't display NTSC, you won't be able to play this disc.

    The image is reasonably sharp, but far from outstanding. Shadow detail is adequate, but we miss seeing the initial appearance of the gopher because it's hidden in the shadow. There is mild to medium film grain, but no low-level noise. There is little visible edge enhancement, either.

    Colour looks fairly well-rendered. There are no colour-related artefacts.

    There are more than a few film artefacts, spots, specks, and flecks. There's a thread at 58:46.

    There's quite a lot of aliasing, but it's usually not too disturbing. There's some obvious moiré, and there's plenty of shimmer on backgrounds.

    There are no subtitles.

    The disc is single-sided and single layered. That means no layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The soundtrack is provided in English and French, but I only listened to the English. The English soundtrack is Dolby Digital 2.0, with the surround encoding flag set, but there's no apparent surround encoding.

    The dialogue is generally clear and comprehensible. There are no obvious audio sync problems.

    Ira Newborn's score is well-suited to what we're seeing on screen.

    This soundtrack is 2.0, but sounds mono. There's no use of the surrounds or subwoofer at all.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    There are absolutely no extras on this disc.

Menu

    The menus are static and silent.

    The Region 1 version of this disc seems to be absolutely identical to this one — that's probably because it is. As far as I can tell, this disc is the Region 1 disc given a Region 4 coding.

    A fairly poor remake of the first film, given a fairly poor presentation on DVD.

    The video quality is not good, and is pan-and-scan.

    The audio quality is quite reasonable.

    The extras are completely absent.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall