Girls Just Want to Have Fun (1985) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio & Animation Alternative Version-Full Frame Presentation Theatrical Trailer-1:38
Rating
Year Of Production	1985
Running Time	87:20
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Aspect Ratio Then Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Alan Metter
Studio Distributor	New World Pictures Simitar DVD	Starring	Sarah Jessica Parker Helen Hunt Lee Montgomery Morgan Woodward Ed Lauter Jonathan Silverman Holly Gagnier Margaret Howell Terence McGovern Shannen Doherty
Case	Amaray-Opaque-Secure Clip
RPI	?	Music	Thomas Newman

Video (NTSC)		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Pan & Scan	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	480i (NTSC)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    This is not an original plot. These are not original characters. Even the songs are recycled. So what makes this film fun? I'm guessing it's the two female leads: Sarah Jessica Parker and Helen Hunt. They are really the only thing that lifts this film from the doldrums. Oh, sure, they list Shannen Doherty on the front cover now that she's well-known, but hers is just a bit part as the younger sister of the male lead, Lee Montgomery. Most of the remaining talent don't really deserve the term — Holly Gagnier, for example, as the bad girl is far too old for the part, and her performance is awful.

    Janey (Sarah Jessica Parker) is the new kid in school. A single sex girl's school, taught by nuns. The only girl who stands out is Lynne (Helen Hunt), who takes to Janey, and takes her on a baby-sitting job where they watch Dance TV. There's a big announcement: a dance contest, with a prize of a regular spot on DTV. Both Lynne and Janey would dearly love to be on DTV...

    Natalie (Holly Gagnier) is a spoiled brat, and she's decided she wants to win that contest. After a minor confrontation with Lynne before the dance auditions, she arranges that Lynne gets knocked out of the contest. Janey, Lynne, and Maggie get revenge by inviting a few extra people to Natalie's debutante ball.

    Janey made it through the first auditions, and got assigned a partner, Jeff (Lee Montgomery). Now Janey and Jeff need to practice for the final dance-off that's going to be on TV. There are a few problems: Janey's dad (Ed Lauter) doesn't want her out at nights, Natalie is determined that they shouldn't win, and the two of them are still getting to know one another.

    I think you can guess how it goes from there...

    It's hard to believe that Sarah Jessica Parker was 20, and Helen Hunt 22, when they made this — they are quite credible as girls in their late teens. And Sarah Jessica Parker is credible as a dancer — that may have something to do with her extensive dance training. Although they appear to have used a double for at least some of the tumbling sequences, she can hold her own in the straight dance sections.

    This is not a great film, but it is fun, and it's entertaining to see these early performances.

Video

    If your display won't display NTSC, you won't want this disc — it is NTSC.

    The DVD is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and 16x9 enhanced. The theatrical aspect ratio was 1.85:1. There's also a pan-and-scan version on this disc, but I watched the widescreen version.

    The image is quite soft, perhaps because it's a little grainy, or perhaps because it has been a bit over-compressed. Shadow detail is adequate, but restricted by the softness. Low level noise is not visible.

    Colour is not very good. The worst part is skin tones that frequently look rather too pink. There are no other colour-related artefacts.

    There are next to no film artefacts, which is nice. There's aliasing every so often, but it is minor. I didn't notice any moiré. There are no MPEG artefacts.

    This would rate as a reasonable transfer, on VHS. For DVD it's not so good.

    There are no subtitles, but the DVD cover claims there are closed captions encoded into the video stream (I don't have the equipment to decode closed captions, so I can't confirm this).

    The disc is single-sided and dual-layered, but there's no layer change because they have placed the widescreen version on layer 0, and the full-frame version on layer 1. That means no layer change in either, and perhaps a bit more compression than would be desirable to fit the whole movie into the one layer.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There are two soundtracks on this disc. Both are English. The first is Dolby Digital 5.1, at 448kbps. The second is Dolby Digital 2.0, surround-encoded, at 192kbps. I only listened to the 5.1.

    The dialogue is clear for most lines. The audio sync is never out by enough to be definite, but there are a couple of passages that are marginal.

    Thomas Newman provided the score. More important, however, are the songs. The title song appears more than once.

    The credits include one for Dolby Stereo (the original name for Dolby Surround — so the Dolby Digital 2.0 with surround encoding is probably the original soundtrack). You have to question the decision to make a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack — the subwoofer gets nothing significant to do, and the surrounds never seem to get anything significant to do. This is essentially a frontal soundtrack, using the centre heavily, and the mains every so often. That's not awful — it is probably how the film sounded originally.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The menu is animated, with sound. It's easy to operate.

Theatrical Trailer (1:38)

    Surprisingly, this trailers is 16x9 enhanced. It's no more misleading than most.

    This DVD, like Heathers, and Soul Man, is an all-region disc that was made for Region 1 (hence the NTSC), and is now being released in Region 4. The Region 1 disc was released years ago, but the disc is identical (I've compared them). The packaging is the same, except that the R1 I have is in a dark Alpha case, while the R4 is in a dark Amaray.

    It doesn't matter if you buy from Region 1, or locally, you are getting the same disc.

    A film that's more fun than the script and most of the performances would lead you to expect.

    The video quality is barely adequate, mainly because it is quite soft. It is NTSC, unfortunately.

    The audio quality is quite good.

    The extras are very limited, unless you count having a pan-and-scan version as an extra.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall