Living in the 80s! (Box Set) (1985) (NTSC)

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    I was trying to pick the rationale for packing these three DVDs together. Sure, they are all comedies, but one is a very black comedy, one is a comedy about pretending to be black, but there's nothing black about the third one, so that's not the theme. Both Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and Soul Man were songs before they were movies, but I've never heard of a song called Heathers. I guess the real theme is that all were made by New World Pictures shortly before it collapsed.

    Heathers is a really good black comedy, but possibly not to everyone's taste. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun is an enjoyable romp. Soul Man is a reasonable comedy with some nice moments. I'd buy this box set to have the first two films, and regard the third one as a very pleasant bonus.

    It is a shame that we don't get better transfers of these films, because they all deserve better. Unfortunately, this is the best you can get — there are no better versions available.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Heathers (Simitar) (1989) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Black Comedy	Main Menu Audio THX Trailer THX Optimizer Audio Commentary-Director, Producer And Writer Theatrical Trailer Featurette-Swatch Dogs And Diet Coke Heads Notes-Screenplay Excerpt: Original Ending Biographies-Cast & Crew
Rating
Year Of Production	1989
Running Time	103:02
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (70:40)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Michael Lehmann
Studio Distributor	New World Pictures Simitar DVD	Starring	Winona Ryder Christian Slater Shannen Doherty Lisanne Falk Kim Walker Penelope Milford Glenn Shadix Lance Fenton Patrick Labyorteaux Jeremy Applegate Jon Shear Carrie Lynn Phill Lewis
Case	Amaray-Opaque-Secure Clip
RPI	?	Music	David Newman

Video (NTSC)		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary 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, frequent
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    I have been waiting a long time for Heathers to be released in Region 4. I pre-ordered the first release of it in Region 1 (not a very good disc), and then the Limited Edition (that came in a tin pencil case) — that was released in September 2001. Then the disc in that set went bad on me (it delaminated — the two layers split apart), so I was forced to get a copy of the THX Special Edition (same disc as the limited edition, but a different label, and just a regular case). That was September 2002, almost 2 years ago.

    So I finally see Heathers arrive in Australia, and what do we get? Gosh, it looks an awful lot like the THX Special Edition. Hmm, let's look closer. Yup, this is exactly the same disc. The disc I got from Amazon has DV11405 on the label, and D18837-1 on the inner rim of the data side, and so does this new "Region 4" disc. The cover slick and insert are identical. Both are in a dark coloured opaque case — the only difference is that the disc from Amazon is in an Alpha case, while the Australian one is in an Amaray. And the Australian one has two stickers on it, one announcing the Australian rating (M), and one warning "NTSC Playback". Que sera, sera, indeed.

    It's a shame, actually. I had been hoping that the reason it was taking so long was because they were giving this remarkable little film the high-quality transfer it deserves. No such luck, but you'll read about this below. Let's talk about the movie. If you already know about it, you can skip down to Transfer Quality for the bad news.

    The scene is Westerburg High, where the hottest clique is the Heathers — Heather Chandler (Kim Walker, in red) leads this group, with Heather McNamara (Lisanne Falk, in yellow) the token cheerleader, and Heather Duke (Shannon Doherty, in green) the bulimic introvert. The newest member of the clique is Veronica Sawyer (Winona Ryder, in blue) — she isn't completely sure that she wants to be involved, but seems to be dragged along by peer pressure and lack of a good alternative.

    There's a new student in school, Jason Dean (Christian Slater, mostly in black). He makes a quite a first impression. He and Veronica hit it off immediately. After an unfortunate contretemps, Veronica expresses a desire to see Heather dead, or at least throwing up. Jason assists, and next thing you know, there's a dead body. They cover it up as a teen suicide. Then things start to get out of hand...

    This is a black comedy; very black, and very funny. It's not for everyone — if you can't see the funny side of bloodshed and murder, then perhaps it's not for you. I'd forgotten how much coarse language there is.

    One of the many lovely touches to the production design is the association of a colour with each of the four main girls. Not only does each of them always wear her signature colour, but her family's house features the colour, too.

    This feels like such a lost opportunity. This is a brilliant black comedy, and it deserves so much better.

Video

    If your system doesn't allow you to watch NTSC discs, stop now: this disc is NTSC.

    This film is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, 16x9 enhanced. That's the original theatrical aspect ratio.

    The picture is reasonably sharp, but soft, apparently from light film grain (varying to heavy film grain at moments like 90:43). Shadow detail is terrible — any dark object in shadow drops off immediately into black (Veronica's hair is dark red in bright light, but black in lower light). There's no low-level noise.

    Colour is reasonably well-rendered, but skin tones are visibly off at times (usually a bit orange).

    There's nothing major in the way of film artefacts; there are tiny spots and flecks, though.

    There's minor aliasing, but it's mostly masked by the touch of softness. There is one moment of noticeable moiré on a check waistcoat. There are no MPEG artefacts.

    There are no subtitles.

    The disc is single-sided and dual-layered, RSDL formatted. The layer change is at 70:40, on a still shot. It's barely noticeable on a fast player.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There are three audio tracks, all in English. The soundtrack is provided in Dolby Digital 5.1 (448kbps) and Dolby Digital 2.0, surround encoded (192kbps) — I listened to the 5.1. There's also an audio commentary, Dolby Digital 2.0, not surround encoded (192kbps).

    The dialogue is clear and comprehensible, making it easy to understand the oh-so-witty dialogue. There are no audio sync problems.

    The score is by David Newman. It is very good, providing support to the emotion of the story.

    The surrounds are hardly used (and aren't missed), and the subwoofer is used only for explosions.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The menu is static (a blurry photo montage) with music. It's easy to use.

Audio Commentary — Michael Lehman (director), Denise Dinovi (producer), Daniel Waters (writer)

    This is an excellent commentary, with these three talking continuously. They discuss all manner of things about the film, from where and how scenes are shot, through the details of how the film came to be made, through to where various people are now. Oh, and they talk openly about disappointments in terms of product references and casting (including Heather Graham's parents refusing to let her take part).

Theatrical Trailer (1:50)

    It's interesting to see the touches of censorship in this trailer — even the word "b****" is censored. And for some reason it features Three Blind Mice rather than Que Sera, Sera.

Screenplay Excerpt: Original Ending

    This is almost 60 pages long — it's a strange ending.

Talent Bios

    These are much longer than the usual cursory offerings:

• Michael Lehman (director) — 19 pages
• Denise Dinovi (producer) — 14 pages
• Daniel Waters (writer) — 22 pages
• Winona Ryder — 17 pages
• Christian Slater — 20 pages
• Shannon Doherty — 17 pages

Featurette — Swatch Dogs and Diet Coke Heads (30:00)

    This was made in 2001, and is an interesting retrospective look at the film. Much better than a conventional making-of.

    The out-of-print Region 1 version (easy to tell — it has a white cover with the four female leads on it dressed in black) was single layered, not 16x9 enhanced, and had minimal extras: a trailer and a short (12:29) featurette. Don't get this one.

    The current Region 1 version is utterly identical (and I mean identical) to this Region 4 version. So I guess it comes down to where you can get it most cheaply.

    I really hope we get a better version some time.

    A marvellous black comedy, given a poor transfer onto DVD.

    The video is fairly reasonable, with minimal shadow detail. Beware that it is NTSC, rather than PAL.

    The audio quality is rather good.

    The extras are really interesting.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Soul Man (1986) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio Audio Commentary-Steve Miner (Director) And C.Thomas Howell (Actor) Teaser Trailer-1:01 Theatrical Trailer-1:58
Rating
Year Of Production	1986
Running Time	104:55
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Steve Miner
Studio Distributor	New World Pictures Simitar DVD	Starring	C. Thomas Howell Rae Dawn Chong Arye Gross Melora Hardin James Earl Jones Linda Hoy Leslie Nielsen Ann Walker James Sikking Max Wright Julia Louis-Dreyfus Maree Cheatham Wallace Langham
Case	Amaray-Opaque-Secure Clip
RPI	?	Music	Tom Scott

Video (NTSC)		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary 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, tobacco and marijuana
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

This is Harvard
I don't have to eat
I don't have to sleep
I just have to study...

    Let's get the main thing out of the way up front. Despite various things said about it, this film was never intended to be anything but a lightweight comedy. That said, it makes some interesting statements about a privileged white boy learning a bit about what it's like to be black.

    The plot setup is simple enough. Mark Watson (C Thomas Howell) has always planned on attending Harvard Law School. He is a bit of a spoiled boy who has always gotten what he wanted, although we guess that he must have studied to stand a chance of getting into Harvard. He gets in. And then his father (James B Sikking) tells him that he won't pay for Harvard — his therapist has convinced him that he should concentrate on himself. Mark is shattered. He looks through all the scholarships — there aren't any for rich white kids whose fathers have decided not to pay for them, strangely enough. He tries to get a loan, and discovers that a history of small bounced cheques doesn't make him a good risk. He tries to convince the therapist (a cameo by Max Wright) to change his father's mind — yeah, that's gonna work! His last desperate hope is a scholarship that pays full tuition plus a stipend. Catch is that it is for the best black applicant from Los Angeles. Mark salves his conscience by checking: there are no black applicants.

     So Mark starts Harvard Law as a black man. He slowly learns what it's like to be black in a largely white world. He also gets close to Sarah Walker (Rae Dawn Chong), another black law student. He tries to take advantage of being black in the class of a black professor, Professor Banks (James Earl Jones), but learns that he is mistaken. In fact, he learns that he is mistaken about a number of things...

    It's hard to believe that there were protests when this film first opened — clearly the protesters hadn't seen the film.

    One interesting coincidence: in the film, Rae Dawn Chong's character was married for two years. She and C Thomas Howell were later married 1989-1990 — kind of prophetic.

    There are some decent laughs, some painful spots of farce, and a few cringe-worthy moments, which is about average for a lightweight comedy. Plus some moments that are a bit more meaningful than is normal for a film like this. Don't expect too much, and you may be pleasantly surprised.

Video

    If your display won't display NTSC, stop reading — you won't be able to play this DVD.

    The DVD is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, which appears to be the theatrical aspect ratio. It is 16x9 enhanced.

    The image is soft, but not so soft as to be unwatchable. Shadow detail is limited, with colours in shade dropping off into black rather too quickly. It's hard to tell if the softness is film grain or over-compression (from fitting the film into one layer). Low level noise is never a problem.

    Colour is not rendered too well, with skin tones often a bit orange (the worst is around 83:32). There are no other colour-related artefacts like colour bleed.

    There are some tiny film artefacts, but nothing of any consequence. There's some occasional aliasing, but it's mild, and not distracting. There's some minor moiré. There are no MPEG artefacts.

    Apart from the softness, this is quite a reasonable transfer.

    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

    There is only one soundtrack on this disc. It's English Dolby Digital 2.0, not surround-encoded, at 192kbps. There is also an audio commentary track. I listened to both.

    The dialogue is clear enough and readily understood, with only slight distortion occasionally. I didn't spot any audio sync glitches.

    The score is provided by Tom Scott. However, the important part of the music is the carefully selected songs — they have gone to some trouble to choose songs that fit very well (music supervisor David Anderle has done well).

    The soundtrack is not surround-encoded, but if you enable ProLogic decoding manually, you'll hear a bit of sound from the surrounds, and most of the dialogue will move into the centre. The subwoofer isn't provided a signal, but may respond to the bass in the soundtrack if you have bass management turned on.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The menu is not animated, with a short music clip. The menu is easy to use, because there's very little to it.

Theatrical Trailer (1:58) / Teaser Trailer (1:01)

    Surprisingly, both these trailers are 16x9 enhanced. They are quite similar.

Audio Commentary: director Steve Miner, actor C Thomas Howell

    This is a reasonable commentary. It wanders around from topic to topic, but it's interesting enough. I think I'd have preferred a commentary from the director alone, but this is a lot better than nothing.

    This film, like Heathers, is a case of the Region 1 disc being made all-region, then released here. Feel free to buy this disc from Region 1 or Region 4 — you are buying exactly the same disc either way.

    A surprising lightweight comedy with a touch of bitter reality, a film that's better than you'd expect, on a decent DVD.

    The video quality is just good enough, but soft and with limited shadow detail. And it's NTSC.

    The audio quality is good.

    The extras are not bad, with a reasonable commentary.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

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