Going Overboard (1989)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Menu Animation & Audio Theatrical Trailer-1.33:1, not 16x9, Dolby Digital 2.0 (1:12) Biographies-Cast
Rating
Year Of Production	1989
Running Time	93:04 (Case: 97)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Valerie Breiman
Studio Distributor	Theater Technologies Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Adam Sandler Burt Young Terry Moore Billy Zane Liza Collins Zane Peter Berg Tom Hodges Scott LaRose
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$36.95	Music	Steven Scott Smalley

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, during credits

   Well, here is a rare treat indeed. It is not often that one gets to review one of the generally recognised worst films of all time. How bad is it? Well, it makes the Internet Movie Database Bottom 100 at number 44, which just about says it all really. Mind you, the staggering thing about the voting is the fact that no less than 20 people (out of the 237 voters thus far) actually gave the film a rating of 10 (meaning excellent) - more than the combined number of voters rating the film between 5 and 9. I am staggered that so many people could inadvertently select 10 instead of 1 when voting. And for the record, my vote was 1 purely because they will not let you vote 0 - and even 0 is more than this film deserves.

   Even more staggering is the fact that Universal Pictures Home Video actually felt this worthy enough for mastering locally (in Melbourne) onto a Region 4 only coded DVD. I mean, this film is not just bad, it is atrocious. It is so bad that it makes Speed 2 look like the greatest film ever made. I am not joking. I have been most vocal in my condemnation of the utterly lamentable Jan De Bont film but it is infinitely better than Going Overboard. This is so utterly avoidable it is not at all funny. And I do mean not funny. One essential ingredient of a comedy is just that - comedy. Obviously Valerie Breiman  has no idea of this basic fact and completely forgot to include anything remotely funny in the screenplay she wrote.

   I would love to give you a plot synopsis but one of the many other ingredients that were not included in the screenplay was a plot. I would doubt that anyone could really discern anything close to a plot here at all. The central character is Shecky Moskowitz (Adam Sandler), a bar waiter upon what would appear to be the worst cruise ship the world has ever seen. Shecky has dreams of being a stand-up comic, and is disappointed that he missed out on the comedian job on the ship - which went to the even more lamentable Dickie Diamond (Scott LaRose). The balance of the film involves the tale of Shecky trying to at least get a shot at the job, which he does when Dickie is locked in the dunny (and mistakenly believed to have fallen overboard and drowned). This is accomplished by dream sequences and plenty of gratuitous shots of women wearing swimsuits. You can also add into the mix some rather pointless stuff involving General Noriega (Burt Young) and some henchman - Panamanians with Middle Eastern accents of all things.

   The only positive you can attribute to the film is the fact that the opening sequence sees Adam Sandler providing a short introduction that cheerfully explains that this is a no-budget film with a cobbled-together story based upon a ship for the simple reason that it was cheap (read free). At least they were honest, and it is enough of a warning for you to remove the video from your player and return it from whence it came. The inclusion of beautiful women in swimwear was no doubt due to being able to attract copious numbers of wanna-be actresses desperate for at least getting on-screen somehow. There is nothing here that remotely approaches acting. There is nothing here that remotely approaches comedy. The lack of budget is seen in just about every shot of the film. The lack of direction is pretty obvious too, as is the lack of a coherent story. and don't even bother to raise cinematography! Mind you, the movement in the camera around 83:50 is so laughable as to be worth a mention. It has all the makings of a cult classic along the lines of Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes except for the fact that it is nowhere near good enough to be a cult classic.

   Just in case you have not got the message yet - AVOID THIS FILM!

   There is absolutely no way in the world that you should even consider renting this DVD - let alone purchasing the d*** thing. I am staggered by so many aspects of this film it is not funny. It has no redeeming features whatsoever. If you want entertainment, I would strongly recommend completing your income tax return instead - it has to be more entertaining than this film.

Video

   The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    It is not a brilliant transfer, but I would suspect that given the lack of budget that the source material would not permit anything much better than we have here. Sharpness is generally quite decent, albeit without really being very sharp at any point. There are a few lapses throughout the film, but they really are not that bothersome in the overall scheme of things. Given the lack of detail in the sets, there is not much point in having a well-detailed transfer and thankfully that is the case. Not that this is an issue with the mastering I hasten to add, but rather the way the film was shot to avoid having to expose too much detail. Shadow detail is good but that is mainly due to the fact that the lack of budget ensured much of the film was shot either on deck in full sun or in rooms easily lit by sunlight. This is a quite decently clear transfer, which is not exactly helpful to the film at times (it means you can actually see things), and there is not much of an issue with grain at all. There did not appear to be any problems with low level noise in the transfer.

    For a no-budget film I suppose that this is about as good as you could expect as far as colour is concerned here. Obviously very natural-looking with so much of the film done in natural light, there really is not much to complain about here. It is not particularly well-saturated, but at least this means that the oversaturation is kept to a minimum. In fact, there were only a few instances of the problem apparent, the most obvious being a slight issue at 50:15. Colour bleed is a bit more of an issue here, but not really extreme stuff. It is mainly of the nature of being slightly fuzzy in the transitions between reds and other colours. It should be noted that there is some variation in the colours at times, attributable I would suspect to somewhat mismatched film stock or poor processing.

    There did not appear to be any significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer. There was very little in the way of film-to-video artefacts in the transfer, with just some slight aliasing (such as at 86:07) being the extent of the problems. There were quite a few film artefacts in the transfer, albeit nothing really obvious, reflecting both the age of the film and the lack of value in the source material. There is an obvious green flash across the transfer at 44:25 which I am presuming is a glitch in the source material.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is just the one soundtrack on the DVD, namely an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

    The dialogue comes up pretty well in the transfer and there are no real problems with understanding what is being said. There are some problems with audio sync in the transfer, but most of these seem to be the result of rather poor ADR work (around 79:00 is a bad example).

    The original music comes from Steven Scott Smalley. Remember that name and if you see it again, fear the results. Suffice it to say the score is pretty much a load of cobblers.

    The soundtrack itself is pretty bare-bones type stuff, and has nothing really distinctive about it. Whilst it suggests the sound is stereo, it actually seems to come predominantly from the centre channel and has a real mono feel to it. There is a fair degree of air in the sound though, which means that there is no real congestion to the sound and everything is given the best chance to shine. Obviously we are not talking about surround or bass channel use at all. There are a few variances in the soundtrack, such as volume inconsistencies, but again nothing really objectionable.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    Most noticeable for the simple fact that someone had the bright idea of giving them an overriding wavy feel. They then added some audio and animation enhancement for good measure. The overall result is pretty ordinary. It might seem a bit different for about three seconds, but it soon wears out its welcome. Amazingly, the menus are 16x9 enhanced.

Theatrical Trailer (1:12)

    If you consider it the one minute version of the film, it scores on all levels: it certainly hides the lack of plot with ease, it negates the general lack of acting quite well and generally makes the whole film marginally more palatable. Presented in a Full Frame format, it is not 16x9 enhanced and comes with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound.

Biography - Cast

    A one page bio and a one page filmography for Adam Sandler.

    Well if you are really interested, the Region 1 version of the film comes with only a Pan and Scan version of the film. If for some reason you really feel the need to indulge in this film, then at least you can be sure in the knowledge that the Region 4 version is the best one.

    Going Overboard is a film to avoid at all costs. Oh, and the word "treat" was used facetiously earlier on if you hadn't worked that out yet.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall