Doing Right By Dirty Work

Man, Vinegar Syndrome is full of surprises these day, and I am here for it.  I remember in the early days of DVD that somebody would give the Norm MacDonald vehicle Dirty Work a special edition.  And I remember long ago giving up any hope of that.  But now Vinegar Syndrome has done it!  We're talking commentaries, interviews, a documentary... the whole bit.  And not just that, but they've restored footage cut for its PG-13 rating for a packed 3-disc, UHD/ BD set.  Oh yeah, they've restored it in 4k from the original negatives, too.  Yes, I'm talking about 1998's Dirty Work; this is not a prank.

I saw was a big enough Dirty Work fan that I saw this in theaters, unlike most of America.  It's a crazy, irreverent and cheerfully lowbrow comedy, and even though it's a small supporting role for him, one of Chevy Chase's best film work.  Really, everybody's great from Jack Warden (12 Angry Men, Bullets Over Broadway) to Chris Farley, and of course Artie Lange in a rare starring role.  And even back then I noticed there had to have been stuff cut out of it, because there's this running gag where Norm records all these "note to self"s throughout the film on a pocket tape recorder.  And there's a scene where he's thrown out of a building without the recorder in his hand, and in the next shot, he's standing up and putting it in his pocket.  So clearly there was a note joke there they cut out.  And so when the DVD and laserdisc came out, I was checking the back of both thinking, there had to at least be some deleted scenes.

A scene only in the "dirtier" cut top; a scene only in the PG-13 cut bottom.

So when Vinegar Syndrome announced they were restoring the R-rated cut that MacDonald and director Bob Saget (America's Funniest Home Videos) had always wanted to release, I was psyched.  It's actually only one minute and fifty-four seconds longer, but that's because they there's a lot of substitution.  Explicit words and phrases like "anal rape" had been replaced with "other thing," which this new "dirtier" cut was now putting back.  And a whole sequence, where Norm and Artie got revenge by putting doughnuts on their cocks had been replaced by an equally long bit where they're hired by a circus midget to get revenge on the bearded lady (Rebecca Romijn).  So, one was replaced by the other, meaning it's a huge difference, even though the running time is barely effected.

a scene only in the assembly cut.

You know what isn't there, though?  that "note to self" gag, which is cut the same way in both versions.  That tape recorder just magically appears in his hand after a cut, only for him to immediately tuck it away into his pocket.  I would've been bummed except, by the time I was watching the newly restored "dirtier version," I already knew VS had also included a rough "Assembly Cut" on another disc - and this one's thirty-nine minutes and fifty-one seconds longer!  And sure enough, that gag is in there, and so is a whole bunch more deleted footage.  I'm particularly fond of Adam Sandler as Satan now telling Norm, "your grandmother's down here with us."  Nice touch - should've left it in the movie!  Now, this is a rough cut that was never intended to be released, so the pacing is off.  There's no score, few sound effects and you can occasionally hear Saget giving direction off-camera,  It's more of interest as a collection of deleted scenes and a historical artifact than a properly viable version of the film (luckily, since it's sourced from tape and looks terrible).  But fans should be thrilled.  And if we're being perfectly honest, not even the "dirtier" cut is really any better than the theatrical cut.  It's just different, and definitely of interest, but not actually better.  It's not worse either; it's essentially a side-grade in that regard.  So it's great that VS restored and included the PG-13 cut as well.  We get it all here.

MGM released Dirty Work on DVD as a new release in 1999.  It was a barebones, but at least respectably anamorphic widescreen disc.  And that was all fans had to live on until Olive Films eventually upgraded the film to blu-ray in 2015.  It was still barebones, but it would've been unrealistic to expect any more at that point.  At least we had the film in HD.  And that's where everyone expected it to end, until Vinegar Syndrome announced their massive, 3-disc UHD special edition set this year featuring all three aforementioned cuts.

1) 1999 MGM DVD; 2) 2015 Olive BD; 3) 2025 VS BD;
4) 2025 VS (assembly cut) BD; 5) 2025 VS UHD.

All the blu-rays are displayed in the film's original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, but the DVD went the "no black bars" route of 1.77:1, which you can see crops some off the sides.  The assembly cut actually trims the sides similarly, but stays 1.85:1 by also trimming along the top and bottom.  That cut is in SD, though, and is really more of a bonus feature than a serious presentation of the film: ripped from tape, over-exposed and has a frame-rate issue where some frames are doubled.  In terms of earnest presentation of the film, it's a steady progression from release to release.  The DVD has a very slight red hue, which Olive corrects, while naturally sharpening up the image simply by boosting it to HD.  It doesn't have the compression issues of the DVD, but it still looks pretty soft up close.  Compare that to VS's fresh 4k scan of the OCN, and it's a massive improvement even when comparing the two 1080p blus.  Olive's disc doesn't even hint at the film grain that's comprising the picture, while VS brings it fully to light, almost as perfectly represented as the UHD.  One thing to note about VS's transfer though, is that the contrast is deep with bold blacks, and really striking saturation.  In the extras, the filmmakers talk about how the primary colors are meant to be strong, to hint at the cartoon-like nature of the film; but even so, I'd say VS have made a strong choice here.  It's possibly a little too much, but it is a striking look, and the picture quality is such an upgrade in every other respect, you can't be too mad at it.

MGM's DVD presents the film in its original 5.1 mix, with an alternate French dub (also 5.1), plus English and French subtitles.  Olive drops the French stuff, and more disappointingly the English subs, but bumps the English 5.1 to DTS-HD.  And now Vinegar Syndrome brings back the English subs and gives us both the 5.1 and a stereo mix in DTS-HD for both versions.  The Assembly cut, though, just has lossy 2.0 with no subs.

MGM and Olive both had the theatrical trailer, but that was it.  Vinegar Syndrome, on the other hand, is packed with a ton of great stuff.  The one caveat?  Redundancy is off the charts.  First, we have two audio commentaries, one with writer Frank Sebastiano and a second with Sebastiano and co-writer Fred Wolf.  Both have some great info, but the phrase you'll hear most often on the second commentary is, "as I said on the other commentary," followed by him repeating an anecdote or whatever nearly verbatim.  There are unique bits in each one, so dedicated fans will want to listen to both.  But for more casual fans, I'd recommend just picking one.  Either one.

"As I said in my interview" comes up a couple times, too.  There's a great hour-long documentary, which features both the above writers and a ton of cast and crew.  Admittedly, none of the big stars, but an impressive list of small players, like the guy who played the crossing card in the flashback or the woman who played "the Saigon whore who bit my nose off!"  They all have fun things to say, though yes, some of them will repeat the same observations about the stars, and yes, both the writers from the commentaries are here, too, repeating some content from those.  Then there's a series of interviews, ten in total, all but one culled from the documentary.  You could call them "documentary extended scenes," honestly, because they all use the same clips from the documentary, telling the same stories, but each one is expands on what they had to say in their solo interview.

The documentary is pretty great, and each interview taken in isolation is a treat, but just watching this disc straight through becomes a bit of a grind, listening to the same things again and again.  Especially when they all use the same small handful of clips from the film over and over again, too.  You might've found the line "here's your two dollars" funny the first time, but we'll see if you're still laughing the ninth or tenth time in a two hour stretch.  Anyway, I said "all but one," because there is one unique interview where actor and fellow SNL alumni Jim Downey shares some of his humorous text messages with Norm McDonald.  That's unique to that one interview, so go ahead and watch that.  Besides that, there's an alternate extended ending (they were right to cut it, but it's interesting to see) and the trailer.  This release comes with reversible artwork, and if you bought the limited edition, a slipbox and 40-page booklet.

So don't let my criticisms (did I mention that the artwork on the discs themselves is heinous and makes it annoying to determine which disc is which?) discourage you from picking this up and diving in; just be selective as you go.  Because they did a fantastic job pulling all of this together.  It's clearly a labor of love, and it's what fans have spent decades wishing for.  It's truly an ultimate edition, and as I've said before, I always prefer a release err on the side of inclusion rather than exclusion.  They've certainly done that.

Brimstone & Treacle & Brimstone & Treacle

Here's a release I've been alternatively excited for and nonplussed by leading up to its release.  I'm referring specifically to Vinegar Syndrome's new UHD of the 1982 film Brimstone & Treacle, although I'll be covering both films here today.  Just for a start, this is a brand new 4k restoration and special edition of a film I never thought would get one.  I mean, an audio commentary by Sting?  Holy cow!  And I'd forgotten, until I went back to my old MGM DVD for this review, that the previous release was non-anamorphic, so it was especially in need of an upgrade.  On the other hand, it's a remake of a another, better film from just five years earlier, which would seem to render the whole endeavor utterly pointless?

The original Brimstone & Treacle is Dennis Potter's 1976 Play for Today that was banned and went unseen until 1987 (ironically making the remake the version people got to see first).  Michael Kitchen (Dracula AD, Mrs. Dalloway) plays a grifter who cons his way into the household of Denholm Elliot (Raiders Of the Lost Ark, Blade On the Feather), where he and his wife care for their invalid daughter.  Little do they suspect that the man they've invited in is the literal devil and their daughter being completely cognitively impaired doesn't deter his designs on her.  Yeah, the material's pretty edgy and you can see why the BBC would've taken issue with it.  But it's also some of Potter's sharpest writing and wonderfully acted.

Ultimately, I would say the remake is not pointless, but it should be primarily of interest to those who already have the original.  It's definitely interesting to see the what sporadic, sometimes seemingly arbitrary, changes they decided to make while otherwise sticking line for line, beat for beat to the original.  Some of those changes may've been landed upon casually during the filming, but others required some definite intent in the planning stages.  And all the little "whys?" can be a fascinating puzzle.  For the most part, they weaken the story being told.  One or two changes really undercut the story's inherent power.  Unfortunately, it would be a spoiler to lay into the biggest ones, but a couple smaller, but still weakening alterations include taking out the entire political subtext re: The National Front, and swapping it for some silly business about working for a religious greeting card company, or changing the nature of the father's tryst, which makes it more PC but far less dark and shameful, to the point where you'd wonder why anybody but his wife would be traumatized by it.

But then, since most of it is so similar - right down to the recasting of Elliot in the same role - anyone familiar enough with the first version can easily take all that as written and just enjoy what they get right the second time around, appreciating what the original would've looked like had it been shot on 35mm.  There's one additional line of dialogue I quite like.  But I'd hate to think of people approaching Brimstone & Treacle story from the 1982 end.  It would've been a shame even beforehand, but it's especially so since the ban on the original was lifted in 1987, and it was released on DVD by 2 Entertain in 2004.

2004 2 Entertain DVD.

This DVD sports an interlaced, fullscreen (1.29:1) transfer, which is to be expected, since this is a television broadcast presumably shot on videotape, though I imagine it could look at least a tiny bit better if restored for HD today, especially if the exteriors were shot on film, which was frequently the case with the BBC.  The AR should probably be tweaked to 1.32:1 or so, a modern scan might clean up a little noise and the higher resolution should at least clean up a little compression smudginess along the edges.  But basically, you can see why this has been left as a DVD-only title so far, and I wouldn't hold off purchasing it waiting for the unlikely upgrade.

The audio is the original mono track in Dolby Digital, and happily they have included optional English subtitles.

And more good news: it's not barebones!  It's basically got one extra: a vintage half-hour made-for-BBC program called Did You See? that aired when BBC lifted their ban and aired Brimstone in the 80s. At first, it looks a bit doofy: a panel discussion with three finger waggers about whether the show should be seen.  But they actually have a reasonably and surprisingly smart discussion on the matter, and far better still, the program also includes separate interviews with key players including Potter himself, the producer, a journalist from The Guardian and the head of BBC programming, and those - -especially Potter - are invaluable.

And that takes us to the remake, which was released on DVD in the UK by Prism in 1999 and here in the US by MGM in 2003.  Both are barebones and, as I mentioned at the top, non-anamorphic.  So this new special edition 4k restoration on a BD/ UHD combo-pack from Vinegar Syndrome is pretty essential, at least for anyone who considers this film to be essential at all (although it should be noted a 2009 anamorphic DVD was released in the UK in the interim). 

2003 MGM DVD top; 3035 VS BD mid; 2025 VS UHD bottom.

Despite being non-anamorphic, the MGM DVD has almost the same, proper aspect ratio: 1.63:1, compared to Vinegar Syndrome's 1.67:1, which just very tiny slivers of extra picture along the sides, and barely adjusted vertical framing.  The old DVD has some gentle color bleeding and edge enhancement, but for an old non-anamorphic DVD, it holds up to the VS release better than you'd expect.  Still, Vinegar Syndrome has a clearer image with corrected colors and proper film grain, especially on the 4k.  The new restoration makes the picture quality look especially impressive, which is important, since that's one of the few things the 1982 version has going for it.  It's basically a lesser-written piece with fancier photography, so thankfully that fanciness shines.

MGM gives us the original Dolby stereo track, with its fancy Police soundtrack, and optional English, French and Spanish subtitles.  VS bumps that up to DTS-HD and keeps the English subs, while dropping the foreign language options.

And they did not skimp on the extras either!  First and foremost is a partial audio commentary by Sting and director Richard Loncraine (Richard III, The Haunting of Julia).  It sounds like they recorded a traditional commentary, but they left a lot of dead air, so VS just trimmed it down to a tight, involved talk that runs about half as long.  It was absolutely the right decision; it's a don't miss track.  Then there's an additional on-camera interview with Loncraine (a bit redundant), a good one with the production designer, and a featurette with two experts who are okay, but repeat a lot of information from the Did You See? program nearly word for word, and generally just feel like a couple of guys with a passing interest in Potter who looked some stuff up online before recording.  In other words, it's a decent explainer for newcomers, but fans won't learn much.  Both this and the MGM disc also have the trailer.  But only VS's edition includes a 16-page booklet with notes by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas.  It also has reversible cover art, and if you ordered the limited edition, an exclusive slipcover.

Conclusion: Vinegar Syndrome has given the remake a brilliant edition I'm not at all sure it warrants, but it makes me happy.  Again, how could I pass up that commentary track?  But for anybody reading this who's not already in the paint for this movie, I cannot stress enough how much more I recommend the 2 Entertain of the original Brimstone & Treacle instead.

Some Quality Renovations On The Carpenter

The Carpenter is a wild, direct-to-video supernatural slasher from 1987.  A young couple moves into a new home, and as they're having the house renovated, we start to learn things aren't as idyllic as they seem.  The husband's a sleazy cheat, the wife has a history of serious mental illness, and even the contractors are slackers and crooks.  All but one of them, anyway, as one carpenter is always working late and doing the work of a whole crew on his own.  Soon he's not just doing all the repairs, he's solving all the wife's troubles, including murdering whoever needs murdering.

Update 10/3/20 - 3/28/25: For a while there, I thought this one might never receive a proper special edition, but in retrospect I shouldn't have worried.  It's an 80s slasher; somebody was going to bring it back.  Turns out it was Vinegar Syndrome, so expectations are high.

But something's too good, or too evil, to be true about this carpenter.  Is he a madman obsessed with the young couple, a ghost determined to finish the house he could never complete in life, or all a part of the wife's mind?  It's very rough around the edges, but the script at its core is clever enough to keep even jaded horror vets on the hook.  It's tongue-in-cheek at times, with all the cheerfully over-the-top handyman-themed kills you'd expect, but the humor is never at the expense of the characters or the story.  This isn't a horror comedy so much as a legit dramatic horror with some wit, striking a tone very similar to The Stepfather, and almost as successfully.  And character actor Wings Hauser is at his best as the titular laborer out of his time and his mind.  Admittedly, this film puts a lot of weight on his shoulders, but he carries it well, delivering demented speeches over his coworkers' wriggling bodies.

When this finally came out on DVD in 2011, I was amped.  The only bummer was that Scorpion only came up with an essentially barebones DVD-only release.  Apparently elements didn't exist for a blu, and the bets they could do was a composite cut.  See, when this was released on VHS, there were two versions: R and Unrated.  Whatever elements Scorpion had for their transfer was the R rated cut, so they had to cut in the unrated footage, i.e. all the best bits, from a tape.  So yes, it was the full unrated version, but SD is all we got.  ...Until 2025, that is.  Vinegar Syndrome apparently felt the materials warranted an upgrade, and so we get an all new 2k scan on BD from "the best existing film elements," a 35mm release print.  And yes, this one's a composite cut, too.  So don't expect immaculate PQ, but if anyone can make this movie look prettier in HD, it's Vinegar Syndrome.

1) 2011 US Scorpion DVD; 2) 2025 US Vinegar Syndrome BD.

As you can see, the film is presented as it was originally shot, in widescreen (1.78:1 on the DVD, 1.85:1 on the BD), as opposed to the old 1:33 VHS tapes.  It's obvious this was shot on film, not tape, so it looks markedly better than it ever has before.  That said, Scorpion's disc retains some evident print damage, from little specks to vertical lines running through the shot and even green chemical burns.  Most of it's pretty clean, but the when it's there, the damage is hard to miss.  Happiily, however, VS has cleaned all of that up.  The image is definitely sharper and clearer now in HD, with very natural looking grain captured in 2k, and the colors look decidedly more natural.  Even in the SD composite footage. 

Looking above here, the second shot is the main footage, while the first is from the unrated inserts.  There's a bunch, and you can clearly see it's from a weaker, noisier source, but it's far from unwatchable.  If you got through Scream Factory's Silent Night, Deadly Night or Arrow's Hellraiser 3 without falling on the floor, you'll be fine here.  There is a noticeable shift in quality even in motion, but VS's additional color correction (and grain filter added to the SD stuff?) blend it together quite satisfactorily.  We lose some fine detail, but they've done a first class job with it, and fans should be more than satisfied.

In terms of audio, we just get the original mono track, but that's all I'd ask for anyway.  Even on the DVD, it's a pretty clear track, with any weaknesses seeming to stem from how it was originally filmed.  You can hear the shift in quality when the scene shifts from the R to unrated footage; it sounds more echo-y and thin.  But it's still pretty clean and hiss-free.  VS bumps it up to DTS-HD, and there's an appreciable improvement on the insert stuff.  They must've done some intense remastering, because you no longer have that distinct shift between the cleaner and composite audio.  They've also included optional English subtitles, which the Scorpion lacked.

There are no extras on the DVD, really, apart from the Katarina's Nightmare Theater wrap-arounds.  She doesn't have much to say even by Katarina's usual standards... her credits sequences last longer than the segments themselves, which are mostly just an excuse for her to pose holding a power drill.  The only other things on this disc are bonus trailers, not even a trailer for The Carpenter... although it's possible none were ever created, apart from those thirty-second "coming soon to home video" ads.  Anyway, this release does at least come with reversible artwork.  It's the same imagery on both sides, but allows you to hide the garish Katrina banners.

The BD, on the other hand, is well stocked.  There are two audio commentaries, including a top notch one by the director and the screenwriter, and then a more casual, but enthusiastic, track by two flippant podcast guys.  Then there's a great half hour+ retrospective with the stars and main cast members.  A few moments repeat what we'd already heard in the commentary, but it's still a must-watch for any fan.  There's an additional Hauser interview, too, which is essentially bonus footage from the doc, because he was in that, too, in the same hat and the same chair.  But you can never have too much Wings Hauser on a Carpenter release.  This new release comes in reversible cover art (though, honestly, I'm not a fan of either... I wish they'd stuck to the old photo image), and if you got the limited edition direct from VS's website, a slipcover.  We do lose the Katrina wrap-arounds, though.

This was a real must-have DVD for me, and just as crucial a double-dip to blu.  As I wrote in 2020, "[s]core an interview with Hauser and the director, and I think you'd have a high demand title."  Yeah, this film's low budget and won't bowl you over with production values, but it's a neat little film that still manages to amuse after all these years.  For 80s slasher fans, this is a staple.  And even if you're not particularly hung-up on the subgenre, this has a broader appeal as well.

R.I.P. Wings.

We've Definitively Found Looking For Mr. Goodbar!

This is probably the most surprising "M.I.A." post I'll ever write on this blog. It's crazy that this was never, ever released on DVD, yet alone blu. Like, I'd be delighted to see one of my favorite cult labels procure the rights for a restored, special edition of Spirits of Jupiter. But I also realize that probably puts me on a very short list of cinephiles.  But Looking for Mr. Goodbar is a major studio, Academy Award-nominated film by a huge director, based on a bestselling novel, that made the career of two big Hollywood actors, and stars a couple more. And I can keep going.  It was highly critically regarded, a box office success and controversial for its time, but not so controversial that the studios would have any reason to worry about releasing it today. And it has its roots in a famous true crime story that still draws attention to this day. How is it possible there was never even a generic, full frame, MOD disc released ever, in any country?

Update 8/2/16 - 11/7/22: Is it possible there's really, truly a legit widescreen Looking for Mr. Goodbar available overseas!?  Well, "legit" is a bit shaky, but the situation has definitely at least improved since I last reported on this gem of a drama.  Viva la Update Week!

Update 1/14/25: Forget every questionable, dodgy, import, bootleg or grey market discs; we have a definitive, official release!  Vinegar Syndrome has put out a fully licensed, 4k restoration on BD and UHD, so we can finally close the ledger on Looking for Mr. Goodbar.  Though that's not to say it's 100% free of imperfections...

Update 3/10/25: Replacement discs are here!  Mine landed today.  See above so you can tell the difference.  Your disc should have the "V2" at the end of its scrawl if it's the corrected disc that will play through all the way to the end (as explained at the bottom of this page).

Diane Keaton gives really one of her strongest performances as a young, New York City school teacher who rebels against the very conservative, restrictive life built for her by her family and career. She steps into the liberated night life only to stumble across the darker side that naturally develops in a repressed society. She finds herself caught up living the double life many young women were faced with during the sexual revolution of the 1970s; and as I already mentioned this is based on a famous true crime, I don't think I'm spoiling anything by simply saying it ends in violence.

Richard Brooks (In Cold Blood, Cat On a Hot Tin Roof) focuses on creating almost morbidly sincere performances in bringing Judith Rossner's study of a character whose soul is slowly dying. You can feel that it's based on truth even if you didn't know it was based on an actual case, although admittedly, her relationship with her parents does feel like its taken from "Dover's Big Book of Overly Familiar Cliches." If you've seen Carrie's mom or The Great Santini, you know what you're in for. But fortunately she gets out of the house quickly enough and surrounds herself with more relatable, nuanced characters.

And did I say this film launched careers? Yeah, Richard Gere and Tom Berenger both launched out of this film, and neither have yet managed to make very many films to rival this one. And the cast doesn't stop there, with more additional strong turns by Tuesday Weld (who netted one of this film's Academy Award nominations), Brian Dennehy, a very dramatic William Atherton (Ghostbusters' Walter Peck), and keep your eyes open for a young Levar Burton.

And yet this has never been released on DVD until, sort of, recently. What we've been looking at here is my copy of Paramount's 1983 laserdisc release. Not '93, '83. Most people weren't even aware laserdiscs existed back then. It's so old, it doesn't even have chapters, let alone special features. But it was the best release you could get. Things got shook up a bit in recent years by the appearance of a widescreen television broadcast leaked online, allowing us to see the film in its original aspect ratio since it first played theatrically in 1977. But since I made this post comparing those two transfers, there have been some developments.  I'll describe the least interesting first.  Australian label La Entertainment released this on DVD in 2020.  It is 4x3, however, and I wouldn't be surprised if they're using the same master as the laserdisc, a la previous Australian exclusives of Paramount titles like The Keep and Ordinary People.

That still might've been rather newsworthy if they hadn't been beaten to the punch in Spain.  They released it as a 16x9 widescreen (and yes, Region free) DVD.  Is it official?  Well, it's got a UPC listed in many databases and is being carried by a lot of mainstream outlets, but Spain is known for some shady grey-market discs.  It's at least a pressed disc and less of a bootleg than those that've been passed around for years, but, well, you know.  We can write that one off now, too, thanks to Vinegar Syndrome's fancy 4k restoration on both BD and UHD.

1) 1983 laserdisc; 2) widescreen TV rip; 3) 2018 DVD;
4) 2024 BD; 5) 2024 UHD.

Now, there's no reason to delve deep into the comparison between the laserdisc and the downloaded rip - presumably from Italian television, since it has Italian audio as its primary track - as it's not even a secondary purchase option. It's soft and murky, far from an impressive HD transfer. But it tells us about the framing. Vertically, the 1.77:1 rip is a perfect match to the 1.33:1 transfer we've all lived with for decades, so we don't have an open matte transfer here. All the fullscreen version did is the very old school move of chopping off the sides. It just made you pine that much more for how great an official Paramount release would be. Because what we've got is such a low contrast, washed out mess. Even the laserdisc cover is soft and blurry!

And the Spanish disc isn't heaps better.  But it is a way to buy the widescreen version.  And the DVD is a little bit more of an upgrade.  The very slightly windowboxed framing is now 1.78:1 instead of 1.77, gaining a few extra pixels of info along all four edges.  This tells us, though, that they didn't just take the old online rip and slap it onto a disc.  You can't uncover extra picture doing that, no matter how slight.  Also the PQ, while still rather low quality, is another tiny step forward.  It's sharper and restores a bit more detail.  Unfortunately, it also restores compression noise... one thing about the old online rip: it was so compressed it acted as a sort of DNR.  But if you actually zoom in, the image is genuinely sharper and renders a little bit more actual picture info as well.

gamma raised by 500% to clarify my point

But thankfully, we'll never have reason to zoom into those old releases again, because VS has blown them out of the water - their UHD is a whopping 96GB!  They've framed the film at a proper 1.85:1, not my matting the image any, but by unveiling more picture along the sides.  Compression noise and other issues are replaced by the first appearance of actual film grain, which is immaculately captured on the UHD, and nearly as well on the BD.  Colors are stronger, and a bit warmer compared to the Spanish disc, making imagery more distinct onscreen without betraying its often muted, subtle scheme.  And information that was crushed out of existence in all the earlier versions (like, for example, Atherton's top button from the second set of shots, as highlighted above) is now visible, even on the blu.

the scene in question

Besides the original mono track on the laserdisc, rip and 2018 DVD, the Spanish disc also includes a Spanish dub and optional/ unforced Spanish subtitles.  The VS releases bump the audio up to DTS-HD and add optional English subtitles (and forgo the Spanish, naturally), but here's the bit that may get controversial.  There's been a music swap in the audio track (which tells us, yes, the music rights were probably the problem all along).  Roughly half an hour into the film, a lengthy scene is set to "All Of Me" by Frank Sinatra.  Interestingly, that song was never listed with the others in the credits.  Anyway, past releases have it, including the Spanish DVD (on both the English and Spanish tracks), but VS has a more generic, old timey song, which, based on the lyrics, might be titled "say hello?"  It's not as good, but the song was always mixed down under the dialogue, so it's not a huge upset, but it's a bit of a bummer.  DIY fans might want to get both the Spanish and VS releases and mux a composited, ideal audio track; but otherwise, we're just going to have to settle and pick a version to watch on disc.

There are of course no extras, not even a trailer, on any previous edition.  But VS has come up with a bunch, including the trailer.  There's also an excellent audio commentary by aspiring filmmaker Gillian Wallace Horvat, which is impressively informative, bringing in details from the novel, an early draft of the script, the true crime the story's based on, the director's notes, articles and critical reviews.  Then there's an expert interview with Douglass K. Daniel, who wrote a book on Richard Brooks, a 30-minute audiobook reading about an obscenity trial that came about when this film was released in Utah, a couple radio spots, and perhaps best of all, an audio-only vintage interview with Judith Rossner.  All together, that's a pretty dry collection of mostly audio-only features by experts, but it's hardly a fair expectation for Vinegar Syndrome to have pulled Diane Keaton and Richard Gere down to their offices to record a commentary.  They made an effort and did their best, and Horvat's commentary really is strong and well worth the listen.  VS's release also includes reversible artwork and, If you ordered their limited edition, a 40-page booklet with essays by Marya E. Gates, Marc Edward Heuck, Elizabeth Purchell & Jourdain Searles, with a side-loading slipcase and a slipcover that fits over the amary case but inside the outer case.

Oh, and just as an aside, there was a made-for-TV sequel in 1983 called Trackdown: Finding the Goodbar Killer. Of course, without Diane Keaton's character, who was entirely what the original film was about, there's not a lot to return to.So instead, this is largely a police procedural, with George Segal as a detective going through a divorce as he investigates the murder from the first film, cross cut with Tom Berenger's character, now played by Shannon Presby, going on the lam. Shelley Hack plays one of Keaton's fellow school teachers who Segal takes to nightclubs to help spot the killer. And Joe Spinell has a feature role as Keaton's former doorman, who's questioned by the cops and pressured into picking somebody out of a line-up.

It's pretty boring. Segal's sappy drama with his wife and daughter, who's leaving for college, almost winds up getting more focus than the case of the Goodbar killer. I think the idea is that Segal's worried his daughter is on the verge of entering the same kind of scary, radical feminist life Keaton led; but the film never manages to quite get there. There's just lots of pedantic dialogue scenes that tend not to connect with each other. Segal has scenes with his wife, trying to hold his marriage together, and we never find out if he does or not. He keeps going back to Hack, who was never needed to catch the killer. And there's a bunch of other cops pursuing other suspects, who aren't even red herrings because we know who did it from the very start. Ultimately, it's really just flat, Segal's lead holds absolutely zero of the fascination Keaton's did, and it's far less surprising that this flick never made it to DVD.

Anyway.  Goodbye, M.I.A. tag!  The Spanish DVD was an alright placeholder, but now we've got a proper release.  Is there room for improvement?  Possibly, if somebody managed to release this 4k transfer in another region that could get away with the Sinatra track, and maybe even rope Keaton or somebody into an interview.  But I wouldn't hold my breath, and this is an extremely satisfying release in the meantime, like a ginormous upgrade.

Finally, I have to mention that there's a playback issue with the UHD, where watching it with Dolby Vision on causes it to stop mid-movie.  You can turn off the HDR to watch it in the meantime, but obviously that's not a satisfying solution and VS has already announced a replacement disc program.  If you ordered the film directly from VS, you're already on their list to receive it.  Everyone else just has to contact them with proof of purchase.