The Fletch Chronicle: Fletch, Fletch Lives & Confess, Fletch

I've been planning a Fletch post for a while.  But then Confess, Fletch came out, so I decided to wait for that.  And then Kino's 2k restorations of the first two films were announced, so I decided to wait for those.  Now a lot of time has passed, and this post has become a taller and taller order, but I'm glad to finally unveil the complete Fletch chronicle on home video.

Chevy Chase has had a handful of great roles... in Caddyshack, the Vacation movies.  He's been fun in plenty of movies like The Three Amigos, Dirty Work and Spies Like Us.  But I daresay this is his greatest, defining role.  Based on the series of detective novels by Gregory McDonald, Fletch walks a satisfying line between his natural improv comedy style and a more serious mystery.  Newcomers might be a little disappointed if they're expecting more of a pure comedy (especially given Chase's silly disguises), but once you get the tone, you'll see Michael Ritchie has directed a real cracker here: the highlight of his career.  The supporting cast is spot-on with great performances from Joe Don Baker, George Wendt, M Emmet Walsh, Tim Matheson (Animal House) and a young Geena Davis.  It's got a fantastic Beverly Hills Cop-inspired synth score and a first rate theme song by Stephanie Mills.

Universal first released Fletch as a barebones DVD in 1998, which they then updated to a semi-special "Jane Doe" edition in 2007.  And naturally they reissued it a bunch over the years (we'll take a look at one, the "Triple Feature Film Set" we saw on my Mallrats page.  In 2009, they released it on blu, which they also reissued a bunch over the years.  I bought a Double Feature set because, back when I was shopping for Fletch at an FYE, the version with Uncle Buck was actually cheaper than the one without.  So, okay, I'll take a free second movie.  And now in 2024, Kino has just come out with a new special edition, restored in 2k with more features.

1) 2007 Universal DVD; 2) 2009 Universal DVD; 3) 2009 Universal BD;
4) 2013 Universal BD; 5) 2024 Kino BD.

For starters, though similar, the 2007 and 2009 DVDs are not identical, but the 2009 BD and the 2013 BDs are.  The Double Feature set is just the exact same 2009 BD in a new case with a 2011 Uncle Buck blu.  But Fletch and Happy Gilmore has been squeezed onto the same, new DVD.  They seem to be using the same master, but are clearly different encodes... and that's not the only difference, as we'll see later.  Honestly, though, none of these releases look all that different from each other.  They're all 1.85:1 with nearly identical framing.  The new Kino has a sliver extra picture along the edges, but I mean slivers.  More important is that the old BD features edge enhancement and other tinkering that detracts from the image, which Kino thankfully does away with.  At 2k, there's not really any new detail to be found, but the compression on the old blu present sparse and smudgy film grain.  The grain is still a bit light on the Kino, but it's much better than what Universal gave us.  They've also cleaned up the color timing, though those improvements are subtle.

Here's where the 2009 DVD really sets itself apart, in a bad way.  The original DVD and the 2007 Jane Doe edition include the original stereo track, but the Jane Doe also created a new 5.1 remix.  The 2009 DVD, unfortunately, keeps the 5.1 but drops the original track.  And while both previous DVDs include English and Spanish subtitles (and also French for on the 2007), the 2009 has none.  So yeah, you were definitely getting a stripped down inferior edition if you tried to save with the triple feature.  And that's not all the bad news.  The blu-ray has all three subtitle tracks, but still only the 5.1 remix track, albeit in DTS-HD.  Happily, the Kino brings back the original stereo mix, now in DTS-HD, along with the 5.1, and keeps the English subtitles, though not the Spanish and French.

Now the original DVD had nothing but the trailer, and the 2009 DVD doesn't even have that.  But the Jane Doe Edition earns its (corny) title by having cooked up some genuine special features.  Primarily, there's a half-hour retrospective featurette, which by and large is pretty great.  It features candid interviews with the screenwriter and producers, and gathers a good number of supporting cast and crew to share their memories of the filmmaking.  Unfortunately, though, the DVD producer decided to cast himself as a Fletch-like character who keeps doing skits in between all the interview footage, and that material is downright embarrassing.  It's one of the more notorious extras in DVD history.  But the interviews are really worth pushing through for.  Besides that, there's a brief but fun featurette with the effects artist and producers about Chase's disguises.  And there's a third featurette, but it's just a series of clips from the film with no original content, so you'll want to skip that one.  And that's about all you got, but it also came packaged in a fancy, holographic slipcover.

The Universal blu-ray just carries over the Jane Doe extras, but happily, the Kino takes things further.  Yes, all the Jane Doe stuff is back, but now we get an all new audio commentary by Bryan Reesman and Max Evry.  And boy, is it good.  The usual batch of slack, self-indulgent "expert" commentators we tend to get these days should take notes.  They've read the Fletch novels and have a wealth of info and insight to share, quoting articles and interviews throughout the film.  That's the primary new extra, but Kino has also tracked down an old promo interview with Chase.  It's very short, but finally adds his voice to the supplements.  They've also dug up four TV spots and thrown in some bonus trailers, including Fletch Lives.  It also comes in a much classier slipcover than the old Jane Doe one.

Fletch Lives is a distinct step down from the original, and notably not based on a McDonald novel.  But it's still a fun, Fletch caper with more emphasis on comedy.  Chase dons more silly disguises, and some of the supporting cast are playing broader characters, particularly Randall Cobb as Ben Dover.  They wouldn't have put someone like him in the original film, and even though there's some justification, Cleavon Little plays an over the top Southern stereotype in a cartoonish way that fails the original's standards.  On the other hand, other supporting players like Hal Holbrook and R. Lee Armey are consistently first class, while walk-ons from players like Richard Belzer, Dennis Burkley (Cal!) and Phil Hartman add color.  And it's great to see original supporting players Richard Libertini and George Wyner return, even if they're little more than cameos, to provide some continuity to the series.  It's the rough equivalent of Ghostbusters 2, an amusing sequel that re-captures at least some of the magic of the original, so long as you don't expect it to live up to the same standards of quality.

Universal first released it on DVD in 2010.  Universal released it on blu in 2017, but for reasons I can't remember, I went with the Fabulous Films blu-ray that came out the same year in the UK instead.  There's no particular advantage, I think I just came across a cheap used copy.  At any rate, they've both been rendered obsolete now by Kino's new 2k special edition... although, maybe not very obsolete.

1) 2010 Universal DVD; 2) 2017 Fabulous BD; 3) 2024 Kino BD.

All three editions of Fletch Lives are also presented in 1.85:1, though the Fabulous blu is closer to 1.84; and as with the original film, Kino's edition also features slim additions of picture information along all four sides.  It's almost the exact same case here as with the first Fletch, except to be fair, Universal's Fletch Lives blu-ray is a little less tinkered with.  But the Kino is still clearly the superior disc, with a more natural filmic look, slightly richer colors and more natural contrast.  For example, look at the white board behind Fletch in the first set of shots.  The detail is flared out on the DVD and first BD, but you can make it out now on the Kino.  Casual viewers might not appreciate the gains, but Kino's discs really are improved.

All three tracks include the original English stereo mix, in DTS-HD on the blus.  The US releases include optional English subtitles as well, but they're lacking on Fabulous's UK disc.  The DVD also includes both French and Spanish dubs and subs.  And again, Kino has also included a new 5.1 remix, also in DTS-HD.

No Fletch Lives disc has ever had any extras beyond the theatrical trailer on the DVD.  But Kino has rectified this unfortunate situation with another excellent commentary by Reesman and Evry.  They've also thrown in the original promo featurette and two very brief actor promos for Chase and leading lady Julianne Phillips.  The trailer's here, too, along with several TV spots and a handful of bonus trailers, including the original Fletch.

Like most O.G. fans, I assume, I approached the new Fletch with crossed arms.  It certainly didn't help that this was following an entire legacy of mediocre at best remakes of classic 80s films from Robocop to the Ed Helms Vacation.  But Jon Hamm does a great job of capturing the spirit Chase brought to the role without doing an imitation, and Greg Mottola directs a more faithful Fletch, without the silly costumes and once again adapting a mystery from one of the novels.  I went in ready to reject this completely, but came out hoping this could be the first in a complete series of Fletch films.  Bu unfortunately, I think the aforementioned legacy has kept too many people from giving this one the chance it needed to succeed on that commercial level.

So I suppose we're lucky to have physical media copies available at all.  Paramount released separate DVD and BD editions mid-2023 in the US, and few other parts of the world.

1) 2023 Paramount DVD; 2) 2023 Paramount BD.

Confess, Fletch is even faithful to the original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, although the DVD is more like 1.86.  The blu-ray is naturally sharper and clearer than the DVD.  If you look at the sign by Fletch's head, it's an unreadable blur on the DVD, but can be made out to read "(Area Code) + Number ONLY" on the blu.  That's a level of gain even the Kino upgrades didn't provide.  Otherwise, of course, they're concurrent releases using the same master with identical color-timing, etc.  The advantages are all in the natural benefits of the format.  We get the proper 5.1 audio, in TrueHD on the blu, with an additional audio descriptive track, optional English subtitles, a Spanish dub as well as French and Spanish subs.

Unfortunately, there aren't any special features, not even a trailer.  That's a real shame; I would've loved a commentary by Mottola, or even just a brief promotional chat with Hamm giving a few comments on taking on the Fletch legacy.

I suppose you're curious about Uncle Buck, too?  Well, why not?  I'm not a huge fan of the film.  John Candy's great and it has its moments, but John Hughes has created too preachy and sappy a family film for my tastes.  However I did find something interesting about its history on disc, and I do happen to have a couple editions, including the original 2005 Universal DVD, the 'John Candy: The Comedy Favorites Collection: The Franchise Collection' DVD set from 2009, and obviously the Double Feature BD with Fletch.  But I should tell you Kino has already announced a 4k UHD, and I don't plan to upgrade, so don't expect an update here anytime soon.  So anyway, let's take a look.

1) 2005 Universal DVD; 2) 2008 Universal DVD; 3) 2013 Universal BD.

So, it's all ancient history now, of course.  But what was interesting is that the 2008 John Candy collection quietly included a rather substantial upgrade over initial DVD that had been released just three years earlier.  As you can see, it's the same master they'd eventually use for the blu with cleaner, more naturalistic colors and substantially more picture along all four sides.  Now that we have HD editions, of course it doesn't matter, as the blu-ray is more focused and clear than any DVD.  But it was a pretty neat surprise in 2008.

One big downside to the blu, though, is that it features a crappy lossy stereo track (even by lossy standards, it's underwhelming).  All three discs at least feature optional English subs and no remixes.  The original DVD also threw in Spanish subs and French and Spanish dubs.  The 2008 DVD dumped all the Spanish stuff, but kept the French dub.  And the blu-ray just has the English.  None of the releases have any extras except for the trailer on the DVDs.  The blu doesn't even have that.  Kino will hopefully help with all of that.  They certainly did with Fletch 1 and 2, and those weren't even UHDs.  But they're still highly recommended for any serious Fletch fans, and so is Paramount's Confess.

Coup de Chance Doesn't Disappoint

"The new Woody Allen is here!  The new Woody Allen is here!"  That was the sound at every mailbox in America this week.  Or at least I assume so.  That was definitely the sound at my mailbox as I ran out to collect my release date guaranteed blu-ray copy of 2023's Coup de Chance (Stroke of Luck) from MPI Home Video.  And I'm taking it on faith that everyone else in the country was exclaiming that in unity with me as they shared in the identical experience, and I just couldn't hear them over the sound of my own joy.

Update 8/24/24: Since it's Update Week 2024, I figured I'd take the opportunity to add the DVD to the mix and make this a proper comparison post.

I kid because 80% of the film community now seem to delight in busting the Woodman's balls for being hopelessly uncool, both for the obvious reasons in his personal life that I'm not going to re-litigate, and just the fact that he's 88 and extremely out of touch with the youngest generation.  And admittedly, this film starts a little slow.  But by the time I got to the scene of Melvil Poupaud (yes, the star of A Summer's Tale) stewing in the detective's office muttering, "I have no respect for anyone who relies on luck," this film is a delight and if anybody can't appreciate it, that's their loss.

Allen is back on an upswing.  I'll defend pretty much all of his films to some degree, but this is definitely superior to A Rainy Day In New York and Rifkin's Festival.  Once again he's working with Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now), who's been shooting all his stuff since Cafe Society, though some of those quirky, over-saturated blues and oranges from Rifkin's are back.  There are some humorous touches, but this is another one of his murderous dramas, probably closest in tone to Cassandra's Dream.  The whole cast is excellent, especially Poupaud and Valérie Lemercier as the mother.  Coup has a jazzy score, which on paper reads awfully predictable for Allen, but this isn't his usual 30s era dance band or Dixieland, he's using records like Herbie Hancock's "Cantaloupe," and it works great with the film.  Oh, and exhausted Allen defenders will be relieved to know all of the relationships depicted in this one are age appropriate. 😉

2024 MPI DVD top; 2024 MPI BD bottom.

Coup is presented in what has become Woody Allen's standard ratio of 2.00:1.  All of Allen and Storaro's films are shot on digital, so we're not grading film grain or anything here.  But fine detail is crisp and nothing seems tinkered with in any of the all-too common ways.  You can certainly see the difference when comparing it to the DVD's inherent blurriness.  Once again, some of the colors seem a little too artificially boosted, but I believe that's the filmmakers' choice, and not an issue with MPI failing to properly present the official DCP on disc.  This film was also released on UHD in Italy, and I'd love to see how this looks in 4k; but this is the first English-friendly release to date, so we're stuck with this single layer BD.  And considering it's a relatively short film with a 20+GB encode, it seems perfectly fine for 1080.

We do get our choice of 5.1 DTS and 2.0 (which sound pretty similar if you play the 5.1 on a stereo set-up anyway) French audio tracks, both in LPCM on the blu, with English and English SDH subtitles.

Woody Allen is pretty notorious as a "no extras" filmmaker, but this is actually the first Allen film in a long time not to include at least a brief featurette.  All we get this time is the theatrical trailer.  So it's not exactly a packed special edition.  But for those of us who just want a nice, HD presentation of Allen's 50th(!) feature film, this is it.  Those Italians are lucky, though.

Killers Of the Flower Moon Freed From Streaming Jail

Killers Of the Flower Moon, of course, is Martin Scorsese's big, Oscar-nominated epic for Apple TV.  Yup, ten noms but no wins.  My mother asked me if I thought Lily Gladstone got robbed, but nah.  This is by far the superior picture, but in all fairness, Emma Stone really went to great lengths for that role and earned every award she got.  But I digress.  The point is, I was able to watch Killers Of the Flower Moon with my mother this Mother's Day despite not having Apple TV because there's actually an official 4K Ultra HD and 1080p BD combo-pack importable from Italy.  It's not available in any other country around the world, but for whatever reason, Italy's Eagle Pictures have got it.  And like all UHDs, it's region free.  Well, not this one, but there's a region free edition now.  It's complicated.  I'll get into it.

Flower Moon is based on the 2017 non-fiction novel Killers Of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann.  I haven't read it, but my mother has, so I can tell you it's basically faithful but the big difference is that the book tells the story of the many(!) murders of Oklahoman Osage Indians in the 1920s from the perspective of the FBI investigators.  But in the film, they don't roll in until the final act.  The film really shifts gears at that point, with Jesse Plemons as the lead agent and John Lithgow & Brendan Fraser duking it out in the court room.  Up until that point, and indeed through to the end, the film is really with the victims and the two central perpetrators, played by Robert DeNiro & Leonardo DiCaprio in a very atypical role.  It takes its time at three and a half hours, with this deep, thudding bassline like a perpetual drum beat pounding through the entire picture as it builds to a grim, inevitably unjust peak, where it's pointed out you'd have better hope convicting a man of kicking a dog than killing an Indian.  Yeah, it's grim stuff.  Welcome to America.

So yes, Eagle Pictures released this in January, and they really did it right.  It's a 100GB triple-layer disc (and 50GB BD).  There's the regular combo-pack, a steelbook, and a BD-only version.  They're fully English-friendly, even including English language menus.  But there's one problem: all UHDs are supposed to be region free, but this is one of those rare cases where they were accidentally pressed locked to region B.  If you're on this site, there's a good chance you're region free anyway and can play whatever.  I've got it and it's fine for me.  But Eagle has said this was a genuine mistake and have already released a corrected, truly region free version as part of their 4Kult line.  You can see on the new cover[right], it's got a big "4KULT" printed on the top left-hand corner.  There's no other difference between the two discs, but that's the one you want if you can't play region B discs.  Oh, and yes, all the 1080p BDs are region B locked in every set, which is how they were intended to be.

2024 Eagle BD top; 2024 Eagle UHD bottom.

BD left; UHD right.

As you can see, these are beautiful transfers; Eagle has done a first rate job.  They're presented in the original 2.39:1, with deep, rich colors.  Remember, HDR screenshots (this UHD has Dolby Vision/ HDR10) look darker on a standard def screen like on this blog - though, fun fact: if you click through to the uncompressed full-sized screenshots on an HD monitor, like an IMac, the screenshots do match the original video in color and brightness, too.  The UHD is actually more vivid than the BD.  The brights are more natural and edges are more naturally rendered in the 4k.  You can see in the close-up how details that get eaten away and blocky on the blu-ray are more nuanced and photo-realistic on the UHD.

The film is has lossless DTS-HD 5.1 mixes of the original English track as well as an Italian dub.  There are three subtitle tracks, all removable: full Italian, Italian just for the Osage dialogue, and yes, English subtitles for the Osage dialogue.  So the movie is fully English friendly and can be watched without any foreign subs.  There are a handful of Italian title cards early in the film, but the English subtitles cover those, too.

And yes, there are extras, too... although not much.  There are three brief interviews, with Scorsese, DiCaprio and Gladstone.  They're in English with removable Italian subtitles.  And there are five even briefer featurettes, just one to two minutes each, with interviews, glimpses behind the scenes and clips from the film.  These do have burnt in Italian subtitles below the letterbox and are clearly promotional pieces.  A couple of the interview soundbites even repeat in the featurettes, but they do include a few bits of worthwhile info, like why Scorsese chose to not subtitle certain Osage lines of dialogue, or introducing us to the principal chief of the Osage nation who consulted on this movie.

I'm just happy to be able to be to add this film to my collection... or in this case, my mother's.  It's in full 4k, looks and sounds great, completely English friendly, and the extras aren't anything to get excited about, but better than nothing.  There's been no indication of a US or other release.  Criterion put out The Irishman, so there's hope they'd want to do this film, too.  But that was Netflix and this is Apple, so who knows?  And considering what an expert job Eagle's already done of it, who cares?

Competing Killer Klowns From Outer Space

I was recently writing about a space invasion movie that was essentially created by a team of special effects artists who'd taken the reign to produce, write and direct themselves... which more or less explained why it essentially became sort of a bland, dumb, soulless movie.  Well, here's another case of the same thing.  This time the special effects team in question is The Chiodo Brothers (the brothers are, the team is; don't question me, Autocorrect; I know what I'm doing!), who'd made everything from the claymation Simpsons to the Team America puppets and most importantly, the critters for Critters.  For the first, and to date only, time, they decided to see their creative vision all the way through and write, produce and direct their own thoroughly original alien invasion story.  And it resulted in almost the complete opposite of that other movie.

Update 1/3/18 - 4/25/18: Is it time to throw all previous editions out the window? The new 2018 Arrow special edition blu-ray (not to be confused with the 2012 Arrow special edition blu-ray) is here! And this time, it's no mere reissue.

Update 5/16/24: We're fully into the 4k era now, and it's time for a new Klowns, and this time the ball's in Scream Factory's court.  It's always good to step forward a generation, but in this case, we seem to be taking a step back at the same time.

Killer Klowns From Outer Space is a title that evokes a lot of fun, crazy ideas.  But if you've watched a lot of films because of their alluringly outrageous titles, you're probably used to being disappointed.  Cat Women Of the Moon just consists of seven to eight stodgy television actors standing around gabbing in cardboard sets.  The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies is actually an excruciating exercise in tedium.  Gore-Met Zombie Chef from Hell doesn't even have a zombie in it, just boring dialogue and Halloween store special effects.  But Killer Klowns delivers, living up to everything your imagination casts up when it hears the title and taking you so much further than you'd even hoped to go.

First of all, the clowns themselves are a brilliant, iconic series of designs.  We're not talking actors in clown make-up but fantastic (in both senses of the word) clown monsters.  And we don't have to wait until seventy minutes into the film to see them for about ninety seconds of screentime; they're all over the place.  Very early on, we see inside their spaceship tent, and it's a beautiful glass matte shot right out of Forbidden Planet.  And practically every scene is a new idea based on the colorful premise of what if clowns were killer space aliens?  These clowns don't just lurk around dark corners stabbing people with knives, they twist balloon animals into living creatures that can attack, they cocoon victims in cotton candy and suck their blood through crazy straws.  Their popcorn's alive, they trap victims in ball pits, their puppet shows are deadly.  Each moment is another great idea carried out like I haven't seen in a film since the original Phantasm.

But objectively, is it actually a good movie?  Honestly, yes!  Sure, if you're looking for a movie to teach you how to love again, this isn't competing on the same profound level of an emotionally raw Bergman masterpiece; but it really is an all-around great film.  Naturally, the effects are terrific, and the silly plot is a constant pleasure.  But it film is supported just as much by its colorful production design (also by the Chiodos), iconic theme song by The Dickies and cult actor John Vernon expertly playing his role to the hilt.  Okay, a few of the more juvenile gags fall a little flat, and some of our lead actors, while taking cues right from the B-movie classic playbook, are a tad wooden.  But overall, it's just an all-around great film.  Like, this was 1988.  What won the Academy Award in 1988?  The Last Emperor?  I'd put this movie over that!

Killer Klowns From Outer Space wasn't exactly a sleeper hit in the horror community, so we were chomping at the bit for a special edition in the early days of DVD.  And in 2001, MGM gave us one as part of their budget-priced Midnight Movies line.  Often, those were no frills editions paired up as flipper discs; but they knew the fans would eat them alive if they didn't give us a nice, packed special edition DVD, which they did.  And eventually, in 2012, they bumped up the film to HD with an equally low-cost blu-ray, which thankfully retained all the extras from the DVD.  They even re-released it a couple of times with collectible lenticular covers [see mine, right].  Walmart even included a bonus Killer Klowns coloring book!  Meanwhile, that same year, Arrow released the film as a DVD/ blu-ray combo pack in the UK, with slightly different extras (you bet we'll get into that).  And in 2014, they reissued that as a steelbook edition, which is what I've got.  Then in 2018, Arrow took a new stab at it, instead of just repackaging the same discs again, they gave the film a brand new restoration with a fresh 4k scan from the original negative, plus additional special features.  But naturally, when a 4k scan comes out on 1080p, a proper UHD is nearly inevitable; and that day has come, though this time from Scream Factory, as a 2-disc BD/ UHD set.

1) MGM 2001 US DVD; 2) MGM 2012 US blu;
3) Arrow 2014 UK DVD; 4) Arrow 2014 UK blu; 5) Arrow 2018 US blu;
6) 2024 Scream Factory BD; 7) 2024 Scream Factory UHD.

Once you get past the original 2001 DVD, which is distinctly darker with heavier saturation (including a subtle blue filter for some of their night scenes that the later releases seem to have dropped); we're looking at a pretty similar master every time.  Each release before 2018 is slightly letterboxed to 1.85:1, with slivers of faded matting on the sides... an overscan area thing that really indicates an older master.  But it looks pretty good.  The initial HD is a nice jump up in clarity over the old MGM DVD, though it's still a little soft.  Arrow is clearly using MGM's master, and happily they didn't do any destructive tinkering to it, so effectively the two blus are tied in terms of PQ.  For whatever reason, though, Arrow's DVD came out a little paler.

But then we jump to 4k.  Arrow's new 2018 blu is again slightly matted to 1.85:1, but pulls out slightly further, revealing a little extra picture along all four sides.  The first thing you'll notice about this new transfer, though, is the grain.  It's positively dancing in every frame.  Some people might even be a little put off by it..  Like I said in January, the old blus look a little soft, and that's why.  This new transfer is super crisp.  And the colors aren't very different from their predecessors (and still no blue filter), but they do look truer.  It's subtle enough, though, that you'd only notice it in a direct comparison like this.  What isn't subtle is that sharper, grainier image.

Scream's framing, then, is exactly the same.  The look isn't quite as grainy, and just comparing the 1080p blus, I think I'd say Arrow has the better encode.  But then the UHD has a finer grain look but with a more thorough capture, reducing the "noisy" feel of the Arrow, but more film-like than the SF blu.  And both Scream discs, but especially the Dolby Vision'd UHD, boast stronger colors.  Skin tones and brights are more natural, while the crazy clownish colors are more vibrant, without crossing over to over saturation.  Fans will be impressed.

Now, the old DVD gave us a perfectly fine Stereo mix with optional French and Spanish subtitles.  The MGM has bumped this up to a DTS-HD stereo track, though I only really noticed the difference during the opening theme, and this time they offer optional English and Spanish subs.  Arrow has almost the same lossless audio track, with optional subs, but there is a difference.  The liner notes in their booklet mention "additional sync work" done in London, and with good reason.  Around the 17 minute mark, the dialogue noticeably drifts a little bit off on both the MGM DVD and their later blu and lasts for the duration of the scene.  The Arrow release has corrected it, or at least gotten it substantially closer, as I suspect it was a minor ADR issue in the first place.  So it's a small thing, but definitely an improvement.

And yes, thank goodness, the 2018 and 2024 releases retain the correct sync.  I was a little nervous about discovering that the problem that reverted, but no, it's all good.  And this time, in addition to the stereo mix (and English subs, which are still here),  both have added a DTS-HD 5.1 mix.  I'm not sure how big a deal that is, since it's revisionist as the stereo is the original mix, but it's nice that they added it for those who want it.

Speaking of improvements and retaining the good stuff, let's talk extras.  Now the original MGM DVD already laid all the serious groundwork: a very fun and thorough audio commentary by all three Chiodo brothers, an over 20-minutes 'making of' doc, multiple featurettes on the visual effects, score, the shooting process & even a look at the Chiodo's early short films, plus two deleted scenes (with optional commentary), bloopers, two galleries, the trailer and several fun easter eggs.  And again, they carried all of that over for their blu, nothing's missing.  It might look like they added a couple things, like "Klown auditions," but those are just the easter eggs from the DVD now laid out plainly on the menu.  Arrow 2012/ 2014, too, has included all of that great material - including, again, the easter eggs - but they've also created a couple new features.  We get on-camera interviews with stars Grant Cramer and Suzanne Snyder, as well as a short, 8 minute tour of the Chiodo Brothers' models and creations.  Arrow also made a nice little, 24-page booklet with notes by critic Joel Harley.  Oh, and they threw in another one of their postcards for another Arrow release: mine was Mark Of the Devil.

Africa Danny, 1970

And in 2018, almost all of that is carried over.  The old MGM stuff, Arrow's 2012 interviews, the easter eggs, even the Harley booklet and postcard (this time, mine was for Don't Torture a Duckling).  All they dropped was the short look at the Chiodos' early films.  And that makes sense when you see what they replaced it with.  First, there's a new featurette interviewing The Dickies about their unforgettable theme song, and then there's one on the Chido's early experimental Super 8 short films.  And finally, there's the six Super 8 films themselves (one of which features an audio commentary by the brothers).  This edition also includes a cool, double-sided Killer Klowns poster, a nice lenticular slipcover and reversible artwork.

Sadly, here's where Scream Factory falters.  They lose the Arrow exclusives, and not just the 2018 stuff, but the older ones, too, like the Suzanne Snyder interview.  And they haven't cooked up anything new.  It's just a big loss in the extras department.  The sole consolation prize is that seven minute look at the Chiodo's early films from the MGM disc, but obviously it's nothing compared to what Arrow had given us.  Scream's release does at least come in a slipcover, or is also available in an alternate steelbook version.  Pre-ordering direct from Shout could've also netted you three posters, an enamel pin set, five lobby cards, a sticker and a second slipcover.

So, okay, it's mostly easy peasy.  The blus naturally trump the old DVD edition, the old Arrow disc is just that little bit better than the MGM for fixing the sound and including those additional features, and then the 2018 blu is the best of all, right?  Yup.  But now in 2024, we have to make decisions.  Scream has the new, best transfer, and it's not one of those slim distinctions you need to zoom in 500% to see.  But it's also a substantially disappointing step back in features.  I can't say I was ever too involved in the short films the Chiodo brothers made as teenagers, but all the extras about Klowns are great, and the SF set feels light without them.  The obvious solution is to keep both the 2018 Arrow and the new Scream Factory, but if your budget's tight, you're stuck making a tough call.