Paramount Properly Presents Ordinary People

So I've mentioned a couple times now about how some long-awaited Paramount catalog titles have been popping up on blu for the first time in Australia.  I've been praising Via Vision for their work, but they're not the only Ozzie Prometheuses liberating classic films from the ViacomCBS company.  It's hard to dispute that Ordinary People is a great and important film.  It won Best Picture in 1980, along with three other Academy Awards and two additional noms, plus five Golden Globes, based on a best selling novel.   But somehow it's only been available as a barebones DVD the world over... until this summer, thanks to Australia's Shock Entertainment.

Update 9/20/20 - 4/1/22: Paramount says thanks for the stop-gap release, Shock, but now we've restored the film in 4k and it's part of our fancy Paramount Presents line.

I wrote in my last post that the stars of Marriage Story "never stop digging to reveal intimate truths Hollywood rarely gets near."  Well, Ordinary People is one of those rare exceptions.  Granted, it's hard not to notice that both films' idea of relatable people seems to be the unusually financially privileged, which may strain some viewers' empathy.  But if you can get past that, it's a powerful drama that builds slowly as characters' backstories and the stakes they're playing for are carefully revealed.  As a filmmaker, Robert Redford can always be depended on to deliver a respectable level of mature quality in his work, but I think Judith Guest's writing allows him to reach heights he's never been able to in the rest of his typically more conventional body of work.  But then Redford is able to come back around and compliment that writing by getting performances out of his brilliant cast few other filmmakers could deliver.

Like, obviously veterans like Donald Sutherland and M. Emmet Walsh were always going to be great, but I don't think anybody expected Mary Tyler Moore to jump into the award races so late in her career.  Of course Timothy Hutton was a newcomer who Redford essentially discovered here (though I looked it up, and he had done a couple TV movies already).  And after getting used to him in all those sitcoms and trash roles like Independence Day, this film's a fun reminder that Judd Hirsch actually can act when he's given the opportunity.

If I had one criticism, it's that the film short thrifts Moore's character a bit in the long run, almost concluding with the suggestion that everything would've been fine if she wasn't always such an uptight bitch.  I haven't read the novel, but I bet a little charitability was lost between the original (female) author and the men adapting it for the screen.  But Moore is able to squeeze in some depth between the lines, and of course she's ultimately a supporting character in Hutton's journey, so it's not a crippling flaw.  After all, it's impossible to ignore how moving all the other material is.

Paramount released this as a basic, barebones DVD in 2001, and that's pretty much been the whole story of Ordinary People on disc for twenty years.  The closest thing to any kind of special edition was a 2009 VH1-sponsored "We Love the 80s" edition that came in a colorfully tacky slipcover and included a bonus "Music From the 80s" CD.  The DVD inside is still exactly the same.  It wasn't until early summer 2020 that it made its HD debut on blu-ray, as we've said, from Shock Entertainment in Australia.  It's Region B locked, so its potential reach was fairly limited, but it was better than nothing.  Nothing's no longer the bar, though, because this week Paramount has issued it on blu in the US, and this time it's been restored in 4k as part of their Paramount Presents line.

1) 2001 Paramount DVD; 2) 2020 Shock BD; 3) 2022 Paramount BD.

Part of the mystery as to how such a successful, critically heralded and truly important film could've been relegated to an obscure import is that most labels would've looked at the existent master and said wow, this film needs a restoration before it could be released in HD today.  Sometimes I'll point out how a recent blu doesn't hold up to the modern standard of fresh 4k scans, but looks fine for an older BD.  Well, Shock's blu would get low scores even if it came out in 2006.  First of all, it's clearly using the same master as the original DVD, which was at least anamorphic widescreen and free of interlacing issues.  Moreover, their BD's image is hazy, colors are dull, and there's a bit of a "screen door" effect presumably brought on by an attempt to sharpen film grain that is soft and barely captured.  There are also flecks and spots of film damage, but that's a minor complaint.  Want another major complaint?  Obviously some kind of edge enhancement or unsharpening tool has been applied to try and correct this funky old transfer.  To be fair to Shock, this was probably baked into the master by Paramount decades ago, but that fact doesn't help us viewers now.

So does that mean their BD was some kind of worthless side-grade?  No, we did gain ground here.  The DVD is slightly windowboxed to 1.82:1, which the BD corrects to a properly matted 1.85:1.  I left the borders around the first set of shots so you can see the difference, but the most important difference is that it means Shock's blu winds up revealing more information on the right-hand side (and a sliver along the bottom) that the DVD shouldn't have been cropping.  And while the blu appears to be artificially sharpened, we can see that the DVD's compression makes it even softer; so the blu-ray is preserving at least a smidgen extra detail and clarity.  It's a slight boost, but it's still a boost.

But now, forget about it.  No more screen door effect or other artificial tweaks; no more fuzzy and barely visible film grain.  This is a very attractive restoration, with a generally brighter image, stronger colors and more natural skin tones (people are no longer so red in the face).  I also hadn't really noticed the vertical compression in the older transfers until Paramount fixed it.  I first noticed it in the framing, which surprised me by still being 1.85:1, but cropping tighter on the top and bottom (notice Hutton's disappearing hand in the first set of shots), but not really on the sides.  Now, just a quick glance at Sutherland's face makes the difference obvious, but I didn't realize how off the old master was until I saw this corrected one.

Now, the back of Shock's case lists 5.1 audio, but I'm actually happy to report that is incorrect.  They in fact provide the original mono track in Dolby Digital 2.0, just like the DVD.  I'm less pleased to tell you that they're both also lossy, though.  Oh, and there are no subtitles.  The DVD had subtitles (and also a French dub).  But once again, Paramount Presents solves all of this.  Now they have the original mono in TrueHD; plus the French dub is back, along with German and Japanese.  And the English subtitles are back, along with a second HoH track, and more for French, German, Japanese and Spanish.  You can even select your preferred language for the menu screen.

Shock's blu is also completely barebones.  The DVD at least had the trailer, but I guess Shock couldn't hold onto that either.  In fact, there isn't even a menu screen; it's just the one movie file on a single-layer disc.  They've really done the bare minimum.  Paramount's blu brings the trailer back, but they also do much better.  First up is a brand new interview with Tim Hutton, who talks about everything from his experiences filming to his Oscar memories.  There's also a nice new interview with author Judith Guest, though I wish it was longer.  She talks about her experiences with the film, and also her Oscar experiences, but unfortunately she's never asked about the original novel and the story at the heart of everything.  It just runs over five minutes long, and what we have is great, but I wish they would've given us more.  Paramount's new blu also comes in a fancy slipcover that opens up to reveal the film's original poster artwork.

So credit where it's due to Shock, for at least giving us something to tide us over.  But Paramount Presents has blown it out of the water in all departments.  This is finally the blu-ray edition Ordinary People deserves.  Now we just need Rachel River, but I don't think that's with Paramount.

Be Warned. It's Frankenstein. In 4k!

I don't know about you guys, but I'm in the mood for a classic horror story.  Not just like a popular 80s flick, but something with a little more gravitas.  I've just been re-watching my old Mysteries & Imagination DVDs, and their smart little takes on legendary tales of terror, like Dracula with Denholm Elliot or Frankenstein starring Ian Holm, have left me craving for more.  Yes, maybe more Frankenstein.  Their version was neat but a little abridged.  I think the moment calls for a version of Frankenstein that delves even deeper into the original story, and even to this day, you probably can't do better than Kenneth Branagh's stab at it: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

Update 11/7/20 - 3/29/22: There's a new Shelley's in town, gang. Arrow has released Sony's new 4k restoration as an all new special edition UHD and I'm Stokered!  😜

Having watched nearly every version out there, I do believe is the most faithful adaptation of Mary Shelley's original novel, which is, after all, why they added the "Mary Shelley's" to their title.  A quick, though admittedly certainly not definitive, one-question survey I take of every Frankenstein picture is if they attempt the wrap-arounds in the Arctic, and this one really relishes in the opportunity to lay into that spectacle.  But that's not to say it stays 100% true to source.  Branagh makes a very bold third act change, which I can see him (and co-writer Frank Darabont) thinking would heighten the drama by tying the characters even closer together at the time of highest stakes, but I feel like there's a reason Shelley didn't write it that way originally, and not just because she never had the idea.  I'm not sure this change really helps at all (I'm not going to get more specific, since it's so near the end); but don't get me wrong, it's no huge misstep either.  It's just one point where fans of the novel will really pause and say, "oh. That's different." There are also plenty of little historical touches added to the background and the inevitable alterations when adapting across formats.  But Branagh really manages to capture the spirit and themes of Shelley's writing like few if any others.

But forgetting which hues strictest to the source material and just judging the film on its raw cinematic merits, it's a pretty terrific Frankenstein, and still quite possibly the best (though I have an odd fondness for Frankenstein '80).  Robert De Niro does feel like stunt casting, but once you get used to his presence, particularly his distinctive voice, it almost ceases to be distracting; and you can't say he doesn't deliver a fine performance.  And the rest of the cast is particularly superb, with Branagh himself in top form, and an excellent supporting cast including Ian Holm (back for another round!), Amadeus himself Tom Hulce, John Cleese, Helena Bonham Carter and Aidin Quinn.  The production values are high; you can tell Sony was aiming for a definitive show-stopper with operatic visuals and swooping cameras as the music flourishes.  And it's not afraid to get dark and messy, bringing to vivid life both the monster's human drama and the doctor's grisly laboratory.  It's literary and bombastic.  Sure, this film could be tweaked here and there to be even better, but what we got has, I believe, been critically and commercially undervalued since its release.

Columbia Tri-Star has been behind every release of Frankenstein up 'till now, even in foreign regions.  But their handling of it has been a little complicated.  Originally, they released it in 1998 as a flipper disc: widescreen on one side, fullscreen on the other (hand over mouth cover).  Then, in 2003, they reissued it as a single-sided DVD only.  The bad news?  It was only the fullscreen version.  And frustratingly, it had the exact same front cover and UPC number, making it very tricky to guess which version you were getting if you tried to order it online.  They reissued it again as a fullscreen single-sided disc in 2004, this time with the make-out in front of the castle cover, but again with the same UPC.  So, to be clear, if they're smooching in front of the castle, it's definitely a fullscreen-only disc; and if it's the hand over mouth, it could go either way.

Even if you bought the 2005 version that was packaged with Francis Coppola's Dracula, it was the fullscreen-only version.  Although the 1999 Double Feature DVD set with John Carpenter's Vampires did give you the flipper disc.  Very confusing business all around.  That's why I ordered the UK version, which was very clearly just and always the widescreen version.  But now all of that's only an issue to plague those of you who haven't upgraded to blu-rays, because ever since 2009, there's been a superior HD option, that of course is in its proper widescreen ratio.  And now in 2022, there's even a 3840 option, thanks to Arrow's brand new UHD (a 1080p blu of their edition is also available separately).  And this time, they've even made it a special edition.

1) US 1998 DVD (wide); 2) US 1998 DVD (full); 3) US 2004 DVD;
4) UK 2004 DVD; 5) US 2009 BD; 6) 2022 Arrow UHD.

There are some interesting differences to note between the DVDs.  You'd think they'd all be the same, apart from the wide and fullscreen croppings, but they're not.  For a start, the two widescreen framings are different.  The US DVD windowboxes the image slightly to 1.81:1, while the UK DVD pillarboxes it to a taller 1.74:1.  This despite the back covers both touting 1.85:1.  The fullscreen versions are 1.33:1 as they claim, and you can see, they've compromised to both show some additional vertical information while also taking a decent amount off the sides.  Also, the fullscreen version has its own, distinct color timing, turning the doctor's lab from pink to orange.  Only the blu-ray and UHD have been matted to exactly 1.85:1, and naturally they're also the sharpest images.  The blu has stronger color separation, deeper blacks, easily trumping the DVDs.  But it's clearly an old master, with film grain so soft it's more hinted at than made clear, and there's some subtle haloing and similar tinkering that you wouldn't get from a modern transfer.

US 2009 BD left; 2022 Arrow UHD right.

As I said, the UHD is still 1.85:1, but you may've noticed it's pulled out to reveal more picture than any of the previous widescreen editions.  The color timing's much more subtle and naturalistic.  And just look at the close-up above to see the massive gains in grain structure, which is smooth and smeary on the blu-ray.  The blu also has this weirdly pixelated noise running down the left-hand side of the glass, which is of course completely cleared up and perfectly filmic now on the UHD.

Now, all the DVDs give us a choice between the original stereo mix and a new 5.1, plus optional English subtitles.  And the US discs also provide a bevy of sub and dub translations.  The blu happily bumps the audio up to lossless DTS-HD and keeps the subtitles and translations, but unfortunately dumps the stereo track, leaving us with only the revisionist 5.1.  So here's another area where Arrow gets it right, restoring the original stereo track, lossless now for the first time in LPCM.  And they still have the DTS-HD 5.1 mix and optional English subtitles.

There are no extras on any Sony/ Columbia except the theatrical trailer and some bonus trailers on the DVDs.   Disappointingly, the blu even drops the trailer.  But we can obviously take care of Arrow to handle all that.  Actually, when they announced their specs, I was a little underwhelmed: a couple promising crew interviews and a bunch of expert stuff.  Experts can't usually pack the punch of someone who was there first hand.  I mean, I knew it was asking a lot to expect a Branagh commentary as he's busy directing Marvel movies and winning Oscars... but it would've been nice.

Actually, though, I needn't have fretted.  Because the expert stuff is terrific.  Three of 'em - including Gothic screenwriter Stephen Volk! - speak across two featurettes, which is really one longer piece arbitrarily split into two.  But it's/ they're great.  They stumble a little bit out of the gate, wasting a lot of time getting mired in whether Frankenstein technically qualifies as a gothic novel.  But after that, they're running on all cylinders, full of very detailed information about the history of the novel, various other adaptations and how this film conflicts and conforms with them.  Even if you're a serious Frankenstein aficionado, I think you'll learn a bunch.  And then there's the audio commentary, done by two other experts, who pretty much fill in every conceivable gap of information the first three might've missed.

Look how clear the detail is in this 112 year-old film frame!

And those crew interviews are pretty great.  The production designer, composer and effects artist all have lots of fun stories and memories.  And the inclusion of the 1910 Edison Studios production of Frankenstein is another great inclusion.  It helps that the aforementioned experts discussed this version, so you'll have to more to appreciate.  It's a wild, more supernatural version, with a cleverly graphic creation sequence.  It was restored in 2k by the Library of Congress, so it looks great, though the very beginning and final act suffer from a lot of print damage.  It, and all the other extras, are presented in 3840, just like the feature.  There's also two trailers, an image gallery, a full color 36-page booklet by Jon Towlson and Amy C. Chambers, a promo card and reversible artwork, though surprisingly no slipcover.

I took one of those online surveys Sony put out for future UHD titles (surely wasting the write-in opportunity on a long-shot: Friends With Money), and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was one of the possibilities they listed.  I sure would love to see that.  This is a nice blu, but an old blu, and I can imagine it looking stunning in HDR.  Plus, this is a film that calls out for a special edition.  At the very least, they could give us the trailer and the original stereo mix back.  Okay, my head's not big enough to try and take any credit for this release, but it sure feels like the folks at Arrow read what I'd written like a Christmas list and made it all come true.  Maybe I should give thanks to The Spirit Of the Forest.

Scream, Queen! Never Sleep Again... Part III?

Man, this one's been a long time coming.  Scream, Queen! My Nightmare On Elm Street is the story of Mark Patton, star of 1985's A Nightmare On Elm St. 2: Freddy's Revenge, who left acting after the sequel developed a reputation for its not-so-subtle homosexual themes.  This documentary was announced on Kickstarter in 2015, with the finished film predicted for December 2016.  It had already been shot, and the additional funds were to go to "the last leg of our journey," licensing footage and clearing the rights.  Never the less, 12/16 turned out to be a tad optimistic.  But I'm not interested in griping about the wait, I'm just happy that March 2020 has arrived and we can finally see this thing!

Update 3/5/20 - 3/20/22: I did a lot of kvetching in this post about how we only got a barebones DVD.  Well, two years later, and we've gotten the special edition blu-ray that we should've had two years ago.

I was a little worried in the very beginning.  Scream, Queen starts out with kind of a lame opening explaining what horror and slasher films are, sort of like in the 80s, when before a news reporter could talk about something Public Enemy did, they had to start out by explaining, "rap is a type of poetic, rhythmical talking set to music."  And you're like, yeah yeah, all of us in the audience already know way more about this than you - get to the point!  And then it jumps right into that stupid documentary trend where they play pull-quotes from the rest of the upcoming film, as if the first ten minutes were the trailer.   So you get to hear an interesting line and say, "oh boy, an hour later I'll get to see that same clip of that guy saying that line, but I'll finally have the context to know who he is and what he's talking about!"  But once you get past the intro, and some occasionally clunky narration, this film takes off and never slows down again.

If I Am Nancy is Never Sleep Again Part II, then this is unquestionably Part III.  In this case, Never Sleep Again is the jumping off point.  Patton had taken himself well out of the public eye for decades, never doing Nightmare interviews or anything else in the media, until Never's filmmakers tracked him down for their doc.  In fact, we learn in Scream that they had to hire private investigators who found him living in Mexico.  And so that film talked a lot about the hidden and overt coding in Freddy's Revenge that made it read so gay.  Therefor, this film kind of breezes through that part, which is fine for all of us long-term fans who would've certainly seen it, but might leave new comer viewers who just stumble on this doc a little short-changed in that department.

I was prepared for this film to play a lot like I Am Nancy, in that we'd ostensibly follow the main theme, but most of it would be devoted to lighthearted convention footage of our star interacting with beaming fans and admiring their Freddy tattoos.  And that would be fine; I enjoyed I Am Nancy for what it was.  But there's only a small taste of that here.  Instead this film really digs first into Patton's biography, from his youth to his time in New York and Hollywood and to his time in hiding out of the country.  This man suffered a lot at the hands of the AIDS virus, and they don't shy away from it.  Then, the final and most exciting act isn't just Patton's decision to embrace his role as a minor icon, but his quest to confront the filmmakers - especially screenwriter David Chastin - for whom he bears a serious grudge.

And though at times it seems like the film might not quite get there, yes, we do finally see that confrontation.  Just about everyone from Nightmare 2 appears here, including the director and most of the cast, but some of them, like Clu Gulager, are a little too blink-and-you'll-miss-them.  I would've liked to hear a little more about the conception and filming (we learn that the leather bar scene was filmed in LA's most famous gay bar, and yet the director still claims he never saw anything queer in any of the proceedings) and a little less celebratory theme music extolling what a hero Patton is for telling his story.  But that always happens when the subject of a doc is allowed to be a producer on it (for example, see my review of Harmontown); and if the worst thing about a movie is that it leaves us wanting more, that's a pretty good movie.

So Virgil Films initially released this film as a barebones DVD in 2020, and it kinda felt like that might've been the whole story with this flick on home video.  This is an indie doc, after all, not a Disney Marvel movie.  But now in 2022, Vinegar Syndrome partner label ETR (short for "Enjoy the Ride") Media has come along with a proper special edition blu.

2020 US Virgil Films DVD; 2022 US ETR Media BD.

Both discs are presented in 1.78:1 and are presumably sourced from the same digital master.  But you can definitely see the boost in crispness and clarity in the new blu.  I'm so glad to be rid of the soft fuzziness that plagued the SD transfer (which, to be fair, is the nature of SD, not anything Virgil did wrong mastering the DVD).  Of course, as a doc, a lot of the source material's PQ varies, but when you look at the HD footage they shot for this movie, the HD difference really stands out.  Look at Englund's eyes, for example, above.  Flip between the screenshots, and it's like he's going in and out of focus.

The blu-ray has the same 5.1 remix as the DVD, but now it's in DTS-HD, and both discs offer optional English subtitles.  ETR has one additional nice touch: they've added a second subtitle track for the audio commentary.

Not that the DVD even had a commentary.  Virgil's DVD is completely barebones.  You'd think they could've at least slapped on a couple of the crowd funding videos and the trailer as an easy minimum, but nope.  There isn't even a menu.  Apparently, the filmmakers did record an audio commentary at the time, but they made it a digital Kickstarter exclusive.

ETR's blu-ray, though, comes equipped.  First of all, we get the commentary.  It's the two directors and Mark Patton, and it starts a little dry.  But eventually Mark opens up and the dialogue really gets interesting.  The second best feature is an expansion of the Freddy's Revenge reunion panel we saw clips of in the film.  It's about twelve minutes, and I wish it could've even been longer, but it's good stuff.  After that, though, it starts to feel like filler.  There's a short poem about Freddy's Revenge, read by Patton, a brief montage of behind-the-scenes footage, and an alternate opening.  There's an interview with one of the film studies profs from the doc, which is alright, but then there's also a longer Zoom-style online "panel discussion," which is honestly a chore.  Drink whenever they say, "I definitely agree with that!" to each other and you might just get through it.  There's also a music video, an eight-page booklet, an ad for the soundtrack, and yes, the trailer.  This release comes with reversible cover artwork and the first 1,500 copies come in a limited edition slipcover.

They sold it relatively cheap, so you couldn't be too mad at Virgil.  But I'm so glad to be replacing their DVD now.  ETR has really done it right.

Beware! Children At Play Like You've Never Seen Before

I know it's just March, but I think we may have found the biggest upgrade of the year.  Now, to earn that title really relies on two factors: first, of course, a beautiful transfer that exceeds expectations and all previous editions.  But then, if we're honest, a pretty terrible precursor.  Like, even if Warner Bros releases the world's most beautiful UHD of A Nightmare On Elm St. (and seriously, why haven't they already? Update: they have!), it still wouldn't be a contender, because the existing blu is still pretty respectable.  Not exactly cutting edge 4k, but still a good looking blu.  To elicit viewers to really exclaim, "wow, what a difference," you need the extra advantage of following up something awful.  But that's fair, because it means you're really filling a need.  Like, do we really need another edition of Carpenter's Halloween?  Sure, the mono track could use a good remastering, and maybe they could encode it slightly better.  But the options we already have are pretty strong.  That sure wasn't the case with Beware! Children At Play before Vinegar Syndrome stepped in.

As a long time owner of Troma's DVD, I never imagined this film could look this goodnd the movie looking this good has raised it overall in my estimation.  I believe I've mentioned before that children are my favorite movie monster, so this movie was always going to be in my collection no matter what.  A thoroughly nutty plot with Jersey kids going psycho in the woods?  Sold!  So what if it's a thoroughly no budget junker with terrible acting and no technical merits?  It's no Who Can Kill a Child? or The Children... or even The Children, playing more like MST3K fare than a proper film.  There's a reason this film resides in the house of Troma.  But it's chock full of over-the-top kills, aspirations to medieval poetry and possibly the most deliriously, bloody climax in cinema history, at least in concept.  I had to have it.

But while the performances and costumes (Farmer Braun's fake grey hair and beard were a heck of a choice) are still just waiting to be Rifftrax'd, seeing this film restored, I take back the "no technical merits."  This film was shot on 35mm, and holy crap, is there steadycam in this thing?  Seeing this film matted into its proper widescreen shows that this film wasn't just mindlessly composed to fit the action into the shot; actual care was taken.  It's certainly a flawed, very low budget film, but once you start to see the qualities, you start to realize even some of the unintentional yucks the film provided were actually intentional.  Well, sometimes at least.  And yeah, Troma bought this film and has been distributing it since day 1, but it's not a Troma original.  So isn't mired in that hopelessly juvenile, everything is a Second Grader's dirty joke nature.  It's a silly horror film, sure, and a major part of its charm is its total irreverence regarding its child characters, but this isn't a "Troma movie."

Troma first put this out pretty early, back in 1998, just two years after their VHS release.  Even their tape was a special Tromatic edition, with an introduction by Toxie and the Tromettes.  Their DVD dove even deeper into all that craziness with a ton of Troma clips (though not the Toxie intro), but just barely improved on the VHS; you could certainly be forgiven for believing the film was shot on video.  So Vinegar Syndrome's new 2022 Blu-ray is a total transformation, and a loaded special edition to boot.

1998 Troma DVD top; 2022 Vinegar Syndrome BD bottom.

I mean, just look at this.  Where to start?  The ugly red hue cast over the whole picture, that VS thankfully cleaned up?  The nasty interlacing, which again, really made the old transfer look like a video tape source?  Of course, that's gone now, too, revealing some really deep colors and fine, photo realistic detail.  It's like night and day.  There are still some wonky moments, including a wildly out of focus overhead shot; but that's down to the movie, not the home video transfer, which is scanned in 2k from the 35mm original camera negative.  About the only good thing you can say for the DVD is that it's at least open matte rather than pan & scanned or just cropped to 1.31:1.  Although even then, VS's matting doesn't just restore the proper 1.85:1 framing to reveal the intended compositions, it actually does reveal a little more picture that had been shaved off of both sides.

Naturally, both discs just offer the original English mono, but VS clears it of a lot of hisses and hum while upgrading it to DTS-HD.  They've also included optional English subtitles for the first time.

Now, like I said, Troma's DVD is packed with stuff... just not much about the actual movie.  There's "the first ever interactive Tour of Troma Studios," and a bunch of odds and ends.  It's sometimes a little hard to discern which clips are part of the tour or not, but basically it's a whole ton of tongue-in-cheek video clips.  See the staff throw their papers in the air in their offices, Ron Jeremy interview an actress, a model perform various strip teases, and of course plenty of Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman.  There are trailers and sometimes just random snippets from their films, like a 30 second clip from The Class Of Nuke 'Em High.  But they do have a tiny bit pertaining to what we're actually here for, specifically the trailer and a four minute interview with the director.

Beware! Troma at play

Well, for whatever reason, VS lost the trailer, but they did hang onto that interview.  It's really just for collector's, though, because they also conducted a brand new interview with the director which covers everything he said in the old clip plus a lot more.  And he provides an audio commentary, but oh boy, I'd skip it if I were you.  It's 95% dead air.  At one point, I timed over eight minutes between one single sentence and another.  And that's not me cherry picking the most egregious example; that's just the time I finally decided, "this is madness!" and that timing a break was the only thing that hold my attention long enough to stay in my seat for the excruciating experience.  Although, to be fair, I have to say that there were a two or three points where, when he did speak, he actually dropped an interesting anecdote or observation that you won't find in any of the other extras.  But you'll have to work your way through an awful lot of awkward silence.

But don't get dishearted.  There's also a terrific, nearly hour-long documentary, which interviews a bunch of the cast, the composer and the special effects guys.  They found several of the kids now grown up, and everybody has great memories to share.  It's funny, but it's not just them taking the piss.  If anything, you'll probably come out of it appreciating Beware even more.  This doc is a treasure, and combined with the new director interview, more than takes care of all our fanboy needs.

VS's blu also includes reversible artwork and a limited edition slipcover with the first 5,000 copies.

So there you go.  It's just early March, but I'll be surprised if we see a greater leap in quality between releases this year than we just have.  I'm sure we'll see better looking releases; there are some exciting 4k UHDs I'm looking forward to.  But none of them fill as big a need as this.  Heck, most of 'em are just UHDs of the same 4k restorations released on 1080p blu a couple years ago.  But this one, boy, I had no idea how much Beware! Children At Play was dying for a restoration before I saw it.  It's actually kind of a real movie.