Fulvue Drive-In.com
Current Reviews
In Stores Soon
 
In Stores Now
 
DVD Reviews, SACD Reviews Essays Interviews Contact Us Meet the Staff
An Explanation of Our Rating System Search  
Category:    Home > Reviews > Stay Hungry

Stay Hungry

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: B-     Film: B-

 

 

After a landmark run with the BBS Production Company he founded and the end of the Vietnam War, producer/director Bob Rafelson went over to United Artists and came up with a light comedy called Stay Hungry (1976).  Though it is a fair film, it is a big comedown from the important work he had been doing, but everyone needs a change of pace.

 

Jeff Bridges is the real estate investor Craig Blake, a young man from old money, who originally intended to do a little urban renewal for profit, when he discovers how interesting life is at a local gym he is ready to tear down.  Sleeping with all kinds of women, including a gymnast who may be his match (Sally Field), he befriends the best potential award-winning bodybuilder in the gym (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and starts to turn on the idea of destroying the gym and the people who have made it into much more.  Fannie Flagg, still in her Match Game period, makes some cameos as a local socialite with money.

 

As usual, Rafelson knows how to cast a film and make it move, but this one is just not that funny for a film that is supposed to be a comedy.  He co-wrote the screenplay with author Charles Gaines, who wrote the book the film is based on.  It has not aged badly and is a curio on Schwarzenegger’s role alone, which is part of the impetus for its DVD debut.  It is worth a look, but it is recommended that you do not have high hopes for it.  You will enjoy it better.

 

The film is offered in both an awful pan & scan version of the film on one side, and a better anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on the other that is an improvement, but has major problems with the dark scenes in both cases.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is as clear as can be expected for its age.  The only extras are commentary by Rafelson, Bridges and Fields, plus Rafelson’s on-camera introduction to the film and the original theatrical trailer.  That is better than usual for what might have otherwise been a basic DVD release.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


Marketplace


 
 Copyright © MMIII through MMX fulvuedrive-in.com