Fall
Guy 4K
(2024/Universal 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray)/Joe's
Apartment
(1996/MTV/Warner Archive Blu-ray)/Nico
Mastorakis Collection
(with Time
Traveller
(1984 aka Next
One)/Sky
High
(1985)/Terminal
Exposure
(1987)/Glitch!
(1988)/Ninja
Academy
(1989) & Naked
Truth
(1992)/MVD/Arrow Blu-ray Set)/Twisters:
The Real Story
(2024/Coach House DVD)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: B-/B+/B-/C Sound: B/B+/B-/C+
Extras: C/C+/C/D Films: C/C/C (Ninja:
C-)/C+
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Joe's
Apartment
Blu-ray is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner
Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.
Here
are a new group of comedies, but the ones that try to be do not work
out and the ones that are not are unintentionally, well sort of,
funny...
David
Leitch's The
Fall Guy 4K
(2024) is a feature film rehash of a TV series that is hardly shown
today, Lee Majors' third hit TV show from the 1980s (following The
Big Valley
and The
Six Million Dollar Man)
about the life and misadventures of stuntman Colt Seavers. An
unlikely hit TV show to begin with, it was powered by majors star
power and part of the populist series of hit Tv shows like Dukes
Of Hazzard
and The
A-Team,
both of which also led to bad big screen resurrections.
This
time we get Ryan Gosling, off of his huge Barbie
success, so this was a box office test of his star power, but it did
not do well despite his best efforts and he still got good press when
the full film did not. Emily Blunt is here as the female lead, more
antagonistic than any of the ladies on the original TV show and
unlike her usually odd horror movies or great work in important
films, her comedy work is always one-note to me and never works. The
result between the co-stars is barely any chemistry and the 'who
cares' result only confirms the attitude of this package deal
project.
Meant
as a tribute to stunt workers in the industry, still very much needed
in the often-phony digital CGI era, The
Stunt Man
from over four decades ago was not a film I loved, but it did a
better job than this of such a tribute. The bounty hunter aspect
ahas been dumped for a half-baked mystery and even supporting turns
by Teresa Palmer, Stephanie Hsu, Ben Knight, Winston Duke and
Aaron-Taylor Johnson cannot stop the one-note humor and droning on,
tired plotting.
Some
of the stunt work is solid, but there is too little of it here, so
only see this if you are REALLY interested and know both versions of
the film are evenly dull.
Extras
are surprisingly numerous and include (per the press release) an
EXTENDED CUT of the film with 20 minutes of additional footage
featuring more action, more laughs and more stunts.
STUNTS
ON STUNTS: BREAKING DOWN THE ACTION: Five breathtaking breakdowns
detail the meticulous designs, careful preparation, and astonishing
execution that goes into pulling off the film's death-defying
stunts.
CITY
TRUCK JUMP / SIDEWINDER: Grip the wheel with stunt driver Logan
Holladay, who provides a first-person view of an incredible stunt
that launches a truck onto a crowded city street.
GARBAGE
BIN: Speed across Sydney's Harbour Bridge while watching Ryan
Gosling and the stunt performers surf on a skidding door, trade
punches in a spinning bin, and wrestle with an attack dog.
BOAT
CHASE: Blast back to the past with a classic boat jump stunt, no
green screen required, complete with an awesome explosion that
lights up the water around the iconic Sydney Opera House.
CAR
JUMP: Prepare for possibly the film's most dangerous stunt: a
bomb-blasting ride in a tricked-out vehicle that leads into a
heart-stopping jump across an enormous expanse.
HIGH
FALL: Troy Brown, the son of legendary stunt performer Bob Brown,
follows in his father's footsteps with a high fall off a helicopter
like only their family can deliver.
THE
ART OF DOUBLING: Meet stunt double Ben Jenkin, a man willing to be
set on fire, hit by a car, and take risks with Ryan Gosling to
collectively make a single character look cool.
FALLING
FOR THE FALL GUY WITH BOB REESE: Professional parkour athlete and
influencer Bob Reese recreates stunts from the movie, including a
scissor-lift dive, Kong vault, and heart-stopping high fall.
Joe's
Apartment
(1996) is a MTV produced feature that's almost a live action cartoon
in retrospect. The film is goofy and over the top from frame one and
tells the story of an inseparable group of cockroaches that live in
New York City, but have the ability to not only speak but sing and
dance as well. The film stars Jerry O'Connell (who does the best he
can), Megan Ward, Billy West, Reginald Hudlin, Jim Turner, and Pepa.
The
story centers on a young idealistic loser named Joe (Jerry O'Connell)
who struggles to find an apartment in New York City and keep a roof
over his head at an affordable price. He's even robbed and held at
gunpoint after stepping off the bus! Out of nowhere he is gifted an
apartment from an elderly hispanic woman who dies in front of him
after being ambushed by some hoodlums and needless to say she wasn't
much of a housekeeper, as her apartment is full of roaches. Whilst
at first Joe struggles to adapt in the roach-filled apartment, he
soon befriends them as they help aide him in a romance with his dream
girl. The story just gets goofier and goofier as it goes along and
its apparent that the minds behind this one were taking some pretty
strong drugs in the writer's room.
One
thing I can say that is positive about this film is its execution in
the animation for the cock roaches. A mix of puppeteering, early
computer graphics, and real coach roach footage are combined pretty
flawlessly in the image. The film has some very interesting force
perspective photography as well that isn't to be overlooked. But as
a film itself, it hasn't really held up too well. We have seen
storylines similar to this several other unlikely buddy comedies
since, even Sonic
the Hedgehog
has a similar story of an unlikely creature helping to blossom a
rollercoaster of a romance. The difference here is the grossness of
the sets and very nature of the thing. The film is consumed with
tons of insects and trash and people even eating the insects and
trash at some points. It's really disgusting to watch honestly even
for the sake of its grade school level humor.
Special
Features are minimal (and, for some reason, feature Looney Tunes
cartoons) The
Lady in Red,
From
Hare to Eternity
and Superior
Duck,
plus an Original Theatrical Trailer.
Joe's
Apartment
should have been a short sketch and not a full length feature. The
content is just too gross to look at for 90 minutes. The effects and
filmmaking behind it is interesting, but otherwise this isn't one I
would recommend to those disgusted by cockroaches or filthy
apartments.
The
Nico Mastorakis Collection
offers six films that are sometimes meant to be comedies, but are so
bad, they land up all
being comical and just plain bad, making the surviving journeyman
director the B-level kind who has moments that are lower than that
and often. Still, some people love seeing train wrecks and this set
has plenty here. The films and their 'plots' include:
The
Time Traveller
(1984 aka Next
One)
has an astronaut's widow (Adrienne Barbeau) alone with her son when
they run into a stranger (Keir Dullea) on the beach who has some
abilities that are unusual. The best set up of the six films here,
the screenplay wastes the actors and has no idea on what to do with
the situation. Sad.
Sky
High
(1985) has three sporty U.S. guys handed a videocassette for
safekeeping and told not to let anyone else get it. Chaos ensures,
but a good screenplay does not.
Terminal
Exposure
(1987) has two photographers on the beach (the beach again!) when one
of them captures what looks like a murder. Will they be hunted down?
Will we get a good script? Well, Antonioni's Blow Up it is not, so
you guess and good luck trying to sit through it.
Glitch!
(1988) has mobsters going after inept burglars for what they owe them
and want from them as the duo of dolts try to hold a house party in a
big Hollywood home. So bad, you'll wish for a cameo by Kid 'N Play!
Ninja
Academy
(1989) is the most condescending, worst and apparently most
successful (on home video) of these films in the U.S. as a group of
rag tag characters involved in (pseudo) martial arts adventures. The
yakuza and triads have nothing to worry about.
And
The
Naked Truth
(1992) is the director's answer to Some
Like It Hot,
but this one is old, cold and boring. It most demonstrates how the
more he tries to be funny, the less he is.
Of
course, everything is shot in Greece and though the locales are
undeniable, the quality of the shots here are not always great. You
would not want this to look like a travelogue or My
Big Fat Greek Wedding
or similarly romanticized way, but it also does not look as good as
it could. Just compare to how Greece is filmed for the 1981 James
Bond film For
Your Eyes Only,
realize it is three to eleven years older than anything here and you
can see the extent of which the cinematography is not so good. See
this set for kicks or if you are either VERY bored or VERY, VERY
curious.
Extras
(per the press release and if you can handle sitting through them)
include:
Nico's
Self Interviews,
six brand new interviews with writer, director and producer Nico
Mastorakis where he looks back on how the films in this collection
came to be, featuring behind-the-scenes footage and cast and crew
interviews
Gerald
Okamura, Ninja Academy's ''Chiba'' Remembers,
a brand new interview with Gerald Okamura, looking back on his role
as Chiba in Ninja
Academy,
and his career as an actor and martial artist
Lastly,
we have Twisters:
The Real Story
(2024) issued as a throwback to something we saw often in the VHS &
Beta videotape era: videos released to look like big movies down to
very similar titles as a cheap cash in. This one simply offers
allegedly real tornadoes to go with the Twister
sequel that has opened theatrically as we post this. Running a long
two hours, they talk with meteorologists, witnesses, experts and fans
and sadly, this is better than that older film and we'll see how it
compares to the new one. For the most interested only, the rest can
pass, but here it is.
No
extras, as expected.
Now
for playback performance. The
2160p HEVC/H.265, 2.35 X 1, Dolby Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD
Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on Fall
Guy 4K
can be more color rich than the 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High
Definition image on the regular Blu-ray, but the shoot overall is a
mix of flat and sometimes good shots that are not memorable in total.
Some film was shot to go with the 4K-type Ultra HD cameras, but
their melding is not as much of an issue as just nothing
extraordinary or exciting to see here save a few stunts.
Both
discs offer lossless Dolby
Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for older systems) sound and except
for when the tracks really kick in, the soundtrack disappoints, so
only expect so much from the combination of sound and image.
Joe's
Apartment
is presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with an MPEG-4
AVC codec, a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and an lossless,
English DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit) mix. The
presentation is a restoration from the original camera negative and
looks and sounds very good for 1080p. So good in fact that you can
tell some of the digitally animated cockroaches look glaringly fake
due to age and technology advancements. Skin tones and otherwise
look sharp and despite being a so-so film, the presentation is great.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on Nico
Mastorakis
films show the age of the materials used in their softness, some aged
color and other minor issues that tell us either the films were not
well stored, the lab cut corners developing them or a combination of
the two. Thus, the 35mm-shot films do nto hold up as they should.
As well, the original theatrical sound which was old Dolby A-type
analog stereo for the first three films, then he switched to lesser
Ultra Stereo analog noise reduction as Dolby introduced their more
advanced SR (Spectra Recording) and AC-3 digital sound formats.
Thus, any attempt to upgrade these low budget films to DTS-HD
MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes (all films here but Terminal
Exposure
have the upgrade) only expose their age and budget limits. All are
in PCM 2.0 Stereo and you can only expect so much.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on the Twisters
documentary-like release is on the soft side in the new footage, but
the actual tornado footage can be even rougher. The lossy Dolby
Digital 2.0 Stereo is a little more clear and consistent, but still
limited to good to simple stereo at best. The combination is
passable for the type of release it is.
To
order the
Joe's
Apartment
Warner Archive Blu-ray,
go to this link for it and many more great web-exclusive
releases at:
https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/ED270804-095F-449B-9B69-6CEE46A0B2BF?ingress=0&visitId=6171710b-08c8-4829-803d-d8b922581c55&tag=blurayforum-20
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Nicholas Sheffo and James Lockhart (Apartment)
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/
